by Lynne Silver
“I’ll be in my office; we can head out around two.” He pushed his way through the packed dance floor to his office. After unlocking the door and pushing it open, he was greeted by a couple in a hot and heavy embrace on his desk.
“Ian,” he groaned. “My desk? Seriously?”
Ian jumped, and then protectively turned to block Drew’s view of Cat who was shimmying on the desk to get herself sorted out and all body parts in the proper place.
“Sorry.” Ian had the grace to flush, or maybe his cheeks always reddened when in the throes. Drew was happy he didn’t know the answer. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You usually don’t come back to the office when the party’s happening,” Cat said, now clothed but with tousled hair.
“You saying you regularly fuck on my desk?”
She flushed, and Ian scowled at him. “Don’t talk to my wife like that.”
“Sorry,” Drew muttered. “My head is all sorts of messed up tonight.”
“What’s going on?” Cat asked.
He looked at both their faces and wanted to unload. He’d been friends with Ian since college and considered him his best friend in the world. They knew him as much as he let anyone in.
“Is it Olivia?” Cat asked.
He sighed and walked around his desk to collapse onto the chair. Cat went and curled onto Ian’s lap at his desk chair.
“Yes. And no. Hell, I don’t know.” He told them about how it was living with his mom, and that he was angry with his father tonight. “But he’s done nothing but be himself.” He left off telling them about his encounter with Olivia’s past. He didn’t want to talk about it until he knew more. Given her reaction, he knew she was intensely private. She’d be ashamed if she thought he’d gossiped about her to Ian and Cat.
“I don’t know your dad very well,” Cat said hesitantly. “Maybe you’re upset because he’s not acting very dad-like.”
“But that’s what I love about him,” he said. “He’s always been so cool, never acting like a dad.”
“Sounds annoying,” Ian said. “There are literally a billion people in the world that you could call friend, but only one you can call dad. It’s nice to know I have someone to ask for advice. Someone to call me out if I’m being an asshole. Kids need limits and he never gave that to you.”
“I had my mom for that,” he said.
“True, but now your mom is sick. You have to be the adult.”
“Adulting can be scary,” Cat said. “I’ve had to do it since I was a teenager. I absolutely love that I now have Ian’s parents.” Ian gave her a tight hug and a kiss to her temple.
“What’s the deal with Olivia?” Ian asked. “I thought I saw her in here earlier. She has to go to work?”
“Nah. She was tired.” He didn’t volunteer more despite Ian’s probing stare. They held the stare down for another few seconds, and finally Ian broke it.
“We’re going to head out. Are you good staying longer?”
“Carlos is closing tonight,” he answered, “and I’m driving my dad home, so I’ll be here a while longer.” Letting an employee have the key to close down was something new. In the first eighteen months of opening OCXA, either Ian or Drew stayed until closing.
After Ian’s marriage, Drew had offered to take on closing responsibilities so his friend could go home with his new wife. He always stayed until closing anyway and loved being at the bar until the wee hours. Tonight was the first night he didn’t want to stay and oversee closing. He wanted to be home alone in his bed. What the hell was happening to him?
For the next hour and a half after Ian and Cat had left, he played multiple games of cards on his desktop. When he was sober enough, he got his paperwork organized, ran through the numbers on alcohol ordering and made decisions for totals for future orders. He reviewed some press they’d received and wrote notes on ideas for summer parties to keep their club fresh and people coming through the door.
Promotional events were usually Ian’s domain, as he’d grown up in Miami and understood the flavor of the city slightly better than Drew. He was the numbers and operations guy, but he had some ideas so he wrote them up and sent them off in an email to Ian.
At two in the morning he yawned, rose and went to go find his father and then tell Carlos he was on his own for the first time ever for closing.
His dad was not where he’d left him. He did a loop of the club and then checked his phone to see if there were any messages. He poked his head in the bathroom. No dad.
“Dammit,” he muttered. He dialed his dad’s number, but it went straight to voicemail.
He headed over to Carlos and yelled over the noise, “Have you seen my dad? He was sitting over there in VIP.”
“Dude who looks like an older version of you?”
“Yeah.”
“He left. Told me to tell you he’d see you tomorrow maybe.” Carlos grinned. “He left with a group of beautiful young ladies. I want to be him when I grow up.”
Since that had always been Drew’s goal also, he shrugged. Though tonight, he was reprioritizing his goals. Did he want to be leaving a nightclub with strange women half his age, or did he want to be leaving, like Ian had, with his partner, a woman who knew all of him and loved him? Option B was looking better and better.
“I’m heading out,” he told Carlos. “You’re good to shut it down?”
Carlos gave a mock military salute. “On it Jefe. Have you sobered up enough to drive?”
He paused. “Shit, not enough to pass a breathalyzer. And I need my car tomorrow morning. Fuck.”
“Take a taxi,” Carlos offered. “I’ll drive your truck back to your place and walk home from there.”
“For real? You didn’t drive?”
“Nah. Not all of us have VIP spots in the back. Caught a ride in with Joe.”
He tossed Los his keys and headed out.
