“Oh, I’m sure they will, knowing that you picked them out with such love,” he said warmly. “Thanks again. You’re the best.”
“I know I am. Bye!” I hung up and this time I didn’t feel one iota of guilt about the gag gifts I’d bought him. I turned to Max and Oraja and nodded. “Let’s get this party started. I want you both to make me look amazing.”
Chapter 9
Harry
“Yes, Dad. I understand what you’re saying, Dad.” My father, Alexander Parker Huntington was on the phone and he was lecturing me for what I thought were frankly, very stupid reasons. We had these calls at least once a month and I was starting to feel really frustrated.
“You listen to me, boy, you want to be the next CEO of Huntington Enterprises, right?”
“Yes, Dad, I do but you also want me to be the next CEO.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true, Harry. We were hoping that Ethan would take over.” Way to cut me, Dad!
“Yes Dad, but Ethan’s not interested in taking over the company.” Ethan was my older brother. In fact, I had four older brothers. I was the youngest, but none of them were interested in taking over the family business.
“Well, Harry, I know you’re twenty-five, but if you want to assume power in this company, you need to show the board of directors that you are a mature adult.”
“Dad, I’m very mature and I’m very adult.”
“Well, I wouldn’t quite say that son.”
“What, Dad? I can’t go on a few dates.”
“Harry, you’re photographed every week with a different woman. We are a manufacturing company of toys and childcare products. It doesn’t look good when the son of the CEO, the man that is soon to be the next CEO, is gallivanting around town with different women.”
“Dad, I’m not exactly gallivanting around town with different women. I go for a dinner here. I go for a dinner there. I go for drinks. I’m living my life. I’m twenty-five. Isn’t that what all young men do?”
“Well, you’re not all young men, Harry, are you?”
“Okay, Dad? Well, what do you want me to do?”
“I think you know what I’m asking?”
“What are you asking?”
“You need to decide which of your young ladies will be accompanying you to all the events this Christmas season.”
“What?”
“I know you think you’re going to bring a different woman to each different event and I’m telling you from now on, son, choose one woman. At least for the holiday season. This is our biggest retail season. You know, you’re going to be photographed. You’re going to be in the society pages. You may even make it on the news and some other channels. We don’t need you being seen with a different woman of the week. Okay?”
“But Dad...”
“Harry, I’m being serious now, do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes, Dad. Fine.”
“Well, okay. Now we’ve got that out of the way. Grandma and your mother, wanted me to ask you if you’re going to be home for Christmas early or not?”
“What do you mean, early?”
Well, you know, they’d like you to come a couple of days before."
“I was going to come on Christmas Eve like always.”
“Well, Harry, your mother doesn’t want you to come on Christmas Eve.”
“Would she rather I come on Christmas Day?”
“Harry.”
“Okay, Dad. What’s good, the twenty-second?”
“Yes. Your brothers will all be there then as well.”
“Oh yay. Great.” I was looking forward to seeing my brothers. I just wasn’t looking forward to everything else that came from being home with the parents and grandparents.
“Your grandma and grandpa will be there as well. And they will have expectations of you.”
“What expectations, Dad?”
“Well, they’ll want to know... they want to know when, you know, when you’re getting married.”
“Dad, I’m the youngest. So if none of the others are getting married yet, they can hardly expect me to get married, right?”
“Well, they’re going to be asking each one of you when you’re getting married.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “Well do Ethan, Jack, Dylan, and Joshua know that?” Those were my other brothers, all older than me, all single and all also playing the field.
“Well, I’m just saying, I don’t want it to be unexpected when it happens.”
“Okay, Dad.”
“And check and see when Sarah will be coming as well.”
“I’m sure she’ll be coming when I’m coming. That’s how it always goes every year.”
“I just don’t understand you and that girl.”
“What, Dad? What don’t you understand?”
“I mean, I know she’s your best friend, but I mean, she has no boyfriend. You have no girlfriend. It just doesn’t look right.”
“What doesn’t look right, Dad?”
“The way you two carry on, you know, you’re always at her place. She’s always at your place. You’re like chalk and cheese. You’ve not really got anything in common.”
“What do you mean, we don’t have anything in common? Our mothers are best friends. That’s how we met.”
“Well, I know your mother and her mother are best friends, but the girl, she’s a tomboy. She has no interest in business. She has no interest in anything.”
“Dad, you know she’s interested in history. You know she just graduated with her master’s degree.”
“Well, I know, but why doesn’t she do something with herself? I mean, how is she going to catch a husband looking like that?”
“Dad, she’s not interested in getting a husband, okay?” I was getting angry now. “She’s not that sort of girl.”
“She’s not what sort of girl, Harry? She’s not the sort of girl that wants to get married or are you saying she’s a lesbian?”
“No, Dad, she’s not a lesbian.” I laughed. “Oh my God, really? I hope you’re not going to be asking her these questions this Christmas. You know it will upset her.”
“She’s so sensitive. She always has been, since she was a little kid. She should be used to it.”
“She is used to it, Dad.”
“Well, I do have an idea. Actually, it’s your mother’s idea that she cooked up with Sarah’s mother.”
“What’s the idea, Dad?” I waited for him to say something that was going to annoy me.
“Well, Sarah’s mother really thinks that it’s time for her to be dating, you know, someone proper.”
“Well she’s not dating anyone, proper or not.”
“Well that needs to change. There are a couple of guys at the office that we’re going to invite over for a Christmas party.”
“What are you talking about? We never have guys from the office at home during the Christmas season.”
“Well, this year there’s going to be a change. We’re going to have a large party with some eligible bachelors for Sarah. So can you make sure that she dresses nicely? Tell her to bring something other than those jeans she loves to wear?”