Vincent placed a call to Andrew in advance of the meeting with all three members of ADJ Associates. He asked, “Could I just meet you at the house for about thirty minutes? There are some small, but important, details that I want to discuss with you before your colleagues appear.”

Vincent worked hard to speak in a professional manner. However, he was nervous. He could feel his palms sweating, and he rubbed them on his pants as he spoke. He did have real reasons to meet with Andrew ahead of the group discussion, but somewhere inside he was also hoping to spend some private time alone together.

Andrew furrowed his brow in confusion on the opposite end of the line. He couldn’t imagine what discussion needed privacy. He wondered what they couldn’t talk about with Jeffrey and Doug present. However, the client’s wishes always came first when possible, and it was an important project.

“Would Wednesday evening be possible?” asked Andrew. “Jeffrey and Doug are taking a look around the house Wednesday morning.”

“How about early Wednesday afternoon?” countered Vincent. He said, “I do not mean to cut into the rest of your workday, but I have my daughter Mandy at home, and it would work much better on my end if we could meet while she’s at school.”

Andrew typed in 2:00 p.m. on his calendar and asked, “Will 2:00 in the afternoon work? I think I can fit in the time driving out to the house and back.” He added, “Jeffrey and Doug do have some exciting ideas for the house.” The last comment was a stretch. Andrew was not at all sure whether Jeffrey and Doug had even begun working on the project, but it was a standard comment to help maintain enthusiasm in the client.

“Perfect,” said Vincent. “I’ll meet you there.”

---

Vincent tried to avoid checking, but he continually glanced at his watch while speaking with Lucy Sanders, a manager of one of his grocery stores. She requested an emergency meeting on Wednesday. Vincent squeezed her into his schedule at 12:30, but what turned out to be a minor personnel issue evolved into long monologues about the individual store and the overall chain.

At last, Vincent cut Lucy off and said, “I’m so sorry, Lucy. I’m pleased that we solved the employee conflict, but I have a meeting across town that I need to get to by 2:00. If necessary, we can schedule another time to speak. I would be happy to talk to you about the corporate threat to smaller chains like us tomorrow or even next week.”

Lucy’s eyes widened as she said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, Vincent. Here I was just rambling on. I could have ended the conversation half an hour ago. I hope the meeting goes well, and I hope you can stop in at some point tomorrow and check the new stone fruit display.”

Vincent scribbled a note to himself and said, “It’s finished. I’ll send you a quick text message when I’m on my way.”

As they rose from the table, Lucy shared a warm handshake. Vincent was pleased every time he remembered not only were all three store managers highly competent at their work, but he also liked them as people, too. With a quick glance back from the doorway to the conference room, Lucy said, “And please say hello to Mandy for me when you have the opportunity.”

Smiling, Vincent quickly made his way to his office. He dropped the scribbled note on Vicki’s desk saying, “Please add this to my schedule tomorrow.”

“Are you leaving for the day?” asked Vicki.

“There is a possibility that I might be back late in the afternoon. Do you need something?”

Vicki held out a small box of gleaming ripe red strawberries. She said, “Then take these now. If you leave them here, I’m going to eat them all. One of your farmers dropped them off. He said he didn’t want anything else. He just wanted to give you an appetizing treat.”

“Who was it?”

Vicki said, “He told me not to say anything. He just said to give you the strawberries.”

Vincent grinned and said, “It must be Stephen.”

“You’re too smart, Mr. O’Donoghue,” grumbled Vicki.

Vincent threw a messenger bag over his shoulder, scanned the office, and, satisfied everything was in its place, picked up the strawberries on the way out.

Andrew’s car was already parked in the driveway when Vincent arrived. Andrew climbed out of his car quickly. He gave a quick wave and circled back behind the vehicle to greet Vincent.

“I got here a little earlier than I expected,” said Andrew in a business-like tone. He said, “I walked around back and took some pictures and notes for Doug about the landscaping. He was here this morning, but then he forgot a couple of things, so I took some quick photos with the phone. I hope the reason you asked me to stop by isn’t for a major issue.”

Awkwardly climbing out of his car while trying to balance the box of strawberries in one hand, Vincent said, “No, it wasn’t anything major. I had a couple of things my daughter was particularly concerned about.”

Andrew moved forward and held out a hand offering to take the strawberries. Vincent knew that it was easier to climb out of cars ten years ago, but he wasn’t exactly sure why. His joints simply didn’t seem as flexible as in the past.

With the box of berries in his hand, Andrew asked, “Should we just leave these here in your car? They look good. Do you eat them on cereal or make strawberry shortcake?”

Smoothing down his shirt and pushing the car door shut, Vincent said, “They aren’t for me. I enjoyed the chocolates that you sent. These are for you. They are from one of my best growers.” Without much thought, Vincent reached into the box and held out one of the fresh strawberries to Andrew’s lips. He said, “Taste one.”

Andrew bit into the ruby red of the strawberry. The sweet flavor exploded in his mouth. He opened his eyes wide as he chewed, swallowed and said, “Oh my God, Vincent. That’s amazing. Can I have another?”

Vincent grinned and said, “They are all yours. Would you like me to feed you another?” He bit his lip slightly after the words rolled out of his mouth.

“Yes, please.” Andrew bit into another one of the luscious fruit and said, “Oh man, it’s kinda sexy when you feed me.” As soon as he heard himself say it, Andrew held up a hand and said, “Oh, no, I didn’t mean…Pretend I didn’t say that.”

