Page 108 of Blue Gold

Him calling me his love was enough to make me smile for the first time that day, and I finally remembered⁠—

“How did the meeting go?”

“I’ll tell you when you get home.”

Home.

I’d shared a house with my wife and kid for many years, and while I loved them both, that place never felt like a home. Something was always lacking, and at last, it was there.

He was there.

Holding the phone closer with a pathetic smile on my face, I tried to contain my joy. “I can’t wait.”

“Hurry up, then.”

Now eager to get back to Elliot, I hung up the call and turned to face Catherine.

“Who was that, your new girlfriend?” she sneered.

Ignoring her, I’d already dialed my driver’s number. “I’ll call John to come and pick you up.”

“What? Why?” she pouted while the phone rang. “I thought you’d take me to eat or something. I’m totally in the mood for sushi.”

John quickly picked up, and as I spoke to him, Catherine went on whining about what an asshole I was for not taking her for sushi, as if I hadn’t just wasted an entire afternoon because of her poor choices. And after I hung up, she had the audacity to say I was cruel and unkind and, per usual, judgmental. I might have been, to some extent. But she well deserved it.

Despite being eager to go home, I waited with her until John arrived.

“Try not to cause trouble for a change, okay?” I told her after John stepped out and opened the door for her.

Yet before she climbed in, she stopped and looked at me.

“You know he’s angry with you, right?”

She’s talking about Father.

“Totally pissed about the whole divorce thing that came out of nowhere.” She pursed her lips. “For once, you caused a real drama, Dani. Mom says you made a huge mistake. She even called Claudia, asking her to give you another chance⁠—”

“Good night, Catherine,” I cut in, uninterested in what she had to say.

Her face twisted, and she pressed her lips together, obviously annoyed that her emotional manipulations didn’t work this time. If she had a bit of self-awareness, she would have seen how alike she was to our parents, whom she so deeply resented.

At last, she got inside the car, and I gave her the honor of closing the door behind her. After thanking John, the two drove away, finally setting me free to go back home.

35

DANIEL

The scent of burned food reached my nostrils as soon as I got inside the condo, and walking straight to the kitchen, I found Elliot trying to open a window.

On the counter was a pan with what I assumed was once chicken, now reduced to coals.

“Oh, you’re home,” he panted, still having no success with the window.

Moving to assist, I stopped behind him. “Those windows have an extra lock for safety, right—” I switched the lock. “—here.”

I then kissed the top of his head before opening the window so some of the smoke could get out.

“Oh, I didn’t know…” he mumbled in a low voice, studying the lock as if I’d just performed some magic trick.