“Or,” I suggested, with a teasing tone, “I could always take my date to go watch things burn.”

This confused the “fan club” members immensely, while Ambrose got a curious expression on his face.

“Someday,” he promised me, “I’ll figure out what you mean by that.”

I laughed a little, then went to help Shawna carry in some supplies when she asked, returning to find the “fan club” members talking to Ambrose, trying to get him to ask me if I was single.

Ambrose didn’t look happy about asking, but was probably too polite to turn them down.  “So, uh…have anyone special in your life?”  He asked after I returned to his portion of the counter, the “fan club” girls scooting back to their former spots.  “Anyone you’re planning to…take out for spicy food?”

I considered for a bit as I prepared his refill.  “Maybe,” I responded.  “There’s someone who wants to be, at least.  And I’m thinking about it.”  I slid his refill over to him, on top of a black napkin.

He looked like he was overfilling with pleasure at that and almost wasn’t able to contain himself.  “Would you say they’re a stud?”  He asked innocently.

I almost snorted and rolled my eyes.  “More of a rock geek,” I corrected.  Sure, pegasus technically were equine like, but I wasn’t about to inflate his ego by calling him a stud.

Ambrose laughed a little at this response, despite the girls listening in being confused by that comment.  They apparently couldn’t figure out if I meant Ambrose or not, because they kept looking between us, but I wasn’t about to enlighten them.

“I want to show you my garden sometime,” Ambrose told me, that slightly shy look on his face.  “Maybe I’ll, um, even give you a keepsake to take home.”

“I’m no good with flowers,” I informed him gravely.

“Yeah, well…something more permanent.”

Did he mean a diamond?  I knew he could grow them, like Roland could, but I wasn’t sure if he was suggesting giving me one.  And if he was, was he thinking of what giving diamonds to someone usually meant?  That was kind of a leap from the whole “will you date me” thing.

I was left to stew over that as he had to leave earlier than usual for a publication thing.  I was still thinking about it when the club closed and Shawna and I were cleaning up the bar.

“What’s with you and that guy?”  She asked.  “He comes around a lot, but I can never tell for sure if there’s something going on between you two.”

I gave her a bit of a surprised look.  She didn’t usually dig into my personal life, but then, I suppose my personal life had kind of showed up here at the club and was insistent on returning.

“I’m not chasing him away,” I responded instead.  I kind of left her with that cryptic comment while I went to take out the trash.

Shawna was leaning against the counter when I got back, going over the remodeling plans.

“Did they get delayed again?”  I asked, frowning a bit.  I’d expected the remodeling to be completed while I was out for my hip surgery, but to my surprise when I got back, nothing had happened yet.

“Yeah, but this time it was on our end.”  Shawna looked a bit self-conscious.  “Boss and I had an argument, and now she’s saying she doesn’t want some stuff.  I think to just annoy me.”

I took a moment to let that sink in and put the pieces together.  I’d always known Shawna was more familiar with our employer and apparently hung out with her outside of work sometimes, but this sounded like something more.

“Are you two…together?”

“Yeah.  Sometimes.”  She grimaced.  “Most of the time.  But we had a dumb argument and now she’s acting like she’s hurt, and that I’m doing a bad job managing the club, and she doesn’t like my color schemes anymore.  It’s one of those things I thought would blow over overnight, but it’s been like three weeks now and she’s still mad at me.”

I was kind of surprised to learn that much information about Shawna, but then, she was kind of learning more information about me, too, so maybe it was pretty reasonable that we were both sharing more.

“Is it worth it to apologize?”  I asked hesitantly.  “I mean…even if you’re not at fault?”

“Nah, I am, but we both are.  We both said some stuff we didn’t mean because we were mad.  Normally it’s not this big of a deal, though.”  She frowned moodily.  “Sometimes I wonder if relationships are worth it, you know?  Sometimes it’s balancing this tightrope, or trying to placate someone when you’ve already had a bad day and just aren’t up to take on their messes, too, and it’s tough.  But then…but then I think about what life would be like without her in it, and I don’t like the idea.  So we make amends, figure it out, get back on track.  Then a month later we’re fighting again and I’m wondering again.”

