by Jerry Cole
“Hey,” he said. “How was your day?”
“Fine,” she replied. “Are you making coffee?”
“I wasn’t going to, but I can,” Trevor replied.
“Please do,” she said, walking up to him. “I’m only here for about half an hour before I have to go again. Amanda is having a crisis.”
“What kind of crisis?” Trevor said, turning away from Sage to hide his smile.
“A made up one,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “I know, I know. Look, there are good things about her, okay?”
Trevor said nothing as he put the coffee on. Sage already knew how he felt about Amanda and she didn’t need to hear him bitch about her anymore.
“She’s getting better,” Sage said.
He nodded. “Who was it that said ‘don’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm’?”
She sighed. “You don’t have to be a dick about it, though.”
He leaned back on the counter and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m not going to say anything.”
She sat down next to him, brushing her long blue hair back over her shoulder. “Your silence says enough.”
Trevor sighed. “I just don’t understand,” he said. “You haven’t even been seeing her that long. Didn’t you also tell me she wanted to have a long conversation about monogamy and exclusivity? I’m sure we’ve talked about how—”
“She knows I don’t do that,” Sage replied. “She knows I’m into men, too.”
“And her crisis isn’t about that?” Trevor said.
She sighed as she handed him the cups from the cupboard. He poured the coffee, hers black and his with one teaspoon of sugar.
“Maybe if you met her, you would hate her less,” Sage said. “She is very funny, y’know.”
“Didn’t think that was your type,” Trevor said.
She nudged him with her elbow, hard, and he laughed.
“She doesn’t like her outfit,” Sage finally said. “She has a big thing tonight and she didn’t like her outfit. Or anything she owned. So, I’m letting her borrow some of my things, but I knew you didn’t want to see her, so I didn’t want to bring her over.”
Trevor sighed. He definitely didn’t want to deal with her on top of everything else. “Thank you,” he said. “Also, I didn’t realize you were dating a five-year-old.”
“She’s—”
“The sex is really good, huh?” Trevor said after he took a sip of his coffee.
“Yes,” she replied, looking away from him. “Best sex I’ve had in years. And you’ve seen her, right? She’s gorgeous.”
Trevor laughed, tilting his head back as he did. “Yeah, I didn’t think you would put up with her unless she was super-hot. I have met her before, you know. I think we had a class together. Mr. Hall’s philosophy class?”
“Did you?”
“Yeah,” he said. “She was always a huge bitch. Great hair, though.”
“She does have good hair, doesn’t she?” Sage said. Then she turned to look at him, her eyes narrow. “She was a bitch to you?”
“Not to me,” Trevor replied, shrugging. “I never got the personalized treatment. She always ignored me.”
She looked him up and down, grinning. “I find that hard to believe.”
“I was a dweeb back then,” he replied, smiling back at her. “I haven’t always been as popular as you think.”
“People want to take pictures with you when we go out together because they think you’re a celebrity,” she replied, laughing. “I mean, I know you will be one day, but damn. I don’t know anyone else who has that experience. Speaking of which, how did your audition go?”
“I’m too ethnic to play lead, but they do want to give me a speaking taxi driver role,” Trevor replied. “Because that’s a black and white biracial stereotype.”
She shook her head. “But you’re such a good actor! They should give you the lead.”
“That’s what I said,” he replied. “Anyway, maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to be in a music video one day. I don’t think anyone wants to give me a speaking role.”
Sage sighed. “You just gotta keep trying.”
“Or move,” he said. “There might be more chances where not everyone going against me is a hot white guy. Not that I have anything against hot white guys, just…”
She squeezed his shoulder and shook her head. “You’ll find something.”
“If I can ever afford to move,” he replied. “Don’t you have to go? You finished your coffee.”
“Yeah,” Sage replied. “I gotta go. Thank you. Chin up, okay?”
Trevor tried to smile at her. “Sure,” he said. “Okay.”
“Shit,” Sage said as she looked at the clock. “I really gotta go or Amanda’s gonna kill me.”
Chapter Three
Basil hadn’t been nervous about a date in forever. It had been way too long since he had a date, however, and just because Jennifer Burton wasn’t exactly someone who he was looking forward to seeing, it didn’t mean he felt like he was able to have a date. He was worried he couldn’t even remember how to.
He was outside of the Burton mansion, which was nearly an hour drive away from his own apartment. He wondered if he should go up to the door and knock for her, but the last thing he wanted to do was talk to Jennifer’s parents. It wasn’t like he was taking her to prom. They were only going out to dinner. Basil had made reservations at a steakhouse in the city, but as he sat there, he realized he had once heard a rumor Jennifer was a vegetarian.
He sighed. He was about to step out of the car when he saw her coming up to him. He tried to smile as she opened the door and climbed into the car.
“Hi,” he said. “Thank you for coming out. You look nice.”
She did look nice. Her blonde hair was down, straight, and she was wearing a red dress that clung to her curves. His parents had been right about the Burton girls being pretty. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he had originally thought.
