A knife

could give up

on patience, but you

were born among

the dull and

kind

"You should come to dinner tonight," Micah tells me over the phone as I'm working the next day at my desk. It's almost lunch time and then soon after lunch, Micah will be here to hang out with me like we used to before everything came crashing down.

"What do you mean? To your house?" I ask him slowly.

"Yeah, with my parents. I know that you've met my mom and obviously my dad too, but it'd be nice to just have you over for dinner. I already convinced my dad to take the evening off," He informs me.

"I can't, Micah, not after what happened yesterday," I mumble quietly. Harrison is in his office just beside me and although the door is shut, I have to be careful that he doesn't hear our conversation. I know that it's unprofessional to be on a personal call at work, especially with his son. It's just kind of weird.

"What happened yesterday?" He plays dumb.

"For starters, you made me take half a day off just to reconfirm our relationship and you made it pretty clear to your dad exactly what was happening," I remind him even though I know that he doesn't really need reminded.

"And by reconfirmed, you mean we fucked like rabbits all over your apartment all afternoon?" Micah wonders.

"I'm literally twelve feet away from your dad right now," I deadpan. "Does that not bother you at all?"

I can hear him laugh on the other end of the phone. "He doesn't care about you leaving early yesterday. Dinner won't be awkward, I already told my mom that you're coming. Please?"

I let out a long sigh because I don't want to do this, but I know that I'm going to. I'm so humiliated after what Micah did yesterday by calling his father to get me a few hours off of work. However, I love that he's so eager to take me home to have dinner with his parents. Even though I'm already fairly comfortable with Harrison and I've met Erin many times now too, it's sweet that he wants me to come over for dinner.

"Fine," I finally relent. "But if anybody brings up what happened yesterday, I will literally die of embarrassment."

"I'll be sure to put it on your tombstone," He promises me. "Thanks, El. I'll make it up to you."

He says it in a low voice that makes me blush. I'm about to respond to him when I near somebody walking into the room and I prepare to greet them.

I recognize the woman immediately though, and I'm not feeling as relaxed as I just was. "Micah, I'm going to have to go. I'll see you in a little bit."

"Is everything okay?" He notices my change of tone.

"Yeah, see you soon," I quickly hang up the phone to give Chelsea Barkley my full attention. I met her back at the dinner for the environmental committee that both Harrison and Silas work on, but it was brief and uncomfortable. This is also really uncomfortable, and hopefully, it will also be brief.

I offer her my biggest, fakest smile, and I do my job. "Good afternoon. What can I help you with today?"

"You're Eleanor. Right?" She asks me slowly as she walks farther into the room. Her stiff blonde hair cases her face like a frame, forced into that shape by buckets of hair products. Her makeup stands out against her pale skin, and her narrow eyes are looking at me very intently. I'm suddenly remembering how Jay had told me that he couldn't keep Silas's secrets from his mother.

"Um, yes, I am," I confirm with a nod. "If you need to see Senator Williams, I can let him know. He doesn't have anything planned for another hour, so he has time to see you."

"I don't need to Harrison. I need to see you," She admits, standing right on the other side of the desk.

"I'm sorry?" I try to play dumb, hoping that if she thinks that I don't know the truth then maybe she won't try to confront me about this. I told Jay that I didn't want to be part of their family drama, and I meant that. Whatever happens to their family because of what Silas has done, I don't want any part of it. "I'm not sure what I could-"

"Eleanor," She interrupts me. "I know that you know why I'm here. Please don't waste my time."

"Alright," I say slowly and then I try a new approach. "But I'm at work. So, if you're here for personal reasons, I can't help you right now."

"I just have a few questions," Silas's wife ignores me, even though I thought that it was a pretty good excuse, and she clasps her hands in front of her. I wait for her to ask her questions, but she's just standing there staring at me. After a very uncomfortable pause, she says, "You have his eyes."

"Was that a question?"

"Where is your mother?" She asks me.

"What?"

"I would like to speak with her," She continues to explain.

