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“I’m sorry. Part of it was embarrassment for being so stupid. You were there for me, like always, and the least I could have done was not disappear on you.”
“You’re allowed. This time. Let’s not make a habit of it.” And just like that, we were good again.
We talked for a few hours. It was good to reconnect with Annie. Besides my desperate message for help, we hadn’t hung out or spoken since I dropped her at the airport after graduation in California. It was good to catch up. Even if she finally felt comfortable enough to give me crap about Preston.
Chapter 6
Sterling
* * *
Dinner at the cigar bar was exactly what the doctor ordered. They had the best porterhouse on this side of the coast, in my opinion. I had not jumped on board with the plant-based craze yet, and a big hunk of red meat still soothed my soul at the end of a long day. My back-to-back meetings had gone longer than expected. One was with a new client who was skittish about spending so much money on rebranding. It was hard to get the old guard at some of the companies I dealt with here in Charleston to understand the value of solid branding and how heavily we relied on social media platforms. The days of simple press releases and a solid audience base no longer guaranteed success or profits.
The second client was an old one who had given me my start by working with me as a new graduate. I now handled aspects of their business from coast to coast. Those meetings always went long, which was why I tried never to schedule them late in the day. Because another part of being an old school business man was asking questions about every bit of minutia of whatever we were working on. Johnson liked everything broken down into bite-sized pieces and then put back together in front of him. As another loyal and original customer, I didn’t mind at all. I just wouldn’t have scheduled our meeting after one with Marshall.
Billy and I were on our second cognac when my cell phone vibrated across the glass- topped coffee table between us in the lounge. We both had at least twenty ounces of red meat in our bellies, plus all the fixings of a fine steak dinner. Ties were long discarded, phones sat on the table, smoke from our Davidoff Aniversario Series billowed above our heads.
“It’s nearly eight. Who’s calling you at this hour?” Billy asked.
“Probably Marshall or Johnson with more questions. I’m either doing too much, not doing enough, or doing it in the wrong places. Ignore it. I plan to,” I replied. I added a smoke ring to the cloud above us. It was impressive.
“My compulsive side would never give me peace. I would have to look. That’s why I always answer when you call me at ridiculous hours.” Billy bugged his eyes out and tilted his head toward the phone, now sliding from the vibrations closer to his side.
“So, now if I don’t answer it, I’m part of what’s stealing your peace?” You had to laugh at Billy. Sometimes he was nuts for no reason.
I snatched up my phone and opened it with the facial recognition software that still freaked me out. One hand held my stick and the other scrolled through all the new messages that had come through. I stopped at the one written in youthful code and reread it for meaning.
sry 4 my attitude
lets meet 4 lunch 2mrw
not @ the club
hayes
Well, that was an unexpected turn of events. When I looked up, Billy had put down his stick and his sniffer.
“What?” I asked him, not understanding the way he was staring at me.
“Good message?” His grown ass waggled his eyebrows at me.
I let out a chuckle. It would seem that my face was giving away quite a bit. “The good part can’t be qualified yet, but it is a pleasant surprise.”
“Now I know it’s not from either of those two codgers. Who was it? Cute boy from the club last month? Cute boy from the club this month?”
Leaning closer, I put down my phone, stick, and glass as well. Rarely did we talk about the clubs we went to in Atlanta or Charlotte. The reason I only went to the gay bars and nightclubs there was because it was less likely I’d run into someone from my everyday life, or God forbid, my sister’s or my father’s life.
“Lower your voice. Trust me, I didn’t meet anyone on either of those nights worth giving them my phone number for a follow-up or repeat event.”
“Then what, or rather who, is it? Spill it. My Sterling Spidey senses are tingling all over.”
“It’s Annabelle’s son, Hayes. I met him today at the meeting with the ladies. For some reason, she insisted he come with her. Trust me, he was not happy about it. Actually, he was surly and petulant for most of the meeting.”
“And surly and petulant were real turn-ons for you, huh? Did you feel like giving a few attitude-adjusting swats to a delectable backside?” Billy leaned back in his chair, waiting for me to get on with it.
“Man, stop it. That heavy-handed routine is more your style. I’m more into the art of gentle persuasion and enticing rewards. Anyway, every once in a while, when I looked up, I would catch him watching me with this mischievous little grin on his face and a sly look in his eyes. It was like seeing him figure out a secret you wanted to be let in on.”
“Suffice to say, he was easy on the eyes?”
