Atonement(8)

Colin raised curious eyebrows. “Oh, wow. And what exactly do you do in KDP?”

“Report to the executives. There are a lot of numerous programs we have going on and they all generate freakin’ reports so it is my job to wade through all these reports and make sure the problems are passed on to the right sector. Then I have to report to the executives how we’re doing and what the bottom line looks like for the current month,” she explained.

“Wow, sounds like a lot of responsibility.”

Caitlyn shrugged apathetic shoulders. “It is. I worked my ass off just to get where I am now and that is why it is such a disappointment when I find my sister surrounds herself around nothing but professional slackers whose grand plan is to stay in college for the rest of their lives piling up degrees.”

“Oh, wow.” Colin finished his Beck’s and opened the second one. “I guess you can count me as one of those professional slackers. I have an MBA from Harvard but after my mom died, I realized how short life was. I don’t want to work in some office until I’m of retirement age and not get to see my kids grow up or enjoy time at home with my future wife. Mainly, I work right now at the Common Bean during the day and O’Shaughnessy’s at night.”

I watched as my sister’s eyes darkened. “Oh, I get it now. You are one of those ingratiating trust fund kids who works minimum wage jobs because you actually think you are doing society a favor. Come on, rich boy, how much are you worth?”

“Caitlyn, don’t be rude,” I responded as I slapped her right hand playfully. “We don’t exactly come from a family that is hurting for money, either, you know.”

“Yes, I do but Rich Boy here is loaded with a capital ‘L’. So spill it.”

Colin laughed and snuck a look at Drew who shrugged his shoulders. “Fine. I’m worth just short of one hundred million dollars…in liquid wealth. There are some stocks, bonds and shit but I don’t handle that. My financial advisor does.”

“Right, so you really don’t need to actually get a job and since you weren’t smart enough to say, start Facebook or Klout or some other silly social networking site, you do nothing at all except live off what your family worked so hard to achieve.”

Colin’s face grew hard at this comment. “I don’t think my family worked hard to achieve anything. My dad came from nothing. He was a working-class Dutch student who worked his way from the bottom and met my mother at Harvard, their Alma Mater, and fell in love. As for my grandfather, he made a shitload of money in coal and you know how he did it? He paid his workers peanuts, refused to believe coal caused pollution or black lung for the matter and didn’t believe in paying for overtime.

“When he died, the company was worth more than two hundred million plus but I sold it and tracked down every family that ever had a loved one who worked there. They all had financial and health problems. I arranged it with the lawyers that every family would be given fifty thousand dollars in compensation. I know it doesn’t seem like much but we are talking about West Virginia here where they made peanuts working in my grandfather’s coal mine. So excuse f*cking me if I don’t think I should be down at Amazon or Microsoft or Apple or Google living the ‘good’ life and earning fat paychecks because that isn’t how I want to live my life, ever.”

I was shocked as Caitlyn stared from him to me and for the first time she had nothing to say. Colin stood and walked out. Moments later, I followed him. It was pure instinct I grabbed my handbag and ran out of the door behind him. I made it just as he pressed the keyless entry and unlocked a silver, late-model Chevy Tahoe.

“Hey!” I yelled out and he stopped and turned toward me. “You want some company?”

“What about dinner?” he inquired sheepishly. “I kinda made a horse’s ass out of myself back there and I don’t think I’ll be able to look at your sister without feeling a bit shamed for a while.”

“It’s not the end of the world. Drew and Caitlyn will be fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”

“Okay but do you mind if we go back to my place?”

I shook my head.

“Well, come on then,” he motioned and I quickly caught up and slid into the passenger seat.

It was weird riding in a truck since I owned a late-model pale cream Mini Cooper but I liked the feeling of being able to see everything as we drove.

Colin lived barely fifteen minutes from where we were located in the prestigious area above the Pike Place Market. The art-deco “eye sore” known as Fifteen Twenty-One and Second Avenue was the building he called home and his condo was conveniently located on the thirty-fifth floor.