3. Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Remi
I felt like I kicked a puppy. She hid it well, but I saw the hurt when I didn't back down and told her not to fuck my father, ever. Why did I say that? I was an asshole.
"Remi?"
I winced when I heard my father as I was walking down the hall from Echo's lab. "Dad."
"Son. You came to see me?" My father was in his late fifties and had a full head of hair, a great sense of humor, a fit body, and more money than any of us could ever spend. The Drake family money itself would have been enough, but then he'd gone and made a whole lot more with GeneVerse.
He and my mother had been married for nearly three decades. For the past couple of years, it was obvious something was off between them. I wondered if my father was having an affair. Finding out he’d given Echo a Rolex—where else was my mind supposed to go?
"Not really. Echo left her watch at Paint the Town Red over the weekend when she came for Lani's party. I was just returning it."
Dad put his arm around me. "The Rolex?"
I stiffened. "Yeah."
"Damn, must've been some party because I know she takes care of it like her life depends on it."
"She said you gave it to her."
"Yeah, I did. Do you have some time for me now?" When I nodded, he continued, "I wanted to talk to you about Tommy and Lani."
We took the elevator to my father's office, and I looked around at the familiar space. I'd come here often as a kid and as a teenager. It had been a while, though.
"Why did you give Echo a Rolex, Dad?" I had to know.
He grinned. "The watch isn't all that expensive, but it is sentimental. Dr. Green gave it to me when I got my PhD. I've seen Echo grow up and work hard despite her circumstances. You know, I've been mentoring her the best I could over the years. Neither you nor Lani are into biotechnology, so I felt I should give it to Echo. Dr. Green would've approved."
My father's mentor had passed a few years ago, and I knew he had highly respected Dr. Green. No way he'd give that watch to someone he was fucking.
"Is she working out well at GeneVerse?" I asked, wanting to know if she was any good or a loser professionally as she was personally in social settings.
" Well might be too mild a word," Dad chuckled. "She's a star, Remi. Her new boss, our head of the Gene Therapy Lab, Dr. Martin Andersen, kisses the floor she walks on. She's hardworking and brilliant; so damn smart. This girl is going to do great things, and GeneVerse is going to have the patents for it."
Nah! He wasn't fucking her. He had that same look on his face that he got when he talked about my success. I'd been way off, but I'd known that deep down even when I was spewing my garbage at Echo.
"You wanted to talk to me about Lani and Tommy?" I reminded him, ignoring the guilt of hurting Echo.
He groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "Drink?"
I looked at my watch; it was six in the evening, so it was happy hour in Memphis. My watch was not a Rolex but a Philip Patek, which I'd inherited from my uncle Austin Drake, music producer extraordinaire and my mentor. He'd put a lot of blues musicians on the map. He was still one of my closest friends despite being my uncle. He'd helped me come up with a plan for my nightclub, helped me get financing, and hired the right people to run the business. Same with the restaurants. He'd sold his blues bar on Beale Street years ago, but he knew how to turn a profit in the difficult hospitality industry, and he'd taught me well.
"If you have a beer," I agreed.
Dad found two beers in a minifridge in the kitchen area of his office. He handed one to me and then sat in his office chair, his feet up on the table.
"I'm worried about Tommy and Lani getting married," he said, surprising me.
"Come on, Dad, y'all knew this would happen."
He waved a hand. "It's the timing of it. You know I hired Lani in the marketing department. Her manager tells me she barely does any work. She's cruising, and the truth is that if her last name weren't Drake, she'd be fired by now."
I shrugged. "Lani is still growing up and—"
"Lani is the same age as Echo, Remi, just three years younger than you. What were you doing when you were her age?" He drank some beer. " I spoke to Bill, and he has the same problem with Tommy."
Bill Spalding, Tommy's father, was a self-made man. He'd built a paper company out of nothing. I had enormous respect for him. Bill's older son, Trey, was the heir apparent. He was a smart, charismatic, and hardworking man. He was the opposite of Tommy—who was spoiled like Lani.
