30. ALEX
30
ALEX
“ H ey, man,” I said when Gabe called. “Are you back in town?”
“Yeah, fucking finally. I’m so over Texas it’s not even funny.”
“Good. Let’s meet up for drinks. I want to talk to you about something.”
“Oh, sure,” Gabe said. “I can use a good night out, a distraction from all the bullshit I’ve had to deal with lately.”
That made me feel like shit because I was pretty sure that letting him know I was sleeping with his sister wasn’t exactly going to feel like a break from bullshit. Either way, I had to do it. Not only was it the right thing, but I’d also left it a bit too long, and it was time to set the record straight.
When I arrived at Ali’s, the bar where we usually drank, Gabe was already there with two beers.
“Good timing,” he said. “I just ordered. Have a seat.”
I got onto the barstool.
“To being back in town,” he said and lifted his beer bottle.
“Yeah, I’m glad you’re back, man.”
“God, it was a nightmare in the sun and heat and just being so far away from home. I hate that place.”
“You keep saying that.”
Gabe shrugged. “I’m a creature of habit, you know? I know what I like, and I know where I belong, and Texas… that’s not it.”
I nodded and chuckled as Gabe launched into a story of how his work trip got extended and how horrible it was. While he talked, I barely listened. I needed to talk to him about Charlotte, and the more he talked, the more I stressed that he was going to be pissed at me.
Finally, after Gabe and I had each finished a beer and we were onto our second, he turned his attention to me.
“So, what did you want to talk about?”
This was it—the moment of truth.
“I don’t really know where to start.”
Gabe raised his eyebrows. “It sounds serious.”
“It is.” I took a sip of beer, trying to find the right words and pull myself together. “I told you the other day Charlotte was working on that campaign, right?”
Gabe nodded.
“I wasn’t completely forward with you about that.”
Gabe frowned, but I powered on.
“You see, that wasn’t how I met her. I mean, we are working together. Sort of. But I didn’t meet her through work…” I was starting to sound like an idiot, talking in circles. I just had to cut to the chase. “I’m in love with her.”
Maybe that was cutting to the chase a little too much.
Gabe stared at me, blinking.
“Excuse me?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been seeing her more and more. We’ve been spending time together, and I just… I’m falling for her.”
Gabe narrowed his eyes. “Where did you meet her if it wasn’t through work?”
I hesitated. “At your party, actually. I didn’t know she was your sister then, though. Not until the next morning, and then—”
“The next morning?” His face was riddled with shock and disbelief.
Oh. Shit.
“No, what I mean—”
“You slept with her!”
“It’s not like that.” I shook my head. “Okay, no. It was like that. It was supposed to just be a one-night thing for both of us. But then I saw her again, working on this campaign of hers, and things changed.”
I watched Gabe’s face turn all shades of red. He wasn’t focusing on anything other than the fact that I’d slept with her.
“Did you hear me?”
“You fucked my sister,” Gabe said in a low voice.
“I’m in love with your sister,” I pointed out.
“You slept with my sister!” Gabe cried out loud enough that a few of the patrons looked around at us. At least he hadn’t used the word fuck the second time around.
“Gabe, listen to what I’m saying to you.” He wasn’t ready to listen to me. His anger had taken over.
“Of all the friends I have around here, you’re the only one I actually trusted. You’re the one I respected . And now, this? What the fuck, man! What did you think you were doing?”
“I wasn’t thinking at first,” I said. “It was just a one-night thing, like I said. But now that I know her, now that we’ve spent time together—”
“I know you Blackwood boys all think you’re the shit, invincible and above all the rules of the game but this is taking it too far, man.”
“We’re not above anything. And I’m not trying to do something to hurt her, or you. That’s why I’m here, talking to you about it. I wanted you to hear it from me rather than from someone else so that you know we’re still friends. We’re good, Gabe.”
“No, Alex.” He laughed bitterly. “I don’t know what your definition of friendship is, but we’re not good . And you better stay the hell away from my sister because if you so much as talk to her, I’ll knock your fucking block off. Do you hear me?”
He got up and marched out of the bar.
“Gabe!” I called after him, but he wasn’t interested. I kept going, the door slamming shut behind him.
