Chapter Six Hunter
Chapter Six
Hunter
I slide into the booth at Gardinier, my favorite Midtown restaurant, and allow myself to relax for the first time in a week.
Lunch with Ed will be good. I’m going to lay my cards on the table.
I’m going to tell him I’m pissed that he canceled only days before the meeting with FMCH.
I’m going to say that I don’t mind picking up the slack for him while he’s busy with wedding stuff, but I can’t do it forever.
It’s unsustainable. I feel like I’m a step away from losing my mind at any moment of the day.
If he thinks getting married means this is how things are going to stay, then he better speak now or forever hold his peace.
Because if things don’t change, I’m out.
We need to close down Portis Investments, and I’ll go and get myself a job.
The alternative is, I lose my mind and Portis goes belly up.
I won’t let either of those things happen.
But at least I haven’t totally lost my mind. Not yet. That honor goes to the absolutely unhinged sister of the bride.
I can’t be sure, but I think Lucy called me “sir” in front of FMCH last night.
I don’t know if she was trying to be polite, but she seemed like she was being all uptight.
Victorian, almost. Like maybe she was having some kind of .
. . episode or something. Had she tracked me down at the bar?
No, I haven’t answered her messages, but I’ve been busy trying to do Ed’s job on top of mine.
Is she stalking me? I just saw her outside Stranger than Fiction.
And then in the bar? I’ve never run into her before, and now twice in one week.
It doesn’t make sense. I know we work in offices next door to each other, but there are too many coincidences for my liking.
Does Ed know the family he’s marrying into?
Maybe Katherine’s the same as Lucy, but she hides it better.
I might mention it to Ed. I’ll just add it to my long list of uncomfortable conversations to have with my best friend.
I watch the door, cell in hand, half expecting Ed to cancel and cite a wedding emergency as an excuse. When I see him walk through the double doors, I exhale in relief.
He didn’t cancel.
I’m overthinking.
He’s still my best friend and business partner.
And then I see Katherine come through the door behind him, followed by my nemesis of the week: Lucy.
Perfect. This was meant to be a relaxed lunch between two friends to talk about business, not another opportunity to discuss-celebrate-mark Ed and Katherine’s wedding.
Ed greets me, all smiles. “Katherine came down with me and was meeting Lucy for lunch. It made sense to make it a foursome.”
Made sense to whom? Someone who doesn’t know Lucy?
“I do have some things I need to talk to you about regarding Portis,” I say.
“Sure. We can talk business, can’t we, babe?” he asks Katherine.
She rolls her eyes like all we do is talk business. I wish that were the case.
“Come on, babe. We need to go over some stuff. I think. Don’t we?” Ed’s gaze flits between me and his soon-to-be wife.
Lucy barely meets my eye as we grunt hellos at each other. Ed and Katherine take the seats opposite the booth, and Lucy gets shunted in next to me.
Perfect. Just fucking perfect.
We order our drinks, and Katherine and Lucy talk about the menu and the cocktails, intermittently mentioning names I’ve never heard of, while I just stare at the menu. I’ve lost my appetite. I’d rather be back in the office than sitting here listening to Lucy and her sister talk about nothing.
“Everything okay?” Ed asks me.
I glance up at Ed and then at Katherine. I can’t have the conversations I need to have here in front of everyone.
“Sure,” I say, my head buried back in the menu.
I wonder if I can have a work emergency and head back to the office.
This is the very last thing I wanted to do this lunchtime.
Literally, if you asked me to write a list of all the things I wanted to do today, lunch with Lucy would be right at the bottom after burn in hell.
“Are you sure?” Ed asks.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?” I ask.
“You seem stressed.”
“Things are really busy,” I say. Even though I don’t mean it to come out, I hear the resentment in my voice.
“Look, I’m sorry I missed the meeting with FMCH.”
I nod, but I can’t even look at him.
“Katherine was sick and didn’t think she was going to make the tasting thing. I didn’t want to be a plane ride away while she wasn’t feeling well.”
My limbs feel heavy, like I’m disappearing into the floor.
It’s only Katherine that he has to worry about at the moment.
What about when they start having kids? Kids are basically germ machines.
There won’t be a week that goes by without someone in that house being sick.
I’ll probably never see Ed again after the wedding.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say. I don’t mean it to sound as robotic as it does when it comes out.
