My mouth snaps shut on the news that I can’t make it.
Josie is going to be at the country club.
My entire objective today is to get her in front of me. To demand to know what I’ve done and how I can make it up to her. If the conversation has to happen at the country club, so be it. I don’t care who knows about us anymore. In fact, I’m going to tell her father face to face. There will be some outrage and gossiping and a tough reaction from Paul, but Josie is more than worth it. I’m going to have her in my life forever. The sooner people start getting used to seeing this old ogre with his beautiful, young angel, the better. I’m in love with this girl. Real, heart-rending love that I’ve never experienced before—and I’m not willing to let her go.
With Paul’s agreement, we land and go straight to the club.
I’m like a caged animal as soon as we’re dropped off at the entrance, an attendant bustling around me, informing me they’ve coordinated with my housekeeper to have my golf clubs and attire brought to the club and have arranged it all in the locker room. Paul quickly throws on a pair of trunks and heads to the pool, throwing me a wave. Instead of going in the direction of the course, I follow behind Paul and—from a distance—look for Josie at the pool, but I don’t see her. Is she changing? Or avoiding me?
John claps me on the shoulder. “Hey, buddy. Ready to go?”
I turn to find Josie’s father there, looking oddly nervous, his cart idling behind him. Given no choice, I nod. “Yeah,” I grunt, taking a seat in the passenger side. “Let’s go.”
At the very least, this round of golf will give me a chance to explain my relationship with Josie. Getting into her pretty little head will have to wait a few hours, until we’re done with the front nine and stop for a break.
We tee off and make small talk while playing the first two holes. It’s while we’re preparing to begin hole three that I figure out why John is nervous. Why he wanted to play golf with me—on a Monday—in the first place. And it’s for a reason I never could have suspected.
“Listen, man.” He swallows, looks around. “I’ve gotten myself into kind of a jam. I had three bad quarters in a row. I managed to pad the fund’s earnings with my own money, make it look like we’re above water, but the truth is…I’m sinking. I’m fucked.” To my utter shock, tears spring to the man’s eyes. “We’re going to lose the house. Josie…she’s running around getting ready for college. She must think I’ll be able to come up with the tuition—”
“Josie knows you’re broke?” I ask hollowly.
John nods sadly. “I told her a month ago school might not happen. For some reason, she insists on proceeding as if she’ll move out in the fall, attend the university.” He rakes a hand through his hair. “Maybe she’s in denial.”
No.
She’s not in denial.
She found a desperate old man to pay her way.
And as soon as she got enough money together for tuition, she dropped me.
Christ, that’s what happened, isn’t it? None of her affection was real.
She needed cash. Fast.
I was the perfect target. Old, overweight, horny. Grateful for the chance to fuck something so young and tight. Desperate to soak up her light.
My chest is on the verge of caving in and John is still talking.
Asking me to bail him out.
“Enough,” I rasp, hating him mid-sentence. “I’m not throwing gasoline on a sinking ship. But we’ll absorb your firm, slash the fat and keep what’s working right. You’ll receive slightly more than what the company is worth, since we go back a long time. I’ll give you a seat on the board of directors, but before any of this happens, my accountant is going through your personal finances, along with those of the firm. No surprises.”
John grinds his jaw. “You’re a hard man.” He stares off into the distance for a moment, then offers his hand for a shake. “But a fair one. Thank you.”
I’m doing this for Josie.
I’d do anything for her, even though she has ripped my heart out of my chest.
She played me.
The part I don’t understand is this. Why did she suffer through all those nights together when I would have just paid her tuition? As a friend and father figure? I never would have let her miss out on college. She didn’t have to sacrifice her virginity to my ugly ass.
John and I agree that we’re not really in the mood to continue the game and go back to the clubhouse. When we reach the establishment, he leaves to meet with the house pro about one of his clubs and we make plans to have a drink together in an hour. My throat is ravaged on the inside, the bleak exhaustion I used to feel every day before Josie became my sugar baby creeping back in.