Page 110 of Broken Brothers

Would she have an accent? Would she still sound like Sarah Hill from middle school? How different would she be?

I couldn’t contain myself watching. And then the screen went black.

“Fuck, what, ugh!”

But then I saw why it had gone black. I was getting a phone call, and it was not a phone call that I wanted to take drunk.

Andrew Patel.

Oh fuck me. What now? Is Edwin ruining this business too? Is war about to break out between us? Do I need to save Virtual Realty? I’m too drunk for this. I can’t be… goddamnit. Layla, you got me drunk.

And I liked it.

Ah, fuck. OK, fine.

“Hey, Andrew!”

I knew that my greeting was more exuberant than normal. Part of that was the alcohol, but part of that was a sense of nerves at what this call might mean. It almost might tell me if Andrew had some bad news by the way he would respond or his tone.

“Hey, Chance,” he said, just sounding more confused than anything else. That wasn’t the worst response; in fact, it was a pretty good one. If he was calling with bad news, he would have set the stage right there with a somber tone. “Is this a good time to call?”

Well, let me see. I just got drunk and realized I had feelings for a former lover I don’t want to have—or I don’t even know if I want to have. My middle school fling is about one dirty message away from blowing open a can of worms. And at any moment, I half-expect my magnanimous adoptive father to pull some shit on me.

“Of course, it’s always, always a good time to call.”

Fuck, except for when I’m drunk and repeating myself. Get it together, Chance. This is a professional call, not some bullshit flirtatious sex call.

“OK, gotcha,” Andrew said, though I could hear the doubt in his voice, and why wouldn’t he have it? I didn’t sound sober, I couldn’t even pretend that I did. “I was actually calling to see if we could go ahead and get one of those consultations scheduled.”

“Consultations?”

It hit me a half-second after I had said that what he meant. I tried to save face, but I could hear the disappointment in his reply over my own voice.

“Oh, right, right, yeah, what was in our contracts, haha,” I said, followed by a hiccup.Dude!“Yeah, sorry, momentary forgetfulness. Of course, when do you want to do it?”

“Umm, as soon as we can,” Andrew said. “We have a major distributor we want to speak to soon and I want to make sure I have your insights.”

“Of, of course,” I said, pausing to take a deep breath to better gather myself. I needed to stay sober like hell, but it seemed like the more I fought, the worse I became.

Granted, if I didn’t try, it would somehow become the worst case scenario of all.

“Tomorrow, may… maybe?” I said.

“Yes, please, can I call you first thing in the AM? So like 11 a.m. your time?”

“Perfect,” I said, biting my lips shut so that my burp wouldn’t make it out loud. “Yes, let’s, let’s talk then.”

“Alright,” Andrew said with a laugh. It wasn’t hard to imagine what he was laughing at, and it wasn’t hard for me even in my state to realize this couldn’t happen again. “I’ll talk to you then.”

I hung up as quickly as I could and glared at my phone for what seemed like a dozen minutes. I had just made a fool of myself for our biggest procured client. Only by the graces of Andrew not being a hardass and not being aggressive had I avoided a stern lecture, but in some ways, that might have been even worse. If Andrew was now making plans to cancel our deal…

OK, I knew he wouldn’t go that far. But this was not a great step to take between the two of us. The thought of losing him felt awfully real in that moment, even if I knew sober I’d realize one mistake and one phone call wouldn’t end it.

I had to get in a spot where I wouldn’t lose anything or anyone I cared about. I had to figure out this Edwin situation.

And to fight dirty, I knew exactly what it would take.

I became so enraptured with my idea as I walked into my apartment, finding Morgan awake and sober, that I completely forgot to check what Sarah’s final message had been.