Chapter 04 #2
Kevin tries to argue a few times, his mouth opening and closing without a word.
But he knows I’m right. This is what we need to do to make sure Kelex stays afloat.
A large part of the public might condone what Nammota did and praise me for it, but the investors and stockholders, those rich men I specifically stole from, don’t.
“Are you sure about this?” Andrea asks, leaning forward to rest her hand over mine on the table.
“All I’ve been doing lately is sit around and think about it. I’ve considered every aspect of the situation, made my calculations, weighed the pros and cons … This is the right thing to do, I’m sure of it.”
“But is it the thing you want to do?” she insists.
“What I want doesn’t matter right now. Kelex is hemorrhaging money, and we need to stop the hemorrhage before it’s too late. If I get out—”
“When you get out,” she corrects me.
Again, her unwavering hope sends a painful sting through my heart. I straighten up, remove my hand from under hers, and rest both on my lap.
“If the time comes, I can buy the shares back from Kevin. Until then, it’s better this way.”
“If I accept, you’ll buy everything back the moment you’re out. With interest,” he adds with a crooked smile.
“If I feel like I can do so without affecting the company’s image, I will, yes.”
Kevin sighs, scratches the underside of his jaw as he thinks, and eventually shakes his head with annoyance. “You know you’re a pain in the ass, right?”
I let out a humorless laugh, aware that I’m usually the one telling him that. “Trust me, I’d rather not be in this situation. But I can’t watch the company we’ve worked so hard to build collapse into nothingness.”
“Yes, I get it. That’s why I’m agreeing to this. But I’ll have you buy those stocks back and return as co-CEO as soon as you’re out.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
The table is silent for a moment as we digest this new information and its implications. Andrea is the first one to speak again, saying, “Does this mean you’re not my boss anymore?”
I hadn’t even thought of it from that angle. But no, I’m not her boss anymore. Or I won’t be for much longer. We’ve gotten good at not letting work interfere with our romantic life, but this still feels like a page turning. A big, lengthy page of our story.
“Oh, stop it with the sad glances,” Kev intervenes with an eye roll. “It’s only temporary. He’ll be bossing you around again as soon as he’s out.”
Andrea lets out a small laugh. “As if Lex could ever stop bossing people around.”
I let out a huff, refusing to let them band together against me. “How’s my goddaughter-to-be?” I ask, cleverly changing the course of the conversation.
Whatever time we have left passes in a blink. Kev tells me about little Maddison, Andrea gives me a report on how her app is doing, and the guards announce that the time is up. We’re all surprised to see it’s already over.
Once we’re standing, she’s quick to come around the table to give me another long hug, her eyes wet with tears. “I love you,” she utters, looking up.
This time, I can’t resist the need to pass my thumb over her freckled cheek, wiping away the single tear that spilled over.
“Come on, Coleman. How many times do I need to tell you?” The guard has returned, ruining the moment.
Andrea lets go, and it feels like a limb is being torn from me. This time, Kevin offers only a wave paired with a nod and a smile. “We’ll see you next weekend, old friend.”
“Take care of her for me, He-Man.”
He wraps his arm around Andrea’s shoulders and promises, “Of course. Shelly and I are on it.”
“I can take care of myself,” Andrea protests in a small voice.
“Of course you can, you stubborn dork.”
The guard grabs my arm, apparently out of patience. “Alright, Coleman, let’s go.”
After one last look at them, I turn around and let the guard lead me to the door.
As I return to what’s become my painful reality, I can’t help but hope Andrea’s foolish optimism turns out to be right. Maybe I’ll be out soon.
But somehow, I doubt it.
“We drove four hours, waited an hour, and only got to see him for twenty minutes,” I vent as Kevin drives us out of the prison’s parking lot.
“We should have planned better. We’ll know next time.”
I nod, twisting around to look at the austere building one last time. I can’t believe my Lex is stuck in there for months at the very least.
“How did you find him?” I ask Kev.
“Well, closed off, but that’s his defense mechanism. To be honest, I didn’t expect him to be any different.”
