an assistant's dilemma: a kendall roy & roman roy love triangle

chapter 16

Roman was away at management training for six weeks, but it felt like six months. He would text Lucy sometimes, asking her about the latest stupid thing Kendall did at the office and how his father was doing. Still, she felt his absence in her life, missed chatting over a coffee and cracking jokes about workplace gossip.

Kendall seemed harder to reach with each passing day. He stopped even agreeing to go out, instead sitting and getting high in the living room with the evening news or old horror movies on the TV. He held Lucy closer than ever in bed, worried she may simply disappear into thin air if he let go. Some nights, he would stay up long after she went to sleep, watching the moonlight and the lights from passing cars dance across her peaceful face as he struggled to make sense of his own thoughts. He loved her. He hated himself. Everything felt ruined.

Logan summoned them all to his house on a Thursday evening. Roman had just gotten back in town that morning. Kendall and Lucy were seated on his father's couch, his hand resting on her knee, drinking glasses of white wine, when Roman arrived. 

"I have returned from real America, bearing the gift of sight," he announced when he walked in, placing a kiss on Tabitha's cheek and sitting down next to her.

"How was summer camp?," Lucy asked jokingly.

"Hm? What's that? Didn't catch that," Roman replied. "I've been down in the salt mines so long with my fellow Johnny Lunchpails, I no longer speak one percent."

"Mm Roman, you were slinging candy apples, not digging the Panama Canal," Shiv said, eliciting a laugh from Lucy.

"I've seen the world for how it really is Siobhan, and it has changed me. I'm a kettle corn shoveler, here to show you frilly clit-flickers the truth."

Logan entered the living room, clearing his throat and effectively ending all side conversations. Frank announced that the Pierces were entertaining Waystar's offer to buy PGM, but wanted the family to visit for the weekend to assure the integrity of their news outlets following a sale. He listed off dos and don'ts for the weekend, including not having more than two drinks each.

"That's okay. Nobody here has any glaring substance abuse issues that almost brought down the company, right?," Roman asked sarcastically.

Lucy shot him a warning glare and Kendall tightened his grip on his girlfriend's knee, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

Frank, Gerri and Logan continued to lay out the plan for the weekend, and Lucy nodded along, only half listening.

"Well, my worry is that Kendall may come across as too cool and likable," Roman joked.

Lucy kicked his leg, sick of his antics. Roman gasped dramatically, rubbing his leg. The group disbanded shortly after, agreeing to meet back up to board the helicopters the next morning. Kendall would be flying separate, arriving an hour behind everyone else so the Pierces thought he was busy with other Waystar business.

Lucy bid farewell to her boyfriend the next morning before his driver took her to the airport. She boarded a helicopter with Shiv, Tom, Roman, Tabitha, Connor and Willa.  She felt out of place without Kendall there. They had been together nearly a year now, and despite the fact that he felt hard to reach, their identities had become tied to one another. Tabitha was trying to explain to everyone on the ride about how she knew one of the Pierce cousins, but Lucy wasn't listening. Tabitha was admittedly charming and knew how to command a crowd, and Lucy, who was constantly concerned with whether or not she was fitting in with the Roys, hated her for it. Tabitha was tall and blonde and sexually promiscuous and charismatic and with the jealousy Lucy had towards her, you would think the two were competing for something.