“You’re right, D. I won’t. I’ve just been taking sometime to rebuild my life, you know…” his voice trailed off.
I knew that although he’d been clean for a year, David was still fucked up in the soul. I’m not sure if it’s beyond repair, that’s for the therapists he visits to determine. But I knew that he needed someone to stay on his ass. Someone he respected. The walks of life we traveled were as polarized as they can get, but we did intersect in the streets—streets that I owned and he fell victim to as he spiraled down a dark hole of addiction.
I don’t know why I gave a damn. I’d been a cold-hearted son of bitch since fifteen, slinging all types of narcotics. My actions made no connections to the lives of the feeble who were crushed in my illegal trade. The arms of my transgressions stretched further than to the patrons of the pipes, leaves, and powder that I’ve slung; they extended to the loved ones of those users and also to those who were made victims in their ruthless attempts to score my shit. These revelations never scratched the surface of my conscious until I ran into David. He held the mirror to my inner-sinister being. There had to be an unrelenting comeuppance in my afterlife.
“But I’m okay, I swear,” David pledged, waking me from my introspective thoughts as I zipped my duffle bag, ready to leave for the airport.
“Indeed. I’m on my way out of town on business. Come through Cobalt next week and let me lay eyes on you. Maybe we’ll catch a bite,” I murmured as my eyes scanned a partially opened draw that I gave a cursory glance in to discover it contained Rayna’s birth control pills. Several suggestive thoughts raced in my head in mere seconds regarding those magic pills. I immediately reeled them in, I needed to go.
“Sure, man,” David agreed and I tapped the red End tab on the phone as I made my way down the corridor towards the front door.
~~~~~~~~~~
I flew to Connecticut to meet with a casino whose overhead exceeded its earnings and had been in the red for a couple of years, barely able to stay afloat. Ironically, Mark and Eric’s fraternity was having a convention there. They were Alpha men and were due to be in town for a week-long celebration. I hadn’t seen them in a while and thought to rent a house that we could utilize and meet to catch up. Brett found a four bedroom home with a pool, outdoor Jacuzzi, basketball court, and a fully finished basement with a pool room and fully stocked bar. It was my treat to them for not having had the time to chill like we used to do regularly.
Right after landing, I headed straight into a meeting, but called Rayna on the way. Her parting words were still fresh in my head. I needed to make her feel a constant connection to me, even if that meant calling her like the fucking love-stricken adolescent I was when I last saw her. I’d do what I had to do.
The meeting was draining. This was a family owned business and according to my partner, Richard, these were the most difficult to resolve because of the emotional attachment and sense of entitlement the owners had to the business. We had our numbers set and they weren’t very flexible considering the timing and money needed to save it from an inevitable debunk status. I could tell from the start of the meeting this was going to be long and drawn out.