fake happy

James Oliver Reed part time CEO, full time brother 28

[jamesolireed]

andrewxreed‌:

“But it’s not okay,” Andrew said, words wobbling, held together by whatever remnants of courage he had left.  Andrew’s eyes were locked on where James held on to him – the whole interaction seeming foreign and wonderful and safe and still so painful. “I know that how I acted impacted you guys. Feeling guilty never gave me the right to treat you how I did. I was a bully. I pushed you all away and I made messes and just … ran away from them. For years. That’s not okay. I know it’s not okay now, and I knew it then. I just didn’t have the strength to try and pull myself out of it before.”  “We all grieved so hard when Dad died, you know? And that looked so different on all of us. God, do you remember the weeks that Mom was just catatonic? She wouldn’t even look at me. I remember thinking that she hated me, but … I’ve been there. I didn’t want to talk to anyone after Iris left. I know it’s not the same, but even in small ways I’m learning to understand why things happened the way they happened. I was so scared of you guys – I thought that I had to be Dad and I wasn’t ready for that. But you took that on. You took all of it on. You shouldn’t have had to, James. We should have both been there to take care of everyone. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I was – I’m sorry I keep messing up. It wasn’t just then – I know that. I’m sorry I ran again after things fell apart with Pen and I –”  Andrew shook his head, realizing now that he had years of misbehaviour to apologize for. It was almost overwhelming. Sure, James had already forgiven him – had been apologizing for his own angelic behaviour – but Andrew had to get it all off his chest. “I’m learning. I promise. I’m learning. Sophie – she’s – we’ve –” Andrew stumbled over his words, trying to collect the million thoughts racing through his head, “we’ve been through a lot together. I’m trying to do better for her. She deserves more than who I was.” 

“Okay, okay it definitely wasn’t okay, but you’re trying to be better. It’s what dad would have wanted. It’s what mom wants. It’s what all of us wants. We just want to make amends. I know I gave you a hard time at the carnival, but it was just so hard, feeling like I lost myself in all of this. I didn’t know who James was anymore. He was just Andrew’s little brother, the son of Marshall Reed and Katherine Reed. I was someone else’s and not myself. I don’t know. It was just overwhelming being so young and having to deal with so much. Okay, so fine, if that’s what you want to hear, it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t okay to make us feel like we weren’t enough, but it’s okay that you’re trying to fix things,” he continued on, not even sure where he was going with this anymore, but he needed to get it off his chest.  “I don’t blame you for grieving but I’m mad and I’m hurt and even when I forgive you, I don’t know how to deal with the hurt I carried with me for so long. I know how mom was and it broke me that you just left when she needed you the most, you know? It was like she just lost two men she loved. You didn’t have to be dad, you had to be Andrew. It’s all we ever wanted. Sure, there would be more responsibility being the oldest you know? But you didn’t have to put food on the table. He left us money in case anything ever happened. He left us prepared for anything. That was dad, he always thought ahead. You didn’t have to go. We didn’t want you to go,” he sighed, not even sure if he could look at his brother in the face anymore. “Just - why did you do it to Penelope? I always wondered. I just want to know what went wrong. She was so nice and I thought she fit into our family, but you know obviously it was your relationship and you don’t need to talk about it.”

“You’re trying to fix yourself for Sophie so I’m glad she came to be because now you’re going to be the Andrew that I knew and loved so much as a kid. She needs it. She deserves a good parent and you have us. We’ll be there for her and for you. You have us now and you always have.”

[jamesolireed]

matiasgarcxa‌:

“Thanks, man,” Matias said, smiling. “I’m definitely down for that. Just promise you won’t snore too loudly when I play clips.” Maybe he shouldn’t have accepted the offer, but he’d been in town a month and even though he didn’t regret the move, he was feeling a little lonely. And once upon a time, James had been more friend than simply the brother of his girlfriend. He wasn’t about to let that go, no matter how uncertain things were now. “I’ll throw popcorn at you at strategic intervals,” he teased. “Even if you start to nod off, it’ll provide the necessary stay-awake distraction.” Nodding agreement, he said quietly, “Sounds like the voice of experience.” He fought to keep his voice even as he went on. “I love her. And I told her.” The truth was, his feelings weren’t enough to mend their history in one fell swoop, any more than hers were.

