“I see that you were successful in procuring the good bagels.”

Eric sits down and opens his laptop. The sun is just coming up and starting to bleed over the tops of the buildings to the East and sneak into our large conference room. I’m already in the office, busy in the conference room, doodling on the dry-erase board.

“And it wasn’t easy, either. I had to ask Vinny to open the store early for me,” Sarah says, leaning against one of the windows, peering outside and yawning, a cup of coffee in her hand.

“See, that’s why we keep you around. You have good relationships with all the key players in the city.”

“Oh, is that why?”

“No,” I say, lifting my head from my 3D Gothic arch sketches. “It’s because you’re a good worker and because you go above and beyond the call of duty.”

I shoot a look at my dumb brother.

“Well, it’s my pleasure. What else do I have to do at six on a Saturday morning?”

“We really do appreciate you coming in. And you know you’re getting paid at double your hourly rate for coming in on a Saturday,” I say, capping the marker and tossing it down on the table.

“I know. I wasn’t kidding about having nothing better to do this morning.”

“Oh, yeah?” Eric peels his eyes away from his computer. “You didn’t leave some hot guy tangled up in the sheets of your bed?”

“You know, that little comment could be construed as sexual harassment.”

“He’s kidding! Don’t listen to him.” I sit down next to Eric at the head of the table.

“No worries. Actually, I just left from the bar. Had a really late night last night. I haven’t even been home yet.”

Eric and I look at each other and then at Sarah.

“Now I’m kidding!” She goes over to the breakfast on the small table in the back of the conference room and pours herself another cup of coffee. “I’m going out to reception. The other boys should be here soon. Play nice, will you?”

Sarah leaves the conference room and closes the door behind her. She certainly knows a lot about men and power. It’s a total power play for her to close the door - when she brings the boys from the other firm and their attorneys around once they arrive, they won't know what they’re walking into.

One of our own attorneys, Martin O’Malley, comes through the door a few seconds later.

“Alright, this shouldn’t take long.”

O’Malley is an older guy, seasoned in real estate disputes. He started off handling small landlord-tenant issues after hanging a shingle on his own law practice in Brooklyn in the 1970s, but made the move to commercial and large land-use clients shortly thereafter. He’s a real old-school Brooklyn guy with a lot of heart and a slightly larger temper.

He’s an old friend of our father’s, but I don’t like to think about that. And anyway, we’re paying him enough. It’s not like he’s doing us a favor by being here.

“Good of you to be here so early, and on such short notice,” my brother says, rising from his seat and giving the man a hearty handshake.

“Yes, thank you,” I add. “I know you probably have a yacht you’d rather be on right now.”

“I see Sarah got the good bagels. And it isn’t short notice. We’ve known for weeks that something was brewing with these guys.”

“We really appreciate your time anyway, O’Malley,” I say, sitting back down.

“It’s not my time. It’s your time. You’re paying me! And don’t worry - we’ll bring these guys to their knees.”

The intercom in the middle of the table lights up and Sarah’s voice comes through.

“They’re here. They’re waiting in the small conference room. They can’t hear me.”

“How many?”

“Five. It’s the two main guys and three lawyers. How long do you want me to keep them in there to sweat them out?”

“A minute. You’re the one who told us to play nice,” I saw into the intercom.

“Got it. Need anything else?”

“Yeah,” my brother says, leaning over the table and shouting directly at the intercom, looking at it intensely. “You can tell them to go fuck themselves. And you can tell them I said it!”

“Sorry, can you repeat that, Eric? I want to write it down to make sure I have it right.”

“That’s all we need, Sarah. A minute. Thanks,” I say, swatting my brother away.

The intercom clicks off and the blinking green light fades.

“You don’t have to yell into the the thing,” O’Malley says, getting up and fixing himself a cup of coffee.

“I’m just a little bit on edge, okay?” my brother says. “Can you blame me?”

“Yeah, but you always scream into the thing,” I say, letting a little smirk pull at the corners of my mouth.

“Maybe I’m always on edge. I can’t be the cool one. You’re the cool one.”

