15
R emy walked into the gym at five minutes until ten. It was Saturday, and he was meeting the others to play basketball. When he entered, he saw Paetyn and Cruz. He wasn't surprised that, like him, they were early. They usually were whenever they met up or went somewhere. Remy had always been a firm believer in showing up early anywhere he went.
The three men greeted one another and waited for the other two to arrive. Kieran turned up at ten, and Nik waltzed in twenty minutes later.
“Back to being late, I see,” Paetyn stated.
“In my defense, I had every intention of being on time, but I got…preoccupied,” Nik responded.
“So did I, but I made it on time,” Kieran countered, and Remy could do nothing more than shake his head while Cruz snorted.
“Yeah, yeah. Are we playing each other, or are we finding others to play?” Nik asked.
“I’ve already asked that group over there if they wanted to play a few games when our entire group arrived,” Paetyn informed them, pointing to a few men shooting around.
They went over, and introductions went around. They chose who they wanted to guard, and the game started. It was first to twenty-one. The first game was theirs, the second went to the opposing team, and they played a tiebreaker. Their team won the final match by one.
When they finished the final game, they sat on the bleachers. Remy drank half of his water before bringing the bottle from his lips .
“Just so you know, Alijah has chosen where she wants to go for this trip she’s planning,” Kieran stated, and Remy turned to look at him along with the other men.
“Where are we going?” Cruz asked.
Kieran shrugged. “I don’t know. She wants to run it by your girlfriends and boyfriend to ensure they’re okay with it first.”
“Makes sense,” Remy stated with a chuckle.
“If they’re all on board, we can’t say no,” Paetyn agreed as the other men laughed.
“I like how we’re pretending that any of us tell them no,” Nik stated.
He had a point. Remy had witnessed Kieran’s inability to say no to Alijah on several occasions, this trip being one of them since they would both be out of the office. Remy knew he probably wouldn’t be able to tell Lawrence no, either. Though, he hadn’t had an occasion yet where he had been put to the test.
Anywhere they went would be fine with Remy. He enjoyed vacationing all over, so he wasn’t picky and hadn’t taken a real one yet that year.
“How long is she planning it for?” Paetyn questioned.
“I agreed to a week,” Kieran responded.
Remy knew Kieran wouldn’t agree to take more than a week off if both of them were going to be out of the office, and he was also sure he’d try to check in on work while they were wherever their significant others decided they wanted to go.
They played two games with a new group before they left the gym, going their separate ways.
R emy returned to his condo, entered his ensuite, and turned on the shower. As it heated, he stripped out of his clothes, placed them into the hamper, and set his shoes outside the door. He brushed his teeth before getting into the shower.
After his shower, he dried off before moisturizing and pulling on a pair of boxers and basketball shorts. With no plans for the rest of the day, he didn’t feel the need to get dressed.
Going into the kitchen, he looked through his refrigerator for something to cook, and when he came up empty, he decided to order takeout. He grabbed his phone off the table by the door, where he’d put it when he came in.
Remy scrolled through several delivery apps before ordering from a sandwich shop. He ordered their special and their house lemonade.
While he waited, he sat on the couch, scrolling through the movie channels, and settled on an action movie.
R emy picked up his ringing phone. His mother’s name flashed across the screen. He’d been sitting on the couch watching another movie after lunch.
“Hey, Ma.”
“Hi, my boy. How are you?”
“I’m good. How are you? How’s dad?”
“We’re both doing well. Catch me up on what I’ve missed since we spoke last week.”
Remy refrained from rolling his eyes because he wouldn’t put it past his mother to be able to tell he did so. They spoke weekly, and she insisted that he run down his week for her each time they did. When it started back when he’d been attending college, she’d gone day by day and asked him what he’d done. Over the years, it’d gotten better.
He knew it was just because she wanted to keep up with him and things that happened in his life, and while Remy had no problem with that. It got to be a bit much sometimes.
He and his mother filled each other in for the next forty-five minutes on what they’d done over the week. She even told him that his father had picked up a new hobby, which they were sure he’d get bored of reasonably quickly since that was how it usually went. It almost felt like each time he spoke to his parents, his dad had found a new hobby and dropped his previous one.
“Your father and I will be visiting in August, and when we do, I expect to meet your new boyfriend.”
