I bite my lip. By coincidence my birthday falls on my day off. Only I haven’t mentioned my birthday, and I’m not sure if Rourke or Cheryl knows. I’m not comfortable mentioning it, too worried it will seem like I’m asking for something. It’s been over a month since I last saw Gabe for dinner, when Rourke urged me to go hang out with Gabe since it had been a while.
No plans. I have the day off though. He usually takes the day off on my day off so we spend it together. What are you thinking? Would the day before be okay instead?
With Gabe I never know. One year he took me to SeaWorld for the day. One year it was to a greasy spoon where he handed me a card with a hundred bucks because he was too busy to go shopping. Last year, we started with brunch then went to a theater to see the Godfather trilogy with dinner included at intermission.
In turn, I have given him vintage prints to put in his shop, a few different pairs of leather chaps, and my proudest moment: a rusting Triumph that hadn’t been ridden or touched in thirty years and needed pretty much everything new that wasn’t metal. It took him almost a year to get it back into shape.
Day before is good. I’m thinking an early dinner at that Italian place you like. Then I got a hookup for tickets to the weird circus show you like downtown.
I love my brother so much. It’s completely out of his comfort zone, but he doesn’t think twice about doing it because he knows I’ll love it.
It’s Cirque du Soleil, dork. Sounds awesome. Thank you
I’m laughing at his text.
Cirque du can suck it. I’ll probably sleep the whole way through. I’ll pick you up at five thirty. The show starts at seven.
My response is simple.
K
The urge to call Rourke is strong, but I don’t. It’s only a little after eleven. He’ll call within the next few hours, I can wait until then. I love how he calls me every day. Sometimes the calls last no longer than a few minutes, while once we were talking for over an hour before he had to go. Thinking about the call, I smile at the way Rourke asked me my thoughts on things to add to the appeal of the boutique hotel in Tours. Should he have the stables cleaned up and rebuilt, and should he have horses? What kind of things would I want in a hotel in the middle of the countryside? Would he be wasting money trying to appeal to families, or should he stay in the vein of getting away from it all? Nothing I said was stupid to him; even if he didn’t agree with it, he considered what I thought and even made notes.
The idea of Rourke not simply asking my thoughts, but taking notes had me chuckling in the surreal moment. When I answered his question of why I was laughing, he told me about how a teenager working at the hotel for a few hours a week once made a suggestion that at the time seemed so obvious Rourke found it hard to believe the hotels weren’t already doing it. Once the change was implemented, their scores increased, with the change commented on often. He also firmly believed it was his lack of experience in the hotel industry which helped him think outside of the box to make changes and provide services other hotels weren’t willing to do.
“If you don’t know, I started in commercial real estate, and it’s still where the bulk of my money comes from. The downtown hotel was my first foray into owning a hotel. I never thought it would be a long-term thing. I figured I would restore it, build it up into a moneymaker then take the first offer where I made a tidy profit. Only an offer never came big enough for me before I got bitten by the bug. It was different than buying and selling and renting and building to suit, to have this almost living, breathing thing constantly in motion, playing a huge part in people’s lives. It was gratifying in a way real estate never was.
“The South hotel was the same thing. It was prime real estate I was sure needed a little money and a lot of attention, then I would flip it over. Only when the offers came to buy it, my employees begged me to not sell. They promised they would run it so smoothly all I had to do was cash the checks. For them, they had never had such an easy, willing to listen owner, and the hotel was relatively small so I kept it. To this day it runs so smoothly I forget about it sometimes.”
“Do you think you’ll ever sell, any of them?”
He’s quiet. “I don’t know. I’m not saying never. If the right offer happened maybe.”
“And here I thought it was all about the money. Maybe you aren’t a cold, ruthless billionaire with a register where his heart is after all.”
His laughter sends a warm glow through me to my fingertips. I’m so proud he laughs often, I never take it for granted. “Smart-ass. I’m sorry, I have another call I have to take. I’ll be home around six tonight, or as soon as I can wrap up the conference call.”
“Okay, see you soon. Bye.”
That was almost a month ago. A happy sigh escapes me. It’s been three whole months, when I first thought we wouldn’t last longer than a week or two. It’s hard not to get wistful when the last few months have been so wonderful.
“Olivia, dear?” Cheryl’s expression of sadness sends a shiver of fear through me.
“Are you okay? What’s the matter?” I stand to guide her to the sofa.
“I’m fine, really. It’s my mother. I think I need to go see her to...you know, make my peace with her before she passes.”
“Wait? Your mother is alive? I was under the impression she was dead already. You only ever speak of her in the past tense.”
“Well, it’s because it’s how I think of her.” Cheryl sighs as she presses a hand to her chest. “She said the most vile things about Emilio and Rourke being Mexican. I couldn’t believe it. I really just couldn’t understand the horrible things she said. Here I finally found happiness after years of pain and abuse, and she’s calling me names for daring to be with someone who wasn’t white. It was awful, she made it clear she wouldn’t accept Emilio or Rourke, so if she wouldn’t accept them then there was nothing left for us to say to each other. I haven’t spoken to her in over thirty years. But now, it’s time.”
“I’m so sorry. When do you want us to leave? Will we be flying or would you prefer to drive?”
“Oh no, dear, I need to go alone. It isn’t far, she and my sisters live in San Antonio. My sister, Jane, is going to allow me to stay with her.” Cheryl rolls her eyes.
“You have sisters?” I’m so confused. All these hours of talking and not one word about all these people. A small part of me is hurt she wasn’t willing to talk to me about them when I have told her pretty much everything about me she asked.
She sees my hurt, and her arms come around me to hug me close. “Dear, don’t look so upset. I haven’t talked to two of my sisters in more than twenty years. Jane is the only who has been willing to keep in contact with me, and I talk to her maybe once a year. My whole family abandoned me, my two uncles included, along with a handful of cousins. None of my sisters were willing to go against my mother.