He laughedwith his mouth full.
“Brother, life’s too short for rabbit food. Gotta bulk up, right?” He flexed his arm enough to make me roll my eyes. “Besides, we’re drinking tonight, remember? A foundation needs to be laid before I make myself sick.”
“No,” I stabbed at my own breakfast and corrected him. “You’re drinking tonight. I just wanna do this event and go the fuck home.”
Dillon chuckled, unfazed.
He hadn’t changed a damn bit. Almost thirty years of knowing this man, and he still had the same laugh and the same cocky grin.
I’d been dealing with it since foster care, and even though we spent the majority of the years living on opposite coasts—withme buried in work back in Napa and him setting up shop in New York—somehow, every time we sat down together it felt like no time had passed at all.
“Well, ain’t you in a bad mood,” He grinned wider, chewing slowly. “It ain’t no liquor launch party without a bit of drinking, Wolf.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Pretty sure the guests are supposed to be the ones drinking. Not you, fool.”
“Fuck, I’m paying for the shit, might as well enjoy it.” Dillon shrugged, then pointed at me with his fork. “Speaking of enjoyment, you ready for tonight? Everybody and their mama’s showing up.”
I shrugged.
“Everybody and their mama’s already drinking our wine,” I shot back. “Tonight is just an excuse for you to drag me out of my house.”
Dillon laughed again. “Man, only you can turn a huge milestone like this into an inconvenience. Twenty-five years in business celebrated by the launch of a new wine, a wine you curated, and you still would rather be in bed rubbing your feet together.”
“Correction,” I interjected. “I would rather be in my office, going over the cost to host an event like this. It’s too much, Dee.”
He waved it off. “It’s not enough, we’re celebrating. We deserve it.”—Debatable—“If this new wine is a success like I know it’s gonna be, we won’t have to worry about money issues for a long time.”
I dropped my fork. “And if it isn’t?”
Dillon sighed. “Seriously man. What has you in such a negative mood today?”
I honestly didn’t know.
After my night with Desire, I woke up kinda refreshed. I shaved. I worked out. I even took advantage of that massage setting in the tub.
But for some reason, I had a feeling in my gut that tonight would be a disaster. The new wine may not be the saving grace we hoped it would be.
“Dee. We gotta talk about what we’re gonna do if this doesn’t work out. We can’t just?—”
“Wolf.”
He wiped his mouth and looked at me.
“The wine is good. The launch will be successful. We are okay. We are not going to go bankrupt and we’re not laying off anyone. Alright?”
I wanted to believe him. “How do you know?”
“Because,” he went back to eating. “It just has to work out for us. The universe doesn’t reward bad energy, so cut that ‘what if’ shit out. It’s bumming me the fuck out.”
“It’s hard to stay positive when our situation is this dire.”
“Yeah right. Your miserable ass just likes to wallow. When was the last time you even did something for fun? Just to take your mind off things?”
Tuh.
I picked up my glass and smirked into it before taking a sip.
Dillon leaned back in his chair, watching me.
