The Current Between Us (3 page)

“
It’d be great if you took them. I have a nine o’clock walk-through and I need to get the crews out. I’m behind on some blueprints I need to bid on. I should be able to make a big dent on the estimate before the guys get here.” Trent mentally ticked off his to do list as he adjusted his feet in his thick steel-toed work boots. Rising, he made his way to the coffee pot, pouring himself a cup. He pulled another cup from the cupboard and served up a second mug for Rhonny. She used all those sweet creamers, doctoring the taste, so he pushed the cup closer to her before turning and propping himself against the kitchen counter and taking a long drink.

“
It’s the only early test I have for finals this week, so I should be able to take them to school the rest of the week, too. Oh, but remember, I have LSAT classes starting next week. I need to be there no later than six. I can call Auntie Crazy, if you’re gonna to be late. Or meet you somewhere, just let me know. I’m also going to Milwaukee this weekend. I’m leaving early Saturday morning, but I’ll be here the next weekend. I told Em I would stay for her birthday, if it’s okay?”

“
Of course, it’s okay. Thank you for planning to be here on your day off. I know she’ll be excited. I can’t believe she’s already turning four. We’re supposed to go on Sunday to pick out decorations.” Trent took another long drink of the hot coffee. He could feel it slowly doing its job of getting him moving for the day.

“
Oh man, she’s so gonna love that. Did she stick with Tinkerbell?” Rhonny asked, looking over her shoulder, her long brown hair swinging with a twinkle in her eye.

“
Heck, no, that was three decisions ago. She just told me it’s a princess party now,” he said, chuckling a little before drinking down the rest of his cup.

“
That’s funny. It’ll be interesting to see what she finally decides on. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll have lots of hot pink in it.” Rhonny turned back, pulling the bacon from the skillet at the same moment the toast popped free from the toaster.

“
I know, right? She was so wishing that pink Barbie kitchen table was made big enough so we could have one in our kitchen,” Trent said absently, pouring another cup before turning to head through the laundry room to the attached garage.

“
Here, take this with you,” Rhonny called after him.

“
Oh, sorry… I’m already working those plans out in my mind. Thanks for breakfast,” Trent said, took the sandwich, and without another thought of the birthday parties and pink kitchen tables, he opened the garage door to his makeshift shop to begin working on the blueprints.

Chapter 2

“Sid, I don’t care if you agree with retirement or not. It’s here, live with it. You can’t entice me with leads anymore. I’m done and it’s four in the fucking morning, man. Damn it, Sid, sleep for once,” Gage said, interrupting his rambling editor and letting all the irritation of being awakened bristle through the few sentences he’d spoken since the phone call began. A yawn tore across his lips as a crash of thunder rumbled outside. An unexpected groan sounded from an unknown bed partner, reminding Gage someone still shared his bed from the previous night’s activity.
Damn, how did I not get rid of him before now
?

“
Just tell me when I can expect the last story? The higher ups are breathing down my neck. It’s been years since you promised this one, Synclair. If it’s the last piece, we need to strike while the iron’s hot,” Sid growled vehemently. Gone were the years when Gage begged Sid to air his work. Now he was a sought after commodity working with the largest names in the broadcasting industry.

Most of the time Gage liked Sid
, and he knew he owed the man; it was the only reason he didn’t shop this last report and promised it to Sid straight out. Sid was the first one to take notice of the complexity of Gage’s photos and the depths he went to in order to find the entire story, not just accept the obvious answers to help conclude the broadcast. With Sid’s help, Gage turned into an international success, making his photo and video investigative journalism the standard to be reached in present day news.

“
Buddy, it’s close. Don’t push it. I’m not ready to talk about it, and I haven’t asked you for a dime. You’re supposed to be grateful I’m giving this to you to air, remember? I gotta roll. I’ll see you at the grand opening. We can talk more then,” Gage said, trying to adjust his eyes, and force his mind to remember who he’d brought home last night, and why the fuck he’d brought him home at all.

“
I think you just gave me a back handed bribe,” Sid said. Gage could hear it worked and gave a smile.

“
You know it was, bye,” Gage agreed, disconnecting the phone with a swipe of his finger across the screen. He continued working the phone using the one finger until he found the number he wanted. With one last run across the screen, he dialed the number and brought the cell to his ear.

“
Galaxy Cab,” a dispatcher answered.

“
Hi, I need a cab, ASAP to South Halsted and Eighteenth Street, 2100 South Halsted. The ride will be waiting at the front door, no need to honk. I’ll double the fee if you get here in the next five minutes,” Gage said, then listened to the operator confirm his request. The bedcovers moved. He heard the shifting of the blanket as the guy left the bed. The brand new wonder mattress stayed true to its word, he hadn’t felt a stir the entire night.

