Page 101 of Lau Ahi
“Nothing. Ori just needed to speak to Cochran real fast.”
He was good but the ease in which he’d come up with that excuse without Ori having said a word meant it was complete bullshit.
“I know you’re lying but can you promise he’s not going to do anything crazy?”
“No, because I don’t know what your definition of crazy is.” He turned from the door with a smile meant to soothe my nerves but it made me hyperaware that Ori was in fact about to do something crazy.
I stood back up intending to go after him but Alec was already shaking his head.
“You aren’t going to stop me.”
“As much as I would hate to, since I want to be nosy as well, I’d have to.”
I weighed his words thinking about how Ori would react if I saw him behaving badly. I knew that he wouldn’t want me to see him being out of control but I didn’t want him to get in trouble over Anderson.
The musing was all for naught since Ori strode back into the room a second later. I waited for him to explain his absence but he just gave me a nod before he unbuttoned his blazer and sat down to get to work like nothing happened.
When he began to act as if he had nothing else to say I had to speak up.
“Are we going to ignore the elephant in the room?” I glanced between the two of them but Alec was the only one to acknowledge I’d even spoken. And that acknowledgment was a laugh and a playful look to Ori likethis shit is all on you.
Another few minutes passed as I stared a hole into the top of his head. He had it lowered slightly as he focused on whatever it was he was reading. When he finally tired of the pressure he scowled at me from his lowered lids before giving me a gruff response. “Nothing to acknowledge; everything is handled. Let’s get back to work.”
ORI
“I’m shocked you actually came to see me.”
Those were the words that greeted me as I slid into the booth at one of our family’s restaurants. I wasn’t going to come initially but I didn’t want her to think she’d damaged me. Even though she had. She wasn’t going to be privy to the inner workings of my mind. Not yet. Probably never.
I had a busy day and enough on my mind after the bullshit that Anderson pulled this morning. Alec was following a lead and Asha needed to get back to George Washington for a meeting this afternoon, which freed me up to take this lunch meeting.
“You made it seem like it was necessary.”
“Come now, Ori, you know you wouldn’t have come if you didn’t want to. No matter how important I made any ofthis seem. Trust me, I’m not making light of your presence, I’m pleased that you’re here. I just want you to know that I understand that you’ve made a sacrifice coming and I appreciate it.”
I nodded at her words and opened the buttons on my blazer and waited on her to say something else. Before I could our cousin walked over and gave my mother a one-armed hug. She nodded at me and I didn’t feel slighted by the cooler greeting.
“What is it that you guys are having today?”
“I haven’t eaten here in a while, you can surprise me.” I handed her the menu not wanting to be a burden, as I was sure it was uncomfortable for her to have me here. She knew there was tension between my mother and me, and I knew she was probably on my mother’s side and not mine. The last thing I wanted was to cause friction between the two of them so I kept my head down as they shared a glance.
The table was tense and I hated that we were having such a public stalemate because eyes could be everywhere but it was unavoidable. Despite the way things were within our family I didn’t want Faith to come back and have a contentious situation because I was unsure if she’d had any type of tribe while she was on gone so I wasn’t about to mess up what she might come back to.
Being considerate of someone you swore you hated?
Matty nodded and pulled out the small tablet to keep our orders straight. “We have a great filet—”
“Steak is always good.” My response wasn’t enthusiastic and for a second I wondered if she’d heard me. I was ready for her to move away so that I could deal with Faith and then move on to my next appointment.
“He wants the ribeye add extra onions and bring him out extra compound butter for his potato. The vegetable medley here doesn’t have any corn in it and it’s fire-roasted fresh. Is that stillthe only vegetable you don’t like?” She turned to look at me as if the question were completely natural.
Obediently, I answered not wanting to prolong this portion of our meeting. “Yes.”
Faith turned back to Matty to check in. “Is that okay with you?”
She nodded almost relieved that I wasn’t going to fuss. “Sounds good.”
“I’ll have the same but over a salad no other vegetables and could you bring out two loaves of bread? I know he’s going to have one just for himself.” Her smile was no longer cautious spreading from one side of her fawn-colored face to the other.