"Y'all allowed Lani and Tommy to do whatever the hell they wanted while they were growing up, and now you're wonderin' why they're not serious about work?"
Lani had no pressures as a child. I did. As the heir apparent to the Drake family fortune and legacy, I was expected to do something with my life and not just live off said fortune and legacy. It had been the same for Dad.
"You know it wasn't me," he replied quietly.
He was right. It was our mother who was responsible for Lani turning out as she had. Sierra Drake cared about appearances and money, and her goal was to make sure that everything appeared like it was perfect, even if it wasn't. It was a callous thing to think, but Lani was as vapid as Mama—and as superficial as well. I loved them both, but there was no denying that how they lived their lives was to show off the family money.
I'd never known Dad to ever say anything bad about my mother, no matter how much she aggravated him with her pettiness or blamed him for things he had no control over. There were times I worried he'd leave her. I didn't want my parents to split up. I'd worry about my mother without my father. Mama wouldn't be able to take care of herself. Lani would be crushed, and she'd take Mama's side, and I'd have to take Dad's. It would be a clusterfuck.
"I don't know what to say, Dad. You gave Lani a nepo job. You can't expect her to do any real work, can you?"
"You're right," Dad conceded. He touched the condensation around his beer bottle. "What's the rush to get married? She's not pregnant, is she?"
"No, she isn't." At least, I didn't think so. "Don't worry so much about Lani. She's probably going to quit her job in the next few days, saying she needs to focus all her energy on the wedding."
My father groaned. "Fuckin' hell but that's gonna be a circus, ain't it?"
"Yeah," I sympathized with the man. I could steer clear of Lani and Mama through them playing bridezilla and mother of bridezilla, but Dad had to live with his wife and probably Lani, for the most part, since mother and daughter would resent the hell out of each other as they prepped for the wedding. Despite feeling stifled by Mama, I knew that Lani wouldn't dream of managing her wedding on her own—which was a good thing because she'd fuck it up, considering how lazy she was.
"What kind of marriage will these two have?" he mused. "Neither of them has a job they take seriously. I guess Lani at least has a passion for buying brand names, which, thankfully, her husband will be able afford. But living without purpose like that is going to hurt them both in the short and long term."
I didn't disagree with him. Eventually, if he wasn’t already, Tommy would wander. He was the type who couldn’t help himself. Lani would lose her mind, and they’d end up with the same kind of marriage so many in our social set had—a lifeless, in-limbo relationship, maintained for appearances while waiting for someone to finally make a decision about something.
"It's their business, Dad." I rose. "They're grownups. You just need to pay for the wedding."
He laughed. He got on his feet and came to me. He gave me a hug and said what he always did: "I love you, son."
"I love you, too, Dad."
"See you tonight at dinner?"
I nodded.
"Good. Good. That'll make your mama happy."
He looked worried about something, I thought as I got into my car, aware that there were only a few cars left in the company parking lot this late in the evening. One of them was Echo's BMW.
I sighed when I looked at it. I didn't have the energy (or the inclination) to go in and talk to Echo—make up for being an asshole—also, I cajoled myself that this was a good thing. Echo would get over her crush on me and move the fuck on.
I soon forgot about Echo when I reached my parents' house an hour later in Germantown to find a very upset Lani.
"Now what?" I asked, not really wanting to know.
It was a lovely spring day, and my mother had arranged for us to have dinner in the garden under the fairy lights and an abundance of mosquito-repelling candles. The table was set for eight, which meant that Mama had invited some others as she usually did.
"Tommy is being horrible," Lani wailed.
I frowned and looked at my father, who merely shrugged.
"How?" I sat down on a chair across from her. My mother was holding her hand and stroking her hair, looking just as inconsolable as my sister.
"I want a destination wedding, and Tommy says we have to get married in Memphis. I just…," she sobbed.
