Chapter Nineteen #2
“Forty-three countries. Fifteen thousand employees with a multi-billion-dollar revenue.”
More silence.
“Your hippie father-in-law,” Fitz said slowly, “is a billionaire?”
“Yes.”
“A billionaire.”
“That’s what I said.”
“A billionaire,” Nathan confirmed for clarity.
“Multi-billionaire, technically.”
Fitz started laughing. “Your mother must have—”
“Had wine on her face,” I said. “I threw at her when he mentioned the company valuation.”
“You WHAT?” they all shouted.
“It was involuntary.”
“It is perfect,” Fitz said, wiping his eyes.
“Wait,” Gabriel said. “What about your mother-in-law? Please tell me she’s also secretly impressive.”
“Three doctorates.”
Silence.
“Three,” Hayden repeated.
“Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Cambridge.”
“Three doctorates,” Nathan said faintly.
“Molecular biology, neuroscience, pharmacology.”
“Oh my God.”
“Fifteen years as a research physician. Forty-three published papers.”
“Forty-three—”
“Over two thousand citations on her neuropharmacology work.”
“Two thousand—”
“I looked her up last night. Fascinating research on neurotransmitter regulation. She’s doing groundbreaking work on GABA receptor modulation.”
Fitz was staring at me. “Your mother-in-law is one of the most accomplished medical researchers of her generation?”
“It would appear so.”
“Your parents,” Gabriel said, starting to laugh, “must have been destroyed.”
“My mother had wine on her face,” I said. “As previously mentioned.”
“Because you threw it at her,” Nathan said gleefully.
“Involuntarily.”
“But enthusiastically?”
“Perhaps.”
“I would have paid money to see that,” Fitz said. “Actual money. More than the two hundred I just lost to Quinton.”
“It was quite satisfying,” I admitted.
“So,” Hayden said, his eyes twinkling, “after your parents were thoroughly humiliated by discovering your in-laws are more accomplished than they could ever dream of being... what happened?”
I considered this. Considered that I’d gone home with Athena and surrendered completely. Considered that I’d spent the entire night making love to my wife. Considered that I’d woken up this morning feeling more at peace than I’d ever felt in my entire life.
“Things progressed,” I said carefully.
“Progressed,” Fitz repeated.
“Yes.”
“Define ‘progressed.’”
“No.”
“Come on.”
“Absolutely not.”
“But—”
“We’re not discussing my personal life at that level of detail.”
“You just told us you threw wine at your mother!”
“That’s different.”
“How is that different?”
“It just is.”
Nathan was studying me with narrowed eyes. “You had sex.”
I said nothing.
“Oh my God, you slept with her,” Gabriel said.
“I’m not confirming or denying.”
“You totally slept with her,” Fitz said. “Look at his face. That’s the face of a man who’s had sex.”
“I don’t have a face.”
“You have a very specific face right now,” Nathan said. “It’s the ‘I’ve had sex, and it was good’ face.”
“There’s no such thing as—”
“There absolutely is,” Hayden said. “And you’re making it.”
I felt my face heat.
“Oh my God, he’s blushing,” Winnie said. “Julien Darcy is blushing.”
“I’m not.”
“You are,” Quinton said, speaking for the first time. “You’re definitely blushing.”
“This is inappropriate workplace conversation.”
“You started it by showing up late in sneakers and looking happy.” Nathan smiled.
“That’s not—”
“So,” Fitz said, leaning forward with a wicked grin. “On a scale of one to ten, how good was it?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“Eight? Nine?”
“Fitz.”
“Ten?” Gabriel guessed.
I said nothing.
“OH MY GOD, IT WAS A TEN!” Nathan shouted.
“I didn’t say that!”
“You didn’t have to!” Fitz was laughing now. “Your face said it! Your face said, ‘It was a ten and I’m never going back!’”
“Multiple tens,” Quinton said quietly.
Everyone turned to stare at him.
“What?” Nathan said.
“Look at him,” Quinton said, gesturing at me. “That’s not the face of a man who had sex once. That’s the face of a man who had sex multiple times. Probably all night. Possibly into the morning.”
“QUINTON!” I said.
“Am I wrong?”
I said nothing.
“He’s not wrong,” Fitz said, studying me. “That’s definitely an ‘all night’ face.”
“How can you tell?” Gabriel asked.
“The eyes,” Hayden said clinically. “Slight redness. Mild dehydration. Classic signs of—”
“Can we PLEASE stop analyzing my sex life?”
“No,” they all said in unison.
“This is highly unprofessional.”
