I have never left this house in all the time I have been here. Even when I got my hair cut, I summoned the best barber in Chicago to come here on that day when Mari was out. It’s amazing what people will do for vast amounts of money.
“It’s lunchtime.” I make an exaggerated point of staring at my watch. “We’ll go out, to eat.”
“You don’t want me to make lunch today?” Mari speaks up.
“No.” It’s the first time I’ve looked at her. A dart of attraction flies through me to her. Can she feel what I’m feeling? Does she think about me the way I think about her?
“You’re right,” says Rob, getting up again. “He has changed.”
It makes me wonder what the two of them have been talking about.
Mari folds her arms. “There’s a whole new side to him I didn’t see before.”
“Thanks for the coffee,” Rob says to Mari.
“You’re welcome.”
“Good to see you again.”
“Likewise,” says Mari.
“I hope you’re taking me somewhere nice for lunch,” says Rob. I have no idea where I’m taking him. I haven’t been back here for decades. I don’t know what type of places there are, or where to go and eat but I’ve been told that there are some nice restaurants at The Four Seasons.
A short while later we’re sitting at one of the restaurants in The Four Seasons with bottles of beer and burgers.
Except, I’m not very hungry. “To what do I owe this pleasure?” He can’t have flown all the way from New York just to come and see how I am. He called me late last night to say he would be over. That’s all I know.
“Sally’s aunt is ill.” He coughs. “She’s on her deathbed. We wanted to come and see her before it was too late.”
“Sorry to hear that,” I mumble.
“You were only an hour away. I thought it would be a good chance to see how you were doing.”
“I’m making progress.” Though what happened earlier between me and Mari isn’t the type of progress he had in mind.
“Garvey hit Number one in the New York Times List,” says Rob.
“Great. Good for him.” I hardly know the guy, but he’s got a good twenty or so years on me. It’s not that I hate him. It’s that he perceives me as some sort of enemy. I wrote to him when I was first starting out, just as my first book was starting to take off, before it debuted so spectacularly, thrusting me begrudgingly into the limelight, I asked Garvey if he wouldn’t mind having a look through my book, and perhaps, if he could, supply me with a quote. This might have been rash and rather presumptuous of me, but I didn’t know any better. I wasn’t prepared for a letter from his secretary requesting that I never make such a demand again. She went on to say that he had read the first page but couldn’t read any more.
It shocked me, that an author of his calibre and standing could be so rude.
“Great?” Rob picks up his burger. “The guy’s doing well. He’s going to stay in that position for a good while and probably hang around in the Top Ten for the rest of the year.”
“Great.” I don’t want to hear any more about James Garvey.
“I’m expecting you to knock him off the list when you release.”
“That’s a tall order.”
“You’ve made that list before.”
I’m not feeling it this time around. I’m not feeling this book. I’ve been writing, but I’m not getting the feels. I have too many other things to contend with. There are days when I think my head will explode. Or my cock.
“I’ll send you the first draft in the next week or so,” I tell him.
“You sure?”
“Yes.” He looks at me as if he doesn’t believe me. “Is that why you’re here? To assess me?”
“You had me worried when we last spoke, when you said you wanted to come back home. You’re up and down, Ward. You’re all over the place.”
“I’m making progress.”
“You are making progress, but I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m okay.”
“I wonder if I did the right thing, putting you all the way out here and then getting you a live in housekeeper. With your history.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“With your mom passing,” he says.
“You move me here, and put me in this situation and now you’re asking if you did the right thing? It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?” Now that Mari and I are