by Mima
“And this here,” Diego continued and shook his head. “The last real album Madonna ever made. I mean, I love her work but this one had so much meaning, at least it did to me. It still does. It was so long ago at a different time, a different place. How young and naïve I was back then, amigo, how young and naïve we all were once.”
His voice hinted of sadness and Chase noted a slight smile on his lips as he turned toward the mirror outside the car. “I think we all feel like that when we think of our past, Diego.”
“Nah, you’re still there,” Diego attempted to assure him but Chase wasn’t so convinced. He somehow felt as if he was long past that time and place but when you’re young, no one ever believes it. They think you are exaggerating your trials and darkest moments as if they were minor compared to what was ahead.
“I’m not so sure,” Chase admitted and opened his bottle of water, taking another sip. Was it possible it tasted worse and worse with every drink?
“Trust me, if we knew what was ahead at times, we would cherish each day,” Diego insisted as they pulled into the parking garage and swung into an empty space.
Chase remained silent as they got out of the car and entered the nearby elevator. Neither said a word until they were in the office and even then, it was Diego that started to talk, letting Deborah know of her duties for the day, ordering Sylvana to meet with him in his office later that morning and finally, he turned his attention toward Chase.
“You, me and Jolene need to talk now.”
“Ok.”
Walking toward the boardroom, laptop bag swung over his shoulder, it suddenly felt heavy and uncomfortable as he passed Gracie, who slid out of the staff room, coffee in hand. Diego immediately stopped, his finger pointed in her direction while she remained relatively calm, if not guarded.
“You, I have something for later this morning. We’re planning a big blowout for gay men, I want you to oversee it. I know you’re new, so Chase will help you,” He glanced back at Chase, who simply nodded. “There’s a guy named Jesse that might be helping too. We will see.”
Gracie simply gave a quick nod as Diego continued to move toward the boardroom, his voice boomed out, ‘Jolene!’ and his fingers pointed toward the empty room as he opened the door and stepped inside with Chase following behind. Immediately making his way to the head of the table, a position Jolene often took when she made it in the room first. It seemed like a competition between the two of them to see who would be in ‘charge’ of the meetings. Today, there was no mistaken it was the older of the two siblings.
“Yes, Diego, you called,” Jolene asked as she swept into the room, her voice carried a hint of annoyance, although her expression suggested it was more teasing than anything else. “You beckon?”
“I have some ideas,” Diego spoke in a low voice as he opened his laptop bag and pulled out his Mac. “I’m going to reach out to Jesse later today, I want to see if he will step in for this project, work with us and I have chosen Gracie to work with him. I think this is her domain, if she’s good, that is.”
“She has experience in party planning, event planning, so she will be good,” Jolene spoke with confidence as she sat down, opening her own laptop and turned her attention toward Chase. “Have you talked to her yet, Chase?”
“Once,” he admitted reluctantly, remembering the conversation but not able to recall the details. “Just small talk in the break room, I don’t know her.”
“She’s a nice girl,” her comment was slight but hadn’t gone unnoticed by Diego.
“Jolene, we work here, not try to make friends or boyfriend and girlfriend stuff, this is work,” His comment was sharp as he shook his head. “I need a coffee.”
He rose from his chair and rushed out of the conference room.
“What’s with him?” Jolene glanced over her shoulder while making a face. “And what is with you and the water? How much did the two of you drink last night?”
“Enough,” Chase replied and felt his stomach turn slightly, as he recalled the entire evening.
“Did something..happen…”
“Not with me,” Chase said and let out a small laugh.
“I do not want to know.”
Not that she had to ask because shortly after Diego returned, he jumped into a quick preview of the previous night. He talked about how much Chase drank, the laughs they had and he even hinted at his flirtation with the waitress, something that immediately caused a skeptical expression on Jolene’s face.
“You missed out on a fun night, Jolene,” Diego insisted as he took a hearty drink of his coffee and then made a face. “Jolene, I think you should be in charge of the coffee. This stuff is terrible.”
“Hey, I make that,” She spoke up. “You don’t like it, you make it!”
“When did you make it, three hours ago?”
“Maybe if you come to work in time, you would have it fresh,” She retorted, her forehead wrinkled as her voice boomed through the room and Diego hid a smug smile behind the cup.
“So you have fun?” She asked skeptically, glancing in Chase’s direction.
“Oh don’t mind him,” Diego insisted. “He’s a little hungover.”
“Ah, did you feed him a lot of drinks?”
“I didn’t force it down his throat. If that’s what you’re suggesting Jolene,” Diego continued to sip his coffee before putting it aside. “He had fun at first.”
“Diego, you are a bad influence.”
He merely shrugged at her comment.
“You make people do things that are bad for them,” She commented and Diego merely looked up from his screen with a raised eyebrow. “I know you.”
“I think Chase would agree with you on that one,” He suggested as his eyes drifted toward the topic of their discussion, creating more confusion for Jolene.
“What did you do, Diego?” She leaned in and challenged his eyes.
