The crowd applauded as he bent to kiss her cheek.
“Thanks darling.”
*****
“You like him.”
“I like him. So?”
“You have been on how many dates? Two?”
Elena nodded as she reached for the glass of wine. Joel had called and invited her over for dinner and she had come over. For once, his chic and elegant apartment was empty, with no overnight guests hanging around. He had told her that he just wanted to hang out with his best friend tonight. He had ordered Chinese and had opened an excellent bottle of Cabernet. Elena was curled up on a futon, her back against one of the silk sofas. “Three.” She said with a shrug. “What are you getting at?”
“Are you going to sleep with him?”
“Why is that of importance to you?”
“Because I am concerned about you darling. There must be a limit to how much time one can go without sex and you have passed that limit. Benjamin is a great guy as far as I can tell, and I bet he is a tiger in the sack and bonus! He is a doctor.”
“That means nothing to me.”
“It should.” Joel told her firmly. “Honey, you need someone other than me in your life.”
“I am fine the way I am.”
“No you are not. Honey, we are sexual beings and were not made to exist in this life without sexual intimacies. This guy is the answer to your problems…..”
“I was not aware that I had one.”
“As I was saying …..this guy is practically perfect. Aside from the bald head which I am not sure what possessed him to go with but other than that, he is doable. You need to open your thighs and let him get between them and soon.”
“You are disgusting.” Elena said mildly as she reached for a fortune cookie.
“I am honest.” He put away his wine glass and opened his own cookie. He read it aloud. “’Someone is getting laid soon!” He folded up the paper and placed it onto the table. “There you have it.”
“Very funny.”
*****
“I was just on my way out.”
“Surely you can spare a few minutes?” James gestured towards his office and Chad reluctantly followed him. He walked into the vast opulent room and closed the doors behind him. There was a day bed and a liquor cabinet that was recessed inside the wall. His father went to the cabinet immediately and pressed a button. “Scotch…?”
“Bourbon!”
He poured the drinks and came forward to hand it to his son. “Sit please.”
“I hope this will not be another lecture.”
“It won’t be.” James went behind his massive desk and took a seat, the highball glass in his hand. “You look good.”
“So do you.”
His father smiled at that. “I am at the peak of my career,” he indicated the many awards that were displayed on the shelves made especially for them. “Your mother is aging gracefully and is the darling of both small and big screen. Yet, our son does not want anything to do with us.”
“You know why.”
James nodded. “We made a lot of mistakes …..”
Chad laughed harshly. “That’s what we are calling them now?”
His father stiffened. “I wish I could take it all back son; but I cannot. I would like to call a truce….”
“What you want is for me to move back in here and take the part in the film you are directing.”
His father eyed him for a moment. “That too but most importantly, I want my son here in our lives. I want to see you with a beautiful woman who will one day become his wife.”
Chad sipped the excellent bourbon and eyed him. “You mean like you and Mother?”
“Look, son we are not perfect!”
“Far from it….” He swung his hand around the room, his eyes settling on the burgundy leather sofa. “Do you want to know what I remember most about this room…?”
“The way that you spilt juice on the expensive carpet!”
“No Father. It was one of Mother’s birthday parties and I was sneaking out to take it all in. I was fascinated by the glitz and all the beautiful people crammed together in one room. You left the party and came in here and I followed you not knowing that Gina Gregor was already here waiting for you. I stood there watching as she took off her clothes and ….” He drank the bourbon. “You know the rest.”
His father’s expression was bleak. “You never said anything to me.”
“What would I have said Father? That I saw you screwing a woman who was friends with mother? But it was not only with her, was it? There have been countless others including the nannies you hired to take care of me.”
“Son, I am sorry. I don’t know if you will believe me, but I am a better person now and we are settled in our marriage.”
“Good for you and I really mean that.” He got to his feet and put the glass on the table next to him. “Goodnight Father.”
“Is it that ….. that girl when you were sixteen?” The question stopped him when he made to open the door. He turned slowly to stare at the man behind the desk.
“Why do you ask?”
“You were never the same after you stopped seeing her.”
Chad laughed bitterly. “I did not ‘stop seeing her’ as you put it. You threatened to destroy her life by reporting her mother to child services. You gave me no choice and when I still continued seeing her you placed a call and had people sniffing around. Elena had a shitty life with a lousy mother, but she did not want to be placed into a group home. The lesser of the two evils was staying with a mother who was not really one. In order to make sure that did not happen, and you did not carry out your threats, I had to back off without telling her why. I left her feeling like I was the load of crap she thought I was.” He leaned back against the doors and closed his eyes. “I broke her and broke myself in the process. Did you know what I told her Father?” He swallowed the bile in his throat. “I told her that it was good while it lasted and that she was not my type. I just wanted to experience screwing a fat girl from the wrong side of town. I even told her that it was for a part that I would be playing. You should have seen the look on her face. That stark hurt and pain that I caused. She did not cry, at least not while I was there anyway.” He passed a hand over his face wearily. “I spent years trying to forget her and what I did and then I tried to find her, but she had moved, and she was not on any social media at all. I wondered frantically if she was dead, but nothing turned up in the morgue or anything like that.” His face was bleak as he continued. “The worst part of it is that I fell in love with her when I was only sixteen years old and I have never been able to feel anything for another woman after that and trust me when I say that I have tried. Does that answer your question?”