“Sorry if I’m preventing you from being cool.”

The door swings open and Sarah sashays into the room, presenting the five men behind her one by one. I’m impressed that she knows each of them by name.

“Anything else, sir?” she asks, looking squarely at me.

“That’s all, Sarah. Please hold my calls.”

She nods and gives me a look of confidence and assurance. Thank goodness for her. Maybe I should give her that vacation as her Christmas bonus, and even throw in the unlimited drink package.

“Gentlemen, please sit down. This shouldn’t take very long, should it?” O’Malley sits next to Eric and gestures for the five men to take seats across from him at the table.

“No, I don’t think it should take long. I think we can all come to an agreement today. Don’t you?”

Eric nods and leans on one of his armrests. I can see that he’s trying to be confident and casual, but it just doesn’t work on him. He looks rehearsed and stilted.

“Re-read your contracts. We have the right to build on the land in question. It’s ours. We purchased it six months ago.”

“We understand your position,” the attorney for the other firm says. I know him. He’s a nice guy. His name is Ryan Lee, and he went to the same university as Eric did, and was enrolled in the law school around the same time Eric was there for finance. I met him a few times, years ago, and I knew he was working as an attorney in the city.

“If you understand our position, then you understand that we are going to move forward with our plans,” I add to Eric’s comment.

“Look, we don’t want this thing to drag on and on. My clients negotiated a contract with a third party, and part of the deal included the space adjacent to the lot they acquired. It’s very simple.”

“But the third party didn’t own the land,” O’Malley says matter-of-factly, taking a sip of his coffee.

“It is their contention that they did own it. That before you purchased it, the deal was already done for the other firm to acquire it. The money was in escrow.”

“But the contracts weren’t signed. It wasn’t a done deal,” O’Malley says. “That’s a matter of public record.”

“My clients are willing to compromise. For the right figure, they could be willing to drop their claim to the land, and you’ll be able to do what you want with it. It’ll be yours.”

“It’s already ours,” I say. This would be a fucking cakewalk. They have no stake in this land. Someone on their side dropped the ball. “And that’s our firm position. Sorry, but you’re going to have to walk away.”

The other attorney on their side, and their three principals, don’t say a word.

Lee clears his throat.

“We will draw up an agreement to put everyone in the best position to move forward.”

He’s being a little aggressive. I like it.

This is the kind of shit I live for. The kind of stuff I feed off of. The fight, the thrill.

“You can draw up an agreement if that’s what you want to do, but there is no way we are compromising on this one. Just cancel the deal with the old owners of the land. It’s that simple. In fact, there was no deal.”

Lee gathers his jacket and attache case and pushes himself away from the table, and the other four silent men follow suit.

“We’ll be in touch.”

He reaches out and shakes each of our hands and leaves with the other four men in tow.

A few seconds after the men are gone, Eric sighs.

“Damn. This is a little bit more complicated than I thought it would be. Lee is good.”

“The sign of a good outcome for my client is when I barely have to say a word,” O’Malley says. “And when the other side is out quick. They didn’t even touch the bagels. It’s not complicated. We have this one in the bag.”

“I agree,” I add. “This will be fucking easy. Eric, don’t get your panties in a knot.”

“I don’t know. They’re not saying much. Lee was a little bit reticent.”

“Go out, you two. Go to a strip club this weekend. Oh, not you, Drew. Aren’t you married by now?” O’Malley grabs a bagel from the table and takes a bite.

“We actually just broke up. I guess she wants to be more independent.”

I figure it would be ungentlemanly to mention that she’s fucking her ex.

“That’s a shame. You’re still young. You’ll meet someone else. If you want to. Being a bachelor isn’t all that bad.”

O’Malley scoops up his attache case and starts toward the door before doubling back to the breakfast spread and grabbing another bagel.

“We’re taking that extra bagel out of your hourly billing,” Eric quips.

“I’d love to see that. Anyway, I’ll reach out to Lee. We should do this again soon. It was nice to have such an easy meeting.”

