See You at Seven [Shayne Topp]

11. Of Scenarios and Sceneries

Hey, guys! How have you been all doing?

New background photo for my profile: a train! It stands for all the train moments we have here at SYAS, because I love them? Hahaha!

Also, I'm planning to release a new Damien book by some time later! The Three Laws of Motion will be out a little later, because I was messaged by some people who loved my writing for Dames, so let's have more of it, hmm?

Anyway for now, let's start this story! See ya!

-/-/-

The only thing consistent in this whole adventure is that we always have a stock of My Favorite Coffee, and the McConnells seem to be in love with it for some reason? First, Alex had many of them shipped at her apartment in New York, while Larissa has grown fond of them to have more shipped here at Arizona. I don't know how Ian just manages to do business and save the world simultaneously, but I'm proud of him.

Another important consistent thing in this adventure is how we're all so shocked by the wonders this mansion has. Too many wonders to count. You would definitely wonder why Alex left this palace for an apartment in New York, aside from her job. But I know International Help has a branch in here, so she couldn't have left just for her job. Since only Larissa and Alex's sister Andrea are the only ones joining us at breakfast, I'm starting to think it has something to do with the father: Alexander.

A weird thing we've also wanted to address is that everyone here calls Alex not Alex but Alexandra. It's a mouthful, and I don't know why she bears with it, but I know she doesn't like it. When Damien accidentally called her Alexandra, she shot him a glare. Poor Dames.

In short, this was the life all of us could dream of. A mansion of a house, kind family members who don't pressure you to get married, and maids everywhere. Of course, that's what all four of us would want, but I wanted one thing more: Alex. Somehow, something always seemed to stop me from telling her I liked her, aside from the fact that I shouldn't. But a part of me wanted to walk up to her and tell her how I feel.

"So, Shayne," Andrea says to me as she walks by the living room, "I don't mean to be rude, but are you interested in Alex?"

"First time someone doesn't call her Alexandra," I reply. "That's weird."

Andrea was, as Larissa said, Alex's total opposite. She was always happy-go-lucky, she was always smiling, and she was talkative. Nonetheless, she still is scary, because according to the maids we've talked with during breakfast, Andrea had shut down multi-million dollar companies with just one statement: "I do not know these people." She was terrifying as a lawyer, but she was pretty okay as a sister to Alex.

"Alex and I are a bit close," she tells me, sitting down across me. "I mean, hello, it's just a two-year age gap. You would be close to your sibling. But she's a bit oblivious to many things, so she doesn't notice that I noticed that you may be interested in her."

"Uh, I'm a psych graduate," I reply. "You don't have to pull some psych tricks on me."

"Oh, then good. So do you like her?"

Since they were a bit close, I didn't want to risk it: "Not in that way, no. I mean, she's attractive, but it's really hard to have feelings?"

"Hard to have feelings?" she asks. "Oh, come on. That's her line, because I swear, even though Alex and I are close, she has a hard time opening up. When she did, she left Arizona for New York, and after that, she never really spoke to Father again."

"What happened?" I ask back.

She sighs, leaning back in her seat. "Well, you see, Father wanted Alex to pursue corporate law like all of us. I mean, it's not an uncommon story: she refused, he got mad, she left. The weird thing is, Father didn't try to make her stay at all. She just came home when she won the Jefferson-Springer case and Father congratulated her. I wouldn't say they've fixed their relationship, but at least somehow the foundation isn't cracked."