“Not much,” Eric admits, “but we don’t need anything else. There’ll be golf for the men and a luxury spa for the women.”
“You expect people will drive three, four hours out of the Bay Area to come here for golf and spas when they can get that much closer to home?” Benjamin asks.
“Yes, because this will have the Drumm brand. And the Drumm brand is synonymous with luxury and exclusivity. The best of the best will want to come here to play.”
Benjamin takes off his coat and hands it to Sierra, whose lips are visibly turning blue despite the amount of lip gloss she has on.
“I’ve got schematics I can show you over lunch,” Eric says. “There’s a bar and grill in town that’s our best bet. Bill, the owner, is a big supporter of my dad’s.”
The bar and grill reminds me of Hooter’s because all the waitresses have low-cut skin-tight shirts.
“I know this isn’t a Michelin star restaurant,” Eric explains after we’re seated in a corner booth, “but I’m not elitist. This is good old American comfort food, and the scenery’s not bad either.”
He winks at Benjamin and Tony, neither of whom seem to share Eric’s mirth. After we’ve all ordered, Bill comes to our table. He’s about fifty years old, with a receding hair line and a slight beer gut showing.
“Drinks on the house,” he declares. He claps a hand on Eric’s shoulder. “Think your dad will swing through town anytime soon? Man, I love the guy.”
“He would campaign in California if there was a chance of winning the state,” Eric replies.
Bill sighs. “Yeah, I tell you, it’s them liberals in San Francisco and LA. They’re not like the rest of the state. You tell your dad that.”
“We know.”
“What I like about your dad is that he’s a regular joe, like me and other working stiffs.”
I find his statement interesting because Drumm has been a billionaire for all but the first twenty some years of his life. Before that, he was ‘simply’ a multi-millionaire.
“He tells it straight, right?” Bill continues. “And he’s a man of action. He wouldn’t be a rich man if he wasn’t.”
Eric and Bill talk politics for a while longer. Bill doesn’t pay much attention to Tony or Benjamin until Eric mentions that Benjamin and Tony’s families have a combined net worth of over twenty billion dollars.
“We’re going to develop a resort and golf course in this county,” Eric tells Bill.
“You do that. Bring jobs to the area. God knows the liberals haven’t done squat for us out here.”
“That’s what the Drumms are about: bringing jobs and boosting the local economy.”
“Well, I tell you what: anytime you fellows want to have lunch here, it’s on the house. That’s my gesture of appreciation for what you’re doing.”
I look around the restaurant. The customers appear to be solid working class people. Of all the people here, Eric, Tony and Benjamin are the last people who need a free lunch.
“You’ve barely eaten anything,” Tony says to me later.
“I don’t want it ending up all over the helicopter,” I admit, poking at my salad.
“Is it just the helicopter or all modes of flying?”
“The helicopter is especially brutal. I can feel the turbulence.”
Tony turns to Benjamin. “We need a ride back with you and Bataar.”
Benjamin nods.
“Thank you,” I say to Tony.
Knowing that my stomach won’t be twisted from the inside out, I finish my lunch. Afterward, I decide to use the restroom. So far it’s been kind of interesting listening to the men and even amusing to watch the waitresses trying their best to flirt with them. Eric is friendly, but I’m secretly satisfied that Tony doesn’t seem interested at all in the women.
Even though Benjamin Lee is intimidating in his own way, I’m feeling relaxed and have been working on distancing myself from what happened in the kitchen with Eric. What he did was wrong, but I don’t want my day to be ruined because of him. That’s giving him more power than he deserves. On the helicopter ride up, I was glad that it was hard to have a conversation, allowing me to be in my world for a while to work through all my thoughts and feelings. The arrival of Benjamin was a nice diversion. It’s hard to tell how close the Lee cousins are to each other. They didn’t greet each other with the openness that Lila or Mo would have greeted one of their relatives, but it could be a cultural thing.