“I appreciate you putting me up at the resort; it’s been really nice,” I say, and I mean it. I don’t use the services to their full capacity, but it’s nice to have options. Not to mention there is plenty of eye candy around this place.
“Safest, most cost-effective option, my friend. Not to mention the food at this resort is nothing to sneeze at. Didn’t want you to have to worry about any of that stuff—cooking, cleaning, yada yada. Have you liked it? Have you been to one of these places before?”
I shake my head, having just taken a huge bite of my burger.
“Marissa and I love a resort. Great environment for some peace and quiet. Easy to relax here.”
I give him my most agreeable reaction. I don’t spend a lot of time relaxing here, so I’m not sure what he wants me to say. My days start at the gym in the morning, I work all day, and then in the evening, I either swim laps in the pool at the gym or go on a run on the beach, shower, go to sleep, and do it all over again. I’ll visit the hot tub or main pool sometimes, but I’m not a big into “relaxing.”
“You probably don’t even know what downtime is,” Doug says, proving how well he knows me. “You were like that when we played together, too. Everyone would knock off early, and you’d be there late, doing drills,” he continues, light nostalgia in his tone.
I nod because he’s right, but I don’t want to talk about hockey. That’s my other problem with working for Doug; it isn’t just that he and his wife have been tough clients, or that he’s my friend and mixing friends and business is its own beast, but he’s also an old hockey buddy, and that means hockey comes up. A lot.
And I don’t like to talk about hockey.
“Have you guys decided on tile for the upstairs bathrooms yet? We’ll be ready for the tile in the next week or so.”
“We’ve got an appointment—” He glances at his watch. “Actually, I gotta get going in a minute here because we’ve got an appointment at a tile shop nearby to pick out what we want. We’ll tell the shop to get in touch as soon as Marissa has picked out what she likes.”
“Just as long as you know that the longer you take to make decisions, the longer it will take for us to get it done. You’re looking at another month, easily.”
This is me informing, not complaining. The only thing I left behind in Pittsburgh was the room I was staying in at my mom’s house and another failed relationship, although that’s a generous word for what it was. I haven’t had a real relationship in a decade. The only thing I’m looking forward to on the other side of this project is an old house I bought right after moving here. I was already in talks with a realtor before I left, but everything got finalized after I settled here. I’d like to get back to it, but while I’m still waiting on inspection reports, it hasn’t been so bad working in paradise.
“Totally understand. You’ve been so great, man. I really appreciate this.”
Doug wipes his hands and swipes the napkin across his mouth before dropping it on the plate. He gives me a firm handshake and promises to keep me updated on the tile choices.
He’s not even out of my eyesight before my phone rings with a call.
My younger brother.
“Gray, what’s up?”
“You haven’t so much as breathed on the back of my neck for like two weeks. Just checking for a pulse.”
“Just been busy with work,” I say.
“And relaxing. How is resort life?”
“The same as Pittsburgh life with considerably more sand.”
“And gorgeous women in bikinis,” Gray adds.
“Not enough gorgeous women in San Francisco?”
Gray’s been living in San Francisco since he and his roommate dropped out of Stanford after their sophomore year to finish developing the app they’d been working on since they met freshman year. The app is a travel organizer, like a spreadsheet meets a digital notebook or journal, and from all the early feedback he’s gotten, it’s definitely meeting a need in the market.
“Who has time to date?” Gray says. To my knowledge, he’s never had a girlfriend. I’m certainly not going to pressure him into it.
“I wouldn’t know,” I say.
“Aren’t you going to ask me how the app is going?”
“I was getting there,” I say as I start the walk back to my room. “I figured that’s why you were calling.”
“We secured an investor’s meeting for Saturday morning,” he says, barely able to contain his excitement. This will be his third investor meeting in the last six months. So far, I’m the sole investor, but I don’t mind. Supporting Gray while he pursues his dreams is the least I can do after abandoning him to go to college when our lives blew up after I graduated from high school.
“Who takes meetings on Saturdays?”
