Chapter 14
“What are you still doing here?” Gary asked when he entered his study at a quarter past 7 p.m. and found Eric at his desk, still working.
“Oh, I—uh, had a few things I needed to wrap up before leaving,” Eric lied poorly. He was hanging around in the hopes that Aubrey might return home soon, and he could apologize to her for his behavior last night. He’d wondered if he should mention to Gary that he was Aubrey’s mate, but then decided against it because that might piss her off. She should be the one to break the news to her father, not him.
“Come on, Eric. Go home,” Gary said wearily. “This isn’t a big ol’ law firm that works their lawyer to the ground on a daily basis. Besides, we don’t have that much workload to keep you at your desk all day. Go on home, buddy.”
Eric glanced at his wristwatch to check the time quickly. Damn it, Aubrey! Where are you? He thought desperately.
“Ok, sure,” he said and took his time with shutting down his computer and rearranging the documents on his desk.
Gary noticed how Eric was stalling and his brows furrowed with concern. “Is everything alright with you?” He asked.
Eric looked up from his task, confused. “With me? Sure, I’m fine. Why did you ask?”
Gary shrugged. “You seem…bothered. You know you can talk to me, right?”
“Yeah, I know that and trust me, I’m fine.”
“Look, I was once like you—young, ambitious, self-absorbed, and I don’t mean that last part in a bad way. But you see, I threw myself into my work and practically forgot about my family. I wanted to be the best in my career, but I didn’t realize that my ambition was taking me farther and farther away from the people that mattered the most to me. When my Maria was terribly sick and dying, it was then that I realized that I’d been so immersed in my own world that I didn’t even notice that my mate was dying right under my nose.
“My daughter drifted away from me because I was hardly a part of her life. It’s only recently that she and I have become, you know, friends, and it took a lot of effort on my part to make that happen. I don’t want you to be like me, Eric. I want you to have a life—a life outside of work. I admire your hard work and tenacity, but there’s more to life than having a successful career. Believe me, I know this more than anyone else around here.”
Eric sighed. He understood what Gary was saying perfectly but he wasn’t sure if everything his boss had said actually applied to him. After his last failed relationship, he’d given up on love and focused all of his energy and attention to being a great lawyer and bonding with his family at any given opportunity. He didn’t have a wife and daughter to go home to, nor did he have a girlfriend he was neglecting due to his job.
“Thanks, Gary. I’ll take that under advisement,” he said and saluted his boss playfully.
Gary laughed. “Well, you should. Now, off you go. Tell your folks I said hi.”
“Uh, yeah, but I’m heading straight to my place.”
“Isn’t today the last Thursday of the month?”
Eric blinked. Shit!
He’d completely forgotten about his family ritual of getting together every last Thursday of the month to play games, eat together and just bond. Gary was right after all; he was really becoming too self-absorbed.
“Thank you, Gary. You’ve just saved my life. My mother would’ve killed me if I didn’t show up tonight. Not after missing last month’s game night because of Wade’s stag night party.”
One of his friends who got married earlier this month had had a bachelor’s party last month, which Eric had opted to attend instead of his family games night rendezvous. His mother hadn’t been pleased. Missing another game night this month would mean an outright battle with his mother who took these bonding sessions very seriously. Without any excuse left to linger around, Eric finally bade his boss farewell and left.