Chapter 2 #2
The plane landed at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey slightly ahead of schedule.
It had been a smooth flight. There were often storm warnings in the Midwest at that time of year, but there had been none that night.
They taxied down the runway and took their assigned spot among a sea of private jets.
It was the airport they all used. It was simpler than JFK, where they could be assigned a holding pattern for several hours while the big commercial flights came in from all over the world.
There was an SUV with a driver to pick Charlie up.
He used a car service in New York, and he told the pilot and copilot he would see them in two days.
They had his itinerary. His office was efficient.
Charlie got into the car, and an hour later, they were at his address on Fifth Avenue in the heart of midtown, three blocks from Central Park.
Charlie loved coming to New York, the excitement and electricity of it.
It was a far cry from his peaceful home in Atherton, and his office in Palo Alto.
He did big business there, and was part of a club of high-tech titans who contributed to the success of the economy.
But going to New York was like going to Mecca.
It felt like the heartbeat of the universe, the whole city throbbing with its own special energy.
It was dizzying in a way that he loved. Every fiber of his being was awake and alert, despite the late hour.
It was three a.m. when he let himself into his apartment.
It wasn’t a home, it was a place to stay when he did business in New York.
It was on the sixtieth floor, with a terrace.
He dropped his bag in his bedroom and unlocked the doors to the terrace.
A housekeeping service kept the place neat and clean in his absence.
Gardeners had turned the terrace into a garden, where he could sit and relax on warm nights, with a dining table.
He was wide-awake. It was only midnight in California, and he had slept on the flight.
New York fueled and energized him and he was always a little bit sorry that he didn’t come there more often. He had work all over the country.
He opened a bottle of chilled white wine, poured himself a glass, and went out to lie in one of the comfortable deck chairs. He looked up at the sky and could see the stars. He sipped the wine and was the master of his world.
He used to come into the city when he was at Princeton, and he had longed to live there one day, but his father had wanted him to come straight back to California as soon as he graduated from business school and he never got the chance.
He had always found the East more exciting, and would have liked to be part of it.
He had had five years at Princeton, and three at Harvard.
He had liked Boston, but nothing had the white-hot sizzle of New York.
He was happy to be there, even if only for two days.
He gave himself half an hour to unwind, showered, and went to bed, and Ted Baker called him at eight o’clock the next morning.
Charlie was drinking a cup of coffee, reading The New York Times on his iPad, and had been admiring the morning skyline.
There was a steely beauty to it. He had done some deals with Ted Baker, and Ted had a new deal he wanted to discuss with him.
Charlie had agreed to have dinner with him that night and listen to what he had in mind.
They had been at business school together.
Ted had made a name for himself with medical startups, and although he hadn’t done quite as well as Charlie, he was a straight shooter and Charlie liked him.
“Are we still on for tonight?” Ted asked him when Charlie answered his phone.
“Of course. I’m going to be all over the place today, looking at restaurants, but I should be back in the city and ready to roll by seven.”
“Sounds good. I’ll reserve somewhere.” They were both steak and martini men, and had done some heavy drinking together in Cambridge in grad school.
Ted was recently divorced, with three kids in Connecticut with his ex-wife, and having fun being on the single scene again.
Charlie couldn’t imagine what that would be like at nearly fifty, but the last time they had spoken, Ted said he was enjoying it.
“I want to make a quick stop on the way to dinner, you can come with me. It’s an art opening at a big deal gallery.
I’ve seen the artist’s work and it’ll knock your socks off.
Incredible portraits. I want to see the exhibit, and the opening is tonight.
They give good parties, with lots of good-looking women.
” Charlie groaned when he said the word “portraits.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to have a portrait done.”
“Not now. But you’re no one in this town if you haven’t had a Devon Darcy portrait done. They’re amazing.” Charlie couldn’t tell if the artist was a man or a woman and didn’t care.
“I’m chairman of the board of my father’s bank now, and the board tried to talk me into having a portrait done to hang at the bank with the rogues’ gallery of my ancestors.”
“Terrific. You can check them out tonight.”
“I’m planning to send the board a selfie. I’d feel a hundred years old having my portrait done. I’m never going to sit for a portrait, but I’m happy to go with you. I can vet the women for you while you look at the art. Or I can just hand out slips of paper with your number.”
“I’m doing fine without your help, Taylor. I can check out the women and look at the art. I’ll pick you up at your place at seven. Happy to see you, Charlie, and I think you’ll like the deal I have my eye on.”
“We can talk about it at dinner. See you later.” Charlie was smiling when he hung up.
He and Ted had had some good times together in Boston and New York twenty-five years before.
He’d been dating Faye by then, and Ted thought he was crazy when he came back married from a Vegas weekend.
Ted thought Faye was good-looking, but he knew that Charlie wasn’t madly in love with her, and he could never understand why they had stayed married.
He had never known two people who had less in common.
Ted had been crazy in love with his wife when he married her, and now he was divorced, and Charlie was still married to the same woman, a marriage Ted had thought would never work.
By nine a.m., Charlie was in the car, being driven to all the locations on his list, in the five boroughs of New York, and several farther out of the city.
He had a busy day, but it helped him decide which restaurants he would keep and which he would sell—there were several that he really wanted, though he had to buy all twenty of them to get the choice ones.
At the end of the day, when he got back to the hotel, Charlie showered, shaved, and changed into a perfectly cut summer-weight dark blue suit that his New York tailor had made for him. He looked sensational in the dark suit with his dark hair. He was a handsome man.
Charlie went downstairs and stood on the sidewalk, enjoying the hustle and bustle on the streets, watching people, and keeping an eye out for Ted.
Charlie mildly envied him his new bachelor life, but he was sure there was a downside to it too, which was why he and Faye had decided not to divorce.
The divorce must have cost Ted a fortune, and he knew he’d given his ex the house, a big sprawling mansion in Greenwich, because his children had grown up there, and his wife still lived there.
Charlie had never liked Emily much when they were all in grad school together.
Faye had been a lot more fun, and even that had faded within a year of their marriage.
They weren’t kids anymore, and the last time he’d seen Emily, she had let her hair go gray and gained some weight.
It wasn’t a good look. She was two years younger than Faye, and looked a lot older.
Ted showed up five minutes late, driving a silver Ferrari. He honked and waved at Charlie, who ran around the car and got in. He glanced over at Ted as he took off down Fifth Avenue, made a left, and headed east, and then turned up Madison, heading uptown.
Charlie glanced at him with a grin. “Nice car. Part of your seduction act?” Charlie teased him.
“I just got it,” Ted said proudly. “And I don’t need a car to close the deal.”
“Lucky for you,” Charlie quipped, as they headed uptown on Madison Avenue, past all the restaurants and elegant shops.
“What’s new on the home front? Liam okay?”
“Better than ever. He just graduated from Yale last month, and is going back for grad school after the summer, to study architecture. He’s leaving for Europe today, to check out some chateaux in France, and castles in England.”
“He sounds a lot better behaved and smarter than we were,” Ted said with a smile.
“Thanks for indulging me, so we can see the opening of that show tonight. I’m mesmerized by those portraits.
When I know I’ve made it, I’m going to sit for one, and then I’ll know I’ve really arrived.
” Charlie laughed at the reverent way he said it, as though the artist was some kind of sacred status symbol.
Ted spoke of the work in a tone of awe, which seemed odd to Charlie and surprised him.
They made small talk about mutual friends on the drive uptown.
Ted was in touch with more of their classmates than Charlie, since most of them lived in and around New York, and fewer had landed in the West.