Page 57 of The Smoke Hour

“You shouldn’t be so disrespectful, Terry.”

“Why are you in my office? Cassandra! Get in here, now!”

“She took an early lunch break, Terry. Sorry about that. It’s just you and me here in this office. Oh, yeah, and Big Sam. He’s in the lobby. You don’t have to worry about any visitors. We have the out to lunch sign hung on the door, and the door’s locked.”

“What out to lunch sign?”

“The one that we purchased for the convenience of today’s meeting,” I stated.

I spun around in his chair and looked out the window.

“Very impressive view of the falls,” I stated.

“Listen, you thug…”

I spun back around to face him.

“Aht, aht, aht. I’d be careful with the name-calling if I were you. I’m a sensitive man. My therapist told me that I have an emotional behavioral disorder. You know,” I stated as I steepled my fingers. “I wish that someone would have figured that shit out and diagnosed me when I was just a kid.

“I mean, they could have gotten me help as a kid, and I wouldn’t have these anger management issues that I deal with now. But that’s what the love of a good woman can do for you. She helps you see your flaws so that you can deal with them properly. Well, I guess that’s why you’ve replaced Devorah with Cassandra. She wasn’t good enough?”

“It’s none of your business, but Devorah and I are still together. She’s starting her own business.”

“Does she know you’re screwing your new secretary? That must be a thing for you.”

He frowned but didn’t respond.

“Unresponsive. That’s rude, Terry. I’m still in the early stages of therapy, so I wouldn’t advise you to push my buttons and test me to see if the therapy is working or not. I hate to fire my doctor because her techniques failed. You wouldn’t want that either, would you, Terry?”

“What I want is for you to leave this office and never come back.”

“I’m hurt that you feel that way. I thought that you might be excited to receive a visit from an old friend.”

“I’m no fool, Socco. I know that the flowers sent to the hospital, the man who walked by my room on several occasions just to peep in, and even that strange male nurse were all sent by you. The cars that followed me and the ones that sat outside of my house watching me were all your people.”

“You shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe they were just curious about what happened to you. I heard that you had toundergo a few cosmetic surgeries to repair the damage done to your face.”

Terry sneered at me, and his nostrils flared.

“Unclench your fists, Terry. That stress can’t possibly be good for your heart. The last thing that you would want to experience is a heart attack after you’ve finally recovered from that assault.”

“You’re really fucking crazy, you know that?”

I held my head down as I covered my fist with my other hand.

“I really don’t like it when people call me crazy. That shit bothers me.”

I pulled my hands from underneath the desk. Terry winced when he saw the brass knuckles on my right fist as I dragged my hand down my beard.

“Have a seat, Terry,” I stated and gestured toward the chair on the other side of his desk. “I feel like we’re on an uneven playing field here. I’d like for us to be on the same level, if you don’t mind.”

Slowly, he dropped to his seat. I opened the desk drawer and pulled out an envelope. I slid it across the table to him and gestured with my cigar at it. “Open it. It’s a gift for you.”

He looked warily at the envelope and then up at me.

“Go ahead. There’s nothing harmful in there. If I’m nothing else, I’m a man of my word.”

He slowly slid a nail underneath the envelope flap and opened it. When he looked inside, I stated, “There’s one hundred and forty stacks in there. She’s paid you a total of sixty G’s. I took the liberty of slashing fifty G’s off the repayment price, considering the pain and suffering that you sent Kaifiya through. Not to mention, you had the privilege of having her on your arm for a couple of months as your fiancée. A beautiful woman like that surely bought you clout that you couldn’t get on your own, no matter how much money you had.”

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