Chapter 9 – Julian
I’m just getting out of my shower on a lonely Tuesday night when Preston calls me.
This late at night – let alone when I’m about to go to bed, and he knows that – it could be about anything. A crazy idea he’s suddenly had. He’s in jail for drunk and disorderly conduct and needs me to bail him out. He’s still drunk and disorderly and wants to bother me.
Basically, there’s no good reason for my business partner to be calling me this late at night. Not with his track record, anyway.
“What are you doing this Saturday night?”
That’s all he says the moment I answer. Knows how to cut to the chase, doesn’t he?
I rub my hairy chin as I continue to dry off in front of my bathroom mirror. I don’t need to wrap a towel around my body in my own home. Hell, I’d make a huge spectacle of it if Alyssa were here, but noooo, she’s at a study group for one of her finals and going back to her apartment for the night. Something about being on her period anyway. I admit, once she starts talking about blood, I tune out. I’ll throw all the ibuprofen at her that she wants, but that’s the extent of it. All I hear is, “I’m not pregnant and we’re not having sex for a couple of days,” and I’m good.
“Hopefully I’m going out with my girlfriend this weekend.” It’s the highlight of my week, isn’t it? Spoiling Alyssa silly, that is.
“But you don’t have any meetings or have to go see your parents, right?”
I squeeze toothpaste onto my brush and hope to wrap this conversation up. “Not that I can recall. You should call Vern to find out about that.”
Is it cold in here? What is with this randomly cold evening in Portland? After a string of early summery days, it’s suddenly sixty degrees and rainy again. Even a man like me can start chafing with ridiculous weather extremes like these. I better apply some body powder to my groin. Alyssa appreciates it when her man isn’t chafing around the cock.
Of course, I’m technically touching my flaccid self when I hear, “Excellent. Then you can come to a small party we’re throwing at my place this weekend.”
I stop, my powdery hand wrapped firmly around my soft shaft. “With who?”
“Yeah, so, I thought a lot about what you said last week and got in touch with Cher again. She’s not an employee anymore, right? There’s no issue with us dating.”
“Excuse me?” I’m not hearing this, right? I know for a fact that my dumbass business partner is not continuing to see a woman I had fired because she was acting like a petulant child in my office.
“Do I have to say it a third time? Cher. Lieberman. Come on, you remember her. The hot fox working with Alyssa before you started tapping that?”
“Yes, I remember her,” I growl. “Why the hell am I hearing about her again?”
“Because we got back together, and I think it might be a real deal now, Julian.”
I brace my free hand against my sink and consider my pissed-off countenance in the mirror. “You’re a fucking idiot,” I spit.
“Following your lead around the office, champ. So, you and Alyssa can stop by my place for dinner around seven on Saturday, right? Thought we’d take advantage of the sunny daylight on the balcony off my dining room. What say you?”
I say a lot of things. Things that I’d rather not repeat here.