I couldn’t really answer her question.  Not just because I suspected it was more rhetorical than actually seeking an answer, but I didn’t have the same experience with relationships that she did.

I could, however, relate to the idea of arguing with someone a lot.  “Some people just like to argue,” I mused thoughtfully, remembering back to when I lived at the naga nest.  “For some people, that’s as fun as having a romantic date or something, I guess.”

“That’s probably us, to be honest.”  Shawna sighed heavily, starting to fold the renovation plans up.  “We’ve known each other since we were, like, in diapers, I guess.  We lived in the same neighborhood, were always running around together getting ice-cream, teasing the boys, stuff like that.  When we were younger, it almost felt like having another sibling, one I was actually closer to than my real siblings.  We argued, but not like we do now.  I don’t know if it’s just a stress thing, or a we-like-to-argue thing, or if I really should be looking for some deeper reason for why we fight so much.”

“Have you considered therapy?”  I felt a little hesitant suggesting it.  I was really unqualified to give people relationship advice.  “Couple’s therapy, you know, that kind of thing.  See if maybe having a neutral party to mediate might help you figure out if there’s more going on with these arguments.”

She considered that.  “You know, that’s not a bad idea.  Jody – Boss, she probably would whine about the suggestion and say we can handle stuff on our own, but I bet she’d realize it’s a good plan in the long run.  If we want to work this out, I feel like we have to have more times without fighting, so it’s not always just this cycle of fights, makeup, fight again, so on.  We gotta break the cycle somehow.”

“If it helps, I’m pretty sure you can handle anything you set your mind to.”  I gave her a tentative, but maybe awkward, smile.  “If you want to break that cycle, I’m sure you’ll find a way, even if it doesn’t end up being therapy.”

“You know what?”  She asked, with fire in her eyes.  “You’re right.  We’ve been together too long to let one dumb argument end it, so I’m going to go over there and give her a piece of my mind.  Well, and apologize.  And ask about therapy.  We’re a mess,” she admitted with a wry grin, “but we’ll figure it out.  Thanks, Madden.”

“I’m sure it’ll work out,” I offered, but I wasn’t even sure she heard me since she was now in whirlwind mode to get out of there.  I shrugged a bit to myself, locked up the place after us, and headed home.

Late the following morning, after I got up and started making myself breakfast, I was surprised to hear a buzzer, signaling someone requesting to come in.

I frowned a bit.  Alessia and Troy didn’t know where I lived, and I was pretty sure only Ambrose did, but he shouldn’t be coming by, not yet, anyway.  If it was him, he was going to get into trouble.

“Hello?”  I asked through the intercom, a little uncertainly.  If it wasn’t Ambrose, I might be the one in trouble.  Unexpected visitors were rarely a good thing.

“Mr. Madden?”  An unexpected, but familiar voice came through.  “I’ve been…requested…to come by and offer some assistance?”

I stared at the intercom a bit, then groaned.  Of course, Ambrose thought I meant I didn’t have any help last night when I turned down his offer to help.  So he sent Leo instead.

I sighed, then reached over to buzz him in.  “Come on up,” I said reluctantly, letting him know the apartment number.  Then I went back into the kitchen to prepare a second serving, in case he wanted some.

When Leo arrived and accepted my offering of scrambled eggs, he confirmed what I suspected about why he was there.

“Mr. Ambrose requested that I provide you with assistance on your…project?”  He raised an eyebrow as he looked at me.  “He couldn’t provide any real information about what the project was, however.”

Leo looked much the same as he had back when I’d known him as the butler to Roland and Miranda, but at least he’d graduated from the super formal suits he wore 75 years ago to just normal 3-piece suits.