Holding out another ripe, luscious strawberry, Vincent said, “It’s okay with me, and it’s kind of sexy feeding you these.” He could feel a light blush spread through his cheeks.

Andrew bit into the next berry and cocked his head slightly to the right. He could feel the confusion begin to crawl forward from the back of his mind. He didn’t expect Vincent to be using the word “sexy” in any sort of connection with a man.

Both men turned toward the house in silence. Vincent dug the key out of his pocket and turned it in the lock. He had the same startled reaction as the first time when the interior decorating looked nothing like what his expectations after seeing the outside.

Andrew followed Vincent inside and stood just over his shoulder when Vincent gestured toward an old, ornately carved straight back chair. He said, “Mandy wants to keep that chair in the house. She adored the designs in the wood.”

Andrew grinned and said, “I judged that one right. I don’t know any reason why we can’t keep it. Does she want it in her room downstairs or here in the living room?”

Vincent said, “I think it would be great in the living room. Then she will always see the real input she had in decorating the house. I don’t know that she would care too much about the structural things your partner Jeffrey does. She might be interested in the landscaping, but I wondered if there was a way we could involve her in the interior designs. That’s the primary reason why I wanted to talk to you.”

“Let’s take a look downstairs where she will have her bedroom,” said Andrew.

Vincent followed him down the steps. He said, “It’s important to me that she sees this as her home. It’s important that she has a real investment in it.”

Andrew stepped up to the windows looking out toward the woods beyond. He said, “I can have a conversation with her about what she likes and what she might like to see.”

Vincent stepped up behind and said, “I think that would be great.”

Andrew turned around abruptly just as Vincent gestured toward the trees. They suddenly found themselves face-to-face. Vincent breathed in while staring at Andrew’s lips. Frozen and unable to move, he waited a few short seconds for Andrew to shift to the side. When Andrew remained rooted in place, Vincent touched Andrew’s shirt briefly on the shoulder and said, “This is a gorgeous shirt.” It was a comment plucked from the blue, but it felt more comfortable than thirty more seconds of silence.

Andrew smiled and said, “It’s Brooks Brothers.”

Vincent laughed under his breath and pulled his hand back.

“Is there something funny about that?” asked Andrew.

“It reminds me of growing up. That was the reason I laughed,” said Vincent.

“You wore Brooks Brothers growing up? Your family could afford that?”

“Oh no, not at all,” said Vincent. He stepped away from the windows to the bed left behind by the previous owner and sat on it. While pushing on the springs and bouncing lightly, he said, “If we can afford it in the budget, I will want to replace a lot of this furniture, too. I want Mandy to have a bed of her own that feels like her own choice.”

Andrew joined him on the bed. After he sat, he scooted slightly closer. He was pleased that Vincent made no effort to move away. He said, “I want to hear the Brooks Brothers story.”

“How did you know there’s an actual story?”

“Good guess I suppose,” said Andrew.

Vincent turned his head to gaze at Andrew. He noticed that Andrew’s eyes were a deep, soulful brown. They were eyes to get lost in. He said, “For my 15th birthday, my grandmother bought me a Brooks Brothers shirt. It was a great shirt, and it looked good on me, so I wore it to school. The kids started calling me ‘Alex’ as a nickname.”

Andrew smiled. “Alex Keaton? Michael J. Fox’s character?”

Vincent nodded and laughed softly. “You understand. That’s the one. I started wearing clothes more like him, but of course, it couldn’t be Brooks Brothers, so I wore cheaper department store knockoffs.”

“Do you know who they compared me to?” asked Andrew.

Vincent slowly looked over Andrew head to foot and tried to imagine him at fifteen. He asked, “Tom Cruise in Risky Business? In your socks?” Just the thought of it stirred something in Vincent. He thought of a young Vincent in a dress shirt, briefs and athletic socks lip-synching to the radio.

Andrew laughed. “Yeah, I wish. Unfortunately, I had to face off with more than a few bullies, and they said I was like the geek in Sixteen Candles, Anthony Michael Hall. I was skinny as a rail, and I was too brainy for my own good.”

“Oh, but he was kind of cute,” said Vincent. Then he quickly closed his mouth. He couldn’t believe what he’d just said out loud.

“You liked the guy?” asked Andrew.

Vincent tried to change the topic quickly. He said, “Sixteen Candles was so funny, and really all of the John Hughes movies were funny compared with most other movies at the time. I laughed out loud at everything about the older sister and her wedding.” Vincent stood up from the bed feeling his skin prickle as Andrew stared watching him closely. Vincent continued, “I know there isn’t one in this room, but I would like Mandy to have a walk-in closet if that’s possible. She would have some real opinions about the kitchen, too. I guess I just wanted to make sure she had an advocate on your team. I would love it if you could sort of safeguard her ideas if you know what I mean.”

Andrew stood slowly and crossed his arms over his chest. He said, “I think I understand completely. I’ll have fun talking to your daughter, Vincent.” Andrew stepped back creating an obvious space apart from Vincent. It was a little more than ironic that Vincent mentioned attraction to a man, and then he started talking about closets. Andrew asked, “Was that all you wanted to talk about? I’m sure we can work with it. She will probably have fun talking about landscaping with Doug, too, if she’s into flowers. He comes up with amazing designs.”

Vincent lowered his eyes and stumbled over his words. He could detect some frustration or disdain in Andrew’s voice. He said, “Yes, that’s what I wanted to discuss. Thank you for meeting me, Andrew. I need to get back to my office now.” He glanced briefly back over his shoulder and then climbed the staircase to the main floor. “I will see all three of you tomorrow.”