“I already said I would be there, Jacob, could you please stop hounding me!” I snapped as soon as I pressed the ‘accept-call’ on my dashboard.
“I will stop calling as soon as I can see you onboard your jet!”
“Christ, do you think so little of my integrity?” I said in exasperation.
“It’s not your integrity I am worried about, but your apt ability to freeze everyone out without notice. It’s already getting late, are you sure you are coming?”
I let out a sigh because he was not wrong, but I have never broken any of my promises to my friends before. I am just very good at being evasive. I used to enjoy social gatherings — I could think of a few I enjoyed a tad too much, but all that ended months before I got married. My heart constricted at my line of thought and I quickly shook my head to dispel it as if it was that easy.
“I will give you a video call in about two hours. I need to meet up with — Father for a brief meeting before heading out,” I said in my bid to reach a compromise, but hated having to call Edward ‘Father’. I clenched my jaw.
“Christ! How many meetings do you have in a day, man?! It’s Friday, I thought people have less workload on Fridays!”
“Not everyone is a tech tycoon, Jacob.”
“You don’t say,” he replied. I chuckled despite my mood. “I’m going to call you back in an hour, Evan, and you had better be on the plane then.”
“I said, I would call you—”
“Good. We are both in agreement,” Jacob said determinedly.
“Jacob—” I started to object, and he ended the call. “Son of a—-” I let out a few expletives, pressing hard on the accelerator.
Jacob was one of my college friends, and even though we kept in touch over the years, I recently reconnected with him when we met at a fundraising event in New York two years ago. He has since been trying to get me to attend a few social events with him, but I have been as slippery as a catfish. I suppose I can understand his stubbornness to make sure I attended his wedding since he had cleverly made me one of his groomsmen. Me, Evan, a groom’s man? Only Jacob would think of making me do such. I suppose he still thinks of me as the Evan he knew back in college.
Most of my friends in Charlestown would think twice before approaching me with such. I was no longer the ‘Evan Sterling’ Jacob knew. I’m afraid he will find out soon enough.
I drove inside the Sterling Estate and I found myself automatically tensing up. This place used to be home. And now the very thought of gracing the gates makes me almost physically sick. I forced myself to face the front, not wanting to glance left or right with the fear of what it might trigger in me. I wondered why the old man asked me to come here. I supposed he figured being mysterious about it would prompt me to come. But I’m sure by now he must know I hate the place with the same passion as I do him.
Parking in front of the English-style stately mansion, I killed the engine and pushed the door open jerkily. Marching up the front porch to the front double door. A footman at the door, upon sighting me, pulled the door open.
“Welcome, Mr. Sterling,” he greeted.
“Evan,” I corrected automatically, and patted the older man on the shoulders before walking inside, and emerging in the double-floor grand foyer.
I balled my fist by my side and marched stiffly towards the twin stairs flanking another flight of stairs that descended to my father's study and the visitors’ receiving room.
Framing the stairs' landing was a floor-to-ceiling French window, showing the view of a portion of the expansive mansion grounds with its endless green lawns and flower beds. The sky was already darkening and the garden lights illuminated the well-tended grounds, exhuming some deep memories from me.
I quickly jerked my eyes away from the view as memory began to form and shook my head again. Exhaling hard, I knocked on the door to the right and waited for my father’s familiar voice to ask me to enter before pushing the door open.
“There he is! My boy!” Edward Sterling said, getting up from the sitting area to the left of the room. At a glance, I couldn’t help but notice he had gained weight since the last time I saw him. Which was a while. I make it a point to avoid him like the plague.
We used to have similar frames but I am a head taller than him. And thankfully that was all I got from him. Otherwise, I would seriously hate looking in the mirror and having the same bloody gray eyes staring back at me.
He walked towards me and I knew he would want to touch or hug me and I would rather keel over and die before I let that happen. Before he could get to my spot, I slipped my hands into my pocket and nodded a greeting to the other man in the room, and walked away to stand by my father’s bookshelf, pretending to be interested in the collection which I knew I could recite in my dream, completely ignoring my father.