“Okay, I promise I won’t. I’ll make sure to chug a bunch of five hour energy drinks and then I’ll be so wired and start laughing at the most random clips,” he chuckled. He would do his best to stay awake. He sat through a three hour lecture on economics alone so he figured this shouldn’t be too bad, at least he hope not. “Can you keep throwing them even if I”m awake? So I can catch it with my mouth? I’d really appreciate that man,” he teased the brunette. “Oh,” he said, not sure how to react. Of course, James loved Matias and would have loved for Matias and Harlow to stay together, but his friendship with Matias should not be the reason why his sister and his friend got back together. “Well, I’m not trying to meddle, but I hope that you both are okay, you know? I love you both a lot and you’ve become like family to me but I swear if you make my little sister cry I will make sure to make you cry just as easily,” he threatened Matias, though with a slight hint of sarcasm. He meant it though. He would do anything to protect his siblings.

[jamesolireed]

esmemaxwell‌:

         “God no, I never mix business and pleasure, that’s like a recipe for disaster.” Esme crinkled her nose at the thought, “But I will tell you I did that once and I almost lost my job because of it.” She wasn’t no saint and she did some stupid shit in her younger days that she wished she could take back but in a way for her, it was a like a lesson to take with a grain of salt. “Are you saying you’re scared to test out your masculinity James?”

        “I’m sure you would have loved to mix business and pleasure with me. Don’t think I forgot your offer to hook up with me. You sure you don’t do that with all your fellow coworkers?” he chuckled. He enjoyed teasing Esme. “See, so then you can’t say you don’t mix business with pleasure if you’ve almost done it because it must have meant you were tempted,” he continued on. “Well, it’s more like I’m slow as heck on any cardio machine and I’m not trying to have people make fun of me.”

[jamesolireed]

penelxpebradley‌:

“Someone has to” she quipped with a lazy smirk, running her finger around the rim of the glass as she did. And of course, if anyone could be bailed out if they had any problems along the way, it was probably one of the Reed kids. Money wasn’t an issue to that family, not that Penelope could judge. Just because she refused to take money from her parents didn’t mean that they didn’t try and sneak transactions into her account. But even taking aside the financial safety net he had to have, James seemed a lot more grounded now than when she’d known him before. He’d grown up a lot, in ways that she hadn’t even seen in his elder brother. So perhaps her faith was misguided, but from where she was sitting it certainly didn’t feel so. “Oh yeah I forgot about that” she murmured, leaning back in her chair. It had always been a point of pride in the family, but Penelope had always considered keeping his office a slightly mawkish shrine; the ghost of Marshall Reed haunted the entire estate, but particularly that office, and there had always been something deeply discomforting about that. “Oh please, I already know that” she rolled her eyes, “although only if they’re going through a divorce, and or paternity battle. I mean if they come to me with a murder charge then that’s just gonna be awkward”

“Ouch, thanks,” he chuckled. James was too humble for his own good though he would never admit it to anyone that he was terrified of something going wrong. It came with the risk but there was something about this one that got him scared. It felt like his child and all his blood, sweat, and tears had come down to this building, these employees, these nurses, and everything in between. He didn’t want to let himself down. Even if the business didn’t do well, it wasn’t like he didn’t have money to fall on. He had cushion, a cushion of millions of dollars from his father, but he didn’t dabble into it. He figured he’d just leave it in a savings account so that maybe one day he could pay for his children to go to school and support them in whatever they needed. “Yeah...” he felt awkward bringing up his dad to most people and it wasn’t exactly the nicest conversation to have, but he wanted to talk about his father like the event wasn’t a tragedy anymore. “Well, what if I need your help with something that isn’t family related? Could you hook it up?”

[jamesolireed]

isobelcpez‌:

“Worse,” the girl said with a shake of head. “It’s a blind date so I don’t even know what this guy looks like apart from a very weird description from a mutual friend of mine that doesn’t quite seem to be a good friend anymore.” The girl said as she folded her arms and took the nearest free seat she could find to satiate her anger with a drink.

“Why did you agree to a blind date though? And at a bar? That sounds like it could go wrong real quick,” he continued on, not trying to worry the girl, but making sure that she was safe. “Do you need anything? Do you need to take my number in case the guy is a total creep and I can pretend to say there’s some family emergency and we can get out of here?” he wasn’t trying to hit on the girl, but was just doing whatever he could to not make the situation seem so sketchy.