“I’ll ask him, Ma, but I won’t force him into a meeting if he’s uncomfortable with it.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” his mother responded. “But if he says yes, we can all spend a day together. I can convince him you’re a good catch. ”
Remy shook his head. His mother was ready for him to settle down. As her only child, she was ready for him to get married and have kids. She wanted to see the last one happen more than the other.
“It’s more like he’s the good catch,” Remy responded.
“I’ll take your word for it until I meet him. I’m going to let you go. I have to go to the store and grab a few things for dinner. I’ll talk to you later. Love you, my boy.”
“Love you too, Ma.”
Remy placed his phone back on the table, making a mental note to text or call Lawrence that evening and tell him about his parents wanting to meet him. He figured the sooner he told him, the sooner he could give his mother an answer, and she wouldn’t ask him about it every time she called.
L awrence walked into the restaurant fifteen minutes after noon and surveyed the area. He found Alijah, Erin, and Chayse sitting at a table off to the left. He went over and slid into the last open chair.
“Hello, ladies.”
“Hey, I was just about to call you and make sure everything was alright. You’re hardly ever late to something,” Alijah greeted.
“There was a wreck on Fifteenth, so I had to take an alternative route. I was going to call, but I figured I wouldn’t be too late. Did you order drinks already?”
“Yes. I ordered you a vodka and cranberry,” Erin responded.
“Thank you. How’s the shop preparations going?” Lawrence asked.
“They’re good. The sign was delivered and mounted, and it looks amazing,” Erin responded, picking her phone up. After a second, she handed it to him, and Lawrence looked at the picture.
He knew she’d drawn the design for her sign, and she was right; it looked incredible. He was excited for her and knew she was counting the days until her upcoming opening.
“It does look excellent,” Lawrence responded as he returned the phone .
The server came to the table with their drinks, and they asked for a few more minutes to look over their menus. Lawrence picked his up, perusing the selections before choosing what to order. When the server returned, they put their orders in, and Lawrence took a drink from his glass.
“Lawrence, how’s the new client?” Alijah asked.
“I have no idea yet. He needed to postpone our first meeting. I have heard that he can be difficult.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to show him all the benefits your company offers and win him over,” Chayse stated.
Lawrence hoped that she was right. He’d heard his potential client had a penchant for being a rude smartass, but he was confident in his ability to promote his company’s products. He was also a bit grateful for the need to reschedule because it gave him more time to work on a tailored sales pitch. He never liked using a generic one.
They made small talk while they waited for their food to arrive, and when it did, their conversation ceased for a few minutes.
“So, I found this beautiful island resort. I will text the link to all of you so you can see it, but I think it would be a great destination for the couple’s trip. If you like it, I thought we could stay a week since Kieran seems okay with him and Remy being gone at least that long. And if that works for you, Erin. I know you’re about to open.”
“A beach resort sounds nice. We could do Saturday to Saturday; that way, everyone has a day to recoup before they go back to work, and as long as I don’t schedule any appointments that week, it should be okay. But, I’d prefer not to have to do so until a couple of months after opening at least.”
“Of course,” Alijah responded. I know I initially said August, but we could go in October.”
“That gives us about four months to make sure we can all take time off, and if we go mid-October, you’ll have been open three months, Erin,” Chayse supplied.
“October works,” Lawrence stated after swallowing the bite of the salmon he’d taken. “I agree with Erin. A Saturday to Saturday would work well. ”
Lawrence had plenty of vacation time. He’d negotiated four weeks when he’d gotten his promotion, and aside from using a couple of days here and there, he still had plenty left for the year.
They spent the rest of lunch chatting and having a second round of drinks. Alijah texted them the link to the resort before Lawrence picked up the check since it was his turn, and all three women placed some cash down for the tip.
After saying their goodbyes, Lawrence slipped into his vehicle and headed home. He thought about calling Remy, but he wasn’t sure if they were done with their games and decided to wait until later.
Once he was home, he emailed the link to himself and grabbed his laptop. Lawrence sat on the couch and clicked on the resort link when his email was open.
As he read through all the resort had to offer and scrolled through the photos, he had to agree with Alijah. It was beautiful. It was built on a private island, and the entire island had activities and amenities. They’d land at the main airport, and then one of the resort’s private planes would take them to the island. He texted Alijah, letting her know he liked it.
Lawrence decided to wait to see if Chayse and Erin agreed, though he didn’t see them not liking it. Then he would talk to Remy about it and show him.