“You’re wearing sneakers,” Nathan said. “Professionalism went out the window.”
“And a Henley,” Gabriel added.
“And you’re seventeen minutes late,” Hayden said.
“And you’re happy,” Fitz finished. “Which is the most unprofessional thing of all.”
I opened my mouth to argue.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
“Fine,” I said. “Yes. Things with Athena are... very good.”
“Very good,” Nathan repeated.
“Yes.”
“Define ‘very good.’”
“No.”
“Come on.”
“I’m not discussing the details of my sex life with my colleagues.”
“But you’re admitting there is a sex life to discuss,” Fitz said triumphantly.
“I’m admitting nothing.”
“You just admitted it!”
“I did not.”
“You absolutely did.”
“This conversation is over.”
“It’s really not,” Nathan said.
“We’re moving on to patient load distribution.”
“We’re really not,” Gabriel agreed.
“I’m the senior partner,” I said. “I decide when we move on.”
“You’re also seventeen minutes late,” Hayden pointed out. “So your authority is somewhat diminished.”
“My authority is not—”
“He’s right,” Fitz said. “You lost authority the moment you walked in wearing New Balance.”
“The shoes have nothing to do with—”
“Everything,” Nathan interrupted. “The shoes have everything to do with everything.”
I closed my eyes.
Took a deep breath and reminded myself that these people were my friends.
That they cared about me. That they were genuinely happy, I was happy.
Even if they were being absolutely insufferable about it.
“Fine,” I said, opening my eyes. “Yes. Things with Athena are excellent. We’re very happy together.
The dinner with our parents was a disaster that turned into a triumph.
My in-laws are secretly brilliant and accomplished.
My parents were humiliated. I went home and had sex with my wife.
Multiple times. It was—” I paused. “Transformative. And now I’m here, late, wearing comfortable shoes, and I don’t care what any of you think about it. ”
Silence.
Complete, absolute silence.
Then Quinton started laughing.
Not his usual quiet chuckle.
Full, genuine laughter.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, still laughing. “It’s just”—he pulled out his phone—“I believe you all owe me money.”
“Oh no,” Nathan said.
“Oh yes,” Quinton said, grinning.
“What money?” I asked.
“The pool,” Fitz said reluctantly.
“What pool?”
“The betting pool,” Gabriel admitted.
“About what?”
“About you,” Winnie said, trying not to smile.
I stared at them. “You bet on me?”
“We bet on your marriage,” Nathan clarified. “Specifically, how it would turn out.”
“That’s—”
“Completely normal workplace behavior,” Fitz said. “We bet on everything.”
“What were the bets?”
They all looked at each other.
“Well,” Hayden said slowly, “I bet you’d figure it out eventually. That you’d realize Athena was good for you and stop fighting it.”
“I bet you’d keep her at arm’s length,” Gabriel said. “Maintain professional distance. Never fully commit.”
“I bet you’d try to ‘fix’ her,” Nathan admitted. “Make her more organized. More conventional.”
“I bet you’d divorce within a month,” Fitz said cheerfully. “No offense.”
“Offense taken.”
“And I,” Quinton said, still grinning, “bet that you’d completely surrender. That you’d stop fighting the chaos and just... let go.”
“And?” I asked.
“And you just admitted you went home and had transformative sex with your wife after your parents were humiliated by your secretly brilliant in-laws,” Quinton said. “While wearing sneakers and showing up seventeen minutes late and not caring about any of it.”
“So?”
“So I win,” Quinton said. “Complete surrender. Called it.”
“How much?” I asked.
“Twelve hundred dollars.”
“TWELVE HUNDRED—”
“We all put in two hundred,” Nathan said defensively. “It was a serious bet.”
“You bet twelve hundred dollars on my marriage?”
“Technically, we bet on your personality transformation,” Fitz said. “The marriage was just the catalyst.”
“That’s not any better.”
“It’s a little better,” Gabriel said.
“It’s really not.”
“Look,” Quinton said, pocketing his phone, “I won because I know you, Julien. I’ve watched you be miserable for three years. Precise, competent, professionally successful, and absolutely miserable. And then Athena showed up, and you looked alive for the first time since I’ve known you.”
“I wasn’t—”
“You were,” Hayden said gently. “You were miserable. We all knew it. We just didn’t know how to help.”
“And then the universe sent you a chaos agent in human form,” Fitz said. “And you fought it. God, did you fight it.”
“But you lost,” Nathan said, grinning. “You lost, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“I didn’t lose,” I said. “I chose.”