I looked around at everyone staring; they quickly looked away, pretending to be engrossed in their own conversations but they weren’t fooling anyone.
They’d watched and listened to the whole thing.
I didn’t give a shit, though. I didn’t care what they thought of me. They could all go to hell. The only people I cared about what they thought were Gabe and Charlotte.
But now Gabe was pissed off at me, and that hurt like a bitch.
I’d known he would be upset about this, but I hadn’t expected such an explosion. He had no idea how serious I was about his sister, but I’d thought at least talking to him about it would make it possible to clear it up.
My mistake.
I got back to the office, and I felt like shit. Marina jumped up from her desk when I walked in.
“You have two calls you need to tend to urgently,” she said. “I sent you the messages.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
I sat down behind my desk, and I got the two digital notes she’d sent through.
The calls had been from Sasha Martinez and Henry O’Connell.
My stomach twisted. Something told me these weren’t going to be the best conversations.
I picked up the phone and called Sasha first.
“Sasha,” I said. “Sorry I missed your call. I was out of the office. What can I—”
“Are you still going through with the new direction? I didn’t get a concrete decision from the company.”
“I haven’t made a concrete decision yet. But so far, I can’t see why I—we wouldn’t want to take a new direction. It will be good for business in the long run, and—”
“I can’t go in this new direction with you,” Sasha said. “If you haven’t made your final decision yet, then there’s still time for you to change your mind, and I respect that. In business, minds change all the time. But I want you to know that if you do decide to make this change, then I won’t be going with you. I’ve run the numbers, I’ve spoken to my own industry experts, and I don’t think it will benefit me in the long run.”
My stomach dropped. “I’m so sorry to hear that, Sasha.”
“You understand, of course,” she said. “It’s just business.”
“I understand.”
I ended the call and sighed heavily. I called Henry O’Connell, too. I had a feeling the conversation would go much the same way, and I wasn’t wrong. Henry was just as unhappy with the new direction, and he said if we were changing, then he would have to cut ties with us, too.
That was bad news. If they were going to do this, then others could, too. With two going, the others wouldn’t have anything stopping them—they’d already started the trend, so pulling out would be easier for the others, and they’d already voiced their complaints.
Shit.
If I kept going like this, there was a big chance the investors were going to up and leave my company, taking their money with them. Even if no one else left, losing two significant investors would already change our financial climate, and I couldn’t bank on the fact that it would only be the two of them leaving in the end.
I had to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Or prevent the worst.
Which meant putting a stop to the change.
But that meant not going green, not going through with the plans I’d told Charlotte I would go through with.
I had no idea what to do.
I picked up the phone and dialed Chris’s number.
“Are you busy?”
“What’s up?”
I explained to him what happened with the two investors and their threats. Chris was quiet until I finished telling him what it was all about.
“I see,” he finally said. “It’s a tough one.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. What should I do?”
“Look, we can all have meetings about it, and the guys can tell you what they think, but I think you already know what that’s going to be like.”
He was right. My brothers hadn’t exactly been on board before. Supportive, sure. But not necessarily in agreement. And if it was about losing investors, it directly affected our future.
“So, what? I just kill the project?”
“Look, at the end of the day, you’re the CEO, so you get the final call.”
I hesitated. “Charlotte was the inspiration for the change.” My voice was softer. “In a way, I feel like going against this would be betraying her.”
“Did she ask you to do it?”
“No. But I still wanted to find a way to do the right thing.”
“Look, I get where you’re coming from, but this is our company and our future. She doesn’t work here, and whether you do it or not doesn’t affect her. But it does affect you and it does affect all of us. So keep that in mind when you decide what you want to do.”
He was right, of course. When he said it like that, it sounded so straightforward. But it wasn’t that simple.
I’d told her I wanted to do it that way, and I wanted to keep my word, my integrity. I wanted to do something I knew was important to her, even if it wasn’t something that would directly impact her life.
It was bigger than that.
But as Chris had said, whatever I chose to do would change our lives because we were directly involved, and I had to keep that in mind, not just as one of the family members who was involved in the Blackwood empire but as the CEO of the company.
I just wished I didn’t have to choose.