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Having the elegant, expensive car waiting for him was the kind of ribbing he and I did to each other all the time. We’d been friends most of our lives, since well before I’d built up the company and racked up the millions in my bank account. Knowing me before my success meant he got to make fun of me for becoming one of those rich guys who didn’t know how to do anything for himself. He knew that wasn’t the case, but it meant I could in turn make fun of him for being one of the common class or make him uncomfortable by putting him in fussy situations like the hired car. It had been a long time since we’d seen each other, so it felt good to get back to the usual routine.
I was fully expecting some kind of joke in return that night, and I looked forward to catching up with him. Cole’s situation was one of the reasons I felt so much compassion toward Merry’s brother and wanted to do anything I could to help him. Like Brandon, Cole had recently gone through a divorce. It was pretty brutal, and by the time it was over, he was a shell of his former self. I tried everything I could think of to help him pull through and get back to the person he used to be, but that was something he had to do on his own. It was only a few weeks after the divorce was finalized when he came to me and said he was going to Tibet for six months.
Of course, the first thing I did was ask him why on Earth he would do something like that. He told me it was to get himself back. Those were his exact words. I promptly joked I thought his ex-wife got him in the divorce just like she got everything else. In retrospect, that probably wasn’t the best thing for me to say. But he was decent enough to force a laugh, say that wasn’t too far from the truth, and admit he felt like he just needed some time away from his normal life to figure out who he was again. He and his wife were high school sweethearts, and it was easy to see he didn’t really know who he was as a person without her alongside him.
As soon as I opened my door and saw him standing on the porch, though, I could see he was back. There was a sparkle in his eyes that hadn’t been there in a long time, even well before they filed for divorce. He was skinnier, but he looked happier and more at peace. His face broke out in a huge grin, and he reached out to pull me in a hug, pounding me on the back a few times.
“I missed you,” I told him. “It’s so good to see you man.”
“It’s so good to see you, too,” he told me. “Nice trick with the driver last night. I told him to charge a five-hundred-dollar tip to whatever payment method you used.”
I laughed.
“Fair enough. Come on in. Are you hungry?” I asked.
He followed me inside and let out an exasperated sound.
“Everybody is asking me if I’m hungry,” he said. “I went to see my mom this morning, and the first thing she said was ‘are you hungry?’ Then I stopped by my sister’s house, and she asked if I was hungry. Is that some sort of new conventional greeting that’s spread around the country and I missed it while I was gone?”
“No, it’s just your skinny ass looks like it needs a burger or two,” I told him.
“Yeah, probably,” he said. “Turns out Tibet is not all that big on fast-food restaurants. Not a whole lot of pizza joints, either.”
I laughed again. “Good to know you did thorough research before going on your spirit quest.”
He sat down on one of the tall stools at my kitchen island, and I took out a plate of cheese and sausage I liked to keep in the refrigerator to snack on. Adding a box of crackers, I leaned on the other side of the counter and we dug in.
“So, what are we doing tonight?” he asked after we spent a while catching up and swapping stories about the six months we’d been apart.
“Actually, I did have an idea. How do you feel about going to a bar for a couple of drinks?” I asked.
“Sounds good. Are you meeting the crew up there?”
“Not exactly,” I told him. “Actually, we were invited by a new employee. Her brother just got hired in to, so she wanted to celebrate. She’s bringing a couple of people, and I told her we might stop by. But we don’t have to if it doesn’t sound like something you want to do.”