“Why am I here?” I said, turning around to look pointedly at the other man. He was one of my father’s friends and his property was down the road from ours. I could use the same description for almost all the Charlestown elites. They were almost like a community of cultists run by ten major families and if you are not a direct descendant of any of them, choosing to live in the area would be near impossible. I could say I was the only Sterling who chose to break the status quo to my father’s dismay.
“Straight to business, I see,” the man said, flashing a smile, and I just stared, steely, back at him until the smile disappeared from his face and he began to squirm on his feet.
Compared to my father, the man was short, his height couldn’t be more than 5 feet 7 inches. I suppose his full, ginger-colored mustache was supposed to make up for the lack of hair on his scalp, otherwise, I have no idea why someone would choose to keep such bushy upper lip hair in this century.
“Mr. Anderson here is the head of—-” My father started to say.
“I know who he is, I only asked why I am here?” I said again, cutting the introduction. In the corner of my eye, I could see my father bristling at the tone of my voice and my rude question, but I really didn’t care.
“Alright then… he showed me an interesting estate development proposal that he would like us to invest in. A fully serviced condominium would be quite remarkable in Charlestown. Especially with the community college planning to take on executive programs for company CEOs both local and international. Perhaps it would be the move we need to lure more investors to Charlestown … but I’m surprised to see you strike it out as not viable. I told him that must be a mistake—”“I saw the proposal, and I already gave Mr. Anderson my reply,” I said and pointedly checked my time. “Would that be all? I have a plane to catch--” I added, impatiently. I knew I was being a bastard, but I seriously can’t be in the same room with my father for more than ten minutes without wanting to kill him. ‘I need to get this over and leave,’ I thought to myself. “I was hoping your father could influence your decision—” the other man said, looking a tad taken aback. I supposed his planned intervention wasn’t going
The hotel Jacob prepared was one of my regulars and as soon as I stepped in with Jacob’s and my driver following me with my stuff, the concierge who was attending to some other guest immediately dismissed them and hurried my way. “Mr. Evan! How lovely to have you,” the average-height man said loud enough to attract the attention of everyone in the lobby. I nodded. “Thank you, Adam. How is your lovely family? And little Emma, I believe she must be a big girl now,” I jest. He laughed with his eyes gleaming. I have learned in my dealings with people, especially folks like Adam, that remembering their names and little details they had dropped here and there about their lives or family always goes a long way in making them feel special. After all, they say people never forget the way you make them feel. And I am a strong believer that no one is insignificant to have in your corner. “I can’t believe you remember Emma! She is not quite a big girl just yet, and I can't wait. Her teenage de
I was literally the mule, breaking my back for her and her father with their fifty per cent share of my family’s company, and taking away my choice of who to spend my life with, invading my space! Just because of that bloody Edward…! I took a deep breath to calm myself, breathing hard. It’s been close to six years now and I still get riled up by the recollection.I recalled pointedly facing the old gizzard to tell him right there and then that Mary Antoinette was free to fuck anyone she likes, because I do not intend to be a saint myself, but I would definitely not be burying my dick in her gut. I immediately regretted my outburst for about a moment when I saw Mary Antoinette blanch, directing a dismayed gaze at me, then her father had the bright idea to threaten me some more and then lunge at me and that was the end of my remorse. If my mother had not been present, I would have done something I would definitely regret. Back then, I was really raw with the card life had dealt me. I w
