Chapter 22 Christopher Tuesday #2
“I’m at Alexander’s,” I say reluctantly. I’m unable to hide that I’m sitting on his enormous L-shaped couch. His black baby grand piano lurks in the far corner and the sound of hummingbirds comes in from outside through the open glass doors.
“Shut up! No way you two are back together.” Her mouth falls open.
As if on cue, Alexander walks into the room, saving me from answering Kelly’s question. He jumps over the back of the couch to sit next to me. His skin is smooth like velvet as his arm brushes up against mine. Kelly gets an eyeful of Alexander in nothing but his tight black Versace briefs.
“Happy belated birthday, my sister from another mister.” Alexander slides his arm around me, leaning in to see Kelly on my phone screen. “How’s the bump coming along?”
“Oh, it’s coming.” Kelly tilts her phone down to reveal a prominent bump that shows up even through her oversized jumper, which she seems to be wearing as a dress.
“When are you due?” Alexander’s smile widens on his face.
“Beginning of February. But it feels like this little terror wants to get out early, the way it keeps kicking.” Her hand pats her belly.
“Well, I can’t wait to meet that little terror of yours when it comes out. Do you know what you’re having yet?”
Kelly pauses, as if sizing him up. I’m still the only one who knows other than her and Daniel. The pair opted to keep it a secret until the baby shower next month.
“Can I trust you to keep a secret?” she asks.
Alexander nods and I laugh.
He may not be good at a lot of things, but he knows how to keep a secret.
“I’m having a boy.”
“Congratulations!” Alexander’s dimple deepens as his smile widens. “I should leave you both to catch up.”
Alexander gets up and makes his way to the kitchen.
“So, he’s the reason you missed my birthday yesterday then.” Her eyes are wide, expectant that I will give her all the gossip once Alexander’s out of shot.
I nod and look out toward the pool. I dare not tell her about Andrew. Her hormones are all over the place at the moment, and I don’t know how she’ll react to finding out that Andrew’s in a coma.
“There’s something you’re not telling me. What else are you keeping from me?”
I snap my head back to her, and curse under my breath.
Damn Kelly and her ability to pick up on when I’m avoiding things.
“Nothing,” I say and exhale. I remove any emotion from my voice, enough to convince her that I’m being, if not truthful, then at least truth-adjacent.
“Right. Well, I want to hear all the details of how you and Alexander got back together.”
“I’ve got to head to work, but I’ll call you on the weekend.” I don’t want to continue this conversation and set off a domino of lies that I’ll have to recall later.
“Come on, you can be late for work. Think of it as making up for the fact you completely missed my birthday,” she pleads as she sits down.
I wish I could talk to her, tell her about it all, but I’ve already missed the last two days of work and I need to get on top of things today while holding vigil at the hospital.
“I’ll call you on the weekend,” I say firmly and end the call.
The traffic back to Alexander’s from the hospital this afternoon proved to be a nightmare. The road leading up to his place was blocked on one side for tree cutting, adding twenty minutes to what should have been a fifteen-minute journey.
I’d attempted to dial into the Zoom meeting at 5 p.m. from my phone, but the reception was so bad heading up into the hills that it rendered my attempt to be on time pointless.
Pietro’s been accommodating to a point, given everything that happened with Andrew, and has allowed me to work from the hospital. But he’s still expecting me to be available when needed, which includes this post-campaign breakdown call with the Brewed team.
“Sorry to be late, I’ve just got back from the hospital,” I say as I finally get on the Zoom call.
Everyone is spread across the screen in their little boxes.
“How’s your housemate?” Pietro asks.
“He’s critical but stable,” I state matter-of-factly, wanting to move on quickly.
“We’re keeping you both in our thoughts and prayers,” Caryn says, rubbing her gold crucifix.
“Thank you,” I respond.
“Is your camera working? We can’t see you,” Chloe adds.
“Sorry, my laptop’s been playing up the past few days. I haven’t had a moment to try and get it fixed.”
