Empty Nests (11 page)

“Boss?”

James turned to face Dave. It was never a pleasant thing. He knew he sounded like a cranky old man, but whenever he looked at Dave, all he could see was a man-child with no future or skills that didn’t involve riding other people’s hard work.

“Yes?”

“So, um, you’ve got a kid, right?”

“Yes, I do.” James wondered if he was about to be hit up for Ritalin or something.

“Are they hard?”

“Are what hard? Kids?”

“Yeah, are kids hard?”

A rock of dread and depression sank into his stomach. “They’re exhausting. Why do you ask?”

Dave pulled over a chair. “It’s just, my girlfriend’s pregnant.”

“Are you sure it’s yours?” He couldn’t picture anyone wanting to sleep with Dave. The chronic Cheetos stains should have been reasonably effective birth control.

Dave looked thoughtful. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s mine.”

“Okay, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, man. That’s why I’m asking you.”

James looked over this prospective father. When he’d been Dave’s age, Dylan was already ten. He’d been five years out of his parents’ house and in the workforce. He’d faced down lawyers, social workers, judgmental teachers, PTA mothers, and survived potty training, temper tantrums, teething, and that hellish seven-year-old testosterone boost no one had warned him about. He looked Dave over again. He felt a little twitch in the corner of his eye.

“First things first,” he said, working to keep his voice calm and soothing. “Is your girlfriend planning on going through with the pregnancy?”

“She hasn’t decided yet.”

“If the answer is no, then what you are going to do is be there for her. You go to the appointments, hold her hand, tell her it’s okay, because it takes two to tango and you are number two.”

Dave started looking green. “And if she decides to keep it? I think she will. I mean, it seems like she’s leaning that way, but I’m not sure I’m ready to do the whole dad thing yet, you know?”

James didn’t even try to stop himself. He whacked Dave on the side of the head. The sound reverberated through the room. Everyone looked up from their stations. In seventeen years, he’d never laid a hand on Dylan and he never would, but as far as he was concerned, physically knocking a bit of sense into Dave counted as a social good.

“I had my son at
fifteen
! You’re what, twenty-five? If a life is coming into this world containing your DNA, then what you do is grow the fuck up! You move out of your parents’ place. You start working at this job so you don’t get fired, because you have offspring to support. You accept the fact that for the next three years, you will not sleep. You will become completely immune to piss, shit, drool, snot, and vomit because infants produce all of those things pretty much nonstop the first two years, and in there is also teething, and if you’re really unlucky, colic, croup, and ear infections. And just when you’re managing to handle all that, they learn to talk and become smart-alecky little shits, and it is your job to love them unconditionally and turn them into good, kind, moral, caring, contributing members of society.”

Dave had gone dead white. The room had gone silent. James became aware of the rest of the staff staring at them.

“What if I can’t do it?” Dave’s voice cracked.

James leaned forward. “Failure is not an option.”

“But—”

“No.” James got up and grabbed a blank notebook and pen from the stationery shelf. He thrust them into Dave’s hands, looming over him the best he could. “Put the date at the top of the first page and write what I say.” Dave scribbled the date and looked up. “On this date, I, Dave Melinick, did accept the fact that I will become a parent. That a life will be brought into this world containing my genetic material, and I will be responsible for it. I understand I will do whatever must be done to secure the health and well-being of my child, no matter the cost to myself, and I will have no regrets.”

Dave looked down at the words and back up to James. His eyes were filled with terror.

“Sign it.”

“What?”

“Sign your name below those words. Use the rest of the notebook to document everything that’s about to happen, but the first thing you do every day is you read those words and look at your signature below them.”

Dave swallowed a few times, then signed his name.

“Can I get some advice as I go along?”

James clenched his teeth and forced his lips into a smile. “It would be my pleasure.”

E
XHAUSTION
AND
Gabe were old, if unwilling, friends. He’d given James a quick call on Sunday, but he was a few days out from a big acquisition trip to Prague, and that meant everything was go.