[jamesolireed]

alex-matthews‌:

  “You that am not use to people worrying about me and it feels very weird,” he replied back looking at his friend. “You’re right and I hate it when I make people worry about me honestly, I don’t know….but thanks for caring James.” he added as he looked back at the road. “It’s not just because of what I said. I hurt so many people James, I hurt and destroy everything I touch and it’s hard not to feel this way when you have been feeling like this all your life.” 

 “Yeah, I know. I know how you feel,” he said. The only love he ever accepted after everything was his father was love from his family. “It’s okay. I think it’s hard to know that people worry because you don’t want to burden them, but don’t ever feel like you’re a burden. You don’t have to thank me. I’m just being a friend,” he responded as he stopped at a red light. “Well, I can’t personally understand but there is someone in my life who does understand and even though it’s been nearly half my life since we had a real conversation, he’s trying to make amends with me and my family and it’s never too late to start again.”

[jamesolireed]

↳ @bxlymxwll​

        James had pretty much spent the whole week at his office and found himself not socializing with the rest of the world. He decided it would be a nice break to just stay inside with some hot tea and watch the latest shows on Netflix. It was time he caught up on The Good Place and Orange is the New Black. He couldn’t remember the last time he had even spent time with anyone that wasn’t an employee. He didn’t mind though. He enjoyed having alone time and it was rare growing up with so many siblings so he learned to enjoy the simpler things in life. He was texting Bexley here and there and just telling her that he was just going to stay in all day and not do anything else.

[jamesolireed]

(iMessage):  Jimmy Jam 🔥🔥🔥

Greer: my loss will absolutely be her gain

Greer: EXCUSE U that is fake news. a total lie

Greer: ya know i don't think i've ever swooned before but you're making me come damn close. shame on you

Greer: i mean it's not gonna be okay for a while but i know you can make me feel better 😉

James: Or you can be my gain jkjk

James: We all know you're the true mess here.

James: Honey deserves your love and attention. You have me so it's okay

James: We can definitely find new positions to make you feel way better

[jamesolireed]

greerkingstcn‌:

@jamesolireed

Having just gotten home and into the shower an hour before, Greer’s hair was still wet and pulled up into a messy bun when her doorbell rang. Tennessee’s bark echoed throughout the home as Greer pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt before walking out of her bedroom, down the hall and to the front entryway. Once there, she stood behind the door and called out to James on the other side. “Okay, Jim! I’m only lettin’ you in if you promise not to gawk at my face.” She said, humor evident in her voice as she paused for a moment before unlocking and opening the door, allowing him to come inside. “Mm…” She said with a growing smile as the scent of the food wafted through her nose, the expression causing her face to stretch and the blonde to flinch. “It’s three o’clock in the afternoon and you still managed to bring me breakfast. I knew I kept you around for a reason.” 

Since James received the text message of Greer getting punched in the face, he had been worried. It wasn’t easy for him to just put away the thought that Greer was injured and he was glad that she was out of the hospital. After bribing the cooks at her favorite breakfast spot, James managed to grab some breakfast for lunch type of scenario, a late brunch one might say. His body was filled with worry when he saw her face. “Why would I gawk at you? Are you okay? have you been taking pain meds and not drinking alcohol?” he asked her a million questions at once, feeling more concern than he would for most people. “You keep me around for other reasons,” he winked at her. "Your face doing okay? We can test it out later if you’d like.”

[jamesolireed]

nctalielewis‌:

          “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Natalie fibbed, “I would never do such a thing. In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Reed, I’m a lady.” There was a moment of suspended silence before a chortling laugh erupted from her mouth. If she was the definition of ladylike then Queen Elizabeth was a tennis shoe. Snatching up the empty seat without a formal invitation, just like the last time they’d met, she dropped her purse to the floor. “I’ve had better days,” she admitted honestly, “but I’ve also had much worse so I guess I shouldn’t complain.” Her thoughts briefly drifted to everything following her night at the carnival, but she veered back to reality with an almost visible snap. Heading down that road would promise to make today a hell of a lot worse. Instead, she focused on James. “How about you? Did you enjoy the rest of your weekend?”

