18. Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Remi
I didn't know how to deal with the mess I made with Echo, so I got drunk. I spent the weekend at my loft, mostly in a drunken haze. On Monday, I spent part of the day in the gym, burning off the alcohol and the rest of my time working.
That night, I missed her and drank again.
This went on for a week.
In the meantime, Echo had blocked me on her phone and email. Since she wasn't on any social media, I couldn't get in touch with her that way. I hadn't gone to her place. I couldn't stand seeing her as I had a week ago—broken. Her pain had devastated me.
And it's always about you, isn't it, Remi? It hurts you to be near her, so you drink. Fucker!
I had many regrets. But what the fuck were they worth? I couldn't do much with them.
"Son, are you sick?" My father asked when I showed up for Sunday lunch after a night of drinking. I'd barely rolled out of bed and hauled my ass into the shower. Then, I had taken an Uber over because I was sure my blood alcohol levels weren't legal.
"I'm fine," I muttered.
Lani and Tommy were still together, I noticed, because they were cooing at Mama's Sunday lunch table.
I hadn't seen Lani, Marina, or any of them since that night. They'd been at the club Thursday and Friday night, but I'd ignored them. The club was open Thursday through Sunday, and I spent my time there during those days. The restaurants were open Tuesday through Sunday, so I spent a day a week at each restaurant. The restaurants had capable managers, and I just went to look at the paperwork and for weekly meetings where we discussed things like menu changes, cover percentages, and other business.
The nightclub was newer and still had a lot of growing pains, so my time there was busy putting out fires. I could delegate, but the past week I hadn't. I didn't want to spend time partying or socializing. I wanted to work and hide .
"Remi is busy all the time," Lani chirped. "He doesn't even hang out with us at the club."
"You could've shaved at least," my mother reproached.
I thanked Lola, who served us lunch and made sure our glasses were filled. Fern used to do that when we were growing up.
Echo had set the table and helped Fern clean up at our place plenty of times. She hadn't in the beginning until my mother had wondered why Echo couldn't start working at the estate rather than at a diner. Fern had said something along the lines of the girl who has her head in the clouds . Yeah right! But like Echo had said, Fern worked hard for us and had gotten paid for it. It was an honest job, which was more than Lani could say, or even my mother, who'd never worked a day in her life. And none of that housewife shit either—we had help around the house and nannies.
"Remi?" my mother admonished. "I'm talkin' to you."
"I didn't have time to shave, Mama." I drank some iced tea.
"Why are you in such a bad mood?" Lani pouted. "Is this because of that Echo thing?"
My father turned to Lani. "What Echo thing?" he demanded.
Lani shrugged, looking sheepish. "She got upset about somethin'. But you know how sensitive she is."
"She isn't sensitive, Lani; we were downright cruel to her," I snapped. Enough already with blaming her for what we did wrong.
"Oh, please, we've said worse to her," Tommy, the asshole, added with a laugh.
"Did any of you tell her she's my charity case?" Dad demanded, his demeanor unusually stern.
"Calm down, Dallas," Mama scoffed. "He's all upset because Echo quit her job. Good riddance, I say, and—"
"Stop it, Sierra," My father cut in. He never spoke this way to our mother, and she looked at him in surprise. "Now, I'm askin' you, Remi, did you tell her she's a charity case?"
"Yeah, Dad, somethin' like that," I admitted, feeling like a hundred knives were cutting into my chest. She quit her job . She'd said she would. I didn't think about it. She loved her job. She talked about it all the time.
"Why on earth would you say that?" Dad stood up, his anger palpable.
"Because she is, Dad." Lani made a face and snuggled into Tommy.
"No, Lani, that would be you who has a job at GeneVerse that you don't show up for and still collect a paycheck. Dr. Echo Devlin is a fuckin' asset to my company. Charity case? Do y'all have any idea how much competition there was to hire Echo after she finished her PhD?" My father looked at all of us around the table.
If I could beat myself with shame any more than I had, I would. She'd said that too, how she'd been headhunted. I'd ignored all of that and focused on one thing—Echo wasn't of the same socioeconomic status as us. That was her biggest flaw, something she couldn't control. But the rest? Echo was better than all of us.
"You've always helped her, Dallas," my mother smiled, feeling out of sorts because Dad didn't snap at her. He was patient as a saint, "And we know you're fond of the girl, but—"
"Helped her ? She didn't need my help, Sierra. This girl is smart and does everything on her own. She got a scholarship and educated herself. What is wrong with y'all?" He shook his head. "Oh, and Tommy, you cheat on my daughter again, and you do it in public; I'll kick your ass in public. And Lani, you want to stay with his adulterous ass, then you pay for your own wedding."
He paused and looked at Mama. "You raised them to care about things , Sierra. I told you it wouldn't end well, and it hasn't."
"Don't be dramatic, Dallas."
"I'm not being dramatic, Sierra, I'm being honest. You should try it sometime."
"Dallas, my word !"
Shellshocked, we watched Dad storm away.
Our parents didn't fight, didn't argue. Mama would scold and nag, and Dad would smile and cajole. I'd been wondering what was going on between my parents, and now I knew. He wasn't happy about how Lani and I cared so much about appearances like Mama. He didn’t appreciate that Lani was walking into a bad marriage that Mama encouraged. He didn't like it at all that I'd made sure Echo quit his company.
