Chapter 152 Sisters

Chapter 152 Sisters
Elma's POV

"Oh my gad! You're here." Gemma pulled me into a hug. My chest loosened just from the warm and familiar smell of her perfume. "I wasn't expecting you until the weekend."

"Needed to see a face that isn't scowling at me across a conference table." I followed her inside, dropping my bag by the couch, and the house wrapped around me the way it always did, quiet in a way my own apartment never quite managed to be.
"That bad?" She headed toward the kitchen, I trailed after her, watching her pull down two mugs without even asking if I wanted tea.

"It's fine." I sat at the counter, resting my chin on my hand. "Just this rival I've been dealing with. He's been making things difficult lately."
"Difficult how?"
I sighed. "Difficult like he shows up to negotiations I've spent months on and undercuts me at the last second." I picked at the edge of a napkin someone had left on the counter, not quite meeting her eyes. "I never know what he's going to do next, and it's exhausting, actually having to think three steps ahead of someone every single day."

Gemma set the kettle on, leaning against the counter across from me. “Why do I feel like you're leaving something out," she said carefully.
“Huh!!” I looked away.
"Elma."
“I'm not hiding anything." I forced a small laugh, waving her off. "He's just good at what he does, and it happens to be directly opposed to what I'm trying to do. That's all it is."
She didn't push, though I could tell she wanted to, and something about her letting it go without forcing the issue made the guilt sit heavier in my chest.

"Well," she said instead, pulling two mugs down and setting them on the counter, "for what it's worth, you've handled worse than one difficult man before. You'll figure it out."
"I hope so."
She poured the tea, sliding one mug toward me, and settled onto the stool across the counter, tucking one leg beneath her. "So….How's Daniel?"

The question caught me off guard and I hoped my face didn't show it.
"He's good." I wrapped both hands around the mug, focusing on the warmth instead of her eyes. "Busy….Work's been keeping him late a lot."
"That's it? He's good, work's busy?" She raised an eyebrow. "You've been together, what, almost a year now? I feel like I should be getting more than a status report."
"There's not much to tell, things are fine."

"Fine," she repeated, clearly unconvinced, though she let it sit for a moment before continuing, giving me the space to say more if I wanted to.
But I didn't, I took a sip of tea instead, buying myself a few seconds, uncomfortably aware of exactly why I didn't have more to offer her. It felt wrong, talking about Daniel so soon after everything with Adrian, even though nothing had happened that Daniel needed to know about. Nothing that mattered and nothing that was going to happen again.

"How's Christian?" I asked, mostly to shift the conversation somewhere else entirely.
"On a business trip." She said it simply, stirring her tea. "Should be back by the end of the week."
"Where'd he go this time?"
"Somewhere in the Midwest, I think. Honestly I stopped keeping perfect track years ago." She smiled slightly, fond despite the shrug. "As long as he calls every night, I don't ask too many questions about the details."

"That's very trusting of you."
"After everything we've been through, trust is kind of the easy part now." She said simply. "It's the rest of it that still takes work sometimes."
The front door opened, drawing our attention.
“That should be Ryan.”

Right on cue, Ryan strolled into the kitchen, dropping his bag by the counter.
"Hey, Mom." He kissed Gemma's cheek, then turned to me, his mouth already curling into that same lazy smirk he'd had since he was about twelve years old. "Aunt Elma. To what do we owe the honor?"
I smiled. "Needed a break from difficult men," I said, and he grinned wider.

He leaned down like he was going to hug me properly, and instead pinched my cheek the way he'd done since he was a toddler, just to be annoying.
I smacked his hand away. "One of these days I'm going to actually hurt you."
"You say that every time." He dropped into the stool beside me.

Gemma laughed, setting her mug in the sink. "I need to go call the contractor about the fence before it gets too late. You two behave."
"No promises," Ryan said, and she shook her head, disappearing down the hallway, leaving the two of us alone in the kitchen.
"So…." I turned to face him properly. "How many girlfriends this week? Two? Three?"

"None." He shrugged. "I'm exclusively single and thriving."
"Sure you are." I raised an eyebrow. "I heard from your mother you had two different girls calling the house last month."
"They were just friends." I said, grabbing a pack of chips from inside the cupboard.

"Ryan."

"Fine." He shrugged, unbothered by being caught. "Maybe I like keeping my options open.”
I took a sip of my tea. "Somebody's going to actually catch your interest one day, and I genuinely cannot wait to watch you panic about it."
"Not happening." He said it a little too quickly.
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Hmm, what was that?’

"What about you? How's Daniel?" He tossed a chip in his mouth.
"He's fine."
"Fine." Ryan repeated the word. "That's the most boring answer I've ever heard about someone's boyfriend."
"Not everyone needs constant chaos to be happy, like you."
"I'm not saying chaos. I'm saying he's..." He searched for the word, his nose wrinkling slightly. "Beige."

"He's not beige."
"He's very beige, Aunt Elma. You need someone who actually challenges you. Someone who pushes back a little, someone like me.” He grinned. “You'd get bored of beige eventually, mark my words."
"I don't need a lecture on my relationship from someone who refuses to commit to anyone for longer than a week."

"I'm just saying." He shrugged again, unbothered by the jab. "You like a fight, you've always liked a fight. I still remember you and Mom arguing over the littlest things."
I laughed. "That's different."
"It's really not." He grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter, taking a bite before continuing. "You don't want someone calm, you want someone who makes you work for it, who doesn't just fold the second you push back.”
I frowned, he was really beginning to mess with my mind.

"It's just facts, Aunt Elma and you know I'm right." He took another bite. "Guys who fold too easy are boring." He shrugged. “Folding doesn't win anything. You don't beat someone by playing fair, or waiting for them to be nice to you first. You beat them by making them need you more than you need them. Beige guys never figure that part out. They're too busy trying to keep the peace.”

I went still for half a second, his words settling somewhere unexpected, turning over slowly in my head, reshaping themselves into something that had nothing to do with Daniel. ‘Make them need you more than you need them.’

"Where'd you learn that," I asked, mostly to buy myself a second to think.
He was already moving on, taking another bite of his apple. "Just something I figured out."

I reached for my phone, already scrolling toward a name I hadn't planned on calling again so soon…..