Page 57 of Drunk on Love

CRAIG

Thought you might be interested in this news. Let me know if you want to chat about this. We miss you around here.

Luke clicked on the link Craig had sent him and laughed when he saw the headline. Oh, they’d pledged $10 million toward diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts? And had hired a brand-new chief diversity officer? Right. Of course they had.

He flinched when his phone rang. Craig couldn’t be callinghim to talk about this, could he? Did he want Luke to talk to the press, to parade him around in the way they’d done before, this time as a Black former employee who had just loved his time there and didn’t experience discrimination at all?

Oh, it was just his mom. Luke was so grateful he immediately picked up.

“Luke! Pete and I are going to that sale and auction you and I always used to go to today. Want to join us? Maybe you and Avery could come along? That is, if you two didn’t have other plans today.”

This is what picking up the phone got him. And he didn’t have to work today at Noble, so he couldn’t wiggle out of this that way.

“Sure,” he said to his mom. What else could he say? “I don’t think Avery can come, but I’ll meet you guys there.”

Maybe today was a good time to tell his mom the truth about his job. And about this Avery thing. He was feeling better about everything, maybe because he’d been out of that job for over a month, and working at Noble for three weeks now. It was fun, to learn something brand-new, to get to interact with people all day, none of whom seemed to be looking for him to fail. He wasn’t stressed, anxious, about work anymore. That felt weird, almost unnatural.

Maybe Avery had been right—it was good to do something so different from his old job, get some distance from it. He was maybe even starting to get his swagger back.

He laughed at himself and got in the shower.

Before he left home he texted Craig back. Partly to stay friendly with him, just in case he’d ever need Craig in the future for a reference. But also because he’d always liked Craig; he didn’t want to blow him off.

LUKE

Thanks for reaching out—good to see this. Hope all is well with you.

There. That was good enough.

When he caught up with his mom and Pete, his mom grinned at him.

“I can’t believe my son voluntarily came to this place that I dragged him to for years when he was in high school,” she said.

Luke hugged his mom.

“That’s the difference between age fourteen and twenty-eight, I guess,” he said. “Just point me toward the rooster.”

He and his mom both laughed. Once, in high school, when he’d come with his mom to one of these things, she’d insisted on buying a huge metal rooster for his grandfather’s yard; she’d said his grandfather would love it. Luke had hated the thing, and had no idea why his mom was so thrilled with this find, and was furious at his mom for buying it after she’d dragged him along to this stupid event, especially because he knew he would have to be the one to carry it to the car. But then, he and his mom had laughed so hard when he’d tried to wrestle the damn rooster into his mom’s tiny sedan for the drive home that he’d forgiven the rooster. His grandfather had loved it, just like his mother had predicted. After his grandfather had died, his mom had called him and told him an antiques dealer had offered her hundreds of dollars for the thing, which had made them both weep with laughter.

His mom pulled him in for another hug.

“It’s good to have you so close by, Luke. It’s nice to be able to see you more often. When do you have to go back to work? Yourreal job, I mean. Or are you thinking about staying up here, working remotely?”

This was the perfect opening.

“Actually, Mom, I...” He swallowed. “I’m not sure.”

He’d chickened out, again. But then, the time wasn’t right—he couldn’t tell her he’d quit his job and had no idea what he was doing with his life when they were in public. He’d do it later.

She nodded, that smug look back on her face.

“I understand.”

She thought he meant Avery. She thought he was waiting to decide because of Avery. He had to tell her that wasn’t actually happening.

But if he told her that, then how would he explain what he was doing here?

“Oooh, looks like there are some treasures over there!” she said, and ducked into a booth, leaving him and Pete standing there.

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