Chapter 8 #3
“Did you have a good trip?” Renee Collins, a friend from college, asked as he sat down across from her at an uptown restaurant on a Saturday evening, over a week later. His father had kept him busy up until then. “You don’t look tan.”
“I was too far north for that,” he said, and ordered a martini when the server stopped at the table. “But it was a good trip.” He thought of Darren and felt himself smile for a second before it slipped away.
“Then why do you look like someone just kicked your dog?” she asked as she daintily sipped her drink. “After you smiled, something changed in your expression. Is your father being a pain in the butt? Well, more than usual?”
“My father is who he is. He’s not the problem, though I’d like to lay the blame for everything at his feet. He’s not the heart of the issue. It’s me.”
“Did you turn into a California boy while you were out there? Fall in love with the surf, sand, and sunshine?” She was teasing, but in a way, she hit the nail on the head.
Renee leaned forward. “You did, didn’t you?
” Her lips curled downward. “What the hell happened? You were gone two weeks and suddenly, everything changed. That can’t happen, so you need to snap out of it. Everyone you know is here, and….”
“Not everyone,” Chet said softly.
Renee paused right there, her beautiful blue eyes scanning him like they were equipped with radar. “You fell in love.” She grinned. “God damn, it’s about fucking time.”
“Hey. I’ve had boyfriends before.”
She rolled her eyes. “Puh-lease. One-night stands that happened to last two weeks does not a boyfriend make. You’ve had fuck buddies and Grindr hookups. But a boyfriend… a real one… nope. It sounds like this guy really touched your heart.”
“Yeah… well, it doesn’t do me any good. I’m here, he’s there, and I don’t even know if he feels the same way. My father is a pain in the ass. And I’m not sure what the hell to do.” He downed the rest of his drink and ordered another one. “Except get myself toasted enough to forget about it.”
“Doesn’t work,” Renee told him. “You drink, you get drunk, you forget, and then you sober up and you remember… and you have a hangover, so you remember harder and through a head stuffed with cotton. If this guy is so special…?”
Chet pulled out his fancy phone and showed Renee a picture of Darren that he’d taken while they were walking along the ocean, with the rocky Pacific cliffs in the distance. “We took a walk together and saw whales as they were passing.”
Renee looked at the picture, shaking her head. “You got it bad. The guy is cute, sort of. But he isn’t like the guys you usually go out with.”
“Nope. Darren works three jobs to try to hold his life together. He never stops.”
“How did you meet him?” Renee asked, handing back the phone.
Chet smiled. “He was the server at dinner the first night, and one of the guys had too much to drink and grabbed his backside.” He smiled more intensely.
“Darren didn’t stand for it. I made sure to leave him a really good tip, and then I found him at work the following day and asked to take him to lunch to make up for what happened.
I honestly expected just an apology lunch and that would be it.
But it wasn’t. He’s smart and funny, and he’s working so hard, he never gets a chance to just breathe, you know.
Then his aunt comes along and tries to yank away everything that he’s been working so hard to protect…
.” He shook his head as he wondered how that worked out.
“Do you guys talk?” Renee asked.
“Yeah. We have a few times. Mostly, we’ve texted and stuff because he works so much, and by the time he’s done, it’s early in the morning here. I’ve been busy, and I know he is, because Darren works like a fool most of the time.”
She motioned to the server and asked for drink refills, and they ordered food as well. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“What do you mean? My father is never going to go for working outside the office.”
Renee rolled her pretty eyes. “What is he going to do? Fire you? Please. You have a sizeable trust fund, and you already own a lot of the company, thanks to your grandfather, who had obvious doubts about your father.” She thanked the server when they brought the drinks and then glared at Chet.
“What you need to do is get off your butt and tell your father what you want and what will make you happy. Then go and make it happen. Sitting around here with kicked-puppy-dog face isn’t going to solve anything. ”
“But what if it doesn’t work out?” Chet asked quietly.
“Now you sound like a teenager. You have resources that most people would kill for. It’s not like you couldn’t come back.
But you have to find out if this is what you want and if he’s the one for you.
Sitting here not knowing is going to drive you crazy.
I mean, do you really want to wonder if Darren is the one you let get away?
Or do you want to find out and maybe have the life you always wanted? ”
Sometimes, she could cut through the crap faster than anyone he knew.