         “This is starting to sound like the beginning of a really terrible adult film,” he chuckled. Though he wasn’t particularly close to Natalie, he didn’t feel that there was an issue with joking around with her. Though James definitely couldn’t deny the fact that he thought Natalie was beautiful, he knew it was better to even try to think of his sister’s friend in any other way. “What’s going on? Do you want to talk about it?” He wanted her to feel better, whatever was going on. He just cared, it was in his nature. “I pretty much sat at home all day and watched a bunch of dog videos because I had nothing else to do with my life. I need to find a new show to watch on Netflix.”

[jamesolireed]

esmemaxwell‌:

        Esme was playing with her french fries on the plate, it was nice sunny day out and sitting at Oceanic for a late lunch was what she needed. “You know, I had to give my input today about having affairs at the office, nothing more awkward than the whole well if it’s love type deal you can’t do much about it but also I was just really tired and the coffee whoever made at the office tasted disgusting so I was just having a sunny bright morning.” She said as she chewed on her french fries, was she stress eating, most definitely but more so at the fact she didn’t know how else to relieve stress other than having a drink. “Oh and I heard they’re doing spin classes–we should join!” 

       “Are you secretly having affairs in the office too?” he laughed. “Spin classes? Have you seen me? I will be the most awkward person there,” he chuckled. He was used to being at the gym doing weights or a kickboxing class. He figured spin classes were geared towards females. He wasn’t exactly big on any cardiovascular exercises, but he didn’t want to be the only male in the class. “What if I’m the only guy? Can we just stay in the back where no one looks? Please?”

[jamesolireed]

isobelcpez‌:

“Crap,” Isobel mentioned as she peered down at her phone when she entered what was meant to be a rather quiet bar. It had somehow exploded over night, furthering her annoyance with the fact that her hidden gem was now ruined. However, tonight was not about sitting back and having a drink — rather, she had been forced into a blind date with little to no information. The only instruction she’d gotten was to wait by the bar. Upon her arrival, the brunette stayed on her own until she worked up the nerve to begin asking around. “Sorry, you wouldn’t happen to be Alex?”

James could be found at the bar a couple times a week. It felt like his little sanctuary where no one really went. It was nice and the bartenders weren’t creepy old men hitting on a bunch of girls. They were around his age and kept the conversation flowing even when James felt like he didn’t have much energy left in him. Plus, there was this one bartender who constantly offered him free drinks on the house and who could deny free alcohol? “No, I’m sorry. I’m James. Are you trying to find your Tinder date?” he inquired.

[jamesolireed]

penelxpebradley‌:

“That’s true” she agreed, angling her head ever so slightly so she was glancing at him side on, taking a genteel sip from her own glass. That was the thing about being around James, she still felt a need to be on her best behaviour, to keep the mask firmly in place. Three years wasn’t a long time, but she wasn’t all that certain she’d changed for the better. Much easier to preserve slight distance, keep everyone at arms length, particularly people who could place her from before. She told herself, silently, that she would keep her nerve, would keep her cool, and yet quite without meaning to, she realised that once she’d placed the glass back on the table, she’d drained well over half the glass. She’d have to slow down if she wanted to be lucid by 10pm. “God look at you, all…business like” she chuckled, settling back in her seat with a grin, keeping a hand clasped around the glass. “I’m telling ya, give it ten years and you’ll definitely be on the Forbes 100″ 

“You have so much faith in me,” he chuckled. Though he hoped to have accomplish such a feat in ten years, he wasn’t sure it was certain. He didn’t want to use his father as a way to climb to the top of business magazines or find himself on the front cover in a business suit and having a long interview where he went on about how his father was the inspiration for everything he did in life. He didn’t want to use his sob story to get himself far in life, but it felt like it was necessary to get his name out there, but he wanted people to recognize him as James and not Marshall’s son. “I hope so. It’d be nice considering my dad made the list before,” he admitted. It wasn’t something he would necessarily tell anyone but what would be the harm in telling Penelope? He still had the magazine of Business Insider where his father grazed the cover hanging right above the fireplace. “Well I’m telling you in ten years you’re going to be the lawyer that everyone wants to have on their side.”

