“Think I’m going to stay in tonight,” he told me after I asked if everything was all right. “This crap knocks me out sometimes. But I’ll be there tomorrow. No worries.”
I wanted to tell him there was something I wanted to discuss, but I held back. It was more of an in-person conversation, and since Cathy still hadn’t shown up, there was no reason it couldn’t wait until the next day.
“Just take care of yourself,” I said. “Come in when you’re ready. Is there anything I can get you?”
“Didn’t know we did delivery, too.”
“Not exactly what I meant,” I said.
He chuckled. “I know. I’m okay. Just need some sleep, I think.”
“See you tomorrow, then,” I said.
“Cheers.”
But the next night, Robbie was still too tired to come in. I was afraid he might end up going back to Australia without us getting together again, so this time I broached the idea of coming over to have a quick chat. He said he hadn’t eaten yet, so how about I meet him poolside for dinner?
I got Dandy Doug to stay late that night, and headed over to the Las Palmas to meet with the boss. I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to my idea, but I hoped it worked into his plan.
I found him sitting at a table under the awning only a few feet from the bar. He already had a glass of wine sitting in front of him.
“Haven’t ordered yet,” he said as I sat down. “Waiting for you.”
My appetite still hadn’t come back, so more out of habit than anything else, I ordered the steak and potatoes, and a bottle of water. Robbie ordered fish and vegetables.
“So what’s on your mind?” he asked while we waited for the food to arrive.
“I have a proposal for you. But I have a question first.”
“Okay,” he said, nodding for me to continue.
“I know you said you’re thinking about selling The Lounge, but I’m wondering if you’re planning on getting rid of the whole thing or just a part of it?”
“You thinking about buying?”
“Depends on your answer to the question.”
He smiled. “I guess I’d be open to either option.”
I took a deep breath and made my pitch. “What if I buy in and become your partner? I’m here all the time so you won’t have to come back at all if you don’t want to. It’ll be just like it is now, only instead of me watching over your investment, I’ll be watching over mine, too.”
He sat back in his chair. “Why don’t you buy the whole thing from me?”
I wanted to say, “Because I don’t really want to buy any of it.” The only reason I was proposing a partnership was that I had this thought, this idea, that if I became one of the owners and showed Cathy I was doing something to stay close to her, she’d see that I cared, that I had a plan for our future. I was even thinking of cutting her in on a portion of my share. What I said to Robbie was a lesser truth. “I don’t think I can afford to buy the whole bar.”
When he quoted me the price he would have asked to sell it outright, I knew I was right. I couldn’t afford it. But the feeling I had that Robbie really didn’t want to let go of The Lounge proved to be correct. He said owning it wasn’t about the tiny profit he was making. In Australian dollars, he’d never be able to live off what I deposited for him every month. It was the sense of freedom it gave him. It was that feeling he got every time he walked into The Lounge and the girls mobbed him. It was how it made him think he was bigger than he really was for a little while.
By the time we finished negotiating, I was the new one-quarter owner of The Lounge on Fields Avenue. Robbie said he’d have his Angeles lawyer draw up the contract, and once everything was signed, I could send him the money.
“But we’ll still consider you my new partner starting now,” Robbie said. “I’ll come in and tell the girls myself tomorrow.”
In what had to be a record in the Philippines, where time is definitely relative and delay is the norm, the contract was hand-delivered to me at The Lounge two days later at four p.m. It was the same day Isabel and Larry came back in, his trip almost over, but that wasn’t until well after dark.
Robbie was there that afternoon. He was feeling better, so he’d delayed his return home for a few days. It turned out to be a good move, as it ended up being his last trip outside of Australia. The surgery didn’t get everything, and when the cancer came back, it came back everywhere. He held on for several more months, but from what I was told, it was a very painful time.
“Ernesto told me he’d be able to get that done in a hurry,” Robbie said. “So I wanted to be here when you got it.”
It came in a big white envelope. I opened it and pulled out the contract. There were two copies, one for Robbie and one for me. It was thinner than I had expected, maybe a dozen pages in all.
“You might want a lawyer to take a look at it,” Robbie suggested.
I leafed through it. For the most part, it looked like the important information was on the first couple of pages.
I looked Robbie in the eyes. “Did you screw me anywhere in here?”
He shook his head. “No, mate. I didn’t screw. Ernesto wanted me to, but it’s not my style.”
I spent twenty minutes reading it over, and couldn’t find anything that seemed underhanded. Analyn was working the bar, so I called her over.
“Can you get me a pen?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said.
A moment later she returned with a ballpoint. I had noticed while reading the contract that Robbie had already signed everywhere he needed to, so now it was my turn. I signed in all the correct places on both copies.
“Here you go,” I said, handing a copy to Robbie. “I’ll transfer the money tomorrow.”
“No hurry,” he said as he folded his copy and slid it into his pocket. “When you get the time.” He held up his bottle of San Miguel. “Cheers, partner.”
I raised my bottle of water. “Cheers.”
When Larry and Isabel came in that night, I shared my news with them. Larry bought me a beer that I ended up leaving on the counter untouched. There were congratulations and smiles and slaps on the back. I pretended to be happy and that it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I pretended it was what I really wanted.
We were all in our own worlds that night. I didn’t notice that Isabel was worried about anything, or that Larry was trying to do everything he could to make her happy. And they didn’t notice I was lying, to them and to everyone.
There was one thing Larry did notice, though.
“Where’s Cathy?” he asked.
“She had to go away for a couple of days,” I said. It had become my standard answer.
“Is she coming back soon?”
“Should be any day now.”
“Tell her I’m sorry I missed her,” he said.
“I will,” I told him, but there was a part of me beginning to wonder if I would ever get the chance.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Larry left on a Tuesday, and Robbie two days later on Thursday. On that Saturday, a full two weeks since I’d last seen her, Cathy came home.
The night before I’d ended up doing a double shift, covering for Tommy in the afternoon and working my own shift that evening. It turned out to be a busy night, so I hadn’t gone to bed until well after six a.m. on Saturday. I was dead asleep when noise from inside the house woke me.
It took me a moment before I realized someone was running the water in the kitchen. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. It wasn’t even eleven yet. My first thought was that it was my part-time maid, Patricia. I was pissed, because I thought I’d made it clear she should never show up before two p.m.
But as I pulled myself out of bed, and donned a pair of shorts, I remembered that Saturday was Patricia’s day off. So what the hell?