Chapter Eleven
THE HOTELballroom looked like a winter wonderland, but it didn’t help Asher feel festive at all. The decorations were winter-themed rather than holiday-themed in order to be as inclusive as possible, which meant the ballroom glittered with blue, white, and silver and lots of crystal bling. Under normal circumstances, Asher would have admired the decor and loitered around the buffet table, hoping the caterer would offer a sample, but this year, he wasn’t looking forward to the party. All he wanted was to get through it and go home.
But he was the representative Caldwell now, so he couldn’t blow off the party. Instead, he arrived well ahead of time to help his partner, Cal Monroe, oversee the final touches and make sure everything was going smoothly.
Cal was giving directions to a crew who was hanging a banner that read “Welcome Caldwell & Monroe Family,” and when it was adjusted to his satisfaction, he headed toward Asher with a big grin on his face. But the grin faded the closer he came until he was wearing a frown of concern by the time he reached Asher.
“Is something wrong?” Cal asked, resting his hand on Asher’s shoulder. “You look like you lost your best friend.”
“It’s a personal issue,” Asher said. Given that no one at the office knew he was seeing someone, he didn’t want to go into detail about how his first and only serious relationship had ended after only a month—and he didn’t even know why. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
Cal didn’t appear convinced, but he nodded. “All right. But if you ever need to talk, Asher, you know where to find me. I’m always willing to listen. Or I can be quiet and serve the booze if that’s what you need. If you want to vent about your father, trust me, I know what Ted is like, and I know what he put you through. It was like watching a train wreck and knowing there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it.”
“Thanks, but this doesn’t have anything to do with my father. For once,” Asher said with a wry smile. “Our relationship has gotten so much better since we stopped speaking. I’m not even putting in an obligatory holiday visit anymore.”
Cal smiled crookedly. “I imagine Dane can sympathize with that quite a lot,” he replied, naming his husband, who’d made a public break from his own father. “Whatever it is, I hope it gets better in time for you to have a good Christmas. Being depressed during the holidays sucks.”
“It does,” Asher said, rubbing his chest, but a broken heart wasn’t so easily soothed. “But I’ll cope. I always do.” He glanced over and spotted Shelley standing guard by the secret exchange gift table, and he realized he needed to get his gift back. He felt a twinge of remorse that Zach wouldn’t receive a secret exchange gift, but Asher couldn’t let him open the gift. It was bad enough that Zach had ghosted on him without adding public humiliation in front of the whole firm to the mix. “Excuse me, Cal. I need to talk to Shelley.”
“Sure,” Cal replied, patting Asher on the shoulder again. “Hang in there.”
“Thanks.” Asher gave him a quick smile before heading to the gift table. “I need my gift back,” he said, scanning the presents to see if he could spot it. “Things have changed, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to give it to him in public.”
Shelley stared at him, then frowned. “Are you sure?” she asked, shaking her head and setting her menorah earrings swinging. “I mean, he won’t have a gift. How will I explain it to him?”
“Tell him the person who drew his name is an asshole who flaked. Tell him they promised to make up for it later. I don’t care.” Asher found his gift, which wasn’t difficult. He’d wrapped it himself with dubious results that stood out among the rest of the gifts, which were far more neatly wrapped. He picked it up and tucked it under his arm. “I’m sorry. I really am. I know this throws things off, but I can’t give this to him in front of everyone else.” He offered her an apologetic smile. “I just can’t.”
Shelley looked at him with sympathy in her eyes. “Don’t worry, I always bring a few generic gifts—bottles of wine and gift certificates to restaurants. I’ll leave Zach until last, though… just in case.”
Asher breathed a quiet sigh of relief that Zach wouldn’t be embarrassed over being the only one not to receive a gift. “Thanks, Shelley. I appreciate it.”
“It’s not the first time this has happened,” she confided. “Go on, though, before someone notices. Nothing gets gossip going in the office faster than something weird going on with the gift exchange.”
Asher walked away from the table quickly, debating what he should do with the gift. He sure as hell didn’t want to carry it around all evening, so he headed to the lobby. He could leave it with the concierge until the party was over, and then…. Well, then he’d have to figure out whether to donate it or return it. Keeping it wasn’t an option.
He was about to exit the ballroom when someone called out to him from the shadows behind one of the potted evergreens that ringed the room. “Asher? Will you talk to me for a few minutes, please?”
Asher froze at the sound of Zach’s voice, and he turned slowly to see Zach standing there. He was dressed casually in jeans and a dark green sweater, which was a little informal for the party, and he was pale, with dark circles under his eyes.
“Nowyou want to talk?” Asher felt a little surge of annoyance that Zach had ignored him for days only to turn up at the most inconvenient time. He didn’t want to do a relationship postmortem right before the firm’s biggest event of the year.
Zach flinched, but he nodded. “I’ve been trying to call you, and I even went to your apartment, but Martha said you were already here. But if you don’t want to talk to me, I’ll go. Maybe it would be better that way.”
“I’ve had my phone turned off ever since I got here. I wasn’t expecting anyone to call.”Least of all you, Asher thought. But Zach was looking like a puppy that just had its nose swatted with a newspaper, and Asher felt remorse for his outburst. “There’s a small conference room down the hall,” he said. “We can talk there.”
“All right.” Zach bit his lip, his expression pensive, but he stepped out of the ballroom.
Asher led the way to the conference room, and as soon as they were inside with the door closed, he set his gift box down on the table and turned to Zach. “Is this where you explain why you’ve been ignoring me since I got back from DC? I was so worried, I almost called the police.”
“I’m sorry,” Zach murmured, running his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t reply because I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure if I was right or wrong about what I heard. I just knew it hurt more than anything I’ve ever felt.”
Asher stared at him, bewildered. He tried to think of something—anything—that matched up with what Zach was saying, but he couldn’t. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”
Zach looked at him, and his expression held sorrow and pain. “After I left your apartment that night, I realized I’d forgotten my briefcase,” he said. “I came back, and I heard you on the phone, asking someone to meet you. You said you’d pay double and they were worth it. It sounded….” Zach’s voice broke, and he looked away. “It sounded like you were arranging for an escort to come over,” he continued, his tone ragged. “I went down to the lobby, and this gorgeous blond showed up, and the guard said you were expecting him.”
Asher could do nothing but gape at Zach. Part of him was relieved the situation could be cleared up easily, but another part was deeply hurt that even after everything Asher had said about not wanting to behave like his father, Zach thought he was capable of betrayal. At last, he pulled out his wallet and retrieved Colin James’s business card, and he handed it to Zach.
“Colin is an artist. I commissioned him to make a Christmas present for me.”