I looked at my father again, who just shook his head as if saying, "I told you so."
"You know she's always had her heart set on marrying in Italy." My mother looked just as sad as my sister. "I mean, I don't know what Tommy's problem is since we're paying for the wedding."
"Italy?" I frowned. I was losing the plot of this story, that was for sure.
"In Tuscany," my sister said as if everyone should know what she was talking about. "Amber Hansen had her wedding in France. I want mine in Italy."
"Y'all know these are first-world problems, don't ya?" I got up, feeling a little disgusted with both my sister and mother . How was this a crisis that warranted tears ?
"Stop it, Remi," my mother scolded, "show some compassion."
"I think I can do that better after a drink," I muttered. "Dad?"
My father's eyes twinkled with amusement. We went to his office, where he had a bar.
"Who else is coming for dinner tonight?" It was a Monday night, for God's sake.
"Your girlfriend and her parents," Dad informed me. "And, of course, Tommy, who's on their shitlist."
"Tuscany?"
My father chuckled. "I have no fuckin' idea, Remi. I leave these things to your mama. And she does what she wants."
Okay, maybe I was imagining things, but something was off in the way Dad was talking about Mama—like he was unhappy, almost resigned. Damn it! Was he having an affair? That would explain so much. My mother seesawed between being bitchy and overly sweet these days. I was no psychologist, but something was way off.
"I'm sure Tommy wants as little to do with the wedding hoopla as possible." I poured Dad and me a finger of George Dickel's 17-Year Reserve, our favorite whiskey.
"Wonder where Marina wants to get married." My father toasted me.
I gaped at him. "Why would you say that?"
My father frowned. "Son, it sounds like you're pretty serious about her. Your mother and Kiki Sims have been talking about engagement parties this fall."
"Engagement?" I almost choked on the whiskey I'd taken a small sip of. "What the fuck, Dad?"
"You're not serious about this girl?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Is there a rush?"
"Not for me. But for Marina and your mother? I think so." Dad again sounded like he'd given up and didn't care what was happening.
Is this what married life was like? Boredom sprinkled with some excitement in the form of engagements and weddings.
"I'm not ready to marry anyone," I announced.
"Hey, don't tell me; tell your mama." Dad, who was sitting on a leather couch, waved a hand toward the window where the two were gossiping. "Oh, and also inform your girlfriend."
"I don't understand what's the big hurry," I grumbled.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Is she pregnant?"
I now wanted to throw up. The who? The what? The…what the fuck?
"No. I wrap it up, Dad, and she's on the pill."
"You sure about that?" He wasn't teasing; he was serious as fuck.
I knew my parents got married when my mother was pregnant with me. I'd never thought about it because they'd been dating for two years before that, but now I wondered if Dad had actually wanted to marry her. They didn't have much in common. My father liked to read medical journals and clinical studies, while my mother flipped through pages of Vogue. He liked to spend his time hiking, and my mother preferred the spa. He didn't like parties; she lived for them.
The truth was that I was more like Dad than Mama. I wasn't as much of an introvert as him, but I needed my me time and quiet space. Working in the business that I did, which was inherently a people-heavy one, I liked to spend my days off hiking or taking my bike and going on a long ride. Since I started dating Marina a few months ago—actually, it had been eight months and way too fucking soon for her to even think of engagement rings and wedding destinations—I was spending more and more of my off-and-on days with her and her friends, which included my sister at my night club or one of the Beale Street bars.
I was thinking about going away for a few days to the Smoky Mountains and just sitting in the cabin and staring at the wide-open spaces. Marina had lost her shit when I suggested it—especially since the family cabin was barebones. I knew she would, which was perfect for me because I needed some alone time.
I liked Marina. I probably even loved her. I knew she suited me. She'd make a good Mrs. Drake, almost as good as my mother. But then I looked at Dad drinking slowly, looking forlorn, and I wondered if it maybe was folly to marry someone with whom I'd have the same marriage my parents did.