Which Way the Wind Blows

Chapter 30

“He doesn’t seem to want to see me, father,” Quentin sighed into the phone. “And you should see the filthy place he works in. I’d never expect him to have sunk that low in so short a period of time.”

He was lounging in his hotel suite in the Ritz Carlton, bored as ever. The City that Never Sleeps was sure putting him to sleep. He wanted to be back home as soon as possible. There was this hot new executive assistant at his father’s company that he was chasing and he just knew he’d be able to get her into bed soon. If only Chris hadn’t screwed up his plans by making their father send him after his wayward self. Damned fag his little brother was. Who’d want a guy when there are so many luscious, young women to chase after? He just hoped it was a faze Chris was going through. The last thing he needed was people believing such a thing ran in their family bloodline. And rumor had it Chris had been dating that lanky, freaky former college roommate of his. Not even women seemed to want that guy! The whole thing was just a damned inconvenience is what it was.

“I thought he was working in a new advertising firm,” the older man replied. “At least that’s the information I have here.”

“Well then he has a second job on the weekends. I saw him covered in grease and dirt working at some mechanic’s rundown shop.”

“According to his bank records, he has a paycheck directly deposited into his checking account every two weeks from an ad house.”

“Then I guess I’ll try to meet with him there next.”

“Hold off on that for now, son,” his father said brusquely.

“Why?”

“I’m going to have his old supervisor call the firm and speak with their HR department. Maybe if we can get them to terminate him, he’ll see reason and be more amenable to rejoining us back here where he belongs.”

“Should I fly back now then?” Quentin was silently willing his father to reply affirmatively. The city here was hot and humid, and Chris wasn’t worth his time anyway.

“Not quite yet,” the older man chuckled. “I want you to be there to help your brother … pick up the pieces, so to speak, when he gets fired again.”

“But father …”

“Don’t contradict me, son,” the man growled warningly. “Amber will keep until you get here.”

Huh? How the hell did he know?

“You think I don’t have eyes?”

“Yes, sir,” he sighed.

“That’s my boy.”

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“Look, he just wants to apologize,” Mindy said quickly, seeing the doubt and scorn cross Lauren’s face.

They were sitting in the little café that Warren and Jake usually met for brunch in every Sunday … sometimes with Tommy and Lauren, sometimes with Freddy and Pete. Warren wanted to be there as well, but Mindy had finally convinced him that it would likely only make Lauren refuse flat out. This plan was long shot enough one-on-one. Her earlier confidence had been slowly and effectively eroded as the meeting wore on, too. As soon as Lauren heard Warren’s name, she became cool and distant.

“Do you really think it’ll make everything all right?” she asked as she sipped on her mimosa while they waited for their salads.

“No, but at least Chris will have that.”

“And do what with it?”

Mindy sighed and sat back in her chair with slumped shoulders. “It’s the least he deserves, don’t you think?”

Lauren raised a skeptical dark brown eyebrow and crossed her arms over her breasts. “I think the least he deserves is to never see the man again,” she countered. “And I think if I ask him, he’d agree.”

“Furthermore,” said an icy voice from behind Mindy, “I’d have to castrate your brother on sight.”

Mindy looked to see an attractive man with chestnut hair and silver-gray, albeit narrowed, eyes glaring down at her firmly. “It’s my moral duty as Chris’ gay best friend.”

“Um, okay,” she replied in a small voice, already guessing who the stranger was. “But why?”

“Because Warren seems to have a solid support system,” Kee replied as he pulled up a chair and sat down.

Mindy glanced at Lauren who was shaking her head in annoyance.

“I told you I would talk to Mindy alone, Kee,” she hissed. “I don’t need back up.”

“Chris does.”

Mindy, meanwhile, felt her own ire raise. How dare these people judge Warren after all he’d been through? Sure, what he’d done to Chris was wrong. Horribly, terribly and truly wrong, but the guy wasn’t an innocent. It was about time they were enlightened to the fact, too.

“I appreciate your concern for Chris,” she said as she speared both of them with a glare of her own. A rare one, too. One she reserved for special occasions like these. “But you have no idea what he put my brother through for six years!”

“Oh, here we go again,” Kee rolled his eyes. “Look, whatever happened between them was, no offense, between them. And, yes, I know he was a bastard to Warren. He told us ad nauseum how much of a bastard he was and how he didn’t expect nor did he deserve forgiveness.”

“Oh, I’m sure he was very convincing, too.”

“If he’s such a lying jackass, why are you so hot to get him his apology?”

Mindy scowled at him and took a sip of her iced tea. Lauren watched them both with interest from across the table but didn’t seem inclined to make any further interruption.

“I think my brother was wrong to do … what he did …”

“Fuck a pissed drunk man and leave him in his bed to wake up alone and figure out what happened.”

“Yeah, that,” she said through gritted teeth. “I think that if Warren apologizes to him, they can both just … put this whole thing behind them.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kee demanded in outrage. “Nothing will fix this shit! Nothing!” Mindy opened her mouth to protest but he held up a hand to forestall her. “Nothing, Mindy! I saw the after-effects of what happened. I pulled a completely water-logged Chris out of the shower before he scrubbed an entire layer of skin off his body. Whatever happened between them back west does NOT excuse what happened that night.”

