Page 109 of Summer Lessons
“I know, I know. Someone held a gun to your head and made you go to San Francisco to give a speech. And maybe blow your old boyfriend. Because that’s fun.”
“Not even when we were together. Go away.”
Dane rolled his eyes. “Drive safe. Call me before you get home. The kitchen, no, but the living room is fair game.”
“Deal.”
After a brief, hard hug, Dane went back inside and Mason took off.
ROY CARRUTHERSdidn’t believe in casual Fridays, employee commissaries, or getting to know your administrative assistants well so you could work as a team. Mason wasn’t sure how his company had survived so long in the ultra-competitive world of the Bay Area corporate shark tank, but it sure wasn’t because people wished him well.
However, in the past two months, Mason’s company had managed to stave off lower-tier turnover by half and had saved some money doing so.
Mason got to tell everybody how he’d done that, and boy, did he enjoy it.
“So,” Roy said when Mason’s presentation was over, “I see you’ve found your niche.”
“I’ve found my home, yes,” Mason said levelly. “Nice of you to ask.”
“Do you have a plus one to bring to the banquet tomorrow night?”
Oh, classy, Roy. Asking if Mason was going to be alone. “All my plus people are back in Sacramento,” Mason replied with a smile. “Not even a trip to San Francisco was worth sitting through a corporate dinner.”
Roy startled. “You don’t like corporate dinners? Really? You used to try so hard to fit in!”
Ass. Hole. “Well, that should have been my first clue,” Mason said. “Anyplace you have totryto fit in really isn’t your place.” He was going to saySort of like fitting a cock into your tight ass, but he suddenly realized he didn’t have to. What a relief.
“Sounds like Sacramento has some good points,” Roy said genially. “Ira and I will have to check it out sometime.”
“Let me know when you’ll be there, Mr. Carruthers.”So I can have my posse slash your tires.He was pretty sure Dane would just make bitchy comments over dinner, but Richie would definitely slash his tires, and Skip would help because it was Richie. And Carpenter would pull lookout duty.
And Terry would probably dismantle his engine, whether or not he and Mason were going out.
“So you can get out of town?” He smiled coquettishly like helivedto make people uncomfortable.
“So you can meet my friends,” Mason said, not blinking. “I’m pretty sure you don’t know how to behave around decent people.”
He gathered the rest of his notes into his briefcase then and turned to Roy’s second-in-command, Janice Collins. She was a vibrant woman, maybe a little younger than Mrs. Bradford, who streaked her blonde hair and liked bright red lipstick. She was lucky she could carry it off.
“Janice,” he said warmly. “It’s so good to see you again. Now I understand you got me accommodations nearby?”
“Sure, Mason. But did you want to come out to eat with us? Nowhere fancy—there’s an El Torito around the corner from the Marriott, if that’s okay.”
Oh awesome. “The place with the karaoke?” he asked, because he and Dane had loved that place when Dane had been in school.
“That’s the one. No champagne, no caviar, just really big margaritas. C’mon—I’ll give you a ride. Everyone else can meet us there.”
Everyone else turned out to be the people Mason most missed from leaving work. He’d forgotten he’d had people in San Francisco—and they had a good time.
But as they sat and waxed lyrical about how shitty it was to work with Roy Carruthers and his new leader of the graphics department, Ira, Mason had a moment of clarity.
He’d take Monday lunch with Skipper and Carpenter over these nice people any day of the week. He’d take Saturday dinners with the guys from the soccer team and his brother too. Skipper had been right—he really had found his people, and knowing who his people were made it so much easier not to feel like an asshole in front of everybody else.
THE NEXTnight’s corporate dinner wasn’t nearly as awful as he’d anticipated, mostly because Janice had put him at the table with the same people he’d stayed up drinking with the night before. They were eating in the banquet room of the hotel Mason was staying at, and as Janice had a generous hand with the champagne, Mason could only be glad.
He finally put a hand over his glass and murmured, “I have to give the speech in twenty—we maybe don’t want my inhibitions lowered.”
“Aw, c’mon, Mason—I’ve been dying to hear you say something to put Ira and Roy in their places. They’re grossing me out!”
