Everything seems to be as perfect as Lucy could have imagined for her sister. I’m happier about that than I’d ever admit to Lucy.
“You’re the best friend a guy could ever have,” Ed says, slightly slurring his words. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ed drunk before.
I slap Ed on the back. “You, too, my friend.”
“I mean it. I love you so much.”
I chuckle. Now we’re declaring our love for each other. This is new. “I love our friendship. I love our business.”
“And I want you to be godfather to our first child,” he splutters.
My stomach falls to the floor. “Katherine’s pregnant?”
“Not yet, but when the time comes, tell me you’ll say yes?”
He looks up at me like he’s proposing and terrified of rejection because he already bought the ring and told his family.
“Yeah, of course I’ll be godfather.”
“Lucy will be godmother, of course. This is perfect. It’s all working out. You two just need to get engaged now.”
Lucy and I haven’t been ignoring each other. But we haven’t seen much of each other today either. This morning we were all busy in our respective hotel suites. Since the ceremony, every time I look around, she’s talking to another elderly aunt or uncle. She’s keeping everyone happy. I guess that’s how it should be at a wedding when she’s the maid of honor, but it’s clear this is what Lucy is used to. She desperately wants to be the daughter her parents want. And as much as she tries, she’ll never live up to Katherine in their eyes. Because she’s not Katherine and she shouldn’t even have to try to be her. She’s enough, even if she doesn’t realize that.
“Well, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. I want to focus on work. You know that.”
“The business is going great, man. You don’t need to worry so much.”
“One of us has to,” I reply.
“You really don’t. The place runs itself.”
“No, Ed. It doesn’t. We need to make sure we’re providing our clients with what we say we will. We need to ensure we’re compliant with the new regulations coming in, and we—”
“I have a proposal for you,” Ed interrupts.
“Hate to break it to you, man, but you’re already married.”
Ed laughs like I’ve told the best joke ever. “No, but seriously, I think we need to hire someone. Maybe a couple of people. One person can be in charge of regulatory and compliance. And we need a really good office manager.”
“But I lead on regulatory and compliance.”
“Right, and you’re working around the clock. I know you’ve picked up the slack for me in the lead-up to the wedding. We need more people. But if we employ them, you need to be prepared to loosen the reins a little.”
Loosen the reins? Is that what my dad was doing when he started to go off course in his business? He probably got to a point where he thought the business ran itself and he could sit back a little. I don’t want to fall into the same trap.
“Let’s talk about this another time.” I’m sure when Ed’s sober, he’ll have a change of heart. He knows you have to keep a tight grip on things in business.
“I mean it, man. You need to have a life. We both do.”
“I don’t mind working hard,” I say.
“Neither do I. But I also want to hang out with my wife, and we’re going to have kids soon. I want to work, but I also want to be able to have family vacations and Sunday barbeques.”
This is exactly what I was worried about. Ed’s priorities have shifted. He’s not thinking about work and building a business. He’s thinking about vacations andnotworking. And this is before he’s even had kids. Maybe I should offer to buy him out of Portis, except I can’t afford to and it was his idea in the first place. The back of my neck prickles, and I tip my head from side to side, trying to release the building tension, but it doesn’t work.
“Surely you want to hang out with Lucy,” Ed continues. “Go antiquing or whatever it is the two of you do when you hang out.”
“Antiquing?” I ask, wondering if he’s ever met me. I’m not a guy who goes fucking antiquing.
