Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
He’s thirty-eight, one year older than me, but he talks like he’s already in a retirement home and I’m fresh from the womb.
I serve the racketball, diving to return when Elliot slams it against the wall. He rushes past me, grinning. I softly hit it so it bounces a few feet from the wall. He tries to run forward, but he’s not fast enough. He just about stops himself before slamming into the wall.
“That’s your game,” he says, still with a smile on his face.
I’ve always respected Elliot for that, even if it confuses me. He’s able to smile through anything.
As we leave the court, he towels off his red hair with the streaks of silver in it. I went prematurely gray years ago. Thankfully, I still have all my hair, so I don’t complain.
Elliot nods toward the coffee shop, which sits on the wharf with views of the Golden Gate and Treasure and Angel Island on a clear day like this. I nod, and we head in to get some coffee before returning to work.
“You know Piper is coming home,” he says as we wait in line.
For a moment, a pit opens in my stomach. Is this the moment? Has Piper finally told him what happened at her going-away party?
Sometimes, it’s like I don’t even know what the hell happened. That’s a copout, a cowardly way to avoid responsibility. I’ve got to be a goddamn man and accept that I grabbed her, kissed her, tasted her, hungrily sunk my hands into her curvy hips.
Would I have gone further? Would I have listened to the pounding in my heart, telling me to carry her upstairs, tear off her clothes, kiss her voluptuous body, and slip inside her? The scary thing is, I can’t even say no; I wouldn’t have.
Something took me over: something I’ve done my best to bury and ignore ever since it happened.
“College isn’t going well,” I reply. “I think you mentioned.”
“She tried English literature, then changed to business, but she’s decided college isn’t for her. She says she’s tired of waiting to live and feels bad about changing, then dropping out.”
“Ah,” I mutter.
We order our coffees, then wait at the end of the counter. I hate what I did, hate that it created this silent rift between me and my friend. I shift between trying to pretend it never happened and painstakingly combing over the wild minute or two, trying to figure out what came over me so I can make sure history never repeats itself.
“She wanted to be a writer,” Elliot continues. “She still wants to, but I guess she figured college wasn’t the best way to go about it. Now, she wants to get a job and pay her own way as she writes in her free time. I thought it’d be good if she got a job connected to writing, at least.”
He’s looking at me like I’m missing an obvious point. But I’m not. I know what he’s hinting at.
He wants me to employ her at the Do It All Foundation, the company I started the week after Piper left—the company that was inspired by her. I wish I could do it all.
My body tenses up, and some primal and hungry instinct begins to turn me into a savage when I remember this. For three years, I’ve avoided Piper. For three years, during every holiday, I’ve conveniently had meetings or business elsewhere in the country, even overseas. And now she’s home.
“Bro, are you asleep?” Elliot says, laughing.
“Sorry. Just thinking about the quarterlies.”
Elliot accepts this. Of course, he does. He’d never expect what I’m really thinking about. It wouldn’t even enter his head. It’d be like the sky turning green.
We carry our coffees outside into the spring sunshine, and Elliot says, “So you’re going to make me say it. I was thinking you could get her a job as a copywriter at Do It All.”
I try to think of a reason to tell him no. My company has grown rapidly over the past three years. I’ve worked long hours to make that happen—hours that turned my humble beginnings into hundreds of employees.
Elliot wants me to hire her, yet I’ve been trying to avoid her. Eventually, we’ll come into contact. Then what? It’s like I think I’ll lose control the moment I see her and leap on her like some lunatic.
And there’s the pesky issue that the only job currently available is in the Forever Love department, a product I have been taking a hands-on approach to. If Piper joined the team, how much of a distraction would she be? I’d probably be seeing a lot of her. Can I control myself?
“She wants to interview like everybody else,” Elliot says. “I know you like to interview all potential employees yourself. Have you got time in your schedule?”