“Thank you,” she replied. “My mom said your mom called her.”
Basil winked at her. “I’m sure that would be romantic if this was a cheesy romance novel,” he said.
“You read cheesy romance novels?” she said.
“More than I like to admit,” he said, his voice quiet when she didn’t even crack a smile. “I didn’t know you guys lived so close.”
She shrugged. “I moved back after I finished my master’s,” she said. “I was living in Boulder before that.”
“What was your master’s degree in?”
“Anthropology,” she said.
“So, what are you doing here?” Basil said as he started up the car. “It seems like as an anthropologist, you would be into academia or something.”
“Oh,” she replied, smiling. “It’s not something I ever wanted to do anything with. My parents just wanted me to get an education before I went to work at the family company.”
“They didn’t make you study business administration?” he said. “I went to school to work at my dad’s company too. Does your dad own Sundry?”
“Yes, he’s the majority shareholder,” she replied. “And they didn’t make me study anything. I have three brothers and two sisters. We were all expected to go to school and get our degrees, but it didn’t matter what it was in. The Burton siblings are all expected to be educated.”
Basil nodded. “Yeah, I get that,” he said. “My sister is getting her Master’s degree in performing and stage setting or something like that. My parents are just happy she’s still in school, you know? Like after she went around to Asia and spent like a year living in Bangladesh, they thought she was a lost cause.”
“I have a sister like that too,” Jennifer said. “She married a glass artisan or something. He doesn’t make any money and they live in a double wide behind a casino with their brood of children.”
Basil chuckled, shaking his head. He wasn’t really into Jennifer, but at least she was sharing something about her life, which was more than he originally expected. He
expected her to sullenly look at her phone all the way to the steakhouse, but the fact she was actually conversing with him was surprising.
“Oh, that’s interesting,” he said. “Do you talk to her much?”
“No,” Jennifer replied. “None of us talk to her anymore. Can you imagine wasting your time like that?”
Basil had to stop himself from wincing. As far as he was concerned, Jennifer’s sister’s life sounded awesome. Maybe he wouldn’t have liked to live in a trailer behind a casino, but he would have definitely loved to make a living off his craft. If he even still had a craft.
“She sounds fun,” he muttered in reply.
“She’s a slut who couldn’t keep her legs closed,” Jennifer said, looking out the window and away from Basil’s gaze. He was about to ask her what she meant when Jennifer continued unprompted. “Now she has to live with some loser for the rest of her life and continue giving birth to terrible kids nobody wants.”
Basil sucked in his breath. “Surely their parents want them.”
She sighed. “I guess,” she said. “That’s what you’d think, right? But she keeps trying to shove them at my parents. As if my parents were interested in them.”
Basil didn’t say anything.
“Anyway,” she said. “Do you talk to your sister?”
“Yeah,” Basil replied. “As much as I can.”
“That sounds so sweet,” she replied, putting her hand on her chest. “She was a couple of years behind us in prep school, wasn’t she?”
Basil nodded. “Yeah,” he said simply.
“So,” Jennifer said, smiling at him. “Have you heard much about this restaurant? I love steak.”
***
The rest of the date didn’t go any better. Jennifer wasn’t particularly talkative and Basil had to carry the entire conversation, except she never laughed at his jokes and all she did was talk shit about people they both knew. By the time the waiter brought their drinks, Basil couldn’t believe he had ever thought Jennifer Burton was sweet. She wasn’t sweet at all. When the waiter brought the food out, Basil focused on eating instead of talking to his date.
Every now and then, she would break the silence—mostly to ask him about the Walker Mills. Even though Basil had worked as executive vice-president of the Walker Mills for a while, he had to admit he didn’t know that much about it. He was great at remembering everyone’s birthday and what their children were called, but he didn’t know if that was really something he was supposed to be doing. He didn’t like working there that much, mostly because he didn’t feel like he was needed. He wondered if Jennifer felt the same way about whatever pretend job she had at Sundry, but he didn’t want to ask her at all.
He didn’t want to ask her anything. The sooner this date was over, the happier he would be. He had fulfilled his obligation to his parents, as far as he was concerned. They had asked him to give her a chance and he had done what they asked. He met one of the Burton sisters and it turned out that he hated her. Surely his parents couldn’t fault him for that.
Once the waiter brought the check, Basil noticed she didn’t offer to pay. He didn’t mind paying—he had the money and this had been a date—but he knew she was filthy rich, perhaps even more so than himself. She didn’t even reach for the check. He knew he was probably nitpicking at this point because he normally never minded when his dates didn’t even offer, but it was another thing to add to the long list of things that annoyed him about her.
He drove her home, mostly in silence. She didn’t even thank him for the food or the drive. By the time she was ready to get out of the car, Basil was quietly fuming. Nothing annoyed him more than people who were so clearly ungrateful.
“This was fun,” she said as Basil took the car out of gear in front of the Burton mansion.
She seemed to expect a response and all he managed to do was nod. He watched her for a second until she leaned over and planted a wet kiss on his cheek, one that reminded him of the ones his aunts gave him when he was a little boy.
