Page 108 of Taking Turns

“Shh,” I hush her as we walk. “You don’t need to make excuses for him to me, Chella. I’ll handle this.”

We’re seated at a table for four next to a window and settle in, handing our coats over to the wait staff, who are over-eager to please the senator. His reputation for being an asshole precedes him.

After the server tells us the specials, we look at the menu in silence. I reach under the table and grab Chella’s hand.

She shots me a look of panic and shakes her head, mouthing, Stop it, at me.

But I shoot her a lopsided grin that says I’m absolutely not interested in backing down from this one.

“So,” Walcott asks, once we’ve ordered. “What do you do, Mr. Baldwin?”

“Dad.” Chella laughs. “Smith Baldwin?” she asks him, incredulous that he doesn’t know who I am.

“I’m talking to your friend, Marcella. I’m sure he can speak for himself?” He gives her a glare so ominous, I feel her wilt next to me.

I squeeze her hand harder. She doesn’t squeeze back.

“Nothing,” I say, answering his question.

“Excuse me?” her stunned father replies.

“I don’t do anything, Senator. I don’t have a job.”

He has the smuggest look on his face when he turns to Chella with raised eyebrows. “Not exactly cream of the crop, is he?”

“Actually, Senator Walcott, I am the cream of the crop. I don’t have a job because I’m richer than God, sir. I’m worth forty-seven billion dollars, to be exact. And my mission in life is to give it all away.”

“Really?” Chella asks, turning away from her father and towards me.

“Really,” I say, taking time out from the Mexican standoff her father and I are having to smile at her bewildered face. “It never came up.” I shrug. “So I didn’t bother mentioning it.”

“Giving it away?” her father asks, his temper tempered. “What does that mean?”

“Well,” I say, scratching the stubble on my face that I forgot to shave. “I don’t have a job because I don’t have time for one. I spend my days looking for people who need help. Sometimes that’s a corporation that I feel can make a difference. Sometimes it’s a non-profit. Sometimes it’s just a single mother who needs a hand up. You see, I give out one point six billion dollars every year and it’s not as easy as it sounds to spend that much money, Senator. At least for private-sector people like myself. I’m sure you government types could find a good war to spend that on, but that’s a conversation for another night.”

I look over at Chella. Her mouth is hanging open. I think I just really fucked that up. I’m about to apologize to her when she says, “I had no idea, Smith.”

Oh. Well, maybe she’s impressed. Maybe I’m not the dick she thought I was.

“No,” I say, “I don’t like to talk about it much. But since you asked, Senator, let me just be a little more thorough with my explanation. You see, when my parents died and left me with all this money, I had some idea what it might do to me.”

“Do to you?” the senator asks, frowning.

“Corrupt me, sir. Turn me into someone people don’t like.”

Like you, I think. But then I take it back, even though I didn’t say it. Because he did something right. He helped create Chella. And she’s as sweet as they come, even with that dirty, dark side she’s trying to hide. I know there’s more to her life, her past, and her motives for being with me and my friends, but I don’t care. It’s just not a factor in how I feel about her as a person.

She likes the dark stuff, just like me. Just like Bric. Just like Quin. But we’re not bad people. None of us. And neither is she.

“So I decided back when I was eighteen that I would not own anything.”

“Own…” The senator is really struggling now. “What does that mean? Surely you own things, Baldwin.”

“No,” I say calmly. “I don’t, actually. I live with friends, which is why I’m living with Chella right now. I don’t own a house, or a car, or even these clothes on my back. I haven’t purchased something for myself in over a decade. It took me a while to get the hang of it, I’ll admit that. Some nights I had no friends who’d let me sleep over or feed me. Or let me have one of their hoodies or coats on a cold night. So I’d give in and get a hotel room, order room service and buy some new clothes. But each time I failed, Senator, I’d spend the next week or two feeling guilty. And I’d try harder the next round. I’ve made it my mission in life not to spend a single dime of money on myself. My money wasn’t meant to better me, sir. It was meant to help others. So that’s what I do with it. I give it away.”

“Bric,” Chella says in a soft voice. “And Quin. They’re the ones who stuck by you, weren’t they?”

I nod my head.