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“As a man I love?” I teased her.
“Eventually. Maybe. I meant as a man. Nothing more, nothing less. Give him and what you’re feeling a chance, even if you don’t want to admit that you do.”
“Thanks for the advice. On that note. I need to get going or I’m going to be late for my date with Bash.”
“Was that the point?”
“No. I honestly came to see how you were doing and I can see you’re fine. I wasn’t expecting the third degree but thank you. I think. Good luck with the move and we should have drinks soon to celebrate,” I said as I walked towards the door.
“Sounds like a plan. You better tell me how the evening goes with Bash,” she said.
“Will do,” I said and walked out of her office. Though I tried not to think about how I thought more about Mac than Bash as I did.
Chapter 3
Mac
It was unusual for my father to choose to have dinner at The East, much less with just me in the middle of the week. It was an upscale restaurant on the Upper West Side, decorated in soft browns and yellows with leather seats lining the walls. The soft glow of the candles on the tables and a few strategically placed lights along the high ceilings were the only illumination in the restaurant. It was a place that was known for seeing and being seen. The rumor was that many business deals were made or broken in the restaurant, and it was the go-to place for the highest of rollers in the city, something that my father had never been big on. It wasn’t his normal fare and when he asked to meet him there for dinner, it made me think something was wrong.
Recently, my father had taken a step back from the day to day running of our family’s company and handed it off to my brother, Walker. A role he had been groomed to take over for most of his life. It was a position he had wanted since he was a child and one that I had been more than happy for him to have.
Just because my father had stepped back didn’t mean he wasn’t very involved in the company and what was going on. The fact that he invited me to dinner, without his wife, in the middle of the week, made me think that there was something serious he wanted to talk about.
If he had, I wouldn't have heard it, I couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying, all I could think about was Hope and seeing her again. It had been months since we had bumped into each other, or at least I had made sure we bumped into each other, at the Museum of Modern Art gala event. I had been fortunate she was involved in a lot of the same charities that my family was, and I went to the events if I knew she might be there. Bailey, my sister, was more into philanthropic work, but I was happy to lend a face to the charities and make our family look good, especially if it gave me a chance to see Hope.
I don’t know why it surprised me to see her in Morgan’s office. I knew they were friends. Walker would mention Hope and Morgan getting together and knew they were close. I just had never seen Hope in Morgan’s office until that day. I was saddened to think that Morgan wasn’t going to be at the office anymore so the chances of me running into Hope were fewer.
Not that it mattered, I was too old, too set in my ways for her. She was a good eight years younger than me and never looked at me twice. I could tell she didn’t see me as anything more than a mentor, a man who could help guide her in her college career, nothing more.
If she were to be with a man, she would need someone younger and more adventurous than me. I didn’t have the same drive as my brother, Walker, to be the best in everything, nor was I a player like my brother JD. I had done well in high school, but that was about it. I had gone to work for my family’s business because I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I enjoyed the challenge and the constant change that came along with running our public relations department. I was a man who liked to go to work before anyone else, go to bed early, and had a strong belief in right and wrong. In a word, I was boring and I knew it.
I thought about asking her out, seeing if she wanted to get dinner, a drink, or even go to one of the Broadway plays she was so fond of, but I never got up the nerve. We had been friends for a while and I knew we would always stay that way, even if I longed to have something more.
“What do you think about that?” my father asked me.
“I’m sure that will be fine,” I said absentmindedly.
“Good. I’m sure Bailey will be pleased to know she will inherit everything when your mother and I are gone,” my father said.
“What? Wait. What are you talking about? Are you sick? Is Mom? I thought her heart was doing fine,” I said.
“Now I have your attention, wonderful. May I say it does my heart good to know that your first concern was for your mother and my well-being, not where all the money would go,” he said.
“Money has never mattered to me, nor the rest of my siblings. It’s easy for me to say when we grew up with so much of it. You and Mom made sure that family, loyalty, love, commitment, being good people, doing right by others was what mattered, not how much money we had in the bank account. That’s the legacy you’ll leave behind, not the money. It does help us to do all those other things,” I said.
“It doesn’t hurt, but I’m glad to know that isn’t all you care about.”
“Were you worried that it was?” I asked.
“I’m worried about where your head is, as it’s obviously not here. What’s going on?” he asked.
“Nothing. Sorry. What were you talking about?”
“Your sister and how well she and Luke are doing and how well Walker and Morgan seem to be, I’m one happy and proud father.”
“Is this why you had me meet you for dinner? You want to discuss my love life?” I asked, understanding where he was going with his comments.
“Or lack thereof,” he added.
