Rich Bastard {mxm}

Twenty Nine.

"I have discovered that there was more to me than I ever knew," -C.T

I hummed as my paintbrush swished along the canvas, a zen feeling waving over me. "What is this supposed to be?" I heard a voice from the right of me and I looked to see Tara smiling at me, a cup of Davina's favorite tea in hand for me. 

"I don't know," I narrowed my eyes, trying to make sense of what I painted. I typically painted things from my subconscious, things that I hadn't dealt with, things that were on my mind. "It looks like a mother hugging her son," I stated, realizing that I was probably painting the moment that my mother hugged me for the first time since that night. "Maybe I'll give this to my mom as a gift. She'd like it," I muttered fondly, understanding that Davina was trying her hardest to mend this relationship between us.

We were the closest out of our family and since that night with the rift between Christine, Sterling, and I, nothing had been the same. Once we concluded that nothing was better than our common enemy, we took to calling each other every night before we went to sleep, hanging out during the downtime that we had, sharing little snippets about us that we never would have before.

I definitely would never admit it out loud, but those moments were things I had wished for, once upon a time. 

"Speaking of," I put down my paintbrush, turning to her to gather her attention. This was something I thought long and hard about, realizing that I couldn't tie her to me forever. While it was normal in the world of the rich, I didn't have much to deal with that world anymore, and I couldn't think like the old me would have. I couldn't because somewhere along the way, she became important to me.

"What is that you want to do with your life, Tara?" She furrowed her brow quizzically, not understanding where this conversation was going. "I can't have you working for me forever. Besides, Joaquin wouldn't like that for you and neither would I." I smiled softly and she nodded. "I guess I always had a dream to work with nonprofit organizations that donated money and necessities to kids who had cancer, or kids who were impoverished, things like that," She shrugged and I could see the passion in her eyes.

"There's no greater than knowing that you could make someone else's life better with just a simple act," Tara confessed, sheepish that she started rambling and I sighed, thinking of a solution. 

"I usually would never do this, but you are a unique case, so I guess I'll do you this solid," I teased and she tilted her head, wondering what I was talking about. There was no greater person that I knew that would be best suited to get her started in that field and help her succeed. 

"I guess I'll introduce you to Phillippe."

I let out a laugh at the way her eyes widened, larger than her head, it appeared. "P-P-Phillippe B-Baudelaire!? The CEO of ABA?!?" I stared at my fingernails, sensing that my weekly manicure was coming up. "Yea, him. Why do you sound so shocked?" I raised a brow, seeing that she was on the verge of becoming comatose. 

"Come on before you get an aneurysm," I stood up, removing my apron from my body, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "You're gonna need to work on that before you actually meet him," I muttered, seeing her still struck with surprise. "Phillippe is a lot more intimidating than you actually think and he eats people like you for a snack, so that fear has to go," I chuckled to myself, knowing that a white lie didn't hurt.

Phillippe was nowhere near intimidating. In fact, the man was so nice and kind to people, but he was still so powerful in the business world. He didn't use underhanded tactics to get people to be loyal to him, things that Sterling Thorn relied upon. 

We walked into the main living room and I saw Joaquin in the kitchen, probably making dinner. "Oh, babe, there you are," I still couldn't get over the way he called me that with ease and judging by the smirk Tara had on her face, she couldn't either.