Contracted To Love

Chapter 2

David had been on a high lately. Hell, it was a twelve-month high and he was riding that wave with everything he had. Everything was finally working out as it was supposed to. Work was great and he kept up his social appearances too. Well, not the way people would have expected, but it was how he wanted. Finally, when he made headlines, it was not about how badly he’d messed up the perfect relationship. It was about how he’d taken a chance on a bunch of nerds in Silicon Valley and had reaped millions of dollars in profit as a reward.

It was a little after nine in the morning when he got home for the weekly Sunday brunch. He was a little early but it didn’t really matter. He was better off being early than late where his father was concerned.

“If you can mess with someone’s time, then it means that you don’t respect him,” Taggert Favre always said.

Time management, being prompt… those were the lessons Taggert had taught David in place of riding a bike or pitching a tent.

And then there was the little fact that this wasn’t just another Sunday brunch. This particular Sunday also happened to be his birthday. His forty-first.

“David, thank God,” his father said when David walked into the house. “I need help sending this report to Lucky’s people.”

“First get in here and give your mother a hug,” his mother Sarah called out as she walked in from the hallway.

“Sarah, this is important. It’s work!” Taggert yelled.

“It’s always work.” Sarah smiled as she threw her arms around her son. “What have those people ever done for you anyway?”

“Paid for this house and all the other homes you wanted. Plus those expensive shopping trips you seem to love so much.”

Taggert sounded frustrated.

“Well, work never got you a son forty-one years ago. Remember that!” Sarah pulled away from David and held his face in her hands.

“Sarah!” Taggert yelled.

“How are you doing, honey?” Sarah asked and David smiled back at her.

“I’m fine, but I should go help dad before he begins his hate speech against technology.”

Sarah let out a giggle.

“I’ll go help Brigitte set the table. She made those special banana crepes I like so much,” she said before she walked out. “She also made you that weird coffee cake you like.”

“It’s called Tiramisu, mother,” David corrected her, smiling as she stopped and turned to look at him.

“Well, she made me regular pound cake. That’s what I’ll be having.” She walked back to where he was and kissed his cheek. “Happy birthday,” she said in a whisper before she turned around and walked away, leaving him there smiling.

Her pants flowed with every step she took carefully balancing on those impossible heels. Sarah Favre had rocked a short hairstyle and for as long as David could remember her hair had always been a perfect shade of red. Kind of like Bree Van Der Kamp’s style from that old TV show Desperate Housewives. David walked into the living room where his father seemed defeated by the laptop he was staring at.

“Okay, Dad. What’s going on here?” David asked.

“I need this.” —he pointed to an Excel sheet in the background—“to go to Lucky. It’s the latest financial breakdown.”

David quickly attached the document to the email and hit send. It was a matter of seconds really.

“Why are you doing this yourself? Where’s Ellis?” David asked.

“Maternity leave.”

David shrugged.

“Have HR send you a new assistant. At least until Ellis comes back.”

“They did and I hated every single person they sent up. Besides, I cannot just let any Tom, Dick or Harry from a temp agency have a look at our financials, David. That would be irresponsible,” Taggert said as David sat down next to him. “Enough about work. We do too much of it in the office already. Tell me about you.”

David raised an eyebrow.

“What?” He shook his head. “We work in the same building. What would you possibly want to know?”

“Something… anything new. With you.”

David took a long, deep breath.

“Well, this year I was thinking Favre Security’s corporate responsibility should focus on the homeless… I mean, we don’t have enough shelters and there’s a prime piece of property just sitting in the warehouse district…”

“That’s not what I am talking about, David. I’m talking about a girl in your life,” Taggert said and David’s jaw almost dropped.

“What?” he asked, surprised.

“Son, you’re great at the office but you need balance,” Taggert said softly. “It takes more than just financial success to make a man complete. Do you think I would have gone very far without your mother?”

“Dad, I really don’t know where all this is coming from,” David said again but his father just cranked the gears.

“I was twenty-seven when I made my first million and I was the only married person in my circles. You know what I did with the million dollars, I started a small security firm; but do you know what the rest of my team did with their money? They blew it on the fast life… coke, cars. But I had your mother to focus on. There was a family coming soon and I had to work hard to secure a future for myself, your mother and you. But you… I let you live wildly in your twenties and even thirties, but you turn forty-one today.”

David shrugged. “Yeah, I know that.”

“Well, some people may call you a late bloomer and perhaps that’s what you are,” Taggert went on. “But I’ll have failed as a father… as your father, if I don’t push you out of the nest already.”

David raised an eyebrow again.

“I don’t understand.”

“I won’t let you be the next Hugh Heffner,” Taggert said. “So, if you don’t put down roots soon, I’m cutting you out of the family business.”

David almost choked.

“You’re kidding, right?”

Taggert shook his head.

“No. I’m not. I’ll start headhunting the next CEO of Favre Securities.”

“But all the hard work I’ve done…” David started.

His father nodded.

“I know… I know. You’ve been invaluable to the company. Matter of fact, you are invaluable, but I won’t let you have houses in almost every continent and none of them to call home.” Taggert stood up. “And you better make sure you do that sooner than later because I’ll be retiring in the next few months.”