Page 5 of Dark Promises

I realized I hadn’t gotten the limo driver’s name or anything, not even the license plates.

Oh well,I thought. One of my problems would be over if he took Sam off my hands. But as soon as the car drove away, I missed Sam. I didn’t have anyone to go home to at night and no one to talk to, but the television.

When I reached the office, “What’s wrong, Daniel? Word got around that you were going to fire someone, and I hope it isn’t me.”

“It’s not you, Dawn, you’re my favorite secretary, and what would I do without you? You know I mentioned to you about taking my dog for a night—”

“Not tonight,” she said. “I babysat Sam, and it was the worse night of my life and my husband said, ‘never again.’ It was like having a little baby in the house, and you know what I think about children. My cats were terrorized, and I couldn’t function for weeks because of sleepless nights, and my husband and I... well, let’s say, we made love in unconventional ways. That’s how bad it became. So, no, if you’re asking me.”

Dawn was in her fifties and her husband was skating on a cool seventy, so I couldn’t imagine what their love life was like and I didn’t want to hear. I’d shared enough with her to last a lifetime because of her age, and she’d be dead soon and I wouldn’t have to face her for too long. And she was tight-lipped as they said. She could be trusted to keep secrets. I thought she had words of wisdom too concerning my broken relationship with Cole and whether it had to do with my use of bondage to have an orgasm and a few of the kinks I’d enjoyed with him.

Chapter 3

Daniel

Ilistened to Dawnfor a few minutes about Sam being detrimental to her love life. I knew if she didn’t want Sam near her and her cats—and she was an animal lover—he was bad news all around, and she would never take him again.

“Did you even bring him to a trainer?” Dawn questioned, tapping on her Smartphone. When I didn’t answer her she leaned over. “You know he could be suffering from loneliness. Have you tried taking him to a therapist?”Is she kidding?My therapist bill alone and the furniture and my suits Sam had managed to destroy, I could go broke in less than a year.

“I can’t afford that. I make lots of money in my bar, but too many expenses are eating into my profits. And with the closing for months, I can’t get good people to work now. They all want to work from home. We don’t sell drinks from home. You have to be here serving and mixing drinks, and Ryan is not helping my bottom line either. If I keep him and he does all these stupid things, like letting his boyfriend Jay come in and drink free along with his friends, then what is he good for?”

“Do you have anyone to replace Ryan?” It was a logical question that I had no answers to.

“When have I had time? You would be the first one I would tell. I have to go over the books first, and then fire Ryan. I can’t afford his mistakes, and he has this boyfriend who hangs around the club every night. He can’t do his job, and one night on my day off when I couldn’t sleep because of Sam, I found them in a compromising position on my desk. On mydesk!” I repeated. “My desk is antique. My mother left that desk to me, not to be defiled by a pair of lust-filled men. I can’t get rid of it, so I’m getting rid of Ryan. What time does he come in?”

“Daniel, you know you’re not good at firing anyone. You left that to your partners, and now you have no partners, because they thought the business would fail, because of the pandemic, but you were smart enough to keep it going, and you brought it back and with Ryan’s help I might add,” Dawn reminded me.

I wasn’t an ungrateful bastard, but Cole and Sam did something to my life I was still trying to reconstruct from the ground up. Which was like trying to build a house from the top down without the foundation, and that would never work, and I knew it. They just about wrecked it, and I hadn’t been the same. I didn’t want to see Cole again. Ever.

“Did you think this through, Daniel?” I focused when Dawn spoke and narrowed my gaze. “I mean firing Ryan, or are you acting on the spur of the moment? Ryan has good points and not all of them bad. Talk to him and tell him you don’t want him and his boyfriend fucking on your desk, and in your office.”

“I spoke to him and he said he was getting something from your office, and his boyfriend followed him and he was a spur of the moment kind of guy.”

Well, that pissed me off, because when I first met Cole we had our first serious moments in my office, and we had our kiss on that desk after I fucked him hard against that wall, and other memories that were too good to forget. I didn’t want to walk into my office, and every time I glanced at my desk, I’d see Ryan’s naked ass and his boyfriend’s balls. It clouded out all my beautiful memories of Cole.

“Have you thought about a little paint and change the furniture, modernize the place, take off these drapes and get some sunshine in here. It’s like a mausoleum dedicated to memorializing your failed relationship with Cole. Get rid of that old antique furniture. You’re a young man, for God’s sake. You’re only thirty-five. And give Ryan a second chance. Everyone deserve a second chance.”

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