Chapter 31
W ell, fuck.
This is either going to be a hilariously innocuous conversation or I’m about to get my ass whupped.
Probably both if my slowly tipsy ass can’t keep my mouth shut.
“How’s Claire?” Morgan said with a sly smile.
I shrugged, trying to play the part of nonchalant, ignorant man. Morgan smirked right back at me and then playfully shoved my shoulder.
“I know she’s inside, you know.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, she told me she was going here tonight. I was just going to drop in and see how she was doing. There’s no way that you were both in there and didn’t see each other.”
Well, now I was kind of fucked. Not only did Morgan know I had seen Claire, he would now probably wonder why the hell I had lied about knowing she was inside. He examined me up and down, as if testing to see if I would crack, but it was too early in the conversation to do that.
“We talked for a bit. She seems fine. Stressed, but what do you expect from the CEO of a growing company?”
I shrugged again, trying to mimic the action from just moments before in the hopes that it would no longer look suspicious. I had a feeling I was failing miserably in that regard. Morgan laughed casually, almost… I daresay maniacally.
“You know she likes you, right?”
Well, in other news, New York taxi cabs liked to honk. But I tried my damndest to act surprised.
“For real?” I said, hoping not to oversell my reaction. “I would not have guessed. She struck me as too professional to engage in something like that.”
“Meh,” Morgan said, crossing his arms. “We can’t control who we like. We can only control our reaction to it. Her reactions may be good, but she still likes you.”
“OK,” I said, pausing between my words slowly. “And? Your… point?”
“My point?” Morgan said. “No point. Just telling you what’s obvious to everyone around you.”
Damn. Maybe it’s not much of a secret. If Morgan knows… maybe her coworkers know.
In which case, why am I hiding it? Morgan doesn’t seem perturbed by it. On the other hand, he doesn’t know I’ve done anything yet.
“Well, that’s great, but I’m not going to do anything about it.”
“You’re not?”
Morgan seemed more like the big brother daring the little one to do something stupid than he did a business partner right now. So I shoved him while laughing, hoping to get in the game of it all.
“Why would I? It’s business, not pleasure. You know how badly I got fucked over the last time I tried to do that.”
“Exactly,” Morgan said.
Huh? What the hell did he mean? That was his point… so he wanted me to go back in?
“Confused? Instead of being fucked over, Chance, now you can be the one to get information. Now you can be the one to learn more from the woman instead of the woman learning more from you. You have a magnetic presence we would be foolish not to use.”
“Ohhh.”
I had to shoot the idea down as quickly as I got.
This was a little too Edwin Hunt-like from Morgan, and MCH had no room for that in any fashion.
We could make a shitload of money and never have to rely on an inheritance or any of the like from Edwin Hunt, but had to make damn sure not to inherit any of his worst tendencies.
“Yeah, that is not going to happen, Morgan.”
“No?”
He wasn’t getting it. Maybe he was also a little drunk; I didn’t think so, but I didn’t want to rule out the possibility.
“No, no, no,” I said. “That’s a dick move and a fucked up move. Think of how badly Layla screwed me over, Morgan. If I use Claire liking me to our advantage—”
Morgan started to say something, bit his lip, and sighed.
“Dad’s teachings get borrowed a little too much sometime,” he said, crossing his arms. “You were right. I’m sorry.
I just… you know how things are for me. I’m so stressed.
I just want us to start taking off now. I’m impatient.
And it seems I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get something now. I’m sorry.”
“I get it,” I said. “I mean, I don’t. Neither of us have really gotten the other’s life in a fair way. We’re brothers, but we’re two different people.”
Morgan looked hurt by my words, but it was painfully true. I was an adopted son, he was a favorite son. I was a listener, he was a participant with the Hunts. I was an outsider, he was an insider.
Nothing short of being reborn would change that, and I was pretty sure no amount of Silicon Valley magic would change that any time soon.