The lady wore her witch black hair in full fringe and, for some reason, a torturous scene from the past flashed in my head, making me tense up with the intense emotion that came with the memory. For the life of me, I found myself unable to take my eyes off the girl and spaced out. I swallowed hard when Jacob said, “They are really eye-catchers aren’t they?”Then I heard myself say, “Can I get a private dance with the one in the middle facing us?” My voice sounded a bit different and I wondered if Jacob caught the intensity. “You have to be a gentleman and ask her yourself. We asked them to stay for the party, so go and mingle, Evan,” he teased, and walked away to attend to some other guests. The sound of my heart pounding was quite loud in my ears, even though I knew the probability of the woman I knew turning out to be a stripper or dancer was nil. But then I was never given the chance to even ponder on the probability of what she did to me and yet she had, blowing my heart sky
“Estie—you are still here…” I said in a low, deep voice ridden with feelings. “Yes…” she said in almost a whisper. “Small world, huh?” I said, letting out a pitiful chuckle. “Evan…” she said and looked as if she wanted to say more, then stopped. “Were you really going to run off without as much as a word to me, baby?” “I don’t know. You scared me!” she replied in an emotional tone. “Please… please tell me you went ahead and went to med school.” “I'm in my intern year!” “Then why the hell, Estera, are you in that getup, acting like a fucking stripper? What is that about? Do you need money?” “No, I don't need money. I’m doing this for a friend.” “How much?” “No, Evan. No. Just leave it be—” she said, still standing so far from me. I felt like I was in some bizarre dream and the need to touch her to assure myself it was real and she was actually there overtook me. “Come to me, Estera,” I said in an intense, commanding tone. “I shouldn’t… Evan—” “Don’t make me beg,” I said p
After the first round of our sexual indulgence, I bundled her off of the bed with her squealing with surprised delight to have a shower with her. I later left her in the bathroom to change the bedsheets, then returned to her to have her again in the shower stall. I was like an insatiable Stallone and I could only blame it on the alcohol, and the adrenaline caused by the chase and the escape from reality.With the few drinks that I had—okay, more than a few drinks—coupled with the emotional roller coaster and the pleasure of release with the only woman that I have ever wanted so desperately, it wasn’t a surprise that I slept off after getting her back in bed. Wrapping my arms around her firmly like I was afraid she was indeed a dream, nothing but a cruel play of my faculties. The sound of my phone ringing jolted me out of sleep, and I saw we had repositioned ourselves. She was now having her back to me, pressed snugly to my front in a perfect fit. Even with the blaring sound of the in
“Doctor Roberts?” the familiar voice of one of the nurses made me halt my strides. I had just finished assisting one of the attending physicians in major surgery and I was pretty satisfied it had gone well with no hiccups.“Yes?” I responded, turning around to face the dark-skinned skin, average-height young woman. She was about my age and I could say part of our clique. Most of the interns in Memorial Hospital often band together for one activity or the other to the point that we even have a popular bar a few blocks from here that we go to unwind at least once a week for a drink and a good time. Meredith was one of the few nurses that had somewhat drifted into the gang. She smiled at me and offered me a file.“Dr. Yen had a family emergency but was supposed to perform an Appendectomy this evening, she called and asked that you cover for her.”I took the patient’s file and flipped through it deftly. “Harrison Michaels…” I read the patient’s name aloud, “Is he here?”“Yes, Doctor.”“Ok
The surgery didn’t take me more than an hour, and we were on our way out of the hospital's main entrance by seven-thirty in the evening.“What’s the plan?” I asked as we walked past the parking lot heading away from Madison Avenue to Riverside Boulevard walking towards E 99th St.“We go home to change, and join the girls at Sapphire nightclub,” Ashley said, “They want us to watch them perform, before giving us a few pointers. And tomorrow we go shopping!”“It’s a good thing tomorrow is Saturday, I am beat!” I said, sounding like I felt -- tired.“Thank you, Estie for doing this,” Ashley said and I waved her off.“We need something fun for a change anyway,” Ameera said.“Are you saying our lives are boring, Doctor Ameera?” I said in theatrical shock. She giggled and rolled her eyes.“Our lives are a boring routine, Doctor Roberts, we are in dire need of an adventure,” she said with a sigh.About ten minutes later we were already at our apartment building. We chatted animatedly as we he