Chapter 2 #2
Chet glanced over as Darren looked down at his feet.
“Do you not want to go? I can cancel the reservation, and we can try someplace else.” He pulled off the side of the road.
“It’s perfectly okay. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.
” His grandmother had always told him that manners mattered, and that if you were hosting someone, it was your job to make them feel welcome.
“No. It’s okay. The food there is tasty, and they’re good people. If you made a reservation, then they will have held a table. If we cancel, then the restaurant and the server will suffer, and I don’t want that.” He smiled. “Please, let’s just have dinner. I’m sorry I said anything.”
Before he pulled out, Chet lightly touched Darren’s arm. “Don’t be. Honesty is really important.” He took a deep breath and held it. “In the world I come from, it’s all games and power plays. No one is ever really telling the whole truth.”
To his surprise, Darren put his hand on top of Chet’s.
“I’m sorry about that. With my grandmother, I always knew I was loved and cared for.
There were no games with her. If she was angry or disappointed, she showed it, and when she was happy or proud of me, she would dance me around the room.
I always knew where I stood and that I was loved, no matter what. ”
Chet always wished he had had that. “It always seemed like I was trying to earn my father’s approval.
” He parked the car, and they got out and walked to the restaurant door, where Chet held it for Darren.
Inside, he gave his name to the hostess, and she shared a quick smile with Darren.
Once at the table, they sat down, and the server brought water and menus.
“I’m sorry. I forgot what I was saying.”
“Earning your father’s approval,” Darren said softly, his gaze not leaving Chet’s, like he was truly interested.
“Yeah. He sent me to prep school, and I graduated at the top of the class, won the football trophy, and was head boy—the trifecta. From there, I went to Harvard, graduated, again at the top of my class in business school, before earning an MBA and considering law school. I was accepted to whatever program I wanted. My father barely blinked and didn’t even bother coming to my graduation, where I gave the commencement address. ”
Darren drank some of his water. “I think I would have told my father to go screw himself after that. I knew my father until I was five. Then he left my mother. She always said that he didn’t care about us, but I met him again when I was fourteen, and he told me he left because he couldn’t take my mother’s drinking any longer.
He said he tried to get custody of me more than once, and I believed him.
He and I talk sometimes now. My mother is still alive, but I have nothing to do with her for my own sanity.
Being on my own is hard, but she made her own choices, and I refuse to live with them.
That’s why I came out here in the first place. ”
“You were lucky,” Chet said, “to have a refuge from all the mess. I wish I had.” He really did.
“Now I work for my father, but I refuse to give him any real power over my life anymore. That’s part of why I’m here.
I needed some time away. My friends are back home, and it’s just me for the next two weeks. I completed my last business deal.”
“What does your family do?”
Chip chuckled. “We make cookies. Lots and lots of them. My great-grandmother made terrific cookies, and her husband was smart enough to build a business around them. They had a bakery in New York, then expanded and made them commercially, using her recipes. They supplied them to restaurants and stores, and the business grew and grew. They are still made today. You would know them as Laura’s. ”
Darren’s mouth hung open. “I love those. They taste like real cookies. Grandma never baked, but she always had Laura’s in the house.”
“It’s because we use the same recipe. There have been a few minor changes.
The first was so the dough would work in the machines, and the second was so they would last a little longer.
But you notice there is still a date on the boxes.
That’s because we don’t pump them full of preservatives and that’s why they taste so good.
But it also means that we have to keep them fresher and ship them out more quickly.
And that’s the deal I’ve been working on for the past three months.
” He was pretty proud of it, and whether his father recognized what he’d done was secondary.
Somehow, he had managed his father’s changing requirements and the needs of the distributor and gotten a deal that would be good for the company long term.
“Hey, Darren,” Ron said as he came to their table. “Can I take your drink orders?”
Chet ordered a whiskey old-fashioned, and Darren asked for the same. The server got their drinks. “What’s really good here?”
“The Brussels sprouts are amazing. I don’t really care for them, but these are good.
As for the menu, they do everything really well.
I love the chicken or the duck, but the steak is great.
The seafood comes from the market in the harbor, so it’s super fresh, caught today.
” Darren set aside his menu. “I’m going to have the sea bass.
The chef here does it wonderfully. It’s what I get when I’m working…
that is, if there is any left, and there usually isn’t. ”
Ron returned with their drinks, and Chet ordered the duck, while Darren had the sea bass. Chet also ordered the Brussels sprouts.
“You said you were in the area for a couple of weeks. What else are you going to do while you’re here?
There isn’t all that much to keep you entertained.
You could go over to the Anderson Valley and do some winery tours.
” He sounded so excited. “There’s one there that has goats, and they make their own cheese. It’s almost better than the wine.”
“I’ll have to check it out, unless you want to go with me.
We could drive over on your next day off from the store.
We could leave in the morning, and I promise to have you back in time for you to work in the evening.
” He found himself extending the invitation so easily.
Chet was usually much more circumspect with people he had just met.
“That would be Sunday, and I’m not sure they’re open. But if they are, I’d like to go.”
“Then I’ll check. Give me your number, and I can text you the details.” He waited while Darren gave him the number. He put it in his phone and called Darren, so he’d have his contact info too. “I think it would be fun.”
“Me too.” That smile told him that spending time with Darren had the potential to be more than just fun. But he was getting ahead of himself.