Office Hours |h.s|

thirty six

Maude

Looking across the dinner table at Lance, I'm not sure how to feel, especially since I've come into all this new information about him. My eyes watch as he casually talks to our dad, occasionally bringing his glass of whiskey up to his lips for a sip. He looks as smug and pompous as ever, bragging about how he riled Harry up in his office yesterday.

On one hand, I'm disgusted by him, which isn't exactly a brand new feeling when it comes to my brother. He purposely seduced and slept with his teacher's girlfriend just because of a failing grade. A failing grade that he deserved. He was being the usual brat he is and wanted to get back at his teacher in the worst possible way. He ruined Harry's relationship and did everything he could in an attempt to get him to lose his job.

But there's another part of me, one that's scary. My Sterling side I guess. It's the part of me that is happy Lance did it. Not because it was a good idea or that he 'had to do what he had to do', but because it broke Gia and Harry up. If it wasn't for Lance seducing Gia, they might still be together. Harry didn't know about the cheating until Lance and maybe they could have tried to fix their relationship. Maybe by the time I came around he would have been married, or a father. Lance sleeping with Gia is the reason why I'm even in a relationship with Harry.

I shouldn't be feeling like that. I shouldn't feel like Gia got what she deserved for hurting Harry, or that I should be thankful that my brother did something so cruel, but right now I do. I'm just trying to convince myself it's my insecurity in the relationship at the moment, and not because I'm turning into one of them.

What happened between Lance and Gia clearly hurts Harry considering he was in a relationship with Gia and was blindsided by her in bed with him. And I know he feels badly that Lance treated her the way she did when she left. We spent a lot of the morning talking about Lance and Gia and the whole abortion thing. Even if they would have just broken up in the first place, that's still a woman he saw himself having a future with and he still cares about her.

He mentioned that Gia still reaches out to him, and that he's always just ignored her and cut her off. Deep down I know he's going to reconnect with her, and I'm just trying to tell myself that he cares about me and doesn't want anyone else. But Gia is absolutely beautiful and I wouldn't blame him if he wanted to rekindle that relationship.

For now though, I just have to get through this dinner with my dad and Lance. Cassidy and I spent the morning and early afternoon dress shopping for the gala since dad gave me his word that he'll pay for our dresses to ensure we look sophisticated. She had plenty of questions about where I spent the night since I never came home. Thankfully I was able to tell her I was with the Stormtrooper guy, which isn't a complete lie, but now she's asking for details since I haven't shown interest in more than a one night stand in a while.

While we were out, I slowly started to tell her about the Lance, Harry, and Gia drama. I just said that Lance told me what happened and since Cass knew of Gia and what happened with her, I kind of just pieced things together for her. I was careful not to talk about Harry's side, but thankfully Cass has enough of a moral compass where I was actually able to be disgusted by my brother and not seem like I was taking Harry's side.

To say she was shocked is an understatement. Finding out the real reason why Harry hates my family is a big deal, since it runs much deeper than just trying to get him fired. Of course Cass made the connection to that being the reason why Harry doesn't like me and why he 'banned' me from being an intern on his case. I know I'm just spinning myself deeper and deeper into this web of lies, and honestly I'm having a hard time keeping up with what I've said to who.

She went on and on while we were shopping, telling me how Harry is gonna get me kicked out of his class because of the case and that he'll probably try to fail me too. And while she talked about how much he must hate me, I was texting him pictures of me in pretty dresses, and some of me out of pretty dresses. He really loved those.