“I didn’t say it did!”

“It sounded like you were trying to,” he said flatly. “Look, I’m sure Warren’s a decent guy otherwise.” He glanced at Lauren then back at Mindy. “He wouldn’t have become friends with her otherwise. But this whole thing you’re proposing? It’s a bad idea right now. Chris is still a bit shaky even talking about it. I really don’t think he’d cope well facing Warren right now.”

Mindy played with her fork while she listened to his ranting. She admitted to herself that he did have a point. But she also knew her brother needed to get the apology off his chest to get on with his own life.

“Maybe if you ask him if he would open to it,” she asked looking up at him imploringly. This guy was tough, she’d give him that, but she’d always been able to sweet-talk her way into things before.

“I don’t think so,” he said haughtily.

She frowned. Trust Chris to be protected by the least movable gay guardian angel on Earth.

“Okay,” Lauren finally broke her silence. “How about this? We’ll wait a bit and see how things go.”

“Huh?” Mindy murmured.

“What the hell, Lauren?” Kee growled. “I said no!”

“Chris needs closure as much as Warren does,” she said, sparing him a glance.

Kee shook his head. “Fuck that! He needs to be left alone!”

Mindy felt a bit uncomfortable watching them argue but she was effectively a captive audience. The waitress arrived with their salads and Kee brusquely ordered a sparkling water with lemon.

“Kee, I know you ant to protect him, but you’ll only end up reinforcing his instinct to avoid confrontation.”

“He isn’t avoiding confrontation!”

“He is and you know it!” Lauren insisted. “Now, I’m all for him getting on with his life, but he and Warren haven’t settled things at all. How do you expect either of them to move on in this state.”

“I don’t particularly care what Warren does!”

“Hey!” Mindy piped in.

“Well, I don’t!” he said with crossed arms.

“But you do care about Chris,” Lauren interrupted. “And I know you want to see him happy.”

Kee looked away with a scowl and Mindy knew that Lauren was working her own special influence on him.

“Just think about it,” the other woman finished, giving Mindy a hopeful wink.

Let’s hope this works.

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“Quentin’s here?” Victoria sputtered.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Chris toweled off as much of the grease and grime as he could with an old rag as he spoke. He knew he would still make a mess of the shower stall when he washed up, but if he could dislodge much of the caked on parts, it wouldn’t be too difficult to clean up once he was done. Anyway, it wasn’t like he had anything better planed for a Saturday night.

“What’d he say?” her voice broke into his morose thoughts.

“Something about whether or not I was ready to come home.” He peeled off a leaf that had stuck to his arm. “He looked pretty annoyed that Dad sent him out here, too.”

“Who cares how annoyed he is? You’re not going to talk to him, are you?”

“Of course not!” He looked up with a defiant glare. “I didn’t make it this far to get a life of my own only to backtrack when things get … tough.”

Tough. That’s a mild way to put it, he chided himself. Since he’d landed up here nothing had worked out the way he’d hoped. His ex-lover absolutely detested him. So much so that he’d done something so monumentally out of character to vent his frustrations. But as angry as Victoria and Kee had been on his behalf by what Warren had done, Chris couldn’t hold it against the guy. He’d strung Warren along for six years. Maybe the man was free to leave, as Lauren had pointed out, but that didn’t exonerate Chris for the mind games he’d played. The one thing he did hold against Warren was that he’d gone back on his promise of never changing. That was the only thing Chris found Warren at fault for.

But even with all that had happened, he knew that he couldn’t go back to Seattle and be the good son his father had envisioned and insisted that he become. What good were they anyway? He and his brothers were all raised the same way: entitled. Their parents instilled this into them from a very young age. Cyril, his oldest brother was the worst of them all, too. When Chris was six, his nanny had been fired and almost brought up on charges of statutory rape when she was found having sex with his then-sixteen-year-old brother, who had been after her for months and had finally told her that he would have her fired if she didn’t sleep with him. The girl was eighteen and was a foreign student working her way through university with that job. Afraid to be sent back to her family in Portugal in disgrace, she’d agreed. And when they were caught, what did Cyril do? He claimed she’d taken advantage of him and got him drunk, probably hoping to get pregnant. Next thing Chris knew, Maria was shipped home and his new nanny was a stoic and staid 60-some-odd-year old … who smelled like tuna fish most of the time and refused to play games with him. He’d loved to play them with Maria.

One thing he was determined not to do was resume his old life. It just seemed so empty to him now that he looked back on it. He threw the towel down on the pile of dirty clothes he’d amassed in the corner of his room. He’d separated the ones he wore to work on cars from the rest to keep them from mucking up the whole load. Last thing he needed to do was spend money on replacing his wardrobe just now.

“I don’t think he’ll just disappear because you want him to,” Victoria said.

“Oh, I’m sure he won’t.” He shook his head and sighed. “In fact, I’m positive.”