Mom had lived a hard, wild life. They’d had fun with her when they were small. She’d been their friend, a laughing companion who let them stay up all hours of the night, eat what they wanted, and do as they pleased. Mom’s mother had left her a lot of money after she passed away. Grandma had spoiled them rotten and wanted them to have a fighting chance. They got to enjoy the finer things in Mercer Island, went to the best elementary schools, wore nice clothing, and had the finest videogames and toys. From early on, Aiden had been very much into videogames and it seemed to come naturally to him. He’d won tournaments, competitions, even got paid for some and earned little gold plastic trophies.
Those days were long gone, and he wasn’t much into it anymore. In fact, he didn’t even own a gaming system and didn’t long for one, either. Maybe he’d just grown out of it. Simple as that. But some things time hadn’t changed—like the emotional scars of a parent who wasn’t there to do the hard work of disciplinarian or teach them right from wrong. When the money was gone and the drinking went into high gear, the trouble really began…
After Mom had spent all the money and her sugar daddy cut her off, they’d gone from a three level, four-bedroom house full of expensive furniture to a small two-bedroom apartment in a part of town where it wasn’t even safe to walk the streets in the daytime, let alone at night. And that’s when her drinking kicked up a few hundred more notches, to the point of no return…
“How’s work been going?” Perry finally changed the topic, giving Aiden some relief and snapping him out of the abysmal reflections.
“Pretty good, actually. Hoping to get that promotion soon.”
“You work your ass off, man; you deserve it so I hope you get it, too. Shit, one of us has got to be due for a come up, right?”
“Thanks. From your lips to God’s ears.”
Perry reached into his denim jacket pocket and pulled out his pack of Marlboros. He inhaled it as if it were fine wine, then placed it gingerly back out of sight. “I’m gonna pop out for a quick smoke. When the waitress comes back over let ’er know that I want the—”
“Smokehouse BBQ Burger with fries…”
“That’s right! You know me, bro.” Perry popped up from his seat and dashed away, the scent of old cigarette smolder trailing behind him. Aiden watched his brother disappear then drummed his fingers on the table, watching the dinner crowd. He pondered the work-related duties he needed to take care of as soon as he hit the door the following morning and then it dawned on him…
Addison’s interview happened earlier today…
He’d seen it on his calendar, and he typically gave twenty-four hours before he reached out to the company, as well as the client, to see how everything went. Glancing back at the exit of the restaurant where his brother had disappeared to get his nicotine fix, he slipped his phone out of his jacket pocket and ran through his contacts.
There she is…
He selected her number and dialed.
“Hello?” she answered on the third ring.
“Hi, Addison. This is Aiden Summers from Dexter Employment Staffing and Consulting Agency. Did I catch you at a good time?” he spoke over the noise of the people around him.
“Uh yeah, sure, I can talk.”
“Okay, I was just calling to follow up with you about the interview.” He ran his hand along his shoulder, massaging himself to work out a kink.
“Well, I was going to call you and ask the same thing,” she said with a dainty chuckle. “But from my perspective, it went well. I interviewed with two different people. One was a manager—her name was Erin Foster—and the other was the director, Hans Millhouse.”
“I know Hans. He’s a great guy.”
“Hard interviewer, but I think I did fine.”
He smiled, happy to be speaking to her, no matter the reason.
“Good… good… well, uh, I’m glad to hear things went all right. I will give you a call in a day or two to let you know their take on it and if they want to proceed with a second interview.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Thanks for calling, too.”
“Yeah, no problem… no problem at all.”
“Sorry if you hear a bunch of background noise, I’m in the grocery store getting ready to check out. I ran out of my favorite hot sauce. To me, that was a crisis.”
He laughed at her words.
“No problem. I like hot sauce, too. I’m actually not in the office right now so whatever noise is going on doesn’t make any difference. I just left a while ago. I’m at dinner, at the Cheesecake Factory.”
“Oh yeah? I love the Cheesecake Factory but I only go on my cheat days.”
“I guess every day is a cheat day for me. I probably should watch what I eat a little more carefully. I have a high metabolism but I’m sure that’ll end one day, so I better change how I treat my body right now before I turn into a big donut and roll out of town.”
They both got a laugh from that. And then they drew silent. He held the phone tighter, swallowing hard as his face flushed with heat.
Her voice titillated him. He could just about picture her so clearly going from aisle to aisle in the store, perusing this and that, a little basket in hand with her bottle of hot sauce rolling around in the bottom of it and elevator music playing in the background. “Speaking of dinner…” He noted his brother coming back into the restaurant, the large glass doors swinging behind him as he adjusted his scraggly baseball cap. “Addison, I know this is, uh… I don’t know, unorthodox I guess you could say, but would you like to…” His brother plopped down, snatched the cap off his head, and ran his hand through his light brown hair before taking hold of his beer. “Would you like to go out sometime?” He was met with silence on the other end. “Hello?” He glanced at his phone, convinced she’d hung up but instead he saw the call was still active.
“Uh, yeah, I’m here…I’m here.” Just then, a waitress approached their table to take their dinner order.
“Hold on a sec.” Aiden quickly pointed to his brother to take care of the arrangements, excused himself from the booth, and made his way to a quieter area of the restaurant, a spot off in a corner with a large houseplant shoved in a planter. “Sorry about that. I just wanted to get some place where I could hear you better. Look, you seem taken aback so if you want, we can just forget that I asked. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot or anything. I just uh…I’m attracted to you, and I like your personality. It’s no biggie, all right? It’s cool. No harm, no foul.”
“No, I want to go out with you. I do. I’m just surprised, I guess you could say. So yeah.” She stopped talking abruptly and he heard a cashier ask her if she’d found everything she needed. “Yes, I found everything, thanks. So, Aiden, I am checking out now, so how about I call you back when I get home tonight? Is that fine?”
“Yeah, fine… that’s fine.”
“Okay, and we can talk about getting together. You’ll hear from me in about an hour or so. Talk to you soon.”
“Yeah, cool. Enjoy your hot sauce… Well, whatever you’re going to put the hot sauce on.” He laughed nervously.
I wouldn’t mind licking it off you…
“Turkey chili with green peppers. It’s great.” He could hear the smile in her tone.
“Sounds tasty. Okay, I won’t keep you. Talk to you in a bit.”
“Bye for now.” And then she disconnected the call.
When he made his way back to the table, his brother had downed another glass of beer. Perry peered at him through hooded, tired eyes.
“Who is she?”