shuhaige
72
My father’s driver pulled up, and Dad stalled in front of the backseat, his fingers gripping the door handle. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
I walked closer and leaned in, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Yes, you will, Dad. Good night.”
The second I got into my car, I pulled out my phone, hoping to see a text from Jenner.
There was a screen full of notifications, not a single one from him.
I started the engine, and as I drove out of the lot, I called him.
He didn’t answer.
I tried again, my call going to voice mail.
I wanted to go to his house, but there was a chance he wasn’t home.
He could have gone to Dominick’s to drink his face off.
Or to Ford’s house.
He could even be sitting at a bar, wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into.
But I knew that if he wasn’t answering my calls, he needed space, so instead of driving to his house, I went to my apartment, and I was so relieved to see Monica on the couch when I walked in.
“I didn’t expect you tonight-” Her voice cut off when our eyes connected. “Oh fuck, babe. What happened?”
I left my heels by the door, not trusting myself to walk in them, and I hurried over to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of wine that I brought to the couch. I tugged out the cork that was halfway in and guzzled straight from the bottle.
“It’s like that?” she asked.
She knew what tonight was.
We’d been texting about it for days. She’d even given me a pep talk before I left for dinner.
“Mmhmm.” I wiped my mouth. “It went horribly bad.” I handed her the wine, watching her drink straight from the bottle. “Like Jenner left the restaurant, and Dad is beyond pissed. He will barely even talk to me. Jenner isn’t answering my calls.”
Her eyes went wide. “Okay.” She gave me back the bottle, encouraging me to lift it to my mouth, and while I chugged more down, she said, “It’s okay. We’ll figure this out. Somehow. Yes, somehow, we’ll make this better.”
“We will?” I tested her. “How?”
My best friend usually had the answer to everything.
But this time, I just didn’t know.
As I was waiting for her to respond, still holding my phone in my hand, it vibrated.
A new text appeared on the screen.
Jenner: I’m at Dominick’s, getting shit-faced, but I need to know that you’re all right. And I need you to know I love you.
“See,” Monica said as I showed her his message. “Like I said, everything is going to be just fine.”
“Fine?” I mocked. “Fine is the worst word in the world. No one wants to be fine.”
“Fiiine, then it’s going to be great.” She pointed at my phone. “Reply to your man and then come here.” She held out her arms. “I think we could both really use a hug.”Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.
JENNER
“F
uck,” Ford said as he stared at me from the other side of my desk. “That’s some serious shit.”
Dominick and I had just finished filling him in on everything that had gone down at the restaurant last night and then the drinking that had transpired at Dominick’s house after.
I’d been buried in meetings all day, and this was the first opportunity I’d had to catch up with my little brother.
As we sat in my office, Dominick poured us drinks. My hangover from last night was just barely lifting, and the scotch wasn’t going down as easily as I wanted.
“What has Jo said about all this?” Ford asked.
“We haven’t talked that much,” I admitted. “I called her when I got home from Dominick’s. I was a drunken fucking mess. I barely remember what she said. And our conversation this morning was brief-both of us were running late to work and heading into meetings.” I pushed the glass toward my computer, getting it farther away from me. “This is the first time I’ve been free all day.”
“I wonder what it was like for her, facing her father at work today,” Dominick said.
“Me too,” I replied. “Hell, she had to face him when I left the restaurant. I’m curious what he said to her and what she said to him.”
“So, now what?” Ford asked. “Do you carry on like the conversation with Walter never happened? Do you put things on pause with Jo-”
“Fuck no. There’s no pause,” I said, cutting him off. “Jo Spade is mine. I came clean. I did the right thing. If he doesn’t want to work with me anymore, that’s on him. But it’s not going to affect my relationship with his daughter.”
“Says the dude who was never going to fall in love,” Ford joked.
I flipped him off at the same time my phone vibrated, and I lifted it out of my pocket, staring at the screen.
“Jesus …” I groaned. “Speak of the goddamn devil.”
Walter: Let’s talk. Meet me in the bar of my hotel.
“Walter?” Dominick asked. “What did he say?”
I glanced up from my phone. “He wants to meet up at his hotel.”
Dominick came back with, “Don’t burn the place down, please. It’s my favorite spot in LA.”
I looked at my brother. “Is it?”
“That’s where I met Kendall.”
“Oh shit, that’s right,” I replied. The grand opening was the night he had met his girl on the rooftop. “Don’t worry; nothing is going up in flames this evening.”
My thumbs hit the screen, typing out a reply.
Me: I’ll be there in 15 minutes.
As I stood from my chair, grabbing my jacket from the back of it, Ford said, “What the fuck are you going to say to him?”
I slipped my arms through the holes, adjusting the front on my chest. “Don’t know.”
“That you’re going to date his daughter whether he likes it or not?” Dominick challenged.
I chuckled. “Sure, I’ll use those exact words, and we’ll see how well that goes over.”
“I’m glad it’s you and not me,” Ford said. “I have enough drama in my life between having a four-year-old and needing a full-time nanny.”
“And then there’s baby mama,” Dominick added.
“We don’t talk about baby mama,” Ford snapped back.
“Listen,” I said to them, “while you two bitch this out-or whatever you’re doing-I’m going to go.”
When I reached my doorway, I heard, “Good luck,” and I kept walking down the hallway and into the garage, where my driver was waiting for me.
“Spade Hotel,” I told him, and I looked at the screen of my phone, tapping the necessary buttons to call Jo.
After three rings, her voice mail picked up, and I started my message. “It’s me,” I said. “I’m on my way to meet your father. He wants to talk. I’ll call you when I get out.” A beat passed, and I added, “I love you.”
My office wasn’t far from the hotel, which had made it convenient when Walter was in the thick of construction, the short commute allowing me to get there fast and promptly.
Something my client had appreciated at the time.