44
Eight hours earlier…
I sat in my hotel room making calls before I headed out to the groundbreaking ceremony. Work was fine, I was performing my duties as I normally would, but unlike in the past, my heart wasn’t in it. Hell, my heart wasn’t even in the same zip code as this job. I missed Angela and had been looking forward to getting back to her for the weekend. Sure, it would be hard to leave her again, but I still needed to see her, couldn’t wait to see her, and then my damn job snatched that away from me.
There were several reasons, valid reasons, why the timing was wrong for marriage. The biggest one was that as much as I loved her, this one-woman, monogamy thing was still new to me. What if I had a relapse and messed up? Of all the people in the world, I never wanted to hurt her. I would’ve rather hurt myself before I let that happen. But I also knew that I couldn’t even see other women when I was with her, or not with her. She had me, all of me, and no other woman stood a chance. I spent my days here in Arizona working and sleeping. Hadn’t been to a bar or restaurant. Ate room service, thought about Angie, was horny as hell. But I managed to make it from the end of one day to the beginning of the next, not really present but here.
I checked the time on my phone, my attention shifting to the smiling picture of Angela that served as my screensaver, and sighed as I shrugged into my sport coat and left my room.
Glenn Turntine was in the lobby waiting for me. A short, compact man, with thick, graying hair and looks that would tell anyone his thin, beautiful wife was in it for the money, he smiled when I entered the lobby, proffering me his hand. “Good morning, Boyé.”
I hated how he addressed me by my last name, but insisted that I refer to him as “Glenn,” as if I liked his ass.
Nevertheless, I shook his hand, nodded, and said, “Morning, Glenn.”
“You ready for your big day?”
I hated that shit, too. This wasn’t going to be my hotel. If it belonged to anyone, it belonged to the Hill Brothers, the owners of the company.
“You know I am,” I said, giving him a fake smile.
“Good! This is going to be a wonderful project with everything we have planned for this resort! It is really going to put Sable Inc. on the map!”
With my ass doing all the work. I nodded. “Yeah, it’s definitely going to be a great facility. A good addition to the company’s holdings.”
I swear I was tired of playing these games, pretending to like Glenn’s ass, acting like I still enjoyed this demanding-ass job, and I missed my damn woman, who had cried on the phone that morning. I was still trying to deal with that and really didn’t feel like playing the happy employee.
As we exited the hotel and headed to Glenn’s waiting limo, he said, “How are the accommodations here? I know you prefer rentals over hotels.”
“It’s fine,” I said, as he gestured for me to enter the limo before him.
He settled in the seat across from me. “Hmm, how’s your girlfriend? The YouTuber? Did she travel here with you?”
I looked up from checking my email on my tablet. I was responsible for the logistics of this groundbreaking and wanted to be sure there were no last-minute issues for me to deal with. “What?”
“Your girlfriend. She was your girlfriend, right? Um…4C something? How is she?”
“She’s good.” I dropped my eyes back to the tablet, wondering why the hell he was bringing her up. “And she’s still my girlfriend.”
“She stayed behind in Tennessee?”
“Yes, because that’s where she lives.” He was beginning to piss me off. I was in no mood to discuss Angie with him or anyone else.
“Well, good. At least you won’t be distracted here…unless you find another little Internet star to latch onto. But let me be clear, you mess this one up, Boyé, and I can’t guarantee it will end well for you.”
I slowly looked up from the tablet again and fixed my eyes on him. “What the hel—what is that supposed to mean?”
“It means this is a huge project, Boyé, huge, and there’s no room for ridiculous mistakes like the one you made in Tennessee. You screw up like you did before, and your job is gone.”
“You threatening me?”
He shrugged. “If that’s how you want to take it.”
I scoffed. “You know what, Turntine? Fuck you and this job! You gonna sit here and talk about my woman like she’s nothing when what you need to do is keep her name out your damn mouth? Then you threaten me? You must’ve lost your mind! All the shit I’ve done for this company? Your not-doing-shit ass is the one who needs to be fired!” I knocked on the partition as Glenn stared at me with wide eyes.
“Boyé—”
“Glenn, shut the fuck up. I mean it. I don’t want an assault charge, but you’ve been working on an ass-kicking from me for years.” The limo stopped and the driver came around to open the door. As I stepped out, I said, “And if it isn’t already clear to you, I motherfucking quit.”