I stared into my plate of pot roast, hating the family drama.
I should've been hungry after another night of drinking, but my appetite was shot. I knew my problem. I didn't know how to go about fixin' what I had broken with Echo.
"Don't worry about it, Lani. I'll talk to your dad," my mother coaxed my sister.
I pushed my chair out and rose. "Dump his ass, Lani," I quipped. "Tommy, you're my friend, well, maybe you were my friend. Either way, what you are is an asshole. Or maybe, who knows, you deserve each other. You fucked God knows who, and Lani fucked Kenneth when we went skiing in Aspen this past winter."
After dropping that bomb, which caused a whole lot of screeching, I went to find my father.
He was at his desk in his study. He'd opened the good stuff. I could smell the peat of the Octomore scotch, which he saved for special occasions because it was hard to find and expensive as all get out.
I closed the study door after me.
He raised his glass at me, and I shook my head. I was still drunk from last night's whiskey, or was it this morning's?
"Does Echo have another job?" I asked.
"I don't know. She didn't say. But I know she's got a standing invitation to go work at John Hopkins, where her PhD advisor is."
John Hopkins was in Baltimore .
"Dad, I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "What the fuck, Remi? Why do y'all dislike this girl so much? Is it because she's half black?"
"Fuck no, Dad. I'm no racist."
"Then what is it? Is it because she's Fern's niece?"
I took a deep breath. "I think that plays a part. She's not one of us."
"Well, thank the Lord for that." He took a sip of his drink. "I expect Lani to shoot her mouth off, but you ?"
I got up and walked to one of the tall bay windows. I stuck my hands in my pockets. With my back turned to him, I asked, "Dad, if I dated Echo, would you be okay with it?"
There was a long pause. "No, son."
"Really?" I turned to face my father.
"Not for the same reasons as your Mama or Lani would. This isn't about you being too good for her, no , I think she's too good for you and deserves better. I want Echo to be with someone who's as honest and open as her. You're too caught up in…the thing is, Remi, your uncle Austin showed you the snazzy side of owning a nightclub and all that—he didn't teach you about humility. And it looks like neither did I."
I always thought that Lani was like my mother and I was like my father. She cared about all the fluffy stuff, but like Dad, I believed in hard work and being fair.
"I was sleepin' with Echo," I confessed.
My father's nostrils flared. "What the fuck, Remi? That girl has always had a thing for you; why would you take advantage of her?"
"I fell in love with her, Dad."
Yeah, that was the sad truth I'd learned by drinking every night for a week. I fell in love with Echo because if I hadn't, it wouldn't hurt like it did. My soul wouldn't feel crushed. I wouldn't miss her with every breath. I was so busy counting the ways in which she was wrong for me that I missed the most important way she was right for me—she loved me for who I was, not the Drake fa?ade.
"Do you even know what that word means?" Dad challenged me.
I couldn't feel any smaller. My own father didn't think I was capable of an emotion as clean as love.
"Of course I do."
"You know, when you started dating Marina, I thought you'd marry her. She's your type—vapid but pretty. She'd look good on your arm."
"Like Mama does on yours?" I shot back.
My father toasted with his glass. "Exactly like that. You want to make my mistakes, son?"
"You sayin' you don't love Mama?" I didn't want to know his answer because if he said he loved her, I wouldn't believe him, and if he said he didn't, my entire life, my idea of coupling, of parenthood, would be shattered.
"I do. It took some years, but I fell in love with her. I don't like her all the time, but that's marriage. I married Sierra because my parents expected me to. She was the right match."
"Like Marina is for me?"
He smiled. "Yeah."
"Except I saw my bar manager Alex balls deep inside her at the club," I said laconically.
My father groaned. "I didn't need that image in my head, son. That's why you broke up?"
"Yeah. Echo was with me. She let me lean on her shoulder and fuck, Dad, I broke her." I choked the words out, feeling very much like my world was crumbling.
I didn't cry. I was after all a man, but this past week, it was like I'd turned into a goddamn pussy.
Before I knew it, Dad pulled me into a hug.
"I hurt her so much," I continued, leaning into him. "And now I don't know how to fix either her heart or mine."
My father patted my back. I lifted my head, and he put a hand on my cheek. "Good. I'm glad it hurts."
"Yeah?" I gave him a watery smile.
"Yeah. It means you're a decent man."
"I'm not, Dad."
I spilled my guts about what Echo overheard: how I kept her a secret, how every time she got close, I ran and walked all over her in the process.
We were both on his couch in his office when I was done telling him what a horrible person I was.
"So, you screwed the pooch big time," Dad declared.
"Yeah, I did."
"Well, son, you gotta man up and win the fair maiden."
"She's blocked my phone. I don't even know where the fuck she works anymore."
"For the next week, she's still at GeneVerse. She gave me her two weeks' notice."
I stared at my father. He winked at me. "Do me a favor, Remi, fix this so I don't lose my best scientist."
I grinned despite myself.
"I think, if you grow up, Remi and make yourself worthy of her, Echo and you will be a successful couple. You'll teach her to have fun, enjoy her life—and she'll teach you that being a Drake isn't important, being a decent man is."
"All that sounds good and dandy," I said sincerely, "Any thoughts on how I can make myself worthy?"
"Fuck if I know," Dad replied unhelpfully.