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His eyes got wider, and I could see when he put the pieces together. I didn’t expect people to lead with someone’s sexuality, but it did seem like something one of the ladies would have mentioned to him. Especially Annabelle, considering how much about his own life she’d shared with me. Nothing in his body language said he was put off. A little shocked, but not put off. So far so good.
“Understood. Full disclosure, ladies don’t do it for me either. Before you worry, my mother knows. Everyone knows. I was thirteen when I came out. Or, rather, I told my mom. I wasn’t making posters and hanging them all over town, but once puberty kicked in, I learned fast what got me excited about the project.”
“The project? Is that code for sex?”
“Bruh, I’m twenty-two years old. Everything is a code for sex.”
“Then here’s to working on more than a few projects together.”
“Now, that was definitely a version of flirting.”
“Oh, good, that means I did it right. Let’s go. I don’t want them to come looking for us. I’ll let them know we’ll be working together and that I will deal with switching you out with the current designer.”
Hayes stood up and I couldn’t resist putting my hand on the small of his back to guide him back to the room. He didn’t flinch at my touch even though I knew it was forward and presumptuous as hell to put my hands anywhere on him.
“Is letting the designer go going to create business problems for you? I mean taking work from him.”
“Not at all. He was fitting the event work into his very booked schedule. This is why I know he won’t be able to deal with getting the photos in later than we discussed. Besides, he’s a friend and I give him plenty of work.”
I opened the door and sent Hayes in ahead of me. Annabelle was on her feet in an instant. I made sure to shut down any attack she was about to launch his way.
“Ladies, my apologies. Hayes and I were getting to know one another a bit. I’m looking forward to working with him and I know he’ll bring wonderful and youthful ideas to the table. I think it was a brilliant idea, Ms. Annabelle. I’m so happy you suggested it. I do need to run out now. The rest of the day awaits.”
Hayes’s eyes did that widening thing I’d started to notice in our brief time together and his mother was silently gasping for air like a fish out of water. Good. It was hard to stun any of these women into actual silence. I pulled a business card from my wallet and scribbled my personal cell on the back. The room stayed quiet as I gathered my things. When I got to the door, I held my hand out with the card to Hayes. He stepped forward to take it and locked eyes with me for the quickest moment. Yeah, I was more interested in this project now than I was when our meeting started.
“I’ll be in touch with updates and to schedule our next meeting, ladies. Hayes.”
As I walked out the door, I heard him say, “Nice to meet you, Sterling.”
I wasn’t in my car for three minutes before my phone started ringing in the console. When the engine turned over, I let the Bluetooth switch on before I answered. As soon as I heard his voice, deep regret at not checking the caller ID before picking up kicked in. My best friend was usually someone I wanted to talk to all the time, except when I had to let him know bad news regarding work. Firing him from the gala project fell under the realm of bad news. What I’d told Hayes was true, the designer, Billy, did have multiple projects and not doing the gala wouldn’t be a financial hardship, but he would still give me shit for begging him to fit us into his packed schedule, guilting him into working with a bunch of little old ladies, and then taking it all back because we couldn’t do exactly what we’d agreed to do.
“Billy, how’s it going, brother?”
“What took you so long to answer? I thought you weren’t going into the office until much later today. Did something come up?”
Billy was always going a million miles an hour. His energy had been off the charts from the first day we met in second grade. As a matter of fact, we got in trouble on that first day because my new friend's energizer-bunny persona couldn’t resist the impulse to run behind a butterfly he was determined to catch. The fact that the teacher already blew her whistle to end recess didn’t matter to Billy. He was on a mission, and I was crazy enough to follow because I wanted to see how things worked out. This was still the dynamic of our friendship.
“No. Nothing new. I had a meeting at the Charleston Club with the ladies on the gala planning committee.”
“Oh, no, what do they want to add now? We talked about zero changes, Sterl, I can’t shift on that. The hospital project, hotel opening, and school district rebranding are all on deck and due at about the same time. Favors done for minimum wages cannot take precedence. Okay, maybe if it’s a small enough–”
I had to cut him off. “Take a breath, Billy. I do have news, but it sounds like it will end up being good news for you.”
“That sounds suspiciously convenient. Spill it.”
“That photographer Cass made me hire is as problematic as I knew he would be the moment she asked. He is going to have to reshoot a block of the images we requested. There’s no way we can get everything to you on time. You’re not going to be able to do this project, brother.”
“Wait a minute. Are you fucking firing me from a job you begged me to take? That’s messed up.”
“Billy, come on man, do not make this a big deal. You’re right, I had to beg you to do the gig. You’ve bitched at me from the beginning about not having time. So, you’re off the hook.”
“I’m calling bullshit! You’re not that altruistic, frat, especially when it’s something you wanted. Who’s going to get the work done? You sold it to me like I was the only one who could do it that you could trust. Ah, this is a ploy to get me to push out my schedule, isn’t it? No. Make that guy get his stuff in on time.”
“Billy, that’s not going to happen. He did the work. He just didn’t follow my very explicit instructions. I’ve already wasted time messing with him. So, yeah, I’m making him redo it all. Now, I can’t rush him and still expect him to get it right.”
“I cannot—”
“I’m not asking you to, remember?”