He had a small army of lawyers, accountants, and sales people backing him up, but he’d had his hand on every major TechPrim deal since day one, and the idea of not being face-to-face with a major client or future partner made his palms itch. He’d been told the CFOs of other companies spent their time trying to balance the company budget and justify executive bonuses, but other companies had their backs against the wall, whereas TechPrim didn’t. Fairly simple logic told him he must be doing something right.

He looked out the car window at gridlocked San Francisco traffic. He checked his schedule on his phone. There was a free space, but Tamyra had a habit of scheduling for traffic. He looked at the cars going the other direction onto the Bay Bridge. It was flowing smoothly in the direction of Berkeley. A bit of stress melted away. Gabe dialed a number he’d quickly committed to memory.

“Hello. James Maron.” James sounded reasonably perky.

“Hey, it’s me. Sorry I haven’t called. I got kinda bogged down in work.”

“That’s okay. It happens.” He sounded a little too understanding, leaving Gabe to wonder at the truth of it.

“I was wondering when you’re planning to take lunch today?” Tamyra looked over at him, her lips a little pinched.

“I was going to take a break in about ten minutes.”

“Could you hold off on that for about half an hour and let me take you somewhere?”

“Sure. I mean, are you in the area?”

A little more stress vanished. “I will be.”

“See you soon, then.”

James hung up.

“Jared. Spin us around.”

“You know you have six more meetings today?” Tamyra reminded him.

“Yes, and I’m leaving for Prague tomorrow night, and I want to see James before I go.”

Tamyra was still scowling, but he spotted the twitch at the corner of her lips and decided he wasn’t in that much trouble. She had certainly been approving of James so far.

T
HERE
WAS
a bit of musical chairs as Tamyra climbed into the front seat and James was pulled into the back. Gabe gave him a kiss before anything else and watched him blush. “James, this is my driver, Jared.”

Jared waved from the front.

“Hi.” James waved back, looking awkward. “You have a driver?” he asked quietly.

“Only during work hours, so I can dial into conference calls on the freeway.” He gave James another kiss. “Lunch?”

“Sure, where?”

“I know a place.”

G
ABE
HAD
called ahead to a place off University Ave. that was used to doing the half-hour power lunch. It would be the first time he’d ever gone without it being some sort of business meeting.

They were quickly shown to a table, the maître d’ scanning James’s worn jeans and generic shoes, but Gabe was in a business where CEOs went about in bare feet, so no comment was made.

“Do you have time for this?” James asked, looking over the menu.

“These guys are pros. They could do up a Thanksgiving turkey in ten minutes if they needed to.”

“That would be impressive to see, but I think I’ll just go with the pasta.”

A waiter was over in minutes to take their order, then bustled off to another table. “So, sorry I haven’t called. I’m flying to Prague tomorrow night, and it’s been a mad scramble to get everything sorted out.”

“It’s okay. Work happens.”

Gabe looked closely at James. In the past when Gabe had told a boyfriend he didn’t call because of work, the “it’s okay” was a blatant and obvious lie. Looking at James, he could see no lie.

“Anything interesting going on in the wild world of academia?”

James gave an epic eye roll. “Dave, Mr. Can’t Take a Phone Message?”

“Yeah?”

“Knocked up his girlfriend. Came sniffling to me for advice because he wasn’t sure if he was ready to be a parent.”

Gabe barked out a laugh. “I’ve got to ask, what did you do?”

“To use the parlance of our age, I threw a complete spaz at him. I whacked him on the side of the head, and told him to grow the fuck up and get his act together. As a result he spent all morning asking me the most inane questions about pregnancy. Seriously, all stuff he could have gotten off the net in about two seconds.”

“I’m sure he’s looking to you as some sort of role model or father figure.” Gabe was trying to hold back more laughter.

“God help me.”

“Speaking of, how much trouble is Dylan in?”

“Lots and lots. I know he’s snuck in girls in the past, but I’ve never managed to catch him. I mean, he’s basically a good kid, but he is, I am sad to say, a bit of a player, and it is far too easy for me to picture him showing up with his Flavor of the Week and saying ‘Dad, we have something to tell you.’”