“To him?” Diego glanced toward a silent Chase. “I did nothing.”
“What did you do?”
“I may have had relations with a woman.”
“What?” Jolene asked, her mouth fell open in shock. “You’ve been with how many men and now, you think you might like to try women too? Diego, come on? What is that about?”
“You know, I thought I would try but I didn’t like it,” Diego sniffed and glanced toward Chase who remained stoic. He wasn’t about to get into this conversation.
“People who are gay, Diego, don’t just decide to try being straight,” Jolene lectured him. “Why you do this? Why do you do this to a woman? Make her think you are interested when you’re just trying to satisfy your curiosity.”
“Hey, it’s no different from men who’ve experimented with me even though they were pretty sure they were straight,” Diego calmly pointed out and shrugged. “Who cares? It happened. Not my best decision but I did it, can we move on.”
“Diego, other people, they have feelings, you know?” Jolene continued to lecture him. “You can’t lead them on.”
“I didn’t lead her on,” Diego corrected her. “I was very clear when she left that I wasn’t interested.”
“Did you tell her why?”
Diego started to appear irritated, his eyes suddenly wide open. “Did I tell her that I would rather a man go down on me than a woman? No, Jolene, I didn’t feel the need to get into those details. I think she probably figured it out.”
“Diego, you do not have to be vulgar. You can talk to people and be honest and nice,” She spoke calmly, with emphasize on her last word. “That is all I’m saying.”
He didn’t respond but glanced at Chase.
“So you, you don’t think this is smart either,” Jolene directed her question at Chase. “Did you?”
“I think it’s none of my business,” Chase responded evenly.
“Look, he already gave me the guilt
trip last night, I don’t need one from you too,” Diego spoke abruptly, his eyes fixated on Jolene. “He thinks it is wrong. I think you both are overly worried about this girl. Neither of you knows her but you know me and don’t seem to care what I think about anything, do you?”
No one responded.
“Exactly!”
The meeting ended up being productive, Jolene and Diego actually agreed on the idea of moving ahead with the party for gay men. They were in agreement on how to proceed as well as the smaller details, something that rarely was the case when it came to anything between the siblings. Within an hour, they had mapped out the specific duties; Chase was on top of research and overseeing both Jesse and Gracie, whom Diego felt confident could run with it but still insisted on a full report by the end of each day, showing him where everyone was at when it came to planning and organizing a party that would, in his words, ‘make or break’ them with homosexual men.
Although he said nothing at the time, Chase was a little uncomfortable with one idea; Diego wanted him and Jolene to go to the party, to ‘observe’ and come back the following Monday with their ‘impression’ of everything. Although he had no issue with the homosexual lifestyle, he wasn’t quite sure he was ready to enter that world to see what was a normal part of life to someone like Diego. His imagination and research had suggested that it wasn’t something he would be comfortable with but then again, his one experience entering the women’s parties had proven that his discomfort was possibly connected to sexuality in general, not just that of gay men.
At any rate, Diego made it sound pretty painless. A walk through, so that they wouldn’t be invasive but still, aware of what was taking place; after all, this was his profession, wasn’t it? Jolene looked skeptical.
“I do not want to,” Jolene surprised him towards the end of the meeting, her face wrinkled up. “I do not want to know what you’re doing with other men.”
‘You won’t be seeing what I do with other men,” Diego corrected her as he closed his laptop. “Look, this is part of the business and I’m not putting it out there to make either of your uncomfortable, I’m saying you have to see it with your own eyes. That is all.”
“I don’t know.” Jolene made a face.
“Look, if I can hook up with a woman when I prefer men, then you two can get over your heterosexual narrow-mindedness and show up for this and see, that is all I ask. I don’t want either of you hanging around to make others uncomfortable. Do you think these men want you both standing there, judging them? It goes both ways.”
Neither Chase or Jolene responded. Not that Chase ever did when not necessary. He didn’t offer his opinion but merely nodded. Jolene briefly made eye contact with him and then looked away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Chase met Jesse on Friday. Much to his surprise, he wasn’t the flamboyant homosexual he had, for some reason, expected. Instead, Jesse stood well over 6 feet tall and was dressed quite conservatively in a casual shirt and jeans. His eyes were a bland shade of blue, something that went well with the light shades of blond in his hair and when they shook hands, Chase noticed that he was wearing a wedding ring.
Quite modest, he was pleasant, if not overly friendly when introduced to Jolene and Gracie. Jolene said hello while Gracie gave a quick smile before flipping through her notebook to find an empty page. Chase noticed that the newest employee was dressed more conservatively than her first days at the office but continued to wear her trademark pigtails.
Diego, of course, took over the meeting in his usual, aggressive style, the same one he used when anyone other than just Chase and Jolene were in the room; it was only those times when he would fall out of this dominant role and feel free to jump to a more personal topic, to tease or joke around. He didn’t do this in any other meeting but merely took charge in a direct and precise manner, which showed why he was perhaps a better business man than Chase originally thought.
