Black Buck(79)

I raised my shot glass to hers. “I think I can work something out.”

“To your brother picking up his first girl,” she said, tapping my glass with her own.

“Listen, he’s not my—” I turned toward the far end of the bar and watched him rub his wet hands on his jeans and walk toward us like a new man—like he had just realized that he was someone who deserved to be happy.

“Fuck it,” I said, downing the shot. “Cheers to my brother.”





23





The buzzing woke me up. Without opening my eyes, I grabbed my phone and swiped it open. “Hello?”

It was Rhett. At six in the morning. He told me to meet him at Cafeteria on Seventeenth and Seventh in an hour. Nothing else and no explanation.

After I kicked the bartender from the Belfry out and chugged half a liter of bubble gum Pedialyte, Chauncey drove me across town.

When I opened the door to Cafeteria’s brown vestibule, there was a line of glittery drag queens in heels, fur coats, and wigs. One turned around and slowly eyed me up and down. “Well, don’t you look delicious.”

“I’m not in the mood.” I pushed past them and the porcelain-skinned host toward the back, where I spotted a seated Rhett wearing a beige turtleneck sweater and scrolling on his phone.

“What’s up with this place?”

He put his phone down and looked up at me. “What do you mean?”

“Look around. It looks like everyone just left the club.”

“That’s because they did,” he said, straight-faced. “This place is open twenty-four hours and attracts a certain type of crowd. Swanky, beautiful, fabulous. You know.”

“I see.” I ordered the lemon ricotta pancakes and a green smoothie, hoping I’d be able to keep both down. Rhett ordered truffled eggs.

After the modelesque waitress left, we sat there in silence. My hands were sweating, my legs were shaking, and no amount of water I could drink would cure my cotton mouth. I could hear the veins in my skull pulsing with the previous night’s cocktail of debauchery, and I had the feeling that I, at the age of twenty-three, was going to die from a heart attack right then and there. Rhett just kept staring at me.

“Alright,” I said, shakily setting a glass back on the table. “Please, whatever this is, just tell me. I can’t take this shit, man. I feel like you’re about to drop a bomb on me. Just do it already.”

“Bomb?” he said, spreading a cloth napkin over his lap. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“C’mon,” I said, like a fiend begging for a drug dealer’s mercy. “Please stop with the games.”

“Games? Again, not sure what you’re talking about, Buck. You okay?”

I brought the cold glass to my lips, but it slipped and crashed to the ground, shattering like ice. “Fuck, my bad.” I started to bend down when a waiter appeared out of thin air with a mop and a dustpan before grabbing me a new glass.

I closed my eyes and tried to steady the pounding in my head.

Rhett laughed. “Relax, Buck. Listen, I’ve been thinking about the sales team. Since Clyde left, things haven’t been the same. Charlie’s overwhelmed and people don’t respect him as a leader. The company’s doing well, better than ever, but we’re not growing as rapidly as I want us to.”

“Okay,” I said, as our waitress set plates of steaming food in front of us. I inhaled the warm vapors, hoping they’d ground me. “And?”

He placed a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

“Are you worried about something?”

“I’m worried about a lot of things. Like what Clyde’s going to do. He’s well-connected and angry. He won’t even answer my texts or calls. And we all know how vengeful he is.”

“I don’t get it,” I said, gulping down my smoothie. “How does Charlie play into all of this? Or the sales team?”

“There’s just an obvious gap. And I want to take care of it ASAP.”

“So why don’t you demote Charlie and put one of the other AEs in charge?”

“I am going to demote Charlie, and I am putting one of the other AEs in charge.”

“Perfect. Who?”

“You,” he said, finally smiling. “I want you to be our new director of sales.”

I choked on the thick mix of pancakes and smoothie. When I could finally breathe, I said, “That doesn’t make sense, Rhett. I haven’t even been with the company for a year. No one will respect me.”

“You’ve done more in less than a year than most people do in their entire careers, Buck. And every AE not only respects you but is inspired by you. Plus, they’re all looking forward to grabbing some of your connections through Barry.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I already spoke to all of them. When you walk into the office today, you’ll be the youngest director of sales in New York City, maybe in all of America. At least that’s what BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post are saying.”

My headache and the feeling of impending death slowly returned. I chugged more smoothie. “Wh-why would they be saying that, or anything at all, Rhett?”

He winked, smirking like a bandit. “Because we sent them a press release last night. The news just broke!” he said, reaching his hands toward me.