Page 124 of Getting Down to Business

Chapter 24

Unable to get Doug on his phone, Chanda’s next stop was the Hasher Borne building. She’d never been there, so she asked the receptionist for his extension and then went outside to call from her cell.

“Doug Phillips. How may I help you?”

“It’s me. I need to talk to you. I’m in the lobby. Can you come down here please?”

“Sure. I’ll be right down.”

Seeing him get off the elevator comforted her. She didn’t realize how much she missed him until he was within arm’s reach. But while Doug was standing next to her, he was also missing.

His eyes were dim and his usual easy smile was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m sorry to just show up like this, but you didn’t answer my calls.”

“My phone was broken in the…scuffle. I can’t afford a new one right now.” His voice was flat and lifeless. He didn’t seem angry—not that she would have blamed him—he was just empty.

“I heard some details about what happened at the gallery. You were trying to defend me? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I shouldn’t have hit that guy. Even to defend you. I was itching for a fight, and I ruined your event because I was angry about something else.”

“About the fight with Julie?”

He looked surprised that she knew.

“I dropped off Snowflake and Lucy told me she wanted to come see you. Julie said she had to wait until the consult next week. What is going on?”

* * * *

Doug wasn’t sure he had the energy to go into what happened. He guided Chanda over to one of the benches on the wide sidewalk.

“Julie only got angrier. I should have remembered that telling Julie to calm down only makes her get louder. Lucy started crying and then the boyfriend came to the door threatening to call the cops unless I left. I decided it would be better to go than to get into an altercation with my ex-wife’s boyfriend in front of my kid so I left. But before I got to your show, Julie had sent a text telling me how upset Lucy was and that they would need to hold off on visitation until after we talk to the case specialist.”

“And then you tried to smile and act like nothing was wrong at my show.”

“I didn’t want to ruin your night with my drama. But then…”

“You should have told me what happened. If you weren’t up for it, you shouldn’t have even come.”

“I wanted to be there for you because I love you. I wanted to see your shining moment. Instead I wrecked it. I’m so sorry, Chanda.” He rubbed his forehead unsure how things had gotten so bad. He should have known he couldn’t be happy for long. He’d been tempting fate.

“I’m sorry too.”

He didn’t know why she would be sorry. She hadn’t done anything wrong. But before he could say that, she had her arms wrapped around him, her face in his chest.

“This is all my fault.”

Was she crazy? He moved back and stared down at her. While he didn’t want to break contact with her, he couldn’t let things get out of control. It would just hurt worse later.

“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I took my anger out on that guy. Christ, he was so scrawny. I could have really hurt him.”

“You fought for me, Doug. Now I’m going to fight for our family.”

* * * *

By Wednesday, Gray didn’t think he’d make it until the next day to hear if there was anything open in San Diego. He contemplated flying there and waiting until they had a position for him, no matter how long that might take.

Avoiding Alyssa was becoming more and more difficult.