“I’ll see you later,” he said quietly as she slipped out of the car, waving at him when she did. He watched until she disappeared into the house. The moment she closed the door behind herself, Basil had to tell himself to calm down. There was still another Burton sister he was probably going to be expected to go out with and he couldn’t even face the idea.
Once he was sure Jennifer hadn’t left anything in his car, he grabbed his phone and called his sister.
Chapter Four
Trevor finished the last sip of his 20-ounce cup of coffee. It would be enough to keep him awake for the last couple of hours he had to be at work, but he normally almost always crashed at three-thirty in the morning. Being a supermarket shelf stocker meant he had to work late into the night, but it did allow him to go to school during the day. Provided he managed to stay awake.
School was ending soon and Trevor would be graduating. He wouldn’t get to star in any more school productions and while he liked theater, his aspirations were definitely more about being on the big screen. He knew he still had some time—he was lucky he wasn’t a woman, because then he would only have had a couple of years to make it big—but he also needed to make some changes before he would even be on track to be on anyone’s radar. He already took a couple of modeling jobs here and there, and while he put those on his website, they weren’t exactly a way to make himself look legit. It didn’t help that when he showed up for a call he had huge bags under his eyes and he struggled to listen to their directions because he wasn’t nearly as awake as he should have been.
He knew he would have an easier time landing roles if he could just understand the casting director’s instructions in the first place. And if he was a little bit whiter looking. He had inherited his mom’s piercing green eyes, but he took after his father in almost every other way. He was tall and light-skinned but obviously black. His ex-boyfriends were also all obsessed with his lips.
Trevor knew he could go into modeling and he would probably earn more money than with acting. He didn’t want to do that. He liked acting—he had always liked acting—ever since he was a little boy. He had stayed up watching movies when his mom was looking after his little sisters and his dad was on the night shift. When his dad got home, he had to make sure the television was off. His father had always been strict and when the twins came along, it became even harder to do anything in his house.
He loved his little sisters, but his life had become a lot more complicated once they had been born. His parents were already on a shoestring budget when a surprise pregnancy brought twins into the family. That made everything even harder for all of them. Trevor was seven years old when they were born and he hadn’t been too happy about it back then. Now that he was an adult and he was out of the house, he couldn’t imagine not having his little sisters be a huge part of his life. He spoke to them as often as he could, which wasn’t often enough. He didn’t like to think about how many times he had fallen asleep when he was supposed to be chatting to them about their weeks.
Once he graduated, he told himself. Once he graduated and he started getting more roles, he knew he would have more time for his family. He might even be able to pay off their parents’ mortgage. Right now, he could barely afford to pay his own way through life. He managed to get enough scholarships to cover most of his tuition when he was in undergrad and he made the difference up through a work-study program, but they were a lot more competitive in graduate school. He had tried and it hadn’t worked.
So, he had taken out loans. Not many, just enough for him to be able to continue his studies. Even that was barely enough to cover everything he needed. He earned some money collecting tickets at the community theater, but he had mostly taken that job so he could meet important people in the local community. With two jobs and school, Trevor spent most of his free time sleeping and worrying about bills. The rest was spent fantasizing about his future.
His gaze caught his manager as she walked across the break room.
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“Hey,” he said. When she didn’t stop, he cleared his throat. “Hey, Jo, do you have a minute?”
She turned back and smiled at him. “Sure, Trev,” she said, walking to the desk and sitting down in front of him. “What’s up?”
“I was just wondering if there are any open positions,” he said. “You know, managerial ones.”
She looked surprised. “You’re not happy with your job?”
“It’s not that I’m not happy with my job,” he replied. “I really like it. It’s just, well, I need more money. The night shifts are also kind of difficult at this point.”
“You’re struggling,” she said, looking down. “I notice you’ve been having a harder time lately.”
He yawned, putting his hand in front of his mouth to stifle it. He didn’t like for Jo to see how tired he was when he was there, though she seemed as tired as he was. At least she seemed to be keeping it together more than he was.
“I still want to work here,” he said, looking at his fidgeting hands. “I just—I need opportunities for advancement. I’m falling short at the end of the month, I’ve been working here for a while, and I just thought, well…”
Jo nodded. “So, you want to stay on the night shift?”
He smiled. He didn’t want to stay on the night shift. He wanted to have a steady enough role in a production that he wouldn’t have to work in a supermarket at all. That just wasn’t going to happen yet. “I mean, yes,” he said. “If possible. I could maybe have a couple of day shifts I could fit around my school schedule, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up.”
Jo sighed. “Well, you’d have to become a manager first and you would have to speak to Megan about what your shifts would be like, but you can’t become a manager only for the night shift. You know we rotate every now and then. You would be expected to do that. You would also be expected to work at least forty hours a week, Trevor, you can’t exactly be a part-time manager.”
Trevor swallowed, tapping his fingers over the plastic desk. “But it comes with a steady paycheck.”