I ignored the question about the project for the moment.  “Mr. Ambrose?  Did you never tell him?”  I’d thought Ambrose had hinted that he knew, but maybe he just thought of Leo as family without knowing the biological relationship.

“Ah.”  Leo looked embarrassed, but almost reluctantly let go of his very formal self to settle into just mostly formal.  “Well, I did.  Eventually.  Not within Roland’s lifetime, of course, because Ambrose would have said something and caused a fuss with Miranda, too.  I had intended to wait until after any inheritance Ambrose received was gone, to ensure he didn’t feel the need to split it with me.”  He sighed.  “That…did not go as planned.  I did wait, and when I finally told him, at first he was happy to have a brother and wanted us to be proper family.  Then he got upset that I hadn’t told him before, and that I hadn’t let him split the inheritance.  For me, it was never about the money.  I simply wanted an opportunity to have real family – Ambrose himself – and was glad to have it.  I didn’t need nor want the money.  We argued about it for some time, before settling into our current arrangement.  I manage his properties – he’s accrued several over the years – and work as his agent for writing.  And he pays me more money than I could possibly need for that and insists we act like family, but all in all, the arrangement works for us.  I don’t really crave typical affection,” he said slowly.  “I enjoy showing my affection for someone by caring for them.  At first he wasn’t thrilled about the idea of me working for him, but when Ambrose realized that I was happiest when I was allowed to care for him and help him manage his household and career and things like that, he changed his mind.  It is my way of supporting my brother and caring for him, even if it isn’t particularly the traditional role of an older brother.”

“Eh, family can take whatever form it wants to,” I grunted.  I could perfectly well remember my own and thought Ambrose and Leo’s relationship, even if it wasn’t a traditional family look, sounded a lot healthier.  “And as long as you’re both happy and realize you love each other, I don’t see why you can’t enjoy taking care of him and he can’t enjoy letting you.”  I considered for a bit.  “So, his agent, huh?  What all does he write?”

Leo nodded.  “Ah, yes, Ambrose asked me to bring you a list of his works, he said you had requested such.”  He felt around in his pockets for a bit until he found the right one where he’d put the list.  He handed it over, where I saw it had been neatly organized under Ambrose’s pen names, genres, and time periods.

“Ambrose sees each new iteration of his career as a chance to try something new.  Try a new voice to his writing, try a different genre, really whatever spikes his interest.”  Leo sounded proud of him.  “He’s become quite popular under several of his pseudonyms.  He avoids any major publicity from them, though, and absolutely refuses to have his picture taken.  He’s concerned that, as an author, if a book was found with his picture from, say, 70 years ago, and then someone happens to see another author who looks identical but is much younger than that author ought to be, it might raise questions, at the very least.  Possibly he could write it off as looking like an ancestor, but it’s still a problem he seeks to avoid.  The solution, to Ambrose, is simply for people to never know what the author of any of his books looks like.”

I was impressed, looking over the list.  I’d read several of these, and in fact I had a couple of them.  I wasn’t a huge book person, so any books that I did have were ones I really liked, and the fact that Ambrose was the author of them really was a nice surprise.

“Ambrose explained about your hip surgery,” Leo added.  “I was not surprised to learn that you had to have replacement surgeries, it is the nature of how those things go, I believe.  I regret that I didn’t think to try to set you up with a fund that would cover those expenses, at least for as much of your lifetime as possible.  But everything was handled this time?”  He gave me a concerned look.

Ah.  That explained something.  I’d wondered how Ambrose had handled everything with paying for the surgery and recovery so smoothly.  It wasn’t that I didn’t have faith in him or think he couldn’t figure things out, but I also knew that something like handling hospital red tape was bound to be outside of his comfort zone.  It made a lot more sense that Leo had been the one to handle that for him.

“Everything went well, I’m healed, as recovered as I’ll be, and in good shape – at least for another couple decades or so.”  I shrugged.  It was an unfortunate fact of my life that I wouldn’t be able to just never worry about it again.