Another truth-adjacent story. It is playing up, but I don’t want to blow my cover that I’m actually at Alexander’s house. Or that Alexander’s sitting beside me, wanting to listen in on what they’ll say about the campaign.
“That’s okay, we can carry on without it.” Paul is clearly in a rush.
“Did you all get the report that Olly sent round earlier?” I ask.
Olly has been an absolute godsend the past couple of days, and a mile apart from Sara and her lazy ways. I’m not sure if it’s his Southern hospitality, but no task has been too small. His proactiveness in terms of getting everything together, with little direction, has been a real help.
“We did,” Chloe answers, and the rest nod in agreement. “The numbers look really impressive.”
“Yes. The viral videos with Jools, Jesus, and Santa have exceeded even our expectations,” I say, pulling up the report.
“We’ve had over a hundred thousand unique posts using the Brewed Challenge hashtag, and as you can see on pages four through seven, we picked up a lot of big influencers who jumped on the trend as well as some big media looks, from the likes of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The LA Times, and a load of regional media. ”
I stop momentarily when Alexander slides a written note across the dining table.
Ask them about the Oklahoma girl.
“Is there any more on the Oklahoma woman?”
I wait and wonder who will take the bait.
“The media have been biting my arm off to get an interview with her,” Caryn says.
“She’s a bit reluctant to go on national television and talk about her story, but I think she can be convinced.
The fundraising page is already over two million dollars.
We just need to act quickly because we’ll lose interest in the story soon.
And with Thanksgiving tomorrow, we’ve really only got the next few hours. ”
My head drops as Alexander’s fists clench and I pat his arm.
I know Caryn means well, I really do, but I wish she’d not given that answer.
“Want me to put in a call to her?” Paul says. “I’m sure I can offer her something to push her over the line for you. Throw in something from Alex, perhaps.”
My hand flies over Alexander’s mouth to muffle his response.
His face is almost as red as his jumper.
Thank God, the camera is off so they can’t see. I mute the microphone and tell him to go cool down. His eyes are full of rage and his nostrils are flared. The warmth of his breath hits the palm of my hand as he fights to unleash a string of profanities.
Chloe’s voice draws my attention back to the screen.
“Christopher?”
Alexander angrily pushes the chair back as he gets up and walks outside.
“Sorry, I had a sneezing fit,” I say as I unmute myself.
Alexander paces up and down outside alongside the pool.
“Okay, keep me posted if you get her to agree, and I can add it to the tracking.” I feel bad for colluding while Alexander is outside stewing, but it’s best to play along for now, especially if he’s plotting to fire Paul.
“How are the sales numbers looking nationwide?” I ask, wanting to change topic.
“We’re up twelve percent year on year.” Chloe brings up a graph on-screen. “We’re doing even better in the states we did the activation events in. The targeted online advertising spend has California up almost twenty percent.”
Well, at least something is looking up.
The rest of the call passes quickly and we agree to pick up again after the holiday break. We wish one another a Happy Thanksgiving before I close my laptop and head out to Alexander, who is now swimming laps in the pool.
“Can you believe that son of a bitch,” Alexander says, stopping and resting his arms on the side of the pool as I sit down and dip my feet in.
“Unfortunately, I can.”
The twinkling lights from the mansions in the surrounding hills shine brightly as the sky above quickly fades into darkness.
“I can’t wait to see the look on his face when John delivers the news that he’s fired.” The corners of his eyes crinkle. “I have a right mind to phone John and tell him to do it tonight.”
My shoulders tense from the anger pouring out of him.
Please God, I don’t think I can handle any more drama in my life right now.
“I thought you were going to wait until Christmas. That way the announcement will go under the radar and be less of a story in the press.”
I want to see Paul go as much as Alexander. But I know there’s a game that needs to be played here. That the stars need to align, like Orion’s belt above me.
“You’re right.” Alexander scoots over in the water and places a hand on either side of my knees. “Damn you for being right.”
He pushes himself up, lips pouted together to kiss me. I lean forward, closing my eyes to return his gesture, when I feel him yank at my hands. I fly over the top of him and into the water.