nodded his thanks. Don had been sober ten years when he started as Victor’s sponsor, so he was coming up on fourteen now. This time around. “What took you out?”
“Once it was losing my job. The second time it was just complacency. The second is by far the more dangerous.”
Victor took a sip of his tea, the boiling liquid scorching his tongue.
“The job losses, the relationship breakups, the big things that knock you sideways. They’re the easier ones to pick. You know you’re going to want to bury your woes at the bottom of a bottle. But complacency?” Don shook his head. “That’s the one that sneaks up on you. It’s the one that whispers in your ear after three years, five years, ten years, that you’ve got this conquered now. That one drink can’t hurt. That you can handle it. Just like that serpent in the Garden of Eden.”
Well, he didn’t have to worry about that for a while. His past was still too present, too raw, for him to be complacent about anything. He could find it in every skeptical glance from his brother. Every worried look from his mother. Every time his father slammed the fridge door because Victor was in the house, and his mother had got rid of all the beer.
“I’ll get to a meeting this week. I promise.”
Don nodded his acceptance. “You seeing anyone?”
Victor’s hands tightened around his mug. He’d been more than clear about all of his character flaws when Don first became his sponsor. Wanted the man to know exactly what a failure he was signing up for. “No.”
“Relationships aren’t like alcohol, Victor. They’re to be nurtured, not avoided.”
“I know. That’s why I’m doing my best to mend the ones I have.” He had caused his family more grief and pain than anyone should ever have to go through. He would never be able to make that right, but he could do his best to never cause the same to anyone else ever again.
“Have you just not met anyone, or are you scared?”
“Scared of what?”
Don lifted a shoulder. “Just asking the question.”
He wasn’t scared. He was smart. Smart enough to know there were some things he would never be able to leave in the past. Some things that he couldn’t trust himself with. Not ever.
Not to mention that the only woman who had caused him to have more than a second thought since rehab was untouchable. Untouchable and out of his league.
It was a strange thought. There hadn’t been a girl—or woman—since he was sixteen that he hadn’t known he couldn’t charm if he wanted to. The combination of his looks, athleticism, and title had always been a potent combination.
But to Lacey O’Connor, he was an idiot lowlife lobbyist whose only redeeming feature was that he could carry a canoe. At least, that was what he kept trying to tell himself. Far safer to point his thoughts there than to the momentary settling of her head against his chest, an event that somehow etched itself into his memory like it was hours, not seconds.
“So, who is she?” Don tapped the side of his cup with his spoon with a pointed look.
Victor’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket. Sean. “Sorry, I need to take this.” His lifted his phone to his ear. “What’s up?”
“Where are you? We just got an email saying they’re releasing the new org structure in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be back in five.” Shoving his phone back in his pocket, Victor took one last gulp of his tea. “Sorry, Don. I have to go.”
His sponsor raised his mug at him. “I’ll be at tomorrow night’s meeting. You can tell me about her then.”
If there was an award for most torturous merger process of the century, then Meredith was a shoo-in for it. Lacey squinted at her phone screen as she tried to zoom in on the most relevant parts of the new structure.
At least the woman had now put a timeline on when the insanity would end. From 1 August was written across the top in bold font. Just over two months away, probably due to the complexity of merging two companies in different countries.
The buzz of the diner receded as she focused on a document designed to be consumed on a full-sized screen.
It was like a jigsaw puzzle. Some of the positions and names in the corporate support parts of the organization had been filled in. But further up the tree, only blank boxes appeared. No