“I’ve got to get to my office,” Eric says, following O’Malley out the door and down the hall into the reception area. “I don’t feel right about this. I want to do some more reading on the deal. See if I can get to it from a different angle.”

“I can’t believe you are wasting your time with this,” I say to Eric, following them out of the conference room.

“Your brother is right,” O’Malley says, turning to face us. “Just don’t talk to their side. Let me handle everything. And take a break,” he adds, turning to Eric. “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“That’s because I haven’t. Thanks for noticing.”

Eric disappears down the hall and O’Malley exits toward the elevator bank.

“So it went well, I take it?” Sarah says, catching my attention.

She’s sitting at the reception desk with the main computer off. All she has up is a security feed of the elevator bank and the hallway outside our office area. There’s no one around. And there won’t be - everyone in the city is probably still asleep. Even the people who make it a habit to come into work on a Saturday won’t be groggily coming in for hours.

“Yeah. It actually did. We’re going to win. It’ll just be a matter of time.”

“Well, that’s good. They left awfully fast, didn’t they?”

“Yeah. Always a good sign. And they didn’t say much. Lee pushed for an agreement, but we won’t be backing down.”

“I’m glad.” She stretches her arms out in a yawn. “Sorry. I’m not tired. I’m wide awake.”

“Go home and get some sleep. You probably have a good three hours until your girlfriends call you to go to brunch.”

“I’m not much of a bruncher. I don’t like drinking during the day. Isn’t that what brunch is?”

“Yeah. That’s what it’s become. Clarissa always loved going to brunch.”

“Loved? Did she suddenly have a change of heart when it comes to eggs benedict and bottomless mimosas?”

With everything going on the past couple of days, I realize that I never told Sarah about Clarissa breaking off the engagement.

“She did have a change of heart. But not about brunch. About me.”

“What?” Sarah’s face falls. Even though she was never Clarissa’s biggest fan, she looks disappointed for me.

“Yeah. It happened yesterday at lunch. She broke off the engagement. Gave me the ring back, and everything.”

“She has clearly lost her mind.”

“She told me that she wants to be independent, but I think she’s getting back with her ex.”

“Oh, God. That guy is the worst.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet. I think I need to go somewhere to clear my mind.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“Yeah. I might actually go upstate to my mom’s place.”

“Get out of town for a few days. I think that’s a great plan.”

“You go home. Eric or I will lock up.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Get out of here. And take some bagels with you. It looks like our guests didn’t bring much of an appetite this morning.”

“You probably scared them away,” she says, getting up and making her way to the conference room.

I walk past Eric’s office and see him through the blinds covering the glass walls. He’s banging away at his keyboard. Beads of sweat are threatening to drip off his face and onto his desk.

I open the door without knocking and stick my head in.

“I think I’m going to take that trip out of town we talked about.”

“That’s fine. Just make sure you’re back by Monday. And say hi to Ma for me.”

“Sure thing. You know, if you manage to tear yourself away from your desk, maybe you could take the train up there and meet us.”

“The train? No way. I’d have the service drive me up there, if anything.”

“Having a few hours of alone time might do you some good. And I don’t mean in the back of a Lincoln. I mean in a public place.”

“Come on. Don’t be ridiculous. I haven’t taken Metro North since we were kids.”

“Suit yourself. If you come up, maybe you can ride back with me in the Mustang. If you behave.”

“Shut the door, would you?”

I smile and close the door behind me as I continue making my way to my office.

Closing the door behind me, I take the small wooden box out of my bottom drawer, along with the letter Mom sent me.

I tuck the letter and box into my inner jacket pocket and text Ma.

Care for some company?

The draw to stay in the city for the rest of the weekend is there. I want to go back to that club, find Molly, and give her what I know she wants. I imagine her pretty, pink, heart-shaped lips on my cock as I show her what a real man is like.

She doesn’t belong cooped up in her apartment. She’s too pretty for that. She needs to be out and meeting people. Loosen up. She’s too serious. I’d show her something that would loosen her up, and she’d beg for more.

But I have to get out of the city. And I have to check in on Mom.