[iris-ashley-hart-deactivated201]

GUARD DOG || james & iris

[jamesolireed]

iris-ashley-hart‌:

          — Saturday, August 18th ( sunset ) 

Exhausted. Emotionally and physically spent was what Iris was as they made their way along the boardwalk, back down those weather beaten planks towards their father’s house. The day had been long—the week even, filled to bursting with enough turmoil to have them going prematurely grey, but it was over now or so they thought as those eyes swept over across the beach towards the sunset. Iris paused to take it in, to release the breath they had been holding since they had stepped foot in Wilmington, hands upon the railing which separated the boardwalk from the sandy shore—weight rested upon those arms as they allowed their mind to wander between all that had happened. Memory colliding with the soft sound of music and people laughing—a bonfire raged in the near distance, a small party taking in the last of the summer’s heat. Iris spared them a glance before their eyes moved once more back towards the retreating sun, thankful that they had worn a sweater in the face of the encroaching night—blind and deaf to the advancing form that marched his way up the beach.

@jamesolireed

James decided that it would be nice to go to the beach at night. The boy couldn’t avoid the beach even if he wanted to from his best friend loving the ocean to himself just always feeling at home near the water. Maybe it felt like a piece of his father was carried with him as his feet felt the cold sand and he walked towards the water. It was like his dad was greeting him every time the water kissed the shore. How could he turn down two of his favorite things? Food and the beach. There was going to be so many s’mores and that boy could eat sweets for days. He had heard around that Iris would be there, the girl who had left Sophie alone for two years. Though James wasn’t sure how he felt about them, he knew that there was a piece of him that felt some sort of anger, a feeling of betrayal. It was for Sophie. He didn’t want to see his niece being hurt. “Hey Iris,” he said as he recognized the blonde. “Pretty cold today, huh?” he carried on, trying to keep the conversation civil.

[jamesolireed]

stephlenox‌:

“I work at an ice cream store downtown,” Steph said with a grin. “I’m a supervisor there, which means I have the power to count the safe and deal with angry customers and offer refunds and so on. Sometimes it feels more like I’m a babysitter than anything else.” Despite being able to talk about her job for hours on end (perhaps because she spent so much time there,) she knew the topic got boring quickly for everyone else, and so tried to keep her Kilwin’s rambles to a minimum. “What company do you run?” she asked, genuinely curious. After all, she’d always thought that the big boss got to do whatever they wanted, particularly when it came to taking a lunch break. “You’re makin’ me feel better about having lived one place all my life,” Steph admitted with a grin, though privately she wondered if maybe, were her parents alive, they would’ve encouraged her to make her dreams a reality. Feeling a pang for their absence, she brightened at the hypothetical offer. She didn’t take it entirely seriously, but she had to admit, it sounded pretty great, being shown around by a local for a change. “I can’t knock it til I’ve tried it, but I’ve always thought we’ve got some pretty decent seafood here in Wilmington. But maybe one day that would be pretty nice. I have to admit, Maine’s moved up to the top of my potential travel destinations.” As James went on, she gave him a shrewd look. “The ranch, huh? You a fan of horses, or the people?”

“Oh, did you say ice cream? I love ice cream. I honestly could eat it every day for dinner, which I probably shouldn’t considering I’m lactose intolerant,” he laughed. Though he knew that it wasn’t good for him, James still continued eating it. “I’m so glad I’ve never had to really work a retail job,” he responded. He didn’t mean to come off in a way where he was bragging about his previous jobs. He spent his whole life working for any type of business he could so that he could find a way to follow in his father’s footsteps. “I run a healthcare firm. I don’t have to count the money or deal with angry people, but essentially I see over all the departments and our main goal is to get traveling nurses to clinics and hospitals around North Carolina right now. I’m trying to expand, but it’ll take some time,” he continued on. “Well I mean it’s nice to have a place to call home and place that feels like comfort, you know?” he asked, knowing that Maine felt like his home and North Carolina felt more like a house. “Maine needs to be the only destination you consider now,” he joked. “The people. I love Greer. We’ve become pretty close friends. Not big on horses.”

[jamesolireed]

Would you let your brother's ex near him and Sophie again?

“Are we talking about Penelope or are we talking about Iris? I mean I would be okay with Penelope being near them. I would no reason not to be though I feel like a screaming match might happen and Sophie definitely does not need to see that. Iris, on the other hand, I don’t know. I mean the girl left for awhile and just decided to come back. I don’t really like it. You can’t just leave your kid for two years and baby daddy and suddenly decide to show up. I still don’t really have a good feeling about her but I guess everyone deserves a chance.”

@penelxpebradley  @iris-ashley-hart 

[rpsourcedmemes]

Ask my muse anything you want on anon!