Page 77 of Every Broken Piece
“Yeah?” I answer.
“Damn it, Gabe, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for hours.”
Jack.
“You talked to me not thirty minutes ago.” Right before I got the text from Roger that about stopped my heart.Your woman’s outside on the steps. You might want to come get her.
I really thought that was it, that she was running, and I was going to lose her.
I raced out of the apartment so damn fast. It’s a good thing I’d put my shoes on earlier or I would’ve been barefoot too.
This woman, she unravels me. She makes me do things and think things that aren’t normal for me.
“What do you need?” I ask my brother.
“Look,” he says in a serious voice that I never take lightly. “I know you want to be with Tess, but we need you here, Gabe. You’re meeting with Montrose on Monday. You cannotfuck this deal up.”
He’s right. I can’t miss this meeting. But I can’t leave Tess either.
Her head is still turned away and I realize I have one hand on the wall, trapping her in place. I take a step back and open her apartment door. With a guarded look at me she slides into the apartment and heads for the kitchen to fill a mug with water and put it in the microwave. Today’s t-shirt saysLondon—Mind the Gap. Last night’s said something about Berlin. I want the story behind the t-shirts. I want all of her stories, the good and the bad.
“Are you listening to me, Gabriel?”
I turn my back on the distraction of Tess. “Montrose. Don’t fuck it up. Got it.”
Charles Montrose, CEO of the biggest department store chain in the US, came to me in strict confidence. His company is failing and failing fast. He wants my help and is willing to pay through the nose to save the company that’s been in his family for four generations.
Our meeting is Monday, and I need to be there.
“When’re you coming home?” Jack asks. “Pax came home this weekend. I told him you were traveling so he’s staying with me.”
Shit. Shit shitshit. Pax is used to me traveling for business, but I try to be there for him always. We’ve been texting, just the usual stuff—trading memes, talking shit, complaining about his classes, discussing his spring break that’s this coming week.
“Is he okay?” I ask quietly so Tess doesn’t hear.
“Between girlfriends. Again. He’s always like this until he finds the next girl.”
My son, the player. So not like me, or his mother. Cara and I were exclusive from the moment we met and there hasn’t been anyone since for me, excluding a few one-night stands I’m not proud of. And now Tess…
I search for her in the small apartment, but she’s nowhere I can see. However, through the thin walls I hear her moving around in her bedroom.
No, there hasn’t been anyone I’ve been exclusive with since Cara. But if I have my way, there will be.
I walk into the kitchen, pull out the mug of water she microwaved and forgot about and dump it out. I snag one of the bottled waters out of the fridge. Tess calls them my “bougie water”. It’s the same brand she had every hotel I stayed in stock for me. Last night she asked if she could taste this magical bougie water. I let her taste mine and she loved it.
I shake out two ibuprofen.
“How’s Tess?” Jack asks.
“Hurting. Scared even though she won’t admit it.” I need her to tell me what she’s scared of. Her mother? Something else? Someoneelse? Her barriers are so high and so solid that I’m worried I’ll never be able to break them down, but I’m trying.
“You got it bad, brother,” Jack says.
“Yeah...” I do.
“Bring your girl home. We’ll take care of her.” Like we did when Cara died. Like we did when we had a baby to raise and were clueless how to do it.
Jack’s circling the wagons as he always does and again, I’m grateful for him.