"I... I don't know," I inform her in a confused voice. I figured that if she talked to Jay about what happened, he would have told her everything. For example, how I haven't spoken to my mother in over a decade. "Didn't Jay tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"I don't have contact with my mother, I don't know where she is," I answer her even though I don't see why she couldn't just get all of this from Jay instead of pulling me into their family mess. I am not part of their family. "Jay knows everything, you can just ask him what you need to know."

"He said that you have a little brother. Who takes care of him?" She ignores me yet again to ask me another question.

"I do," I say, but then I decide to stay that I've had enough of this. "Look, I already told Jay everything. I also told him that I don't want to be dragged into your family's problems. I have enough problems of my own to focus on, I don't have time for yours too. I'm sorry that this bomb has just been dropped on your life, but I want nothing to do with it. So, if you don't need to talk to Senator Williams, please leave."

"I just came over because, I guess that I was hoping you'd just tell me that it was all false," She admits to me and then swallows hard. "But I can see it on your face. You really are his daughter, you look so much like him. I'd like to meet your brother."

"No, I'm keeping him as far away from the Barkley family as possible," I assure her. "He looks just like me only male, adorable, and blond."

"Chelsea," I hear Harrison coming out of his office and he sees Chelsea standing in front of me. "Do we have a meeting?"

"Hello Harrison. No, we don't have a meeting. I just came over to see if you are free for golf tomorrow afternoon. Jay would enjoy seeing Micah, it's been a while since the boys have gotten a game in together," She easily explains to Harrison. I wonder if she had that lie on hand or if she just made it up and she's just that good at lying.

"He's got a committee meeting," I answer her fabricated question after looking up Harrison's schedule. "And Micah is busy too."

"Wow, Micah's got a schedule too?" She wonders curiously. "I didn't realize that he was so involved."

"He's in pre-law, so he's always pretty busy," I explain. Even though Micah is busy tomorrow because we've already agreed to spend the weekend together. It's none of her business though.

"I'm sure we can work something out next week," Harrison decides. I'm pretty sure that Micah didn't tell Harrison who my father is, but he seems to have bought Chelsea's story about wanting to play golf. "Silas owes me a rematch after our last game."

"Of course. We'll discuss again next week," She agrees and then glances over at me. She clearly has more questions for me that she isn't going to ask in front of Harrison, but he's a good host and he isn't going to leave until she leaves. "Enjoy the rest of your day."

"You too, Chelsea," He comments before she leaves the office. When she's completely gone, Harrison turns to me and asks, "That's really all she wanted? She never goes golfing with us, I can't imagine why she'd take an interest in when we're going."

I just shrug at him. "That's all she said."

"Alright. Well, I came out here to ask a favor. I'm swamped and was hoping that you could pick me up a sub from the corner deli on your way back from lunch," Harrison asks me.

"Yeah, no problem. I'm actually headed out now. You want the usual?"

"That would be great, thank you," He hands me money for his lunch.

Before I leave the building to go to lunch, I find Silas's office and hope that he's in. We need to have a talk about boundaries. In his office, his secretary is sitting at his desk and the office door is closed, so it's unclear if he's in or not.

"Is Silas free?" I ask him.

"He's headed out in about fifteen minutes. What's your name? I'll let him know that you're here," He starts to stand up from his desk to go inform Silas of my visit.

"I'll tell him myself," I decide and then head toward the office. I'm hoping that Chelsea won't still be here but I'll still say what I have to say if she's in there with him.

Silas is alone in the office though, and when he sees me, he looks surprised.

"Eleanor, good afternoon," He greets me slowly. "What can I do for you?"

"I will acknowledge that I'm related to you. But that doesn't make me part of your family. So, please keep your family away from me. I do not owe them anything, but they keep coming to me like I have all of the answers that they need," I start to rant a little bit.

"What are you talking about?" He looks confused.

"Your wife just paid me a visit and she mostly just kept staring at me, and then she asked about my mom for some reason?"

"Chelsea came to talk to you?" He asks me slowly. "I wasn't aware that Jay told her the truth. I'm sorry that she bothered you."

