“I should have known you two would conspire against me.” But oddly he found the idea comforting rather than irritating. He picked up a miniature skewer of fruit and bit into a piece of pineapple.
Ben watched him with raised eyebrows. “An alien has taken over Nathan’s body.”
“Do you want me to eat this fruit or not?”
Ben sat down and turned to Ed. “What’s for dinner? I’ve been invited to stay.”
A look of surprise crossed Ed’s face before he launched into the menu. Nathan frowned. “How long has it been since you last ate here?” he asked Ben after Ed left.
Ben looked up at the ceiling in thought. “A year, year and a half,” he concluded.
“You should come more often.”
“I come when I’m invited.”
“You’re my oldest friend. You don’t need an invitation.”
“What? I’m supposed to drop by in the hope that a miracle will happen and you’ll be home and not working?” Ben swirled the scotch in his glass.
It was true that Nathan ate out most nights. “Ed and Janice know my schedule.”
“If you think I’m calling your assistants to find out whether you’re available for dinner, think again.”
“Point taken.” Ed returned with the drinks. Nathan grabbed the Manhattan and took a gulp, savoring the burn in his throat. “I’m glad you were free tonight.”
Ben gave him a crooked smile. “Actually, I need to make a phone call.”
Nathan scowled as he grasped Ben’s meaning. “Don’t cancel something on my account.”
Ben stood and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket before heading for the door. “Sometimes friendship comes first.”
Nathan pushed up out of the chair and roamed over to the wall of windows, staring out at the city that never slept. When had he become such a lousy friend? He’d let himself pretend that the time he spent with Ben for medical and charitable reasons was enough.
Ben walked back into the room, and Nathan turned. “I’m sorry.”
Ben came to an abrupt halt. “Definitely an alien.”
Nathan raised his glass to his friend. “I’ll do better in the future.”
The two men returned to their seats and demolished the hors d’oeuvres before Ed announced dinner. Later, as they sat at the dinner table with coffee and brandy in front of them, Ben said, “I like this new Nathan. He’s like the old Nathan, except he doesn’t constantly badger me to play Space Invaders.”
“Asteroids.”
“A game where one stared at a computer screen and exercised only one’s hands for hours on end,” Ben said, leaning back in his chair. “Although your obsession led to Trainor Electronics, so it wasn’t a total waste of time.”
“My father is getting married Saturday.”
“I’m invited.”
Nathan felt his jaw go tense. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You don’t respond well when I bring up your father.”
“Because you defend him.”
“I try to explain him, so maybe you’ll get your head out of your ass and talk to him.” Ben’s voice was sharp. “He may have pushed you in a direction you didn’t want to go, but at least he didn’t hit you.”
When Ben’s father got drunk, he’d become violent toward his wife and his son. Nathan’s father had intervened on more than one occasion.
“That’s not why I have a problem with him.”
“Your mother suffered from clinical depression. It was a chemical imbalance in her brain. Your father didn’t cause that. You didn’t either.”
Nathan had heard that from Ben before, but the guilt still ate at him. “She was under more pressure than she could handle.”
Ben held his gaze for a long moment. “No one could have stopped her from taking her own life. Not your father. Not you.”
Nathan knocked back the rest of his brandy as he tried to believe that. He placed the snifter carefully on the table before he met Ben’s eyes again. “Are you going to the wedding?”
Ben nodded. “Are you?”
“Against my better judgment, yes.”
Ben sat up in the chair, surprise written on his face. “Why?”
Nathan relaxed enough to let a faint smile curl his lips. “Someone talked me into it.”
“Since it wasn’t me, I sense the hand of Ed,” Ben said, reaching for his coffee.
“You’d be wrong. Chloe persuaded me. In fact, she’s my date for the wedding.”
His friend choked on the hot beverage.
Nathan enjoyed Ben’s reaction. “By the way, she doesn’t work for me anymore.” For now.
Ben grabbed a napkin to dab at the spewed coffee on his shirt. “Hell, Nathan, you can’t throw that poor woman into the viper pit that’s your relationship with the general. For one thing, she’ll run screaming as far away as she can get.”
“You underestimate Chloe. She has an interesting theory that my father wants to share this new phase of his life with me.”
Ben tossed the crumpled napkin on the table. “How could she have a theory? She’s never met the man.”