Olivia woke up, feeling as if she hadn’t slept. Given the amount of tossing and turning, maybe she hadn’t done more than lie there and close her eyes. She immediately grabbed her phone to check if Drew had texted, and gave an inward shimmy of happiness when she saw that he had.
Then she remembered how they had parted and the text of him and another woman. He’d said the woman had grabbed his phone, and the crazy part was that she mostly believed him. Mostly.
First of all, they weren’t in a long-term monogamous relationship, despite him offering. Second of all, if they were in an exclusive relationship, he wouldn’t be so dumb as to text her a photo of himself with another woman. He’d be stealthy and smart if he were actively trying to hide something.
It didn’t take away the fact that he lived a crazy lifestyle with women trying to get to know him every night of the week. How could an average girl compete with that? She couldn’t, so she’d take what she could get—no strings fun—and then move on when it ceased being fun.
It hadn’t been fun last night when her past had slapped her in the face. Who the heck were those guys, and why had they thought it was okay to mock her nearly ten years post graduation? Seriously, move on already.
“Like I have,” she muttered as she swung her feet over the bed to get started on her day. She froze. Had she moved on since high school? She’d started her senior year of high school determined to lose the reputation she’d rightfully earned as a sophomore.
It was her choice to halt her social life and become the opposite of what she had been. No hanging out on weekends with big groups, no parties, no fun. It took a lot of months, but by Christmas of her senior year, most people saw her as boring Olivia who only studied and did stuff with her family.
It had become a habit. She was still behaving as she had her final high school year when trying to shed her less-than-stellar rep. There had to be a middle ground between being a wild partier and a woman who was letting life pass her by.
Drew slept in, and then helped his mom get ready for her appointment. No word from his dad so he didn’t me
ntion the possibility that he might stop by to his mother. Also no word from Olivia, and that bothered him more than he cared to admit.
While waiting for his mother to get her socks and shoes on—a process more laborious than he liked to admit—he pulled out his phone to check one more time if she’d texted him. Nada.
Finally his mother was ready and he drove her to the clinic, prepared to wait in the lobby while whatever happened in the back happened. She grabbed his arm as he was turning around. “You’re not coming in with me?”
He eyed her. “You want me to?”
“It can get boring back there.”
“Don’t they have books and stuff or a TV?”
She shrugged. “I’d rather talk with you. We’re living together, but because of your work schedule, we’re ships passing in the night.”
“Fine. Lead the way.”
They headed behind the double doors in the waiting room to a comfortable almost living room-like set-up. His mother took a seat in a lounge chair. A young woman came over to greet them. “Hi, Karen. No Olivia today?”
His mom smiled widely. “It’s her day off. This is my son, Andrew.”
He realized his mom was beaming with pride as she introduced him to not one, but every nurse who wandered in the room. And to two of the patients. This was a tight-knit community bound together by their need for the procedure tapped into his mother’s vein at this minute.
He reclined back in the chair, prepared to make small talk, but his mom looked him dead in the eye and said, “What’s going on with you?”
He stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“You’re jittery and moody this morning, and you keep checking your phone.”
He put his phone face down on the small side table next to him. His mother was more intuitive than he’d given her credit for. “Do you hate Dad?” he blurted.
Her eyes widened and she leaned forward, and then winced as the movement jostled the needles in her arm. “Hate him?” She pursed her lips. “I loved him, honey. Part of me still does, but mostly he disappoints me.”
“Because he left you?”
She shook her head. “Because he left you. When you were younger you hero-worshipped him and I never wanted to tarnish your father in your eyes. Now that you’re older, you can handle his flaws.”
“He showed up at the club last night.”
“Your father?”
“It’s not the first time. He comes down when he can.”
“Of course he does. You own one of the hottest bars in Miami. I’m sure your father loves the chance to be surrounded by all the glitter and beautiful women.”
Man, she’d pegged his dad.
“I was sad that he left me because I loved him, but mostly I was mad that he abandoned you,” she said.
“He didn’t abandon me,” Drew said. “I used to spend holidays and a week of summer break with him, remember?”
“Of course, I remember, Andrew. Your father was willing to give you two weeks out of fifty in a year, and I’m glad that you saw that as a gift and not a slight. My father, your grandfather, put in the time.”
His grandfather had died when Drew was a toddler and he only had vague memories of the man. His paternal grandparents were both alive, and sent cards at Christmas, but they were likely the reason his father had no groundwork in how to be a real parent.
“I worry because I think you see your father as a role model.”
“Why do you think that?” he asked.
“Your career choice, for one,” his mom said.
He’d heard that a million times. “Mom, I was never going to be happy being an engineer at NASA, and I’d rather not have a job that bends and changes with each political administration.”
“I know, Andrew,” she said, “and I see now how hard you work. I’ve also been worried and still am because you don’t seem to want to ever fall in love and settle down with a woman. Or a man,” she said, her cheeks flushing. “You can tell me.”
“Mom, I’m not gay. You can relax on that front.”
“I’d love you either way,” she said, but he could tell the effort it cost his very conservative mother to say the words.
