I went out and grabbed a cup of water and looked around admiring the reception area. I snapped a few pictures wishing I had taken more of the place before construction started. In three weeks this place was transformed into something beautiful.
I snapped a picture as Xavier walked out of the hallway.
I walked up to meet him and hugged him. I was taken aback by the lack of enthusiasm in his return embrace.
I stepped back and looked up. “Everything alright?”
“Yep.”
That was it, just one ice cold syllable of a response.
He walked past me and grabbed a glass of water. He stood looking out the window and I could feel the tension building around him.
“Xavier?”
“Yeah?”
“What did I do wrong?”
He didn’t reply.
“Alright then.”
I walked back into my office and grabbed my bag, the stupid pink one, and walked out. He hadn’t moved. I didn’t want to walk past him because I couldn’t handle a fight right now and I couldn’t handle it if he didn’t put up a fight either. I quietly walked to the elevator and pushed the button.
The door opened and I was ready to step inside when Josephina Steel stepped out.
“Were you coming to meet me?”
I looked back hoping he hadn’t heard her and he did. Of course he did.
“Yes.” I forced a smile.
“Xavier, you could have ridden up with her. That would be the gentlemanly thing to do you know.”
Xavier’s eyes narrowed as he looked at me and I stood tall. I couldn’t let him try to intimidate me.
“Well Momma, you know how I am.”
“Well let’s get going shall we. We’re going to meet Carly, Tara, Bekah, and Bella out to lunch.”
“Do you really have to push that down her throat already? We had a day left, one day before this shit started and you guys showed up.”
“Xavier I’m okay--.”
“Well I’m not. This is fucking--.”
“In my presence you will not speak like that.”
“This wasn’t about--.” I reached out to him and he recoiled. The look he gave me made my stomach turn. I was sure I was going to throw up.
“Xavier, you get it together right this minute.”
He stormed past us and slammed his office door. I looked at Josephina Steel and she looked at me.
“I’m not feeling all that well. If you don’t mind I would like to pass on lunch.”
“We’ll discuss it in the car. Let’s leave him to pout.”
When we sat in the car she reached over and held my hand. “My sons are very hard to deal with. Xavier has always been the one to push away when things get uncomfortable for him. When Steel Incorporated came to be he felt it was a betrayal to his father. He toured around Europe for a year making me crazy. We moved a lot when he was young; my husband was in the military. I believe that and the fact that I was such a young mother and Jonathon was away most of the time is why Xavier is the way he is.”
“He’s not a bad man.” I managed to say without spilling tears.
“Of course he isn’t. All of my boys know what they want as soon as they see it. But Xavier being the youngest has watched his brothers’ mistakes and that has made him the toughest of them. Jase and Cyrus made mistakes very young. Zandor is well Zandor is a lot like me. Xavier is, for lack of better words, fierce. He is fighting a lifetime of living in the shadows of three brothers who also helped to raise him. Much of the things he holds tightly on to are misguided information he obtained from his brothers. They have changed and he doesn’t want to. When Jonathon died he was the most affected. He wanted to be with them the day of the accident and Cyrus told him no. He did this to keep him safe of course but Xavier felt it was because they treated him like a baby. He won’t admit this even to me but he had nightmares for over a year that would have him sleep walking. He would come in my room and ask where Jonathan was. He was always half asleep and far too old and large to be held but for a longtime I had to tell him almost every night that his father was gone. He would argue that he saved him. Then he would fall asleep trembling but never crying. He had no recollection of this. Typical of his brothers they poked fun at him thinking he was some hero. They did this once and never again.”