Chapter 69
Tyler
“Tyler? You all right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m just . . . I’m just on my way to a meeting. I wanted to check in. How are you? How’s California? How’s
everything?”
“You don’t sound all right, kid. What’s going on out there? What’s the matter?”
I grimaced, locking my bike to the railing of the clubhouse. That same semi-disgraced movie producer walked by. I gave him
a quick wave, and he gave me one back.
“Katie and her mom got in a fight,” I said, taking a few steps from the meeting. I still had a couple of minutes. “A big one.
It was about Mikey. Katie told her mom off, basically, and then she fell apart for an hour, and I did everything right. I
held her, and I let her talk, and I listened. And then she asked me why I left, and I froze. I ended up giving her a stock
answer and agreeing to go with her to her mom’s thing for Mikey on Saturday. She’s home, napping, and . . .”
Arthur was quiet for a moment.
“I think you gotta tell her,” he said. “This isn’t just sex you’re having.
This is a relationship you’re in, a real one.
It’s not going to go anywhere if you can’t be honest. In a couple of weeks, this project is going to be over.
You’ll be back at the school, Katie will pick up another contract .
. . This thing you’ve got—you’re going to have to test it out in the real world.
And you can’t do that without telling her the truth.
You’ve known this was coming. That, eventually, you’d have to find a way through.
You can’t put this off forever. Not anymore—not after she asked you for answers. ”
I tightened my fist. “I know. But things between her and her mom are even worse than I realized. If I tell Katie what really
happened, why I really left . . . What if I lose her? And what if I don’t? I already took Mikey away from Carolyn. I can’t
do it again. I can’t take a second child from her, I—”
“You,” Arthur said, “did not take Mikey away from her. That is not what happened. You are not responsible for that. He had
every opportunity to get clean.”
“I know. And I believe you, really. But it doesn’t change the fact that if there were no me, he’d still be here, and then
Katie’s parents would be all right, and then Katie would be all right.”
“She’s a grown woman, Tyler. She’s an adult, and she is your colleague, and she is sleeping in your bed, and she has given
you a second chance to show her what kind of man you are. She deserves the truth. She can make her own decisions about what
to do with that information.”
I closed my eyes. “I’ll try.”
“Don’t try,” he said. “Do. Tell her the truth, and then suit up and show up. Let her decide whether you belong at that ball.”
“It’s not a ball. It’s a gala.”
He laughed at that. “I miss you, you little punk. When I’m back and you have all this sorted, stop by the apartment. Bring
the girl. Unless you’re too embarrassed to let her see Rachel whoop your overeducated ass in Scrabble for the thousandth time.”
“Fuck you!” I said. “Your wife’s a cheater, and her two-letter words close off the board!”
Arthur laughed again. I was about to hang up and head into the clubhouse when he stopped me.
“Hey, Tyler?”
“Yeah?”
“Get it right this time.”