“Good to know,” he said dryly. “What if I haven’t met the right woman?”
“Then I’d say you’re not looking hard enough. Or maybe you’re looking too hard for the wrong woman.”
He snorted at that, because she was dead-on accurate. “What would you say if I told you I’ve met the right woman but she won’t have me?”
She chuckled. “I’d say she’s a smart woman to keep you chasing her.”
“She is smart, but I think she’s scared. She’d have to go against her parents’ wishes to be with me.”
“That’s ridiculous. What do her parents have against you? You’re smart, handsome, and financially stable. Should I call the girl’s parents and talk to them?”
“Mom, I appreciate the thought, but I’m not in kindergarten. She’s going to have to figure it out.” They lapsed into silence, the only noise the television on a daytime game show and the shush of nurse’s scrubs as they walked among their patients, checking lines.
Drew’s phone rang, startling them both. He flipped it over and glanced at the caller ID, hoping it was Olivia. “It’s Dad,” he said.
His mom made a shooing gesture. “Go outside and answer it.”
“You sure?”
She shooed again.
He hurried outside, picking it up as he went.
“Dad?”
“Hey, Drew. How’s it going?”
He looked back at the room where he’d left his mom with a needle in her arm and didn’t answer the question. “I waited for you last night,” he said instead. “You could’ve knocked on the office door or texted to let me know you were leaving.”
“Ah, Drew, you know how it is. Crazy night. Those girls were a lot of fun. Maybe too much fun. Hope there’s no reminder of the night nine months from now. I wouldn’t want to get tied down to being a daddy. Am I right?”
He pulled the phone away from his ear, feeling suddenly nauseated. “Yeah, it would suck to be a dad,” he said sarcastically. His comment hit the mark, and his dad was silent for a second before giving a forced chuckle.
“Drew. I didn’t mean anything against you. You know you’re my best pal.”
“I know, Dad, but the thing is, you were so busy being my pal, you were never my dad long enough to show up at back to school nights or my soccer games. Did it ever occur to you that I needed a dad, not another friend?”
Another long silence.
“What’s bringing the guilt trip on? Come on, Drew, don’t be a pain in the ass.”
“Dad, I have to go. I’m busy being an adult. Call if you need something.” For the first time ever, he hung up on his father and felt no guilt. He headed back inside and spent the next two hours chatting about everything and nothing with his mother.
He kept a calm outward façade, but inside, he was reeling. His entire worldview had shifted and done a cartwheel in the last twenty-four hours. His father, his hero, had had the curtain pulled back on him, and Drew wasn’t sure he liked or respected the man revealed.
What did that mean for him, when he’d spent most of his adult life modeling himself and his goals on tiny bits of wisdom doled out by his father during Christmas and summer breaks? He’d taken his father’s word as gospel, because what ten-year-old boy wouldn’t? But as an adult he needed to find a new role model and draw a new map.
Hopefully it’d be a map that led to Olivia.
Olivia sat on Drew’s sofa waiting for them to get back from dialysis. It was her day off, and she could think of a few errands and other things to do, but mostly she wanted to speak with Drew. Their first date, or whatever it could be called, hadn’t gone how she’d hoped. First there’d been the unwelcome reminder of her slutty past, and then Drew had flirted with other women the moment she’d left. It was not an auspicious start to any kind of relationship. If she ev
en wanted a relationship with him, and she wasn’t sure she did.
Oh hell, who was she kidding? Drew was the most interesting man she’d met in a long time—maybe ever, and she wanted to get to know him better.
The apartment door started to open and she jumped, ready to go help Drew with Karen. The smile Drew gave her when he spotted her was worth giving up her errands. Yep, she liked him.
“Olivia, what are you doing here? Isn’t it your day off?” Karen asked.
“Yes, but I wanted to check in that all went well.”
Karen gave her a strange look. “Drew was great. All the nurses are in love with him. No offense to you, but they’re hoping he’ll be back next time.”
She laughed. “They have good taste.”
Karen beamed then yawned. “I’m going to go lie down.”
Both she and Drew started to assist her, but she waved them off. “I can get to my bed alone.”
When they were alone, Drew looked at her. “What are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you, but don’t you have a lot of stuff to do on your day off?”
“Yes, but I wanted to see you more. I thought we needed to talk in person. No texting.”
He smiled and took her hand to go sit on the couch. She curled her knees up and faced him where he was sitting a foot from her, also turned at a ninety-degree angle to the backrest.
“I’m sorry about last night,” he said.
“Me too.”
He frowned. “What are you sorry for?”
“Those guys…”
He put a hand on her thigh. “We’ll get to that. I meant I was sorry that Selina grabbed my phone and you got the selfie.”
She raised a brow. “Selina?”
“Jewelry artist who wants to sell her stuff at Amy and Cat’s store. She wanted to be sure I wouldn’t forget I promised to hook them up.”
She felt infinitely better, and her belly relaxed when she hadn’t realized she’d been holding it clenched. “As long as that’s the only hook-up,” she said, teasing.
