The apartment door opened, and his father came in. “Safe entry?” he joked.
“Sure. Stopping for a minute.”
“Glad to see you found a useful outlet for your moping.” Phillip walked over to the room plan hanging on the wall. He studied it and then turned and studied the room.
“Is that what I’m doing?” He tossed the glasses onto the floor next to the hammer and took off his work gloves. “Moping?”
“Seems like. I heard what happened with Mitch today.”
“Well, of course you did. People still consider you in charge.” He sounded like a bratty teenager and reigned in that attitude.
“Well,” Philip said with a deep breath, “I was in charge for a long, long time. As long as I am present, it’s going to be something people think. As this next year, my last year, comes up, I will be spending less time there and the transfer of power will be complete and permanent.” He leaned back against the kitchen bar and crossed his feet at his ankles. “But I don’t mind that you said that. You, of course, are just venting in your way. So, what happened with Mitch?”
Brad told him the story. “Jon and I had sparred in the morning to prepare for that eventuality.”
“This isn’t your fault, you know.” Phillip sighed. “I should have done something about him a long time ago.”
“It’s easy not to act when you don’t have anything concrete. You have a lot of employees, dad. You can only do what you can do and know what you know.”
“You knew, though.” He sat forward and propped his elbows on his knees. “You knew enough to know. Maybe….”
“Maybe we need to let people be people and not judge based on suspicions. I was prepared. I would have preferred to be wrong.”
Philip inclined his head in an agreement. “Then we’ll leave it at that.” He gestured toward the hole. “And the venting? The moping? I assume it has something to do with a beautiful architect who was slandered in our little workplace today and who has occupied so many of your thoughts over the years?”
“Maybe she won’t occupy them so much anymore.” He walked to the bar and grabbed his bottle of water. “I should have followed my instincts before. There was a time for us, but too many things have changed.”
Philip sighed. “I would reckon, son, that she has no idea what you went through. I would imagine that to her, you said goodbye at graduation and then life went on for you without a second thought of her.”
“Why in the world would she think that, dad?”
“Because you never once, not even one time, told her how you felt, did you?”
Brad opened his mouth then closed it again. Had he? Surely…. He sighed. “No. I just pined and wished.”
“Silently.”
“Silently.” He drained the bottle and crushed it. “I should have said something.”
“Even if it was to give her something to think about. She could have easily rejected you, of course, but at least you would have tried. Now you’re angry with her for leaving you. For putting herself in harm’s way. That has to stop, son. She’s not at fault here. She was a victim of smooth-talking seduction by a predator, plain and simple.”
His dad left not long after. Brad put the gloves back on, slipped the glasses onto his face, and picked up the sledgehammer. As he swung and broke drywall, he thought about it. Hehadharbored some anger toward her, some blame. Rather unhealthy thinking.
“God,” he said between blows, “help me cleanse my mind of such contorted thoughts. I need clear thinking and logic, not emotion and blame.” After a few more blows to the wall, he added, “And I need to forgive Tyrone. Like for real.”
He swung, prayed, swung, prayed, and eventually, exhausted, fell into his new bed in his new room, his shoulders and arms aching from the exertion, his mind exhausted from the prayers. He closed his eyes and felt the world spinning seconds before he fell asleep.
Valerie sat across from Callain the empty restaurant. She copied her friend’s movements and folded the napkin in front of her to her specifications then put it in the stack next to her. Through the kitchen door, she could hear voices, occasional banging, and rattling. The sharp smell of garlic combined with a sweet caramel smell that confused her brain.
“Did he really just flatten the man?” Calla stopped folding and looked at Valerie. She nudged her glasses back up her face.
“It was fascinating. I’ve seen him do it before, of course, practicing with his brothers when we were younger. But you never think that kind of thing would happen in the real world. It was really….”
Calla grinned. “Exhilarating?”
With a chuckle, Valerie picked up another napkin. “I’m sure it should have been to any normal red-blooded woman. However, I reacted badly.”
For a few moments, Calla didn’t speak. Finally, she said, “So you removed that other guy from the picture and in your mind substituted yourself. Suddenly, you saw how easily Mr. Di—I mean, Brad—could hurt you.”
