Page 41 of Crave

I slide the phone into my pocket and cover my face with both hands. Anger I can deal with. I’d be thrilled to get an expletive filled text back from her at this point, but the silence I can’t take.

Remembering the hurt and confusion in her eyes from the other night makes me want to rush to wherever she is and beg for forgiveness. I can only think of one place where she won’t want to cause a scene, but I must wait until Saturday before I can go there.

Determined to keep busy until then, I sign on to my computer to prepare for the afternoon conference call with some of our vendors.

“Hey, Son. You going to join us for lunch?” Dad walks into the office without as much as a knock.

“Maybe later.” I don’t bother to look up as I dismiss my father. “I’m preparing for this afternoon’s call.”

Instead of leaving, he walks further into the room and stands in front of my desk. A minute passes, and he says nothing, forcing me to have to look up at him.

“What, Dad?” I ask, not bothering to hide my irritation.

“Time for lunch, Son.”

“Dad, I’ll eat when I’m hungry. I’m not five.” I rub my eyes, annoyed at my father’s intrusion.

“I know how old you are. I was there when you were born.” He takes a seat across from me, signaling that this is going to be a long conversation. “You haven’t been yourself all week, and you didn’t ask one question today.”

“I thought that would make you happy, Dad. For once, I wasn’t an asshole to your firstborn. Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what the entire family wants? For Jake the fuck up to stop stirring trouble?”

“We want you and your brother, at the very least, to come to some accord, yes. Your mother, Luke, and I would love for you two to get back to how you were, but that’s not why I’m here right now.”

“Yeah, right. It’s always about Troy. I’m fine, Dad. I’m a grown man, and not every feeling I have has to do with Troy. I couldn't give a shit about him, to be honest.” I lean back in my chair, exhausted from the past few days. I’ve barely slept or eaten since Sunday.

“Yeah? Is that why when he had surgery last year, you stayed in the hospital cafeteria the entire time?” Leave it to him to remind me of that. Only an idiot like him would tear his Achilles so bad it required surgery.

“I was there to see JD.”

“Except JD works at the hospital down the street.”

“Whatever. I thought you weren’t here to talk about Troy.”

“I’m here to find out what’s bothering you. Is it a woman? It’s got to be a woman.” I can hear the hope in his voice. For the past five years, I’ve never so much as mentioned a woman’s name.

“Not now, Dad.” I turn back towards my computer to look at my slides.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Jesus,” I say frustrated, ready for him to get the hell out of my office.

“Is that why you look like Grizzly Adams? You usually do a better job of keeping that thing trimmed.” He points to my face.

“Don’t you have work to do?” I yank on my beard.

“I’m the boss. I can delegate. Talk to me, Son. I’m not going away.” I lean back in my chair and for the second time today, cover my face with both hands in exasperation.

“Fine. It’s a woman, and I already screwed it up, so it’s probably over before it even began. Happy now? And for the love of god, please don’t go telling everyone in the family.” That’s the problem with this family. Nothing ever stays quiet.

“I’m sure you couldn’t have messed it up that bad. What did you do?”

“Forget it. I don’t want to get into it.”

“Looks like you need someone to talk to, and I’m here. It stays between us.” Yeah, right. As soon as he leaves, he’s calling Mom. But he’s right about one thing. I need an ear, and JD’s as sick of me as Sandy is. So, before I can talk myself out of it, I tell my father everything that happened over the past few weeks since meeting Sandy.

“Sandy Etienne? The girl from the party that your mother wanted to introduce to JD? Gabrielle’s daughter?”

“The one and the same.”

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