"She wanted to meet Casey too," I add. "I don't want any of you anywhere near my brother."

"Eleanor," He says my name in a way to get me to calm down. "I'll take care of it."

"Thanks," I end the conversation there and leave to go to lunch. Knowing that Micah should be at the office soon, I eat quickly and pick up Harrison's lunch on my way back to work. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to do this job. The threat of running into Silas at all times because we're working in the same building and everything, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it. I also don't have to tolerate conversations with his wife. I was feeling generous with Jay and agreed to have coffee... maybe I was in a good mood or something.

But I just got Micah back and I want to put all of my energy and attention into our relationship for now. Which means that I don't have any room for scorned wives trying to get answers that I don't have.

Speaking of Micah, I'm excited to see that he is sitting on the couch near my desk when I walk into the office. Just seeing his beautiful face again makes me smile.

"Hey," I kiss his cheek as a greeting but I still have his dad's food, so I drop that off in Harrison's office for him before returning to my desk. "How's your day going?"

"Better than yours, I take it," He says slowly. "You look grumpy, and my dad said that Chelsea came by asking about golf. Jay told me that he planned on telling her the truth, so I put it together."

"Yeah, she wanted to meet my mom and Casey. She just stared at me for a while too, it was really weird," I confirm with a long sigh and I sit back down at my desk to get to work so that I can finish the rest of the day. "But then I talked to Silas, so that he knows that I won't be dealing with his family drama."

"She's harmless. Probably just wants to make sure that you won't go public with everything," Micah assures me. "And by the way, you look really amazing today."

That makes me smile because I did try to look nice today just for him. The floral dress that I'm wearing is a bit short but it's still professional-looking. Especially with the blazer that I've matched with it. I probably would have worn something more modest if I knew that I'd be going to Micah's for dinner tonight.

"I would have worn something different if I had more than a few hours notice on dinner," I give him a pointed look and then return to my work. He starts pulling out his text book to get to work on his homework, just like we used to do. "Tonight is going to be so weird, you know that, right?"

"It's not going to be weird," He disagrees with me. "It'll be fun."

"Weird," I disagree. "But okay, it might also be fun. Your parents are great. Are you cooking?"

"Me? No, we're ordering take out," He says with a short laugh. "Nobody in my family can cook, but I'm honored that you thought that I would be able to cook dinner."

"We did make some pretty great biscuits once," I remind him with a short laugh. "But take out is good too."

He has to get to studying, so I stop talking to him and he focuses on his work. I don't get nearly as much work done as I should, because I'm too busy staring at Micah and how familiar it feels to be doing this. He's using his usual 'read, poke, mouth the words, lick, chew, write' study technique and it's so adorable to watch.

He'll read his text book while absently poking his dimple with the eraser of his pencil until he's decided to take notes. He then licks his lips, chews softly on the bottom one, and writes in his notebook. Once his notes have been written, he goes back to reading and poking.

I get done all of the work that I needed to get done today, but it just takes longer than expected. When Harrison comes out of his office, it makes me jump because I've been so caught up in staring at Micah while he studies.

"It's five," Harrison informs both of us. "Are you two ready for dinner?"

Slowly realizing how the time has gotten away from me, I clear my throat and start shutting down the computer for the day. "I'm ready," I mutter.

Micah starts shutting his books and getting them back into his bag as I'm making sure that I have everything that I need. I hook my black purse in my elbow and stand up from my desk.

"What are we in the mood for?" Harrison asks us.

"That Moroccan place down the street," Micah decides quickly. He has apparently had this plan for a while because he was very much ready with that answer.

"That sounds good," I agree with him as we're leaving the office. "They have the best gnocchi."

"I'll let your mom know," His dad says.

We all drive to their house in separate cars, since we all drove to the senate building separately. Harrison stops to get the food, so Micah and I get to the house first. His mother is there when we arrive, sitting in the living room reading a book. When we arrive, we help her set the table for dinner.