“
I’m guessing that’s my exit. Well… it was a great night. I’ll leave my number for you here on the desk. I would love a repeat to free your willy,” the guy said, his accent thick. He scribbled something on the dresser while laughing at his own little joke. As Gage watched, he thought he might have remembered this one claimed to be a male model from Cuba, or perhaps, Guadalajara. Hell, he really had zero idea. Honestly, Gage didn’t remember much from the night before, but he rarely did much talking in these kinds of situations.

Gage lifted up on his elbows
and searched the dark room for the guy’s clothing, wanting to help him along a little faster. Pieces of clothing were plucked off the floor and Gage sat up, pushing his hair off his forehead. As another lightning strike illuminated the room, he got a good look at the naked body standing across the bedroom. That glimpse told him everything he needed to know about this one. Spanish accent guy was a good looking dude with a super tight bubble butt and a long, thick dick…too bad Gage didn’t do repeats. The room shook with the crash of thunder following that thought.

“
There isn’t a need to leave the number. I won’t use it,” Gage said, rising from the bed. He stood there, nude, pulling his wallet from the nightstand beside him and handed fifty dollars to the guy who came to stand in front of him, T-shirt in hand.

“
This is for the cab ride,” Gage said, and the guy pocketed the money with a smile.

“
I live around here. No need for a cab. I’ll be seeing you around, sexy.” He winked, pulling his T-shirt over his head while turning on his heel and prancing out the bedroom door. Gage grabbed his phone, a pair of jeans off the floor, and followed along behind him. The guy was already down the stairs and halfway across the gallery as Gage struggled into his jeans while trying to keep up. Through the big windows in the front of his new gallery, he saw the taxi lights waiting at the curb. The rain poured, drenching everything outside.

“
This is going to be a spectacular art gallery, the real deal. Everyone’s excited you decided to open here,” Spanish guy called back as he opened the front door.

“
Thanks, are you sure you don’t want a ride? It’s raining pretty hard out there,” Gage asked, coming to stand behind him at the front door.

“
Yeah, I’ll take you up on it,” he said and stuck out his hand for more money. Gage fished his wallet out and handed him another fifty dollar bill, which the guy instantly pocketed.

“
Adios,” he said, running out into the rain in the opposite direction of the taxi. Gage watched him dart across the road and race down the street under the cover of the awnings until he couldn’t be seen anymore.

Forced to run bare footed and bare chested out into the rain to pay the waiting taxi driver, Gage chuckled at the guy leaving him. He sure had a way of picking them! At the very least, if the guy
only intended to take the money, he could have run out here and told the driver he wasn’t needed. Gage had met plenty of guys just like that one throughout his life. He actually preferred them to the many others he came across. With guys like thick Spanish accent there, it never got messy and always involved a quick, gratifying fuck with money usually exchanging hands. Meaning his money into their hands before they were out the door, never to be seen or heard from again.

Gage handed the driver another fifty and ran back inside completely drenched from head to toe. He didn
’t look back outside, but slammed the door and twisted the lock in place. No lights lit the gallery. They hadn’t bothered turning any on. He reached over to flip the switch as he squinted his eyes preparing for the glare when nothing happened. No wonder it was so dark! They’d lost electricity or he guessed they had. No way to know for sure in this building. His electrical contractor sucked. A no-show for the last several days and he had avoided all of Gage’s phone calls. It could have just been the electrician’s shoddy work keeping the light off so he glanced back out the front windows and didn’t see any lights down the street.

As if
by some sort of cosmic cue, the electricity blazed to life, throwing the entire gallery into light causing him to squint his eyes for real. When his eyesight adjusted, the sight greeting him caused a chuckle as he stood there several minutes looking around his gallery. He’d spent a lot of time in his adult life in the middle of utter destruction, whether it be manmade or at Mother Nature’s hand. The chaos of this remodel reminded him of those places he’d worked in over the years. The only difference was that here he could visualize the final plans taking shape and coming together just fine.

As far as he cared, the place looked great
, even with the walls newly taped and bedded, scaffolding laying everywhere, broken trim pieces, nails, screws, boxes, and dust covering everything… Yeah, but they were right on schedule. It was all going to be fine. The Art Gallery’s grand opening loomed only a week away. The invitations had already been sent with RSVPs coming in daily. And regardless of how it all looked at the moment, this place would be complete and dazzling within the next seven days, ready to welcome the world.

Remarkably the only complication in the remodel came with the electrical contractor. He
’d fired him to keep the fast moving, steady pace he’d paid both his arms and a leg to achieve. The schedule didn’t allow for anyone to put them behind. It took less than a few hours to find a new electrical contractor, and this new contractor was young and eager, ready to put the time in to finish this remodel on schedule, starting today, or so he’d been assured.

Since Gage grew up in a family of construction workers, he knew firsthand how shady subcontractors could be with their empty promises of timeframes and deadlines. It was the main reason he spent every single day and night here, pushing and threatening every worker who came through
his door. He required them all to be accountable to him for their portion of the rebuild and he rewarded them when they achieved each deadline. He never lived his life on