“Here. I was going to take on this guest myself, but if you can make this work, the board won’t be able to ignore you.”
I take the file, and the moment my fingers touch the paper, a strange wave of nausea twists my stomach.
Is this a favor? Or is it another test? Either way, it doesn’t feel right.
“I don’t think I can do this.” I let out a long breath as I try to calm that fluttering feeling in my gut. “It feels… wrong. Like cheating. I want to earn this position the right way, not by playing games.”
She gives me an intense, piercing look, like she’s seeing right through me. Just like when I was on the other side of her desk. And shit, did I just question her work ethics? Accuse her of cheating? This is what happens when I don’t think three or four times about my words.
“Yosh, you know I always assign you cases that match your skills, right? This is no exception. Whether it’s luck or timing, it’s yours. Take a look and tell me what you think.”
I open the file and skim through the pages.
“Thomas James McKenna, recovering from a cardiac arrest after cocaine and alcohol abuse. Addiction not yet confirmed. Family describes substance use as problematic.”
I lower the file. “This is heavy, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary for Arcadia. What’s the catch?”
Erin lights a second cigarette, inhaling twice before answering.
“I talked to his brother, Jay. He thinks Tom’s dealing with some unresolved trauma from his past. I did a little digging online, but I couldn’t find anything that really pointed to that.”
“Couldn’t find anything?” I raise a brow. “What do you mean by that?”
“You don’t know him?”
“No. Should I?”
Erin flicks the ash off her cigarette and waves her hand.
“Doesn’t matter. He’s mostly known in Britain and Europe.”
A rustling noise draws our attention to the bushes. An iguana slowly crawls out and finds a spot on the sun-warmed limestone in front of us.
Erin grips my arm.
“You do know Calvin, right? Calvin Smith?”
“You mean Callie Coconut, the DJ? Yeah, I know him.”
How could I possibly forget. I’ll never forgive him for cheating on my best friend Tiffy. He’s also friends with Erin and her husband, Laurent. Which means I run into him at SeaBreeze whenever Erin invites me to their beach club for dinner.
He’s usually drunk when he begs me to ‘put in a good word’ with Tiffy, followed by the inevitable bribery attempt to ‘push a few hot gay boys’ my way.
The audacity. I’ve never needed help with that.
“Here’s the situation,” Erin says. “About fifteen years ago, Calvin played bass in a band called Half Moon Wolves. Tom McKenna was the guitarist, and his brother Jay was the lead singer.”
When Tom was hospitalized a couple of months ago, Calvin recommended our resort to Jay. Now Jay wants me to personally oversee Tom’s care, but I’m assigning him to my best protégé instead.”
Me?
“Am I really your best protégé?”
We head back toward the terrace. In the distance, the church bells of West Cove strike noon.
“Who else would I recommend? Let’s be real, we’ve got solid therapists on our team, but with something this complicated… they’re missing that extra bit of empathy.” She narrows her eyes, holding my gaze.
I get it, Erin. No need to point out my past like you always do.
