A laugh escaped me. “The least of my problems. I lost my apartment and ended up homeless.”
Davis interrupted me. “You’re not serious.”
“I wish I wasn’t. But if you ever need to know where the best places are to sleep without getting robbed, I’m your man.”
The silence lasted so long, I’d begun to think we’d been cut off. “Hello? Are you still there?”
“Yes. Listen. I have a client coming in, in about ten minutes. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you want to come to my office at noon, we can speak face-to-face.”
A kernel of hope blossomed inside me. “Uh, sure. Yes. I’ll be there.”
“Good. I’ll see you then. And, DeWitt?”
“Yes?”
“If I find out you’re lying to me, I’ll cut your balls off.”
He hung up before I had a chance to respond, and I continued to stare into space for a few moments after the call ended.
“What’d he say? You’re gonna go talk to him?” Cort peered into my face and waved his hand in front of me. “Hellooo.”
“Oh, sorry. Yeah. Of course. But I gotta go home first. I have a feeling Asher Davis isn’t the type of man to take what someone says at face value. When I go to meet him, I’m going to bring proof of what I say.”
Two hours later, I watched as Davis read through the papers I brought him from the rehab facility. They contained the statement I wrote recounting my story as to what led me to checking myself in.
“So, it says you completed the thirty days and then were supposed to transition to a sober-living facility?” Davis’s gaze met mine over the sheaf of papers.
“Yes.” I lifted my chin. “But I moved in with a friend of mine. We’re living together now. He’s buying the bookstore where I work.”
Understanding dawned in Davis’s darkly handsome face. “Looks like you’ve had a long journey to get you to this point.” His silvery eyes glittered with surprising compassion. “And you’re still sober?”
“I haven’t had a drink since that night on the bridge. I can’t…Iwon’t. It’s what I tell myself every single day I wake up in the morning craving it. I know it’s hard for someone like you to understand how desperate a person could get, where you reach a point that nothing matters anymore and you’ll do anything to take away the pain.” Embarrassed at my outburst, I bit the inside of my cheek. I felt dizzy from the unanticipated emotions racing through me.
Davis paled, yet his eyes burned with an unusual fire. Instead of answering, he stood and walked around the desk to take a seat in the chair next to mine. “People are surprising creatures. We manage to walk and converse with the living even when we might feel dead inside.”
Shock spiraled through me as Davis and I stared at each other. Asher Davis? With all the trappings of wealth around him, no one would guess.…And yet I struggled now to remember murmurs I’d heard of a troubled past. I’d never bothered to pay attention and wouldn’t dream to ask.
“It’s true. But I was so busy hiding who I was with my drinking and drug use, I turned all the anger I bottled up inside outward and hurt other people.”
“Like Oren Leavitt.”
Back to the purpose of my business. “Yes. Especially Oren. I-I’d like to see him. To apologize for everything I put him through.” I hung my head to study the swirled carpeting beneath my feet. “I want to tell him how sorry I am. I’m not asking him to forgive me. I know that’s too much to ask.”
Davis didn’t respond and returned to sit behind his desk. I returned his stare unflinchingly.
“You have balls. I have to give you that. For almost two years you treated that man like shit, hounding him daily, forcing him to do not only his work but your own, while you stumbled in drunk or high from the night before.”
“I’m not disputing that.”
“You couldn’t.” Ash tented his fingers under his chin. “And then we have the kiss, followed by the threat.”
“All right.” I stood up, anxious to leave. “I get it. You’re enjoying rehashing my bad behavior. And yeah, I deserve it. It’ll never be enough to simply say I’m sorry. I get that.”
He studied me. “Sit down, Harlan.”
Since when were we on a first-name basis?
“No, I think I’ll go. You’re right. What I did can’t be rectified by a simple ‘I’m sorry.’”
