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“Fair enough then. No talk of acquisitions.” He lifted a bottle up from the floor beside his chair and tilted it toward me—Glenfiddich 21. “Is this good enough for your snobbish taste?” He placed it between the rows of glasses he’d set up for us. “No worm.”
I took the seat across from him. “Sure. You have good taste.” Alexa was trying to teach me to be more cognizant of other people’s feelings. It wasn’t Macallan, but it also wasn’t that damned mezcal. I’d told him I wouldn’t ever have that shit again.
The way we did this, it was his year to bring bottles he picked out, and next year it would be my turn again.
He poured a glass for each of us and quickly started on his.
I was more tentative and didn't down mine at the rate he was going.
Like always, he’d laid out three glasses each for us. It had been our system to get lubricated enough as he put it to get inventive in our brainstorming. We didn't get serious in our discussions until we were halfway through the third glass and the ideas flowed easily.
He finished his glass and poured a second and third for each of us. “You’re not keeping up.”
I nodded “Gotta savor a thing like this, not just inhale it.”
He pulled his notepad out. We’d learned to write down our ideas for the next day lest the alcohol make us forget a good one.
I guzzled down the last of my first glass. “No notes tonight.” I wanted to vent and get advice, none of which was work related.
“Okay.” He put the notepad away. “Not picking up a girl tonight, and not discussing work. I get it.”
He glanced toward the bar.
“You're in a serious hurry,” I said, lifting my glass.
“Yeah, I guess I am a little.” His glance over to the bar had made his motivation clear.
The girl he banished from the table was waiting for him.
I pointedly looked over. “Her?”
“Yeah. I could introduce you to her twin sister,” he said bring the the second glass to his lips.
“No thanks.” I tried to make it sound as nonchalant as possible. “Not tonight.” Although there had been a time when I wouldn't have declined an offer like that. Oddly the idea didn't have the slightest appeal to me tonight and it actually repulsed me.
“Good. I was looking forward to both of them, but I thought I’d offer.” He laughed. “With as many girls as you’ve given me it would only be fair.
I nodded along without finding it entertaining.
Alexa had change my world in more ways than one without me fully realizing it. It was another thing that I’d have to ponder later.
I’d never given him a girl as he put it, or passed one on to him in any manner.
But, he’d developed an approach that worked for him. It hinged on my habit of sending a girl to Hawaii when I broke up her. Martin would then go there for the weekend, and position himself to be the rebound guy. He’d claim to also have been wronged by me, and that was usually all it took. He scored more often than not.
It was deceptive of him, and I didn’t care to hear about. But, if it provided some solace to the girl I’d just broken up with, who was I to complain about Martin’s tactics
I was still working on the second glass, enjoying the slow burn when he finished his third.
He slapped his glass down. “So, if not work, what are we shooting the shit about?”
“It’s about Alexa,” I started.
“Who’s she?”
“My girl.”
“The one you’ve been seeing for quite a while now, at least by your standards? I thought her name was something else.”
