Chapter Twenty-One

 “ Dinner was fantastic,” Matt commented, sipping at his wine after he had finished his
plate of food.
“ Yeah,” Natalie agreed distractedly.  The night had been better than she had expected
and yet she was still feeling as if it was all...hollow, for lack of better word.  Her and
Matthew had talked about everything, the industry, upcoming movies, his career,
things going on in Seattle, anything and everything as long as it veered as far away
from their family lives.  She needed him to clear the air, for him to be apologetic for the
others if not for himself. 
“ Are you ok?” Questioning, he raised his eyes and waited for her answer.
“ Yes, fine...So have you talked to Dad or anyone lately?” She approached.
“...Um, actually I have.  Very brief conversation. Oh, and I also talked to Evie...”
“ And I guess she told you...?”
“ Told me? About the house? Of course and she went into extensive detail of her
upcoming lawsuit attempt...” Natalie sipped at her drink bitterly, killing the words on
her tongue before they managed to get out.
“ So?” He looked at her before answering, contemplating.
“ Well, I think it was the best thing for you to do, Nat. The property was just sitting
there, collecting dust and none of us could bear to go up there anyways.”
“ So she’s actually considering suing?”
“ She’ll make an ass of herself when she does and I think everyone knows it.  She’ll get
a load of bad press-”
“ Her or me?”
“ And it would just...cause more strife between you guys even more...If she wanted the
property so badly, I don’t see why she never offered to take it off your hands,”
“ Because she still blames me.” Natalie said frankly, pushing her plate away and staring
at it to avoid his eyes.
“ Blame you?...If she does, it’s out of idiocity and if anyone else in the family does, it
shows their intelligence.  You had no knowledge of what was going to happen, you’re
not God, you couldn’t have known. And it wasn’t such a big deal, taking a cab as
opposed to you picking her up. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  The
telephone was an almost relieving interruption to their conversation as Mary appeared
in the door and informed her that it was her ‘neighbor’ again.
“ I’ll be right back,” She said to Matt as she got up to answer the call.
“ Sure thing.”   
“ Thanks, Mary,” 
“ Hello?”
“ Hey, babe!”
“ Hey, AJ.  Land yet?”
“ Natalie, it’s ten pm...”
“ Good point, how’s the first day?”
“ Gruesome. I think the press are more up our asses than our occupations.”
“ Sucks,” She agreed.
“ So how’s your brother?” He inquired.
“ He’s good...”
“ I meant how’s it going with him? Smoothly or just horrid?”
“ Pretty smoothly...We’ve kinda been avoiding a lot of issues so far but it’s day one,
right?”
“ Right. It’ll get better and I’m sure you two will manage to work through the shit that
got clogged.”
“ I hope so,”
“ What about your sister? Any word of her dropping the suit?”
“ Haha, if you knew Evelyn, you wouldn’t ask,” Natalie replied.
“ Sucks.  Well give me a call before you go to bed,”
“ J, that’s gonna be super late!”
“ ...You don’t wanna give me a nlow-by-blow account of what happened?”
“ Sure, just don’t wanna be interrupting your sleep,”
“ Trust me, you won’t, I can’t sleep alone.”
“ Funny...Ok, well, I’ll see.”
“ Allright, allright, good luck!” 
“ Bye.”  She hung up and pondered over his double meaning of sleeping alone.  Nothing
had happened after that night when they had kissed, both playing it off as drunken
spontaneity and thinking the other had forgotten or didn’t remember. Natalie pushed
the thoughts out of her head and scolded herself for over-analyzing before taking a deep
breath and returning to an empty dining room.
“ Matt?” 
“ In here.” He called, his voice carrying from the living room.  She found him on the
couch, a cup of coffee in his hands and another for her on the table.
“ So what are you up to tomorrow?” He asked lightly, obviously not wanting to stroll
back to their previous topic.
“ Free day,” She replied with a smile, sipping her coffee.
“ Great, we can go out then!” He grinned, getting up and planting a kiss on her head.
“ I’m glad we really got a chance to just....hang.  I’ve missed not seeing you,” He said
somberly.
“ Me too, we’ll have fun.” She said in means of reassurance, unsure of how to react.
“ Well, I am really tired, I’m gonna go up to bed.”
“ Ok, goodnight, Matt,” She watched  him exit the room and her mind traveled back to
AJ.  It’d be a good idea to call him now, seeing as how mere minutes had passed.
“ Natalie, hey, I was just about to call you,” He joked when he answered.
“ So what’s up?  That was fast?” He questioned.
“ Matt’s went up to sleep,” Natalie explained, fidgeting on the couch as she sat.
“ What should we do tomorrow?” 
“ Hmmm...Did you ask him what he wanted to do?” 
“ No, I haven’t had the chance,”
“ Natalie, ask him, not me, hon.  I’d say take him shopping but I’ve seen you shop and
the poor guy wouldn’t get anything done.” He laughed.  
“ You know what?  I should let you go, you sound tired,” Natalie said half an hour later,
getting off the couch and stretching.
“..Yeah, I should probably hit the sack...” He answered hesitantly, almost distractedly.
“ Allright, then, goodnight, J.”  They hung up and Natalie headed upstairs, pausing by
her brother’s room when she heard him talking.  After thinking of going in, she decided
he was probably on his cell and left to go to sleep...







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