Within 90 minutes, most decisions were made, with Jesse suggesting many factors that would make up this first party, appropriately called ‘Coming Out’; a title that apparently had many layers. Diego seemed genuinely pleased with all the thought put toward the premier party for men as well as Jesse’s ideas, allowing him to take over to a certain degree.
A potential venue had been viewed earlier in the week and Jesse insisted that it be organized in such a way that those who attended could explore within their comfort levels. “It’s very important to set a tone from the beginning. If everyone feels your parties are inclusive, word will travel quickly and that’s what you want.” Jesse pointed out as he tapped his fingers on the table, his laptop sitting in front of him but it remained closed as if it were only a prop.“For example, you want the transgender community to feel welcomed, you want everyone to feel safe and not judged.”
“But why judge? I don’t understand?” Jolene spoke up for the first time in the meeting, her face scrunched up.
“There’s sometimes a lot of judgment within the LGBT community,” Jesse answered her question while nodding. “It’s unfortunate since we get enough judgment outside our community but you would be surprised how much we judge one another too.”
Chase remained silent but shared a knowing look with Diego. They had this discussion only days earlier with some surprising revelations.
“That’s unfortunate,” Jolene muttered while glancing at her laptop. “Do you think this will be a problem?”
“Nah, it’s just a matter of trying to extinguish any potential issues in advance,” Jesse replied and leaned back in his chair. “The main thing is that everyone has fun and walks out with a good impression.”
“True that,” Diego jumped back in and glanced at Gracie, who was taking notes but remained silent. Chase was a little concerned that she was given more responsibility than she was ready for when the weight fell on his own shoulders, but she showed no sign of hesitation.
“All right,” Diego continued and stood up. “Now that we’re all on the same page, I think I will leave it to Jesse and Gracie to spend some time together and come up with more details. If you have any questions, run them by Chase and give me a full report at the end of the day. I want this to happen soon, so maybe look into some prices, give me some numbers. How much will this cost? How much should we charge? I want a breakdown of the what and when. As many details as you can give me.”
With that, he gathered his laptop and Jolene started to do the same, while Chase hesitated to get up.
“Do you want me to-
“No Chase, you come with me,” Diego pointed toward their shared office. “We’re going to plan for what we will do after this party. How much of our business will focus on this kind of party, where to go next, how we will promote.”
“Social media,” Gracie said something for the first time in the meeting. “We can target ads but for the most part, posts are free. We can build excitement as it draws closer.”
“Get together with Sylvana about this, she can do up some images or whatever,” Diego made a face and waved his hand in the air. “Whatever she does.”
“Diego, we need to hire someone to help her out, she’s got a lot on her plate, you know,” Jolene spoke quietly, her voice somewhat hoarse. “It is not fair to throw everything at her.”
“She can handle it,” Diego assured his sister.
“I can help,” Gracie spoke up while raising her hand. “I have some background in marketing from college and my last job. Wherever you need me.”
Diego gave a satisfied nod. “Very good.”
By day’s end, Diego seemed satisfied that a venue was chosen, checked and already booked. Most details were decided, if not finalized, yet and it seemed the next big obstacle would be to find a good DJ, something that both Jesse and Gracie were confident could be done with ease.
Just before they left the office on Friday, Jesse informed Diego that he might have more good news. A popula
r rum company had expressed interest in sponsoring the party, which would not only cut down on costs but would provide an opportunity for them to test sample a new cooler that was about to hit stores, in a way, giving the attendees a ‘sneak peak’ to something that was not yet available to the public. Diego loved this idea and talked about it on the entire drive home.
“We save money, they get to show off this new product and they will post information about our party on their site and social media, getting the word out about our company,” Diego spoke excitedly as he loosened his tie, a broad smile on his face. “Life is beautiful my friend, if you believe, it all works out.”
“That’s pretty awesome,” Chase offered. “This Jesse guy seems to really know the industry. I can’t believe he lost his last job.”
“Ah…I think that was more of a personal thing with him and someone in the company,” Diego offered and wrinkled his nose. “That’s why I frown upon work relationships cause you know, it often ends up badly. That was the case with Jesse and one of the company owners. Trust me, I find out before inviting him in our doors, he seemed too good to be a true but after a couple of drinks, the truth, it poured out of him.”
“I thought he was married,” Chase said as he thought back to the wedding ring on Jesse’s finger.
“Oh, the ring?” Diego asked. “Not married, some people, I guess they wear them to let people know they are in a ‘dedicated’ relationship.” He let out a laugh. “I know, I know, you think that’s nuts, I can tell. I know you.”
“I didn’t want to wear a wedding ring when I had to,” Chase replied and glanced toward the window. “Of course, my marriage wasn’t my idea and I certainly wasn’t committed.”
Diego let out a hearty laugh and raised his eyebrows. “To some, it is like a noose around their neck but to others, it makes them feel safe, I guess? I don’t know, Chase, you and I, we are not marrying types.”