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It had taken everything In me not to pull her in for a hug to celebrate the expression my father wore on his face after delivering my speech. I opted for an awkward handshake, and I could still feel the warmth of her hand in mine. I wished she hadn’t left. I knew I could have asked her to stay. She was my assistant. It wouldn’t be out of the norm. But I didn’t want to press my luck. I smiled as I softly rubbed the tips of my fingers together, trying to hold on to the feeling.
“Are you coming?” said a voice, breaking me from my thoughts.
I looked up and saw Jeremy standing over me. The conference must have ended because everyone was out of their seats and heading for the doors. I hadn’t even noticed. I had checked out as soon as Monica asked if she could leave, my mind leaving with her.
“Huh?” I asked.
“A bunch of us are going out for dinner and drinks. You coming or not?” He raised an eyebrow.
I didn’t exactly want to spend my Friday night with Jeremy, but it would be better than being alone, my thoughts festering, knowing I wouldn’t be seeing Monica for a few days. The weekends I used to yearn for, I now hated.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, standing from my seat.
Jeremy and I walked toward the doors, following the herd of businessmen in their suits and ties down the stairs. We stopped by the coat check to get our coats to face the snow that was flurrying outside. I shrugged mine on and followed Jeremy and a few others out to the sidewalk where a limo waited. I looked at him, confused.
“Oh, your father is coming, too,” said Jeremy with a knowing smile.
Fuck. An evening alone now sounded better than this.
Jeremy opened the door and slid inside the dimly lit limo that was already lined with rows of suits, my father at the center. I followed Jeremy into the lion’s den, closing the door behind me.
“Well, well, well,” my father’s voice boomed. “If it isn’t the man of the hour.”
“Hey, Dad,” I said, as I found an empty seat across from him.
“Who knew you had such eloquent words in your vocabulary. Maybe all the money we poured into your schooling is finally paying off.”
There were a few chuckles around the limo, all eager to impress the man they were in awe of. I fought to not roll my eyes at how obvious they were in trying to suck up to my father. I remembered trying to do the same years ago, until I realized my father would never take pride in me. A hard lesson to learn at a young age. One that stuck with you.
“That must be it,” I said, trying not to sound sarcastic.
“Where’s your little plaything?” my father asked, looking around the limo.
“Mypersonal assistantwent home.”
“You always pull the hottest pAs. I swear. The tits on that one…” interrupted one guy, shaking his head as if replaying a mental image he must have snapped of her. He worked for my father, but I couldn’t remember his name, and now I had no interest in knowing it after the way he talked about Monica. Like she was a piece of meat. I would mentally refer to him as Jerk for the rest of the night.
“There’s something about her,” said Jeremy thoughtfully. “She looks so familiar. I have been trying to put my finger on where I’ve seen her before.”
My stomach sank as I remembered the night at the bar when I had met Monica. Jeremy was there. He had seen us leave together. I hoped he had enough drinks that night to blur his memory to my advantage. If it all clicked right now, he would out me here in front of my father.
“Well, she’s worked with me for a while now,” I said with a shrug.
Jeremy didn’t look entirely convinced, but he moved on from the subject and struck up a conversation with the jerk next to him who had my blood boiling slightly from how he talked about Monica. I hoped she wouldn’t come up again for the rest of the evening.
We ended up at Eleven Madison Park, where my father secured us a private room by slipping the hostess a couple hundred dollars. I made sure to sit on the far end of the table, away from him and Jeremy, trying to make small talk about things that held little interest to me with the others around me.
As I sipped on my old fashioned, which was my only saving grace in this shitty situation that I didn’t know why I agreed to, I looked around the room. Everyone’s voices droned on about work, and they began blurring together to look like mindless clones who laughed too hard at my father’s jokes and hung on his every word, as if his success would somehow bleed into them.
My phone pinged in my pocket, and my heart skipped, thinking maybe it was Monica. I pulled it from my pocket and frowned slightly. It wasn’t her. Of course, it wasn’t. Instead, it was Erica:Any ideas yet?
Me:On what?
Erica:On how to win Monica back…duh.
Me:Nope. And now I’m stuck at this dull dinner with dad and his loyal clan of worshipers.
Erica:Yikes.