“You can think what you want of me, but I’m not the same person who left here with no direction or purpose in life.” Mason shut his laptop. “Do you want me to go to Personnel now or wait until this afternoon?”
Perhaps he’d been a little harsh with Mason. After all, it wasn’t his fault he’d been born the baby of the family and spoiled. It also wasn’t fair to hold him to the mistakes he’d made when he was younger. And as for what happened between them…that was a nonstarter. It wasn’t going to happen again.
“It can wait until this afternoon. I see that Deirdre came in and she’s packing up, so why don’t you go meet with her? She can bring you up to speed. I need to go over a few things before the roundtables. Come here at ten. We’ll go to the conference room together, and I’ll introduce you.”
All business, Mason gave him a sharp nod, packed away his laptop, and left. Jude’s phone buzzed, and when he checked it, he couldn’t help smiling. It was a picture of Ilana and Doug having a romantic moment in front of the Eiffel Tower.
He’d done everything his mother had asked before she died, and yet this restlessness remained inside him that it wasn’t enough. A curious sense of foreboding hung over him, and he couldn’t help texting her.
Hope you’re having a great time.
To his relief, Ilana’s response was immediate.The best. I love you.
“Jude?”
He dropped the phone into his pocket and looked up to see Pryce Lipton in his doorway. “Hi, come on in. I was about to call you.”
Coffee in hand, Pryce sauntered in. “Congratulations on the wedding again. Sorry I couldn’t stay for the reception, but I had to get out to the Hamptons to see my parents.”
“Not a problem. You didn’t miss much.”
Only me drinking an entire bottle of tequila, then fucking my best friend’s brother until my head exploded and I passed out. Oh, and did I mention I hired him as my new assistant?
“That’s not what I heard.”
Pryce lowered himself into the chair in front of Jude’s desk and stretched his legs out. A faint smile rested on his lips. “Supremely confident” and “arrogant as hell” were the words most coworkers used to describe Pryce, and while Jude agreed, he also had to admit the man was a damn hard worker. Pryce made it a point to become personally familiar with the clients in a way Jude never could, which made for a good working relationship between them. It was why Jude chose him as his second. Jude let Pryce lead when it came to personal interactions, while he handled the numbers end.
Pretending nonchalance, Jude raised a brow. “Oh? What did you hear?”
“Aside from the food being delicious, somehow Doug’s brother ended up with a job here? How’d he manage that? I thought he was a fuckup, a party boy.”
Jude winced at the harsh words. “First of all, he’s a man, not a boy—he’s around your age. And I wouldn’t say he’s a fuckup. After working at a luxury resort, he became Warren Colchester’s personal assistant. I’m sure you’ve heard of him.” At Pryce’s wide eyes and nod, Jude continued. “Obviously, he’ll need some time to be brought up to speed here, but after speaking with Colchester and hearing him sing Mason’s praises, I’m not concerned.”
“Really? I wonder why someone would leave a job like that.” Pryce sipped his coffee. “Anyway, when do I get to meet the boy wonder?”
Jude didn’t miss Pryce’s reference to Mason again as a boy but ignored it for the time being. He tipped his head to the door. “He’s talking with Deirdre now, but he’ll be at the morning roundtables. After the breakfast yesterday, we came here and started working.”
“Nice for him to get all this personal attention. I thought you believed in letting us learn as we go.”
If Pryce thought Jude was going to allow a pissing contest, he was sorely mistaken. What would Pryce’s next step be—whipping out his dick to see whose was bigger? A rush of heat swept through him. Having had the pleasure of tasting Mason’s dick the other night, and occasionally seeing Pryce’s in the men’s room, advantage in that department went to Mason, hands down.
“I don’t recall anyone on my team not getting the proper training, and I wasn’t aware you had a problem with my management style. Are you unhappy here?”
Consternation rose in Pryce’s pale eyes. “No, no of course not.”
“Good. Now are you ready to show us what you’ve got planned for the Mojo pitch?”
“Yeah. I have a whole print campaign laid out for them to be blown away, plus television and Facebook ads.”
Recalling his conversation with Mason, Jude was curious to see what Mason would think of Pryce’s ideas.
“Okay. I’ll see you then.”
Pryce left his office, and Jude again took his phone out and looked at the picture of Ilana and Doug. People didn’t understand the overwhelming love and responsibility he had for his little sister, but they didn’t need to. Growing up with no father, he’d been acutely aware of his role as the man in the family, and he took his duty seriously. That meant coming home from school directly and staying home on weekends to watch Ilana so his mother could go to work at the supermarket. It meant staying up late and studying so he could get a scholarship and be able to go to college, because they didn’t have any money. And it meant promising his mother to take care of Ilana when the doctors told her the disease that had slowly been robbing her of her life had accelerated, and she would soon be bedridden and incapable of taking care of herself. Either by sheer strength of will or divine intervention, his mother lived to see him graduate college and Ilana high school.
“I never meant to rob you of your life. I want you to be happy. You’re my brightest light.”
Jude heard his mother’s last words to him every day, but he wasn’t bitter. He never felt he’d given anything up. Knowing he was gay since he was a teenager meant hiding who he was, so he’d been glad to have Ilana to help take care of. Poverty could strip you of your sense of self-worth if you let it—people looked at you and treated you differently—but being gay meant his personal safety was at stake as well. He’d heard the jokes and slurs and had known he didn’t fit in. Better to be safe, and safe meant home.