But I also realized what I had said may have struck a chord too harsh with Morgan, who was dealing with the kind of internal pressure I would never have to face. I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him gently.
“Hey, but we’re going to pull through this just fine,” I said with a smile. “If I can get over all of the things that happened with Layla, then you can survive this. We all do stupid shit under duress.”
Like make out with the woman whose business you’ve invested in, for example. That one will go over so swimmingly. Just imagine meeting her other investors and wondering if they’ve made out with her.
And… I feel jealous over that?
“I know,” Morgan said. “Let me reframe it as such. You have a power. I don’t mean that in some corny ass way either.
You have a charm about you that makes women swoon in ways that I could never make happen.
You can charm men into liking you even if they believe everything you don’t.
I’m not saying we have to use this in an unethical way. But…”
“I should use everything in the toolbox to my advantage, whatever it takes,” I finished for him.
I saw the point. I didn’t have to break ethical barriers, but stretching them? Or at least getting close enough that I could extend out and touch them a little bit?
Besides, all negotiations had a little bit of dirt on them at the end of the day.
If they didn’t, it was because one side capitulated far too quickly.
I was never going to do that, for better or for worse, and the kind of people that we would be dealing with either wouldn’t or they would have the lawyers and teams that wouldn’t.
“Exactly,” he said.
He sighed and looked to the door.
“You want another drink, don’t you?” I said.
“After this week, I want another bar,” Morgan said. “You want in?”
I didn’t think it would be awkward if I returned.
Claire had not yet emerged, which suggested to me she was either thinking about what had happened, ordered another drink, or had somehow passed by without either of us noticing.
The last idea seemed the most impossible, but it wasn’t totally impossible.
“I’m good,” I said.
The truth was, if Claire and I were to do something, we had to keep it private and completely between us. Not even Morgan could know, at least not this early. Maybe eventually, but eventually was a long, long time away.
And I knew if I went back in there with Morgan, not only would Claire wonder why I had returned, for the amount she drank, it was unlikely she would keep quiet either.
“OK,” Morgan said. “Hey, I love you man.”
It was an odd admission from a man who didn’t look drunk, but then I realized he wasn’t drunk. He was just too tired and too exhausted to be anything other than completely honest.
“I know that you may think I started MCH to help you, and I did a bit,” Morgan said.
“But your work is helping me so much, too. Dad is just beating me down, and you could have just as easily said fuck it, do your own thing and figure it out. But you have already secured Rising Sun and put us at least in a fighting position with Virtual Realty. More than that, you don’t mock me for my spot.
I know men are supposed to fight, but sometimes, I just don’t want to fucking hear it.
But you get it, and for that, I am so appreciative. ”
“Dude,” I said, genuinely touched.
I went over and hugged him. Strange as it sounded, I needed that just as much as Morgan probably did.
I needed to know that not everyone close to me wanted to use me or fuck me over.
Morgan was always the one I trusted unconditionally, but it was nice to be reminded of our commitment and trust to each other.
It was nice to know that we didn’t have to look behind each other’s backs for knives that would wind up stabbing each other.
We might fight and argue, but we would never destroy the other person for personal gain.
“I think you should probably call it a night too,” I said, patting his arm firmly. “You like tired as shit.”
“You don’t say,” Morgan said. “All right. If you insist.”
“I do,” I said. “Let’s spend this weekend doing as little as possible. OK? We’ll reconvene Monday and figure out next steps once you finish work.”
“Alright,” Morgan said.
We hugged one more time. I had a strange feeling, out of nowhere, that I was being watched, but when I looked around, I didn’t see anyone.
Perhaps my paranoia had a point, given that my rejection of Edwin Hunt was not that far removed, but we had also not raised our voices so loudly as to bring attention to ourselves.
With one more firm handshake, the two of us went back to our respective apartments, perhaps a little more confused about events but certainly starting to make a little more sense of them.