“I can understand how that would be a reasonable worry.” Dylan had certainly looked like he would never have trouble getting company, and even the smartest of teenagers could be a bit dumb about certain things.

“I’m sure it would qualify as some sort of sick galactic karmic joke, but it also qualifies as a nightmare.”

“You’d probably handle it better than your parents did.”

“My parents looked at me and actually said ‘But, honey, we were sure you were gay.’” The drinks arrived while Gabe was choking with laughter. “That was how I came out. I’m gay, and you’re going to be grandparents. Surprise.” James gave a camp flip of the wrist.

“Better than my coming out.”

“Do tell.”

Gabe seldom talked about how he’d come out, but conversation with James came so easily. “When I was sixteen, my mother found my Playgirls, and as eldest and only son in a big Mexican Catholic family, that just didn’t work. She spent ten minutes screaming and crying in two different languages and still thinks I’m going to hell.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Could have been worse, I guess. They didn’t throw me out. My cousins kicked my ass when word got around.” Gabe lifted the glass of white wine he’d ordered and took a moment to look at the world through its light golden hue. “But I suppose there’s something to be said for living exceedingly well as a form of petty, petty revenge.”

T
HE
JET
was humming and waiting to taxi when an e-mail from Frank popped up on Gabe’s phone.

“Gabriel Juarez, CFO of TechPrim Industries, was seen lunching with his partner, James Mazon, a UCB professor, at the exclusive Les Papilles dining room.”
:D —F&N

Gabe hit reply.

I hate you all.
—G

J
AMES
YANKED
the phone out of his pocket, ready to hit the ignore button on whomever it was. He was running late to set up for an evening symposium, though he didn’t see how it was his fault when someone else filled out the wrong paperwork and then submitted it at the absolute last second.

Gabe’s name was on the little screen, and James’s thumb hovered over ignore for only half a second before he answered it while still power walking across campus as quickly as possible.

“Hello?”

“Hey there.” Gabe’s words were bright, loud, and slurred.

James held the phone away from his ear. “Gabe?”

“Yep!”

“Are you still in Prague?”

“Yes, I am!”

“What time is it?”

“I don’t know.” There was the sound of a dull
thump
. “This clock says two.”

“In the morning?”

“I don’t know. It’s dark out.” Gabe’s giggle was high and strained.

“Are you drunk?” James knew it was an obvious question. Gabe sounded absolutely wasted, but he wanted to hear Gabe’s reply.

“No…. Maybe. I missed you. I wanted to hear your voice.”

A warm feeling filled James at the idea that he was missed, but it didn’t change the fact that he was running late. “That’s very sweet, but I was supposed to be up the hill five minutes ago.”

Gabe hummed. “I’d like to see you up.” His voice was suddenly low and smooth.

James froze, nearly tripping over his feet. “Could you please repeat that?”

“I want to see you up, and hard, and naked.” Gabe started to mumble on the last few words.

“Wow.” James wasn’t sure how to reply. His brain seemed to be attempting a forced shutdown. He fought it. “Okay. That’s nice for the ego and all, but I have a funny feeling you are completely wasted.”

“You don’t want to be naked for me?” There was a sad little whine in Gabe’s voice.

“Only if you’re naked too.” A student rushing past gave him a double take but kept moving.

“That would be nice. On a beach. I’ve never been naked on a beach.”

“Neither have I.”

“We could go swimming on the beach. No, you can’t swim on a beach. There’s all that sand.”

James bit his lip, trying not to laugh. “We can go swimming in the water.”

“You’d look cute wet.”

“I’d probably look like a drowned rat, but I’ll let your drunken imagination wallow in whatever fantasy it wants since I’m thinking you’re not going to remember this in the morning.”

“I have a nice soft bed. I could lay you out on it and….”

There was silence, then James heard soft snoring. “Gabe!” he snapped.

“I’m up,” Gabe said, probably reflexively.

“Gabe, turn off your phone so you don’t run up your long distance bill and go to sleep.” James used his most polite tech support voice, hoping it would cut through the alcohol.