Chapter 2 Drew #2
“Has Grandpa offered you a job at the firm yet?” Thandie asked knowingly. He’d been trying and failing to get one of his grandkids to become an accountant since they were kids.
“Yeah, we’ve already had the we can pull strings to get you in conversation.”
“It’s because you spend too much time with them,” Thandie laughed.
She was right, they’d both moved out of state to stop their grandparents from getting too involved with their lives.
“Love them, but you need to get some distance or else every conversation becomes about the life they think you should be living,” she said with the easy detachment of a youngest child.
“Is that why you’re late for dinner? You’re decentering your grandparents?”
“No, I just got lost on the Tube. But that’s not why I’m here. I called to tell you that we have New Year’s Eve plans.”
Drew and Thandie were only a year apart, so Drew could automatically tell when his little sister was about to try to convince him to do something she knew he wouldn’t want to do.
“I already have New Year’s Eve plans,” he said flimsily.
“What? Are you tagging along to the retirees’ river cruise?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. His grandma had invited him. But as strong as the pitch was, ringing in the new year with a boatful of senior citizens would have taken his week to a new low.
“I have … other plans,” Drew lied. He paced back and forth down the sidewalk, the December air making him wish he’d worn a coat.
“Sitting in a sad hotel room, staring up at the ceiling, and questioning every decision you’ve ever made while watching your college friends’ Instagram stories as the clock strikes midnight isn’t a New Year’s Eve plan,” Thandie said.
“Actually, I was going to take a walk through the city, listening to sad songs and watching the fireworks as I questioned every decision I’ve ever made,” he said, only half joking. “Isn’t an existential crisis the whole point of December thirty-first?”
“Drew, you’re in London, and it’s New Year’s Eve. I’m not letting you waste it because you’re sad or whatever,” she said, pointing around at her surroundings.
“I don’t really want to go to a random party—”
“You wouldn’t just be going to the party. I got you a gig … to take photos.”
Drew’s ears perked up at that. He’d left his photography classes at USC behind, but his passion for taking photos hadn’t faded away. Fleeing LA to move back to Wisconsin left him with fewer opportunities to get his camera out. So, he was desperate to get behind the lens again.
“I’m listening,” he said, curious to know how she’d found an opportunity on the other side of the world.
“Do you know Klaus Lindberg?” Thandie asked.
Everyone knew Klaus Lindberg; his family owned the biggest sportswear brand in the world.
“The son of the Zeus Athletics guy?”
“Not just the son,” she said. “The second-born son, the one who’s trying to push his older brother Lars out and take over his dad’s company.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of him. But what do they have to do with New Year’s?”
“Well, Klaus is hosting Zeus’s annual blowout New Year’s Eve party tonight, and he wants to make it bigger than ever. Every single famous, influential person under the age of thirty is going to be there, and as of ten minutes ago, so are you.”
“What?” Drew asked, confused.
“I have connections.” She shrugged. “Klaus is old friends with a girl I went to college with who lives in London. We all went to breakfast together and he invited me to his party and said that I could bring you as my plus-one.”
Drew didn’t know what was more surprising. That his sister was casually friends with a twenty-two-year-old billionaire or that she’d gotten him an invite to photograph one of the most exclusive parties of the year.
“He was supposed to have two photographers for his party, but one of them has food poisoning. He mentioned that he was looking for someone else last minute, so I suggested…”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. I showed him your work, and he really liked it. It took some convincing and maybe I exaggerated a little to convince him you’d be the right fit, but he said you can come along and bring your camera.
There’s going to be an official party photographer all night to get the most important shots, but Klaus wants someone who can run around and get some extra photos for socials. I said you’d be perfect.”
“I don’t know about this,” he said. He’d gotten a few good gigs back in California: a student press pass for a few Dodgers games, a spring internship with the Lakers, and a fall internship with a local football team.
But those were all structured opportunities that he’d spent weeks planning for.
“Zeus is a big deal, and I’m not sure I—”
“Stop trying to talk yourself out of a good thing,” she said firmly. “Plus, it’s not like you have anything else going on since you—”
“Dropped out and threw two and a half years of my life away?”
“You said it, not me,” she teased. “But it’s a great opportunity and it will be good for you. You need to leave the hotel and pick up your camera again.”
“But…”
“Drew. When January third comes around, you’ll be back home with absolutely nothing to do. Driving around Wisconsin and letting Grandma send you on errands.”
“Oh, that really is my future,” Drew said, letting the realization sink in.
“It doesn’t have to be,” she said, her voice softening. “Come to the party.”
Drew could already imagine all the ways his life was going to shrink when he flew back home.
The nights he was going to spend questioning his decision and the days he was going to spend longing for a type of certainty he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel again.
When January came, he’d probably be working at his grandpa’s accounting firm, reckoning with his grandma’s deterioration, and spending hours at a time watching the lives of his college friends unfolding online.
Maybe one last party was exactly what he needed to mark the end of his hellish year.
“Are you in?” Thandie asked.
“Send me the address.”