I nod, replaying everything that happened with Lex. He didn’t say I love you back, which I can’t take too personally. Like Kevin said, building up walls is his way of protecting himself. When he comes out, I’ll slowly break them down, like I’ve done in the past.
“I hope he won’t say the wrong thing to the wrong person and get himself shivved,” I say with genuine worry.
“He’s gotten a lot better at not pissing people off. I’m sure he’ll be okay. And you heard what he said: they’re keeping a close eye on him.”
I pensively look out the window, watching the landscape as Kevin gets us on the highway toward Portland. Probably in an attempt to cheer me up, he asks, “Did he tell you about our last summer together as kids?”
That piques my interest, so I turn to look at his profile. “No, never. What happened?”
“Well, he was thirteen, heading toward senior year, and I was fifteen and on my way to being a sophomore. It was his last high school year before Harvard, so he had a lot of courses to get through during the summer. He’d negotiated with his parents that he’d do the work if he got to have three afternoons with me, since it would be our last summer.
Richard and Miriam didn’t like that, but they didn’t really have a choice.
So, we did a bunch of stuff that year. At least once a week, we’d go to the mall and spend hours at the arcade machines.
We also stayed at my house a lot, playing video games, swimming in the pool, reading comic books …
But then I had the brilliant idea of getting myself a girlfriend for the second half of the summer. ”
“Oh … How did that go?”
“Like you can imagine it’d go for a fifteen-year-old trying to get laid for the first time,” he explains with a wince.
“I saw more and more of Samantha, to the point where I was barely spending any time with Lex. He spent his days working on his courses instead of enjoying summer break, like he wanted.”
There’s remorse in his voice as he speaks, guilt that still lingers twenty-two years later.
“I only realized that I’d abandoned him when the summer ended.
I felt like shit, expecting to find Lex pissed at me, feeling betrayed and angry.
But he wasn’t. He welcomed me back with the new comics he’d received, genuinely happy to see me.
I think he was so used to being discarded and ignored, it just …
made sense I’d do the same to him. From that day on, I promised myself I’d never abandon him again, no matter the circumstances. ”
“You’re a good man, Kevin Langley. I don’t think many fifteen-year-old boys experiencing their first love would have that kind of insight.”
“I try to be. And there’s always been something about Lex that makes me want to protect him. To be there for him. As an only child, I think I was in need of a little brother, and he became that.”
“Did you get laid in the end?” I ask with a grin.
“I did. Several times. Sam was a very bold sixteen-year-old. We dated for about two years, and we ended things when she left for college. Then, a year after that, I joined Lex at Harvard. We’d kept in touch, but he was happy to have a friend again.”
“He doesn’t have many of those.”
“He doesn’t. But it means we get more of him for ourselves, doesn’t it?” he asks with an impish smile.
“I guess it does,” I agree with a chuckle.
Kev tells me more about Lex’s childhood, and I not only appreciate the distraction but also love to hear it all. If anything, Lex has an unwavering inner strength, which I know will serve him well for the months to come.
As we get closer to Portland, I suggest, “Do you—uh—would you be okay with a little detour?”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m about to meet the Walkers?”
I guess I really am an open book. “If you’re okay with it, of course. Plus, there are always some leftovers in the fridge, so we can have lunch there and resume our drive afterward.”
“Oh, I’m absolutely okay with it. Lex told me about your grandma, and I can’t wait to meet her.”
I chuckle at the thought of Lex gushing over Maria Carmen to him. “I think he has a crush on her.”
“He definitely does. You’re lucky he likes you more.”
I smile again at that. There’s something about Kevin that never fails to cheer me up.
Maybe it’s his contagious optimism or lighthearted energy that seeps through me.
More and more, I understand why Lex chose him to be his one great friend.
They might seem like an odd pairing at first, but they complement each other well, one grounded and one utopian.
A few months. All we have to do is wait for the trial, get Lex out, and then life will resume. Lex can do that. He’s gone through an entire childhood of adversity, of being ill-fitted, of not blending in. He can handle it again for a few months. I’m sure of it.
He has to.