“It sounds positive, though,” he says. “The meeting with FMCH, I mean.”
I nod, and the waitress comes over to take our order.
Katherine and Lucy go first. They ask questions about every single dish on the menu, and I’m a second away from grabbing my salad fork and stabbing Lucy through the heart when she finally decides on the chicken Caesar—the same as Katherine. How could it be so difficult?
Ed and I order the Wagyu burger. Because of course we do. Like we knew we were going to the moment we opened the menu. Just like Lucy knew she was going to order the chicken Caesar when she opened the menu, but she had to go through some elaborate facade of considering other options.
“Oh, I meant to order the elderflower mocktail,” Katherine says.
“I’ll go and ask the waitress,” Ed offers. He stands and presses a kiss to Katherine’s head, like he’s going to struggle being away from her for all of a minute and a half. He heads off toward the server station.
“Or maybe I should go with the Bellini mocktail?” Katherine asks, like either Lucy or I have the answer to what she wants to drink. Katherine stands and goes after Ed, leaving Lucy and me side by side, on our own.
“You haven’t replied to my messages,” she snipes from the corner of her mouth.
“Which one of the three hundred and fifty messages would you like me to reply to first?” I snark back. Under my breath, I mutter, “Do you think Katherine really wanted the Bellini mocktail, or did she not want to be away from Ed for a single second?”
“Any single one would do,” she replies. “And they’re in love. I think it’s cute that they want to be together all the time.” She sighs.
We both have our eyes on Ed and Katherine as they stand at the bar and peruse the drinks menu. Ed’s arm is around Katherine’s waist, and Katherine is resting her head on Ed’s arm. It’s like they have a need to be physically connected to each other at all times.
“What do you want from me?” I say on an exhausted sigh. “You’ve stalked me and harassed me in front of potential clients, and now you’re acting like you’re the injured party.”
“I saved you from embarrassing yourself at the engagement party by taking you back to your hotel. I made sure you didn’t vomit in the cab. And when I realized you were holding a serious business meeting in the bar the other night, I left. I don’t see you thanking me for any of that.”
“Thanking you?” I say through a grin I flash at Ed when he looks over. “For what? For behaving like a deranged psychopath whenever I see you?”
Lucy groans and slumps back in the booth.
“You’re so dramatic. For God’s sake. All I want to do is give my sister the perfect bachelorette party, and you’re acting like I’m the one who’s got problems. You might not give a shit about your friend, but sue me for caring about my sister.
And all your complaining hasn’t gotten us anywhere.
We still have nowhere to stay and have no prospect of finding anywhere.
The bachelor/bachelorette party is just over two weeks away. ”
“Wrong!” I exclaim smugly.
“Okay, two weeks and one day, you pedantic dick.”
“Wrong, we do have a place to stay for the weekend, you hapless harpy.”
Lucy narrows her eyes at me. “Hapless harpy? Hapless harpy? That’s the best you can do. Call me a bitch. Call me a ‘deranged psychopath,’ but ‘hapless harpy’?” She lets out another groan, and for some reason, it vibrates up my thighs and connects to my balls. “Pathetic.”
“You’re right. ‘Deranged psychopath’ was more accurate. The point is, we have a place to stay. I got us a Friday-to-Monday rental on the Cape. Kinda.”
Lucy eyes me suspiciously. “What do you mean, kinda?”
“That’s what you focus on? Not the fact that I’ve managed to procure the entire group a house for the weekend, right on the beach. You focus on the fact that I said it was kinda on the Cape.”
“Yeah, well, being on the Cape is super important to Katherine. So if it’s not exactly on the Cape, it’s not going to fly. Where is this supposed house?”
Ed and Katherine are heading back to the table hand in hand, grinning at each other. They’re ridiculous.
“I’ll tell you when I next see you,” I say through gritted teeth.
Lucy is almost out of her seat, she’s so filled with frustration.
A part of me is sort of enjoying toying with her.
“I’ve messaged you nineteen times asking you for an update, and you’ve ignored me.
I’ve tried my best to get you to meet with me, but I get crickets.
This celebration is in two weeks. We need to meet and make plans. ”
Lucy falls silent as Katherine and Ed get to the table.
“You know one of the best things about this joint party?” Katherine asks. In her two hands, she grabs mine and Lucy’s hands across the table. “It’s seeing the two of you building a relationship and becoming friends. It makes me so happy.”
“Seriously,” Ed says. “We were saying on the way down that the way Lucy saw you back to the hotel after the engagement party was really nice. It’s so great that you’re getting on so well.
You know you’ve always felt like family to me, Hunter.
And Lucy is going to be actual family. It’s so great we can all hang out like this. ”
“It’s perfect!” Katherine says. “I never want to have to worry who to invite to what events. Especially when we’re down here in New York.”
Lucy gives me a playful punch to my arm. “One big happy family.”
“And seriously, you should feel free to talk business,” she says. “Some of the time, at least. In fact, now, even. Lucy and I can chat if you two want to talk about something.”
Ed looks at me expectantly. But this isn’t a business lunch. Not anymore. It’s not like we can actually talk.
“I understand how important work is to you both,” Katherine says.
Does she, though? Because if she really did, would she even be here? And the thing I was going to talk to Ed about was his focus. Or lack of it. It’s not like I can bring that up now. Or maybe if I say a little, Katherine will understand the situation and encourage Ed to get his head in the game?
“Okay,” I say, my tone cautious. “We’ve got a lot going on, as you know. We’re all working really long hours, but we’re just keeping the wheels on. We need to start automating some of the admin processes we have, and that takes a lot of resources.”
“What?” Lucy asks. It takes everything I have not to roll my eyes at the interruption. “Admin processes like KYC and stuff?”
I take a beat. Should I be discussing this in front of Lucy? Why is she so interested?
“Yes, KYC and some of the financial questionnaires. It would be good to have it automated, but doing it takes time—”
“You can get consultancies to come in and do it. That’s what we did in our firm.
They’re industry specific. I had to look into it because I automated all the NDAs.
No one had done it because they were all focused on the big documents, but actually it’s saved a ton of time because we use them so frequently.
It’s really worth the investment.” She nods enthusiastically, and for a moment I wonder if she’s been possessed by a fully functioning human rather than the deranged psycho we both agree she normally is.
“Right,” I say, nodding to Ed. “That’s what I keep saying. Even though they’re short documents, it saves time—”
“And it’s more professional these days,” Lucy interrupts. “If you’re not automating things like KYC while your competitors are, you’re wasting money.”
“Right,” I say, spluttering in agreement. “It’s an investment worth making.”
“Sounds good,” Katherine says.
Ed sighs as if he can’t think about another thing. “Maybe we can look into getting a consultancy firm in to do it. We’re spread so thin at the moment.”
Don’t I know it.
“And if we keep growing, it’s only going to get worse,” I say.
Lucy nods like she’s totally in my corner, and it makes me equally terrified and grateful.
“I can give you the name of the firm we used,” she says. “We were going to meet up to go through some of the planning for the bachelor and bachelorette weekend, aren’t we, Hunter? I can give you more information then.”
“Sounds good,” I say, trying not to be obvious that the last thing I want to do is meet up with Lucy.
“Remind me when you said that was going to be? Was it tonight? I know you’re super eager to arrange everything.”
“Well, I’ve done the hard part and found the perfect beach house,” I say. “I don’t think we need to overprepare.”
“Perfect!” Lucy exclaims. “That’s what’s so great about Hunter. He’s so confident. I’m coming over to your place tonight to plan everything and look at detailed images of this perfect beach house. It’s going to be fantastic.” She pulls out her phone. “Tell me your address?”
Fuck. I’m in checkmate. I can’t refuse to give her my address—it seems shady because we’re both playing along with the whole we get on like besties vibe.
But if I give her my address, I’ll have her camped out on my doorstep, demanding this, that, and the other.
If Ed wasn’t here, I’d just give her a fake address, maybe somewhere way up in the Bronx, so she can have a nice long subway ride to think about her recent actions.
But given he’s stayed at my place, there’s no way I can get away with that.
I should have just messaged her and said I’d found the place.
If I’d done that, she probably wouldn’t insist we need a meeting.
It’s my own stupid fault. In fact, if I’d done that, she probably wouldn’t have stomped over in the bar and embarrassed us both.
Or herself, mainly. I can admit that I’ve been a bit of a dick, though I’ll never confess it out loud.
Because she’s been . . . a hapless harpy.
“I’m at 222 Lexington. You can come by at eight tonight, and we’ll figure everything out.”
I deserve my fate, whatever that might be.