Instead, it was my father.
Groaning, I debated letting it go to voicemail, but then again, I didn’t want to miss the phone call. The one I always got after he’d been with a woman for an indeterminate amount of time. The one where he called to say he was leaving her and things weren’t working out the way he’d hoped.
“Hey, Dad,” I said, my voice probably a little too chipper.
“Wilder, hi! You answered.” He seemed pleasantly surprised to hear my voice, and he sure as hell didn’t sound like a man who was ending a marriage so fresh the ink wasn’t even dry on the paperwork yet. “How you doing, son? Haven’t heard from you since we left town a couple weeks ago. How’s life?”
I didn’t want to talk about it. Not with him. “Things are fine. What’s up?”
“Just calling to see if you’re coming on vacation with the family in a couple weeks.”
Shit. I’d completely forgotten. He’d casually mentioned it that day we spent together, but my mind was so focused on other things I’d neglected to give it much thought beyond that.
“Oh,” I said, searching for a believable excuse. “Two weeks? Um…”
“You said it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “That’s what you told me. I booked us a five-bedroom house right on the beach. One of those timeshares I wanted you to invest in with me.”
That’s what it was all about. He didn’t give two shits about family time. He wanted to get me to see the timeshares, like that’d be the final nail in the coffin of the shady deal he wanted to finalize with me. I had no intentions of agreeing to let him take two million dollars of my hard earned money and plug some leaking ship with it, but I’d have to figure out a way to tell him that another time.
“Are the girls going?” I asked.
“They sure are. Tammy Lynn just booked their flights this morning. I’m looking at their itineraries right now. I just need to know if you’re going, son. I can put it on my credit card for Sky Miles and then write it off for work since we’re looking at properties.”
Addison’s words played in my head. She asked for space. She didn’t want to see me. Showing up in Florida would upset her, and as fucking pissed as I was about the whole thing, I wasn’t that big of an asshole.
“Aw, don’t make me beg,” my dad laughed. “I really want you to come. Tammy Lynn’s so excited. She’s got all these big family dinners planned. We’ll be right on the ocean. There’s a beautiful, private beach just a short walk away. The house we’re staying in has been renovated and each bedroom has a suite.”
He sounded like such a salesman.
“Let me get back to you on that,” I said. “I have to take a look at my schedule. I’ll let you know soon.”
“Plane tickets get more expensive the closer you get to the dates,” my dad said. Sometimes he still spoke to me as if I were a broke college student and not an independently wealthy man. “You know that. Anyway, just let me know.”
“I can get my own ticket, Dad. That is, if I go. Again, I’ll let you know.”
“Addison, sweetie, what’s the matter?”
Wilder had just hung up on me when Brenda Bliss walked by and happened to see me dabbing my eyes with a tissue. She rushed toward me, suddenly all motherly, and slipped her arm around my back.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you, but lately you’ve been off your game.”
Her words stung, but they were true. I couldn’t argue with that. I used to be a shark. I used to be relentless and constantly “on” as I raked in sale after sale and nonstop networked. Now I was nothing but a floating jellyfish, emotions transparent and set to casually sting anyone who dared come near me.
“I’m sorry, Brenda.” I inhaled sharply and focused on the sensation of cool air renewing my lungs. “I’m just dealing with some… family things… I shouldn’t let them affect my work, but I guess I am.”
“Why don’t you get out of here? Take the rest of the day. Shoot, take the rest of the week. Go do something for you,” she suggested. Brenda Bliss practically lived at the office. It was rare she told anyone to take time off, especially considering time off in the real estate world was unpaid. If we weren’t working, we weren’t getting sales and Brenda Bliss Agency was losing money. “I want you to come back here Monday completely recharged. I want to see the girl I hired. The girl that’s going to take over Manhattan real estate someday soon…”
She offered me a kind wink and cordial smile before slipping away and leaving my office. I shut my laptop and locked my desk before gathering my things and heading home.
“Hey, Coco.” I called my sister as I walked home, taking a sharp turn at the halfway mark and heading back uptown. Everything about me felt deflated, and I was certain she could hear it in my voice. “Can I come over?”
“Of course,” she said. “I just got home from hot yoga, but I’m here. I need to hop in the shower, but you can just come over.”
By the time I arrived, the kettle on the stove was whistling and Coco was simultaneously flitting around the kitchen pulling ceramic mugs from the cabinet and drying her hair with a microfiber towel.
“I have some of that lemongrass green tea you like.” She poured some steaming water into my cup and unwrapped a tea bag.
“Thanks, Co.”