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“So I didn’t forget before Monday.”
That made sense. I’d always liked Jonathan. I liked most of the partners, but he was one of the founders, and his approach to business had always clicked with mine. “What can I do for you?”
“Since I have you, instead of your voicemail, how are you holding up with everything?” he asked.
It sucked. I wanted it all and couldn’t have it. Why couldn’t I just reach out and grab something for myself for once? “I’m all right. Worried about what the bad press is doing to the firm.”
His chuckle surprised me. “Don’t. Don’t put any kind of thought into it.”
“Why not?” I expected an answer like that from Xander, but not Jonathan.
“We deal with bad press all the time, you know that. The incident with Aaron was far worse than this.”
That was pretty bad. “Still. We’re losing vendors. People are talking.”
“Some contacts spook easily. We always recover. They tend to come back when they realize the cost of walking away, and if they don’t, we find new ones. You know how this works.”
I was familiar with what he was talking about. “It’s different when I’m the one at fault.”
“This isn’t your fault.” His assurance came without hesitation. “If this were happening to one of the other partners, how would you react?”
I hadn’t thought of it that way. I should’ve, but I’d gotten too caught up in the bad. “Sometimes things get blown out of proportion, but we’re all good at what we do. Fine, I see your point.”
“We’ve got this.You’vegot this.”
My smile came without my permission. “Thank you. So why did you really call?”
“Can you put me in touch with Andrew?”
“My brother?”
The men had spoken a couple of times in the past. They had a few mutual friends, but as far as I was aware, Andrew and Jonathan were just a little too different to enjoy each other’s company long-term.
“That’s the one,” Jonathan said.
I shrugged at my empty office. “Sure. Can I ask why?”
“This movie of his, with this kind of publicity? It’s about to blow up in a big way. I want in.” Jonathan had an instinct for reading how the money was going to follow high-profile situations. It was how he’d made his money when he was younger, and that gut feeling still served him well.
If he thought this was the kind of chatter that would turn out to be good, it was hard to argue that.
“Of course.” I gave him Andrew’s number, and we said ourgoodnights.
The conversation lingered in my head long after I hung up, though. There was something there I needed to see and I couldn’t quite grasp it.
* * *
Spending Saturday morningwith Lucas was a nice distraction though. He’d offered to come over and make brunch. He hadn’t mentioned the guys at all, which was odd, but I was grateful for it.
It would be nice if I could stop thinking about them at all. If Joystick opened a restaurant here, would there ever be a point where I could look him in the eye again? The obvious answer was yes because I always did what I needed to, but I wouldn’t like doing so, if I walked away from him and Eli.
Notifbutwhen. There was no way we could all be together. I needed to get rid of any notion of that.
I tried instead to focus on Lucas catching me up on his week while we ate. Dr. Allman had offered him an understudy role in the musical, and he turned it down. He saidbecause you’re right, Mom. He doesn’t deserve me.
I had such a great kid. Not only that he was strong enough to make that decision with that kind of confidence, but also that he could carry this conversation, because I sure as hell wasn’t giving him the attention he deserved.
“What about you?” He turned to me as we were finishing up the meal.
