Page 52 of The Roadie
It took a few moments before he spoke again. “Well, then, why haven’t I met this young man?”
“You didn’t need to wear a suit.” Kira raked her eyes over Brett with approval and touched his lapel. “You look so handsome.”
The only other time Brett had worn a suit was at his parents’ funeral. It was the one suit he owned, and he had no intention of ever wearing it again. He probably should donate it to The Salvation Army, instead of keeping it hanging in the closet under the dry cleaner’s plastic, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at it again. So, he decided to purchase a new suit when Kira invited him to New York to meet her father. He made no apologies for his plethora of tattoos or his abundance of facial hair, but he thought that showing up in jeans and a T-shirt would be disrespectful, and Kira’s father deserved respect. “I wanted to make a good impression. I know how important he is to you.”
Kira was dressed in a pale peach tank dress which brought out her tanned complexion and blonde highlights, which still lingered from her time in the California sun a few weeks ago. He eyed her voraciously, and then rested his hands around her waist. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you. I want you to be yourself, but I’m not going to lie. My father will appreciate the suit. He’s going to love that we dressed for dinner.”
A familiar rata-tat-tat, Jimmy’s signature knock, interrupted the kiss Brett was about to give his dream girl. He snuck the kiss in anyway, a second before she headed to the door.
Jimmy squeezed her shoulder in greeting and walked straight up to Brett with a big smile on his face. “Man, I can’t believe you talked me into wearing a button-down shirt.”
“Sorry, bruh,” Brett told Jimmy. “I wasn’t going to show up in jeans, and I didn’t want to stand out as the only one dressed up.”
Jimmy slapped Brett on the back. “The old man is going to love that you’re wearing your Sunday best. Look at you, man. Those are some fancy threads you’ve got on.” He rubbed the lapel between his thumb and forefinger. “Expensive.”
The amount of money that Brett shelled out for the suit was probably more than he’d spent on clothing in his entire adult life. He assumed that he’d wear it again, now that he was with Kira, at some formal functions that he’d attend as her guy.
Mason joined his dad, also wearing a black button-down. “Why do we have to dress so fancy to go by Granpa Ron’s house?”
“That’s my fault,” Brett admitted. “I never met him before, and I want him to like me. I thought it would be nice if we all dressed up, so I wasn’t the only one. So it wasn’t obvious.”
Jimmy rested his hand on his son’s shoulder and leaned closer, as if telling him a secret. “Translation – he’s worried about meeting Grandpa Ron.”
“Why?” Mason asked, as if meeting a billionaire record mogul was no big deal, especially when you were dating his youngest daughter.
“Well, I have a lot of tattoos and a long beard,” Brett explained. “He might not like that. I thought he’d overlook those two things if I wore a suit. Your grandfather is a very powerful man in the record industry. I think he expects people to dress a certain way in his presence.”
Mason shrugged. “He’s just Granpa Ron.”
Audra’s phone rang, and she announced that a car was waiting for them downstairs. Nerves tickled Brett’s belly on the elevator ride to the lobby, and then it flip-flopped when he saw everyone heading toward the limo parked out front. “Do you always take a limo to your father’s house?” he asked Kira.
“Yeah. We don’t all fit in one car,” she explained. “Plus, I don’t own a car. I don’t want to make Jimmy and Audra both drive. That’s a pain.”
He looked at her quizzically. This was a girl who had everything, including a multi-million-dollar apartment. “Why don’t you own a car? There’s a garage in your building.”
“Yes. In my building. But have you ever tried to find a parking space on the street in the City?”
“I was just as surprised when I found out that these two didn’t own cars,” Jimmy offered. “They didn’t even know how to drive. I had to teach Audra on my Lambo when we first started dating.”
“I was a natural,” Audra boasted. “I taught Kira. She took a little time to get used to shifting gears. I had to replace my clutch.”
Kira’s mouth fell open. “You said it was on its way out!”
“Yeah.” Jimmy grunted. “After you ground down the gears.”
Kira looked at Brett, smiled, and shook her head. “Do you see what I have to put up with?”
He loved the wonderful relationship she had with her family. Envied it, in fact. His little family had basically been ripped in half when he’d lost his parents. He still had his friends, and he was close with his brother, but he didn’t have the large circle of people that Kira had around her. And, at the center of it all, was her father.
Brett was worried about meeting Ron Abelman, unsure if an overprotective father would view him as suitable to date his daughter, and worried about what would happen if the man disapproved. He tugged at his shirt collar, uncomfortable in the starched suit. He hoped he wasn’t trying too hard. All he wanted was for Kira’s father to like him. And he was about to find out, because the limo just pulled up to the curb.
The Abelman estate was an enormous brownstone standing proudly on the Upper East Side, only steps from Central Park. A uniformed butler welcomed them inside with a stiff nod and led them into a grand entry foyer that had a black and white marble floor in a diamond pattern. Brett was in awe as he took in the lavish surroundings. It was sheer elegance. Contemporary with old world charm. The thick detailed crown molding immediately caught his eye, even before the heavy crystal chandelier.
They waited in the parlor, a room Brett thought only existed in old-time movies. It was more like an upscale family room. A luxurious Persian rug sat in the center, covering light wood flooring that had a darker border which ran along the room’s perimeter. The overstated furniture, huge windows with heavy draperies, and pillars that displayed sculptured artwork probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, showcased the generations of wealth that came with the Abelman name.
Brett was uncomfortable, afraid to touch anything and too nervous to sit, plus, he didn’t want to wrinkle his suit, while everyone else was completely at ease. Mason immediately turned on the giant flat screen and started playing a video game with his Aunt Mary. Jimmy, always chill and relaxed, sat on a love seat next to Audra. His arms sprawled across the back of the couch while he tapped out a beat with his fingers, and his legs stretched out leisurely in front of him with his ankles crossed.
