Page 39 of One Night in Glasgow
As I slid onto the stool next to him, he gave me a questioning look.
“We’re going to New York,” I announced without preamble, signaling the bartender.
Danny’s lips quirked into a smirk. “Is that so? And here I thought we were just grabbing a beer.” He took a slow sip.
With an eye roll, I chuckled. “Well. I called Kinna.”
“Jesus, Sean,” Danny groaned. “What happened to the ‘clean break’ you were supposedly making? You’re like a dog with a bone. I assume that went well?”
“Oh yeah, a real blast,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “She basically told me to get lost and never speak to Beth again. But she let something slip.”
“So… take her advice?—”
“She let slip that Beth’s in New York, Danny. Working with a charity.” I shook my head, frustration bubbling up inside me. “You didn’t really see her that last day in Glasgow. She was a mess. There’s something real between us, and I can’t just walk away from that.”
Danny downed the last of his beer and signaled for another round, his expression turning serious. He was shifting from friend to agent. “Okay. Let’s pretend for one second you’re not having a complete psychotic break. Let’s talk logistics. Your career? The one that pays for this beer? What about your schedule?”
“We’ll rearrange it,” I said dismissively.
“‘Rearrange it’?” Danny barked out a laugh. “Sean, you have the National Leadership Conference in Philadelphia in a week. The keynote. It’s a five-day event, booked a year in advance. The contract is iron clad. There is no ‘rearranging’ that.”
He had me there. That conference was a massive commitment. But as the panic started to rise, a new thought cut through it.
“Philadelphia?” I said, a slow grin spreading across my face. “That’s perfect.”
Danny stared at me like I’d just sprouted a second head. “Perfect? For what? A complete and total career implosion?”
“No, perfect timing,” I clarified, leaning in. “The conference starts a week from now, right? That gives me a full week in New York to find her. Then I pop down to Philly, knock the speech out of the park, and I can go right back to New York afterwards. I’m already on the East Coast. It saves a flight.”
Danny just stared at me, his mouth slightly agape. “You have completely lost your goddamn mind,” he said, a note of awe in his voice. “You’ve managed to turn a cross-country romantic obsession into a ‘convenient’ business trip. I am both terrified and deeply impressed.”
“So, you and Maria will handle the other gigs? The smaller stuff?”
He sighed, rubbing his temples. “You’re killing me. But yes, we’ll handle it. But you finding her in one week in New York City? That’s the real challenge. You can’t just show up and expect to run into her. What’s the actual plan, Romeo?”
I took a long pull from my beer, my mind already in overdrive. “It’s not a Hollywood script, but it’s a start. I have connections in the charity world, Danny. Dozens of them. I’m a motivational speaker who works with non-profits. I’ll call inevery favor. I’ll start digging. See who’s heard of a sharp, witty Scottish socialite suddenly working for a New York organization.”
Danny groaned, but I could see the wheels turning in his head, shifting from protest to problem-solving. “It’s a goddamn needle in a haystack, Sean.”
“Maybe so,” I conceded, feeling the burden ease now that I had an actual strategy. “But I have to try. I owe it to Beth... and to myself.”
Danny studied me for a beat, then shook his head with a wry grin. “You’re gonna go after her no matter what I say, huh?”
I smiled, feeling a bit of the burden ease off my chest. “You know me too damn well, bro.”
“Alright, alright,” Danny conceded, raising his beer bottle in mock surrender. He leaned forward, his expression turning serious again, all trace of humor gone. “But I must ask. Is there something you’re not telling me? Why are you so dead set on finding Beth? I mean, I’ve seen you with women before, Sean. This is different. Did you knock her up or something?”
I let out a humorless chuckle. “No. Nothing like that.” I stared into my beer, the condensation cold against my palm. The noise of the bar began to fade, replaced by a different sound. The tinny, frantic sound of a phone call from years ago. A call I should have answered differently.If only.
“I never told you why I got into motivational speaking in the first place,” I said, my voice low and rough.
Danny’s joking demeanor vanished. He just nodded, waiting, giving me the space I needed.
“Her name was Olivia Clark.” The name felt like dragging a stone across my tongue. My vision blurred, and the bar disappeared.
I’m twenty years old again, standing in my dorm room. It’s late. My friends are waiting for me at a party, I can hear the music thumping across the quad, and I’m annoyed because Olivia is on the phone, crying again. For weeks, ever since she’d spoken out against that fraternity’s hazing practices, they had been systematically destroying her online. Doctored photos. Vicious rumors. A relentless, 24/7 assault of public humiliation.
“I can’t take it anymore, Sean,” she sobbed into the phone, her voice thin and frayed. “They’re everywhere. I close my eyes and I see their words. I can’t escape it.”
