Don't Be Naive

Greg Damn, my head was pounding. I think as consciousness penetrates my brain. I drank way too much last night. Thank God I Ubered to the bar we went to and just Ubered home after. My car will be at work, so I’ll take a third Uber to work this morning. I blindly reach for Honor, but feel nothing but the comforter. I blink open my eyes and look to my right. She’s not there. Her side of the bed is still made. What the f**k? Where was she? Rolling to my side, I pick up my phone and open it. I cringed at the d**k pic I sent her. I don’t remember doing that. Real f*****g classy, moron. I saw her text about sleeping in her studio. My brows furrow. It wasn’t like her to drink while working. Must have been one hell of a party. Everything from yesterday comes rushing back, and I smile. I got the promotion. Today’s the day I go in as a senior partner. I can’t f*****g wait. Rolling out of bed, I stagger my way to the bathroom. I look in the mirror and scoff. I look like s**t. My skin’s ashy, I have some white stuff in the corner of my mouth, and I can smell my own breath. f**k, I’m a mess. I do my business and hop into the shower. When I get out, I brush my teeth and tongue and feel 100% better. I moisturize my body and face and brush my hair. “Looking good, Mr. Anders,” I say to my reflection and smile. I go to the closet to get dressed, and I pause. I could have sworn Honor had more shoes than what I’m seeing. I look around and notice some of the empty hangers. Where the f**k are all her clothes? I mean, she has some stuff, but her side is usually packed with her flowing, colorful skirts and patterned shirts. All that’s here are neutral colors and plain white shirts. Huh, maybe she’s doing a closet clean-out? I looked at my overstuffed side. Maybe I should do one too. We need a bigger closet. Maybe even a bigger house, something we can definitely grow our future family into. The image of Honor pregnant, with a little girl and a boy running around a lush backyard with a dog, no, two dogs, golden retrievers, barking and jumping around happily. Yeah, I can see it. Things are looking up for us. I got my gray suit and lavender dress shirt and proceeded to dress for the day. I walked into the kitchen, wishing I had a big Honor breakfast burrito and coffee waiting for me. Damn, I definitely need coffee. I’ll just get something on my way to the office. I whistle as I’m waiting in the drive-thru at McDonald's. Looking around, I spot CeeCee and that bastard Josh. They’re carrying white paper bags and coffee containers. I saw CeeCee smile really big, and that’s when I saw my Honor. CeeCee’s smile falters, and something like sympathy comes over her face. It makes my brow furrow when she pulls Honor into her arms. Then my knuckles tightened as I watched Josh put his arms around both of them. I really disliked that guy. He’s fake, I just know it. No man that looks like him is into d**k. They all pull back, CeeCee hands Honor a cup of coffee, and they go into that prick’s tattoo studio. Why is Honor meeting up with them at his studio? A honk grabs my attention, and I realize the lines moved while I was busy wondering about my girl. I move forward, unease creeping into my mind. Something was off. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I got my food and ate it on the way to work. When I got to the office, there was a huge fruit basket waiting for me, and my assistant Lucy was smiling from ear to ear. “Congratulations, Senior Partner Greg Anders.” “Thank you, Lucy. How does it feel to be an assistant to a senior partner?” I asked her as we walked into my office. Well, my old office will soon be cleared out, and everything will be put into my new office. That’s what we were doing today. “With the twenty thousand dollar bonus I just received and the twenty thousand dollar raise I got with it, it feels f*****g great.” We both laughed. I got the contract email too about my $500,000 bonus and my new raise. I was in a new tax bracket, and it felt great. Not to mention the 25% share in the company. I knew I was the last Senior Partner for a while. This was why I worked so hard last month. “Well, we have nothing pending today, so we’re just going to move my office. It’ll be a short day for you at least. Let’s get started. I’ll take you to The Montclaire for lunch.” “No packed lunch for you today?” “Nah, Honor had to work last night. Big bachelorette party, I guess things got pretty wild, and she drank with them. She ended up sleeping at the studio.” “Must have been some party for her to do that instead of Ubering home.” I thought about that. Yeah, why didn’t she just Uber home? I just shrugged, and we got to work. A few hours later, we’re sitting at The Montclaire restaurant, having just ordered some salmon with asparagus and baby potatoes, when Lucy tells me about how she and her boyfriend are flying to New York to go to Niagara Falls. “Have you ever been there?” she asks. “No. I haven’t been that far up North. North Carolina is as far as I’ve gotten. I have some family up in Graham.” “I can’t wait to go. Jerry said he’s been there, there’s a boat ride you can take, and they go right up to the falls. He says you get soaked.” I nod and let her talk. I check my phone and frown, it's not turning on. “Damn it, my phone's dead. I was going to text Honor and see if she wanted me to bring home dinner. Not sure if she’s still hungover. Although I saw her this morning while I was getting some breakfast. She didn’t look hungover. Can you call her and ask, please?” “Sure, what’s her number?” “You don’t have it saved?” “No. Why would I?” “Well, I’ve used your phone a few times to text or call her to let her know if I was going to be late getting home. I thought you might have saved it by now. What if something happened to me, and you needed to call her?” “Like what?” she asked, amused. “I don’t know if I have a heart attack or something.” “Then I would hope she was your emergency contact. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Greg, I like Honor, I think she’s fantastic, but we are just friendly towards each other. We aren’t friends. I don’t think I need her as a contact on my phone. Maybe ask her first, if she wants to be, then I’ll add her.” “I guess that makes sense. I remember I called her from your phone a few days ago. She has you as a contact on her phone. She picked up and said, ‘Hey, Luce, what’s up?’ I just thought you did too. I guess I didn’t notice when I dialed her phone number. “Well, you were busy, not really paying attention to anything else other than the case. You’re lucky to have a woman like Honor. If Neil ever neglected me like you’ve been doing to Honor this last month, I’d be pissed.” A pang of guilt rushed through me at Lucy saying that. I have been neglecting Honor. I was just so busy with the case. “Well, now that the case is over, I should have some free time. I’ll take her away for a weekend getaway or something.” “Please tell me you aren’t that naive,” Lucy looked at me incredulously. “What?” “Greg, you just became a Senior Partner. You can’t slack now. Do you want them to find a way to take that all away if you aren’t on the ball? You’re going to be busier than ever. You just watch. You’re going to have to show you can hang with the big dogs now. You’ll be schmoozing with Georde, Smith, and Hays for a while before they’ll trust you fully to not fall apart.” “f**k, you’re right. I remember when Hays became a partner, in his first year, he looked like hell.” “Well, he also didn’t have an awesome assistant like you do. I will make sure to lighten your load. If I were you, I would start bringing home flowers and trinkets and prepare her for what’s about to happen. I’ve already started doing that with Neil. When I got home from the bar, he and I had a wild time, and then again this morning. I explained that now that you’re a senior partner, I might be super busy with all the new clients you’ll be getting. Because once word of mouth hits, you can make miracles happen. You’re going to be swamped.” I nodded. She was right. “Okay, order me some pink tulips and some sea salt caramel dark chocolate. That’s her favorite. I’ll be leaving the office at five. Can you have them there before you leave?” “Sure,” she said, eating her salad. Lucy was right, I needed to prepare Honor. But then, after things slow down, it’s just her and me. Maybe I’ll take her to Niagara Falls. She’d like that.