CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
CHARLIE
Wind seared my cheeks. Ah, back to the wonderful winter in Pittsburgh.
I tugged my hood over my head and walked to the entrance of Radiant while staring down at my phone, buzzing with the name Mom.
When I reached the entrance, I walked through the first set of doors and shook off the snow. Mom’s call went to voicemail. I clicked on the message and placed the phone up to my ear to get this over with.
“Hi, sweetheart. It’s Mom,” Mom said on voicemail. “I heard that you got married over the weekend, and your father and I are terribly sad that you didn’t tell us about it. We would have thrown you a huge party instead of you having some wedding at a dirty casino chapel. Call me back.”
I deleted her voicemail and scrolled to the next one.
“Son,” Dad said on voicemail, “give me a call. We need to talk. It’s about the party.”
No, thank you. Delete.
Not sure what the fuck he wanted to talk about, but I didn’t want to entertain it. I’d promised them I’d attend one more party with Athena, and then that was it. No calls. No texts. I didn’t want any part in talking to them.
Honestly, I didn’t even want to do that because I didn’t want Athena to meet them. But she was now my wife, and I wanted to show her off to everyone to prove to them that I didn’t need their money to be happy.
Or maybe it was just to prove to myself, especially after that failed money-raising round.
After stuffing my phone into my suit pocket, I shrugged off my coat and handed it to Winter, the coatroom attendant. She tucked some brown hair behind her ear and blushed in a way that she rarely ever did around me.
“Michelle here?” I asked, brushing it off.
She grinned at me. “Last I saw her, she was at the bar with Hector and Steven.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem,” she said, rocking forward. “Let me know if you need anything, Charlie.”
While walking toward the main room, I gave her a side-eye. Weird.
“There he is,” Steven said, sipping on his drink when I walked in. “How’d it go in Cali?”
“Listen,” I said, waving them off, “I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on,” Steven said, squeezing my shoulder as I sat. “Didn’t smooth-talk them?”
“My brother was there.” I nodded to Abdul. “My regular, please.”
Hector shook his head in disappointment. “So, you didn’t get the deal?”
“When I saw him there, I didn’t want the fucking deal,” I growled.
“He’s like a gnat, isn’t he?”
“Hey, Charlie,” Samantha, a regular at Radiant, murmured, dragging her fingers across my shoulders.
I offered her a nod. “Hey, what’s up?”
“He’s taken,” Michelle said, walking up to me and twisting me away with her grip on my upper arm. When she finally turned away, Michelle slapped me upside the head. “Stupid boy.”
Abdul handed me my drink.