"We're excited to have you back, Eleanor," Erin tells me with a gentle smile. "Micah hasn't been so happy in for so long. How is work going with Harrison?"

"It's going really well. He's great to work with and I need to keep myself busy now that Casey is out of the house," I answer her.

"You should bring him over for dinner sometime. We'd love to meet him," She suggests. "Is he coming home this weekend?"

"We've got plans this weekend," Micah answers her, setting the last of the plates before he gets out a bottle of wine. I sit down at the table after everything is placed and let Micah pour the wine, which makes me feel like more of an adult than I really am.

"Yeah, but maybe next weekend," I say quickly just so that Micah doesn't give his mother too much information. He's already made it clear that he doesn't really care if his parents know that we're having sex, but I'm not as comfortable with that as he is. "He's been really busy up there lately though."

"He's busy? It's his freshman year, what is he busy with?" Micah looks at me with a curious laugh.

I just shrug. "I don't know, he's too busy to tell me. Whenever I get him on the phone, he has to cut our calls short because he has some work to do or something. I'm almost convinced that he likes a girl, but he doesn't want to tell me. My hair's going to start turning gray when that kid starts dating."

"I know that I got a few when this guy got his first girlfriend," Erin agrees with me, nudging Micah. I hear the front door open, which means that Harrison is here with the food. When I smell the food, I'm suddenly realizing how hungry I am. "For me, I just felt really old but that's clearly not a problem for you. What was her name, Mic?"

Micah looks like he really doesn't want to discuss this, which amuses me, and then he says, "Katie."

"Right. Katie. She was a nice girl," Erin says. Harrison comes into the room with the food and places it all on the table. "Hello, sweetie. You're just in time. We're talking about Micah's first girlfriend."

"No, we're not," Micah disagrees. Harrison gives Erin a quick kiss hello before he sits down beside her and on the opposite side of the table from me.

I smile at my embarrassed boyfriend and then say, "Yes, we are. How old were you?"

"I don't know, probably fifteen or sixteen," He says with a small shrug.

"He was sixteen," Harrison recalls. "Because he tried to ask her to junior prom."

"Oh, I remember this story!" Erin exclaims with joy and then she starts laughing. "But he got so nervous that he started to panic, and he passed out in front of the whole school. I had to leave work early to go pick him up from the nurse's office. He cried for a solid ten minutes before I could get him out of the room to go home."

"Why are you laughing?" Micah asks her and then his father, who has also started laughing. Now that the food is here, we all start digging into the gnocchi and pasta dishes that Harrison had brought home. "They called me Dream Boy for the rest of the year."

"Like Shark Boy and Lava Girl?" I wonder with an amused laugh.

"It's not funny," He scolds me. I start eating the gnocchi in an attempt to hide my laughter.

"She went to prom with you, if I recall correctly," Harrison reminds him. "So, the story has a happy ending."

"It was more out of pity than anything," Micah mumbles. "Come on, you must have some embarrassing high school stories too. Everybody does."

"I really don't," I feel almost apologetic that I don't have any embarrassing stories to tell. Of course, I've had a few awkward interactions with clients but that's obviously not dinnertime conversation with his parents right in front of me. "I didn't date in high school, I was pretty much invisible."

"Shit, El, my stupid high school bullshit probably sounds so ridiculous to you," Micah looks over at me with wide eyes when he realizes that my equivalent to his high school misery is dealing with a gross old man forcing himself on me continuously through my high school years.

"Language, please, Micah. And what do you mean?" Erin frowns, glancing between me and Micah.

"Just that my foster home wasn't great, but we don't need to talk about that right now," I answer her as dismissively as possible. "I would love to know more about this Katie girl."

And because he feels bad about trying to compare our high school experiences, Micah doesn't fight it anymore, and he tells me everything that I want to know about his ridiculously embarrassing high school memories. They sure aren't as bad as mine, but they're definitely more fun to listen to.

After dinner, Harrison has to go back to the office to get some work done, so I help Micah and Erin clean up what's left of dinner.

"Micah, will you take out the trash?" His mom asks him as we're cleaning the dishes.