Page 3 of Tempt Me
On second thought, I probably should have taken him to the ocean side of the city, but it was too late for that now. The water was deep here, and there was no commercial fishing in the bay.
When I reached the rail, I propped Larry on it, still swaddled in my kitchen towel. His eyestalks swiveled between me and the water below.
“Look, Larry. I know this is a new place, and you’re scared. I’ve started plenty of new things, and here’s what’s always worked for me: find a way to help others. That way they need you, whether they like you or not.”
Larry wasn’t buying it. He rapped the railing with his claw.
“You don’t have to take my advice. What do I know, anyway? None of my schools or jobs have stuck, and I’m going to have a heck of a time explaining what happened today to Mother and Charles. But the right thing for me is out there, and the right thing for you is down there.”
We both peered into the water. It was deep and blue.
“Find a nice rock and lay low until you get your strength back. Chow down on… What do you guys eat, anyway? Plankton? Seaweed? Little fish? I’m sure it’s down there. Maybe you’ll meet a nice lady lobster—or a dude, whatever makes you happy—and settle down in a nice, deep part of the ocean, raise some babies together. Okay?” I wiped a bit of ocean spray from my cheek.
He twitched his claws feebly.
“Right. Gotta get those off.” I reached into my bag and found the pink Swiss Army knife my brother Jackson gave me when I was twelve. I flicked open the long blade and sliced through the rubber band on his right claw, then his left. Tentatively, he opened and closed his claws.
“Better? Okay, I’m going to drop you in.”
But I didn’t. I stared into his cloudy eyes.
“This is your second chance, dude. Don’t waste it.” Who was I to advise him? How many second, third, or fourth chances had I wasted? How many times had Mother given me her narrow-eyed, compressed-lip stare that told me how much I’d disappointed her? How many times had she actually said the words,Natalie, when are you going to settle down? Why can’t you be more like your brothers or your sister?
I’d never be as successful as my siblings. I should do what Mother had done and marry a guy with potential. She’d introduced me to enough sons of her rich friends that I should’ve found one I liked by now.
Larry tapped my hand with his claw.
“Right, sorry. This isn’t about me. It’s about you. Okay, one…two…three.” I upended him and dropped him head-first into the water, ten feet below. He sliced in, splashless, like an Olympic diver. He hovered for a second under the water, rocking with the waves that slapped against the pier. It almost looked like he waved at me. Then, with a swish of his tail, he submerged, his brown shell disappearing into the dark water. I waited for a minute, gripping the stinky kitchen towel. Then I let another minute pass. But Larry didn’t reappear.
I hoped he’d do better with his second chance than I’d done with mine.
I turned back toward the city. I could get another Uber home, clean up, and figure out how to explain to my parents that I’d dropped out of culinary school two weeks before the end of the term. Or…
I caught sight of the tall building that shaded my brother’s shorter building.
He’d gotten his share of second chances. Maybe he could offer me some advice. Or at least more sympathy than I’d get from our mother.
2
When I steppedoff the elevator to the sixth floor, I realized the flaw in my plan. The dress code at Synergy was casual, but my white coat stained with whatever fluid Larry had puked up on me, baggy chef pants, and the neon-green flip-flops I’d bought from a souvenir stand near the pier couldn’t be more different from the designer dresses I usually wore. Everyone gaped at me as I passed.
Channeling my mother, I lifted my chin like I was wearing Hermès and shuffled to my brother’s assistant’s desk. I missed seeing Marlee there, but since her promotion, she sat downstairs with the other developers.
His new assistant, Paulina, was an older woman from the Caribbean. She took in my appearance and smiled. “Coming straight from school, cariño?”
“Yeah.” I kept my wince on the inside. “Is my brother in his office?” I glanced at the glass door behind her.
“No, he’s in Mr. Fallon’s office.”
I sighed. I wanted to see Jackson, but his friend Cooper had taken the express lane to success. Cooper never said anything about my meandering path through life, but he always looked out from under the shelf of his bushy eyebrows and speared me with a glare of disapproval.
I wished I could slink away, but Paulina would tell Jackson I’d been here. I had to carry through with my half-baked plan.
“Thanks, Paulina.” I scuffed across the floor to Cooper’s office. His assistant wasn’t at his desk, but his cousin-slash-security guard, Mateo, stood near the door. He grinned as I approached.
“Natalie! What brings our little Cat Cora here?”
At five-eight, I wasn’t little, but compared to Mateo’s tall, bulky physique, I must have seemed tiny, especially when I wasn’t wearing my heels.
