Addicted (The Addicted Series, #1)(108)

"I didn't know," I said, chagrined. Dwayne was right, I should never have come to Miami. Running away was just kind of a habit of mine. "Okay, point taken, no slapping required. What's the other part of your mind thinking though, before I go and book a flight to Chicago?"

"The other part of me wants to cut you at least a little bit of slack. Julian, the reason you and I bonded so closely all those years ago is that we both identified with being pissed off at our fathers, although I was angry with both of my parents. But, your anger was always hotter than mine, it was almost always an incoherent rage. Hell, I kept expecting to read you'd really gone off the deep end and gotten yourself killed because you were so pissed off at the world, when really at the time you were pissed off at John Castelbon. Ironically, while my anger was legitimate, yours was misplaced, but I've been the one to come out the other side of my anger stronger and better than I was, or at least earlier than you have. It took almost losing the best thing to ever happen in my life to understand that, and to set aside my anger for the love of Erica. That's still so new for you, I can understand you making a mistake. Did you know that after my mother and father found out about me falling in love with Erica, we went almost four months without talking to each other?"

"Whoa, no shit?" I noticed that around Dwayne, the cursing, foul mouthed Julian was coming back, and I reminded myself not to let it go too far. Dwayne may have been a friend, but that didn't mean I wanted to go back to the way I was.

"No shit. It was Erica in fact who came to me, and found me in Chicago. I also found out she was pregnant with Liz, and that one fact, that she came to me and loved me, gave me the strength to risk it all and stand up to my father and mother."

"Yeah, well, the problem is Dwayne, that I don't exactly have anyone to stand up to. My father is not the bastard I thought he was, and while I think Sandra probably wants to shoot me right now, there is no reason for me to hate her."

Dwayne nodded, conceding the point. "Perhaps, but there is someone you need to stand up to and confront."

"Who?" I asked, perplexed.

Dwayne finished his glass of juice and pointed at me. "Yourself. You need to stand up to who you were. Julian, I'm going to take a big risk here, but only because I saw strength in you when we were younger, strength that I think if harnessed the right way, would do you good. Just that you've made as much progress as you have over the little time you've fallen for Krystal tells me that I was right."

"What risk? Dwayne, I'm planning on going to Chicago and trying to get Krystal back. The rest of it is secondary."

He nodded, then looked me in the eye. "I have a new resort that I'm building. My current markets are pretty well tapped out, and while I could take the chain international, or at least more international than it already is, quite frankly I'm not in a mental space right now to deal with the governments of the South Pacific. Those guys make the slimiest on the take politician in the US look like a saint. So, instead of another sun and sand resort, or in the ski areas of the Rockies and the Appalachians, I'm expanding into New England. I've got a new resort scheduled to open next summer near Kennebunkport, Maine. Right on the ocean, and I think I can get a lot of the summer tourists that find my Florida and Caribbean resorts too hot, and the winter tourists that aren't interested in skiing might like the place too."

"Okay, that sounds pretty nice, but what's that got to do with me?"

Dwayne set down his juice and looked me in the eye. "How far are you willing to go to prove to yourself and to Krystal that you are the kind of man she deserves to have?"

I didn't even need to think of my answer. "As far as it takes. I love her, Dwayne."

"Good, because if we do this, we do it all the way. Here's the deal. My resorts are famous for not only having top of the line rooms, but some of the best, top of the line facilities as well. So I'm going to put that rep at a bit of risk. You enter the Forrester Hotels management training program. And yes, before you ask, it is a real program that we've had in place for decades. Normally I save it for talented college students who come from underprivileged backgrounds, although in my father's time it was a way to make sure buddies of his got their kids into good jobs along with the occasional feel-good PR piece. It's a three-year program, and in that time you're going to bust your ass learning the ins and outs of how to run a hotel. You'll start as a section manager. I'm thinking with your background, you'll be the manager of the guest fitness center. I'll even let you do personal training there if you want, although you'll have to wear long sleeves and cover those tatts while on the job."

"Go on," I said, feeling for the first time in days a bit of excitement. It was a challenge, but not a negative one. Instead, a challenge that Dwayne was laying out for me because he wanted to help me out. "What else, because knowing you, there always is something else."

"Yes, there is. One of our corporate bylaws is that all executives in the company must, and this is set in stone, must have at least a Bachelor's degree or its foreign equivalent for those from overseas. You don't. So, in addition to your duties for the hotel, I'm going to pull the right strings, and get you enrolled in a university. It'll most likely be online, since I doubt you want to go to the University of Maine at Ogunquit, but don't think it's going to be some pushover. Even Harvard and Stanford are offering online courses nowadays. You're going to graduate that program, in four years, with at least a cum laude."