Page 61 of How to Get Even

The problem was, Chase didn’t fucking know what Chester C. Carlton had been talking about. He didn’t even know why it had happened. Yes, they’d crossed paths several years back and, okay, Chase was willing to admit that to say that he’d been abrupt was putting it mildly. And no, Chase had never liked to ‘play the game’ when it came to interviews, critics and social media.

But this? This was a wholly unprovoked attack against him personally. It was a hit piece. Chester was refusing to take his calls, the magazine was refusing to take Tej’s and the publisher was saying ‘speak to our lawyers’.

Jesus, the whole thing was a mess. And that it had been released on a Saturday just made the whole thing that much harder. The online edition had hit just hours before it reached the news stand, and while for most it wouldn’t have made front-page news, in the art world it waseverything.

He’d spent all of Sunday evening clearing his inbox after spending three hours with Sascha in the studio. And how it was that a twenty-three-year-old art student was the sanest person he’d spoken to in the last three days, he didn’t know. But he was damn thankful.

‘Hit piece?’ she’d asked.

‘Hit piece,’ he’d confirmed.

And that was it. She didn’t need to know anything else. And he’d blocked it from his mind for those blessed three hours.

But it was 6a.m. on Monday morning, Chase was already in the office and once again his inbox was full.

He rolled towards the drawer side of the desk to get his planner out, but the wheels were off and he rolled too far, whacking his knee on the cabinet instead. He let out a shout of raw frustration. Gritting his teeth, he flung himself back away from the desk, got up, glared at the chair because there was clearly something wrong with it even though he couldn’t tell what, and rolled his shoulders.

Coffee. He just needed coffee.

He limped over to the coffee station and grabbed his coffee, sugar and realised that the water cooler was out. Huffing out a sigh, he went to the kitchen, filled a jug with water, came back, filled the coffee machine, waited for the light to turn orange, inserted the pod, nerves soothing as the scent of coffee filled the air from the pour. He tore the top strip off the sugar sachet, emptied the contents into the cup and took a calming breath before knocking back the scalding hot espresso and proceeding to spit the whole thing out back onto the floor of his office.

He had some weird out-of-body moment where he genuinely saw himself as a cartoon character with a huge red head and steam coming out of his ears. He wanted to rage, to break things, tohurtthings. The abject horror of the last two days was finally getting to him and for a horrible moment he thought he might actually cry. Cry from rage. What the fuck was happening to him? Why was everything going so wrong?

Running a hand through his hair, he turned and found Maurice, Bella and Ali all standing staring at him in shock.

‘Oh fuck off!’ he shouted at the top of his lungs to no one in particular and they scattered like marbles.

* * *

Three hours later, Tej found him on the roof of the building, where he’d hidden from the rest of the staff since being caught throwing a tantrum like a little child.

‘I always liked this view.’

‘Tej, you like every view that isn’t Mumbai.’

‘That is also true.’

‘How much shit did you get from your dad?’ Chase asked, knowing that Tej would lie and say it was nothing. He hated that this was impacting Tej so badly.

‘It was nothing.’

Chase huffed out a bitter laugh. He knew what he should do. He knew that quitting was probably the only way to make sure the gallery stood a chance at a half decent opening. But he’d quit so much. His art. His marriage – not that that was entirely his fault. Annalise had quit on him long before then. But he had quit London. He’d given up on so many things, including the dreams his mother had for him.

Christ. He had to stick atsomething. But not at the expense of his friend.

‘Tej—’

‘I don’t accept,’ Tej said with a shrug. Sometimes talking to Tej was like talking to someone with exactly the same brain. ‘I don’t want your resignation, Chase.’

‘Tej, be serious. I’m going down and I’m taking this gallery with me.’

‘The captain always goes down… actually, wait I’mnotgoing down on you.’

‘I’mthe fucking captain,’ Chase snapped back.

‘No,I’mthe captain,you’rethe gallery. And although I love you bro, I’m never going to go down on you.’

‘It’swith, noton, you muppet.’

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