“Wonderful. We shall chat soon! Have a lovely day, Ms. Maxwell.”
“Lilah,” I insisted.
He flashed that hotter-than-sin crooked smile again. “Lilah,” he repeated and nodded. With that, he turned and walked out of the room.
Once he left, I almost collapsed. I flopped down in the nearest chair, pulled my phone out, and dialed Eddie, my oldest brother and one of my closest friends.
“Hey, sis,” the familiar voice on the other end of the line answered. “What's up?”
“That would be the question of the hour,” I replied. “The craziest thing just happened and I have to talk to someone about it. You got time for a drink after work?”
“Absolutely. Are you all right?”
“I'm fine, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about. Just a little bit of insanity at work.”
“Cool. Meet you at McGinty's at 8:00?”
“Sounds perfect. I'll see you then.”
I ended the call, put my phone down, and let out a long protracted sigh. The day had certainly turned out to be quite a good deal more interesting than I’d expected.
***
“Hey, Peanut! Great to see you,” Eddie beamed as he stood up from the bar table and gave me a hug.
“Hey, Eddie, thanks for coming out tonight,” I said as we disengaged from the hug and sat down.
Even at ten years older than me, people still asked if Eddie and I were twins. Apparently, we favored enough for it, but we were also very close. Besides, even with the streaks of gray running through his full head of hair and a few fine wrinkles around his eyes, which were appearing now that he was almost 40, he didn’t remotely look his age.
Eddie had always looked out for me when I was growing up. He’d done his best to keep my other three brothers off my back—when he had been around, anyway. Eddie’s childhood was a little tougher than the rest of us had to deal with.
Our mom had died soon after I was born and it seemed like Dad worked all the time just to try to keep things together. My twin brothers David and Robert had been 3 years old when Mom died, and my other brother James had only been 4 and a half. The trauma hadn't affected the rest of us as much as it had Eddie, who had been 10 years old. He used to tell me about her. I think it helped him to remember as much as it helped me feel like I knew her.
After he graduated from high school, he put off college to play in a punk band and had sometimes disappeared for weeks or even months at a time. But he always called me when he hadn’t been around. He'd always been good to me, and there was an undeniably powerful bond between us. I often felt like he was the only person I could really trust in this world.
“So, how's life in the corporate world?” he asked with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
“Never a dull day,” I replied. “How's the music business?”
He'd actually done pretty well with his band. Over the years, they'd gone from sleeping on people's living room floors after gigs or all crammed in a ratty van in a parking lot, to being signed to a respectable label and touring internationally. It was a good thing, too, since he’d never be happy in the “real” world.
“Oh, not bad, not bad at all. Still trying to recoup from jet lag after the Japan tour, but we're right back in the studio tomorrow working on tracks for the new album. No rest for the wicked, as they say,” he said with a chuckle.
I laughed. “I’m so happy things are going well for you guys.”
“Thanks. Me, too. I'm glad I stuck with it. But enough about me, what's going on with you, Peanut? You sounded a little frazzled when you called me earlier.”
“Oh, man, it was a crazy day, just off the charts.”
Eddie nodded as he swigged on the beer he had already drained halfway, while I'd only managed to have a few tentative sips of mine. I told him everything that had happened that day, while he listened attentively.
“So, this Asher guy—he's a real big shot, huh?”
“You could say that. He's the CEO and he owns the company, so, yeah. Oh, and he's been mentioned in Forbes more times than I can count and—”
“Yeah, all right. I get it. He's a big deal in the corporate world, but how does he strike you as a person? Leaving out all the power and prestige and all that corporate impressive stuff—is he, personally, someone you'd be comfortable spending a lot of time around and interacting with on a daily basis?
“I've been all over the place, and met all kinds of people, from millionaires to bums and everything in between, and while I can't say I have much experience in the world of suits, boardrooms, and briefcases, I can tell you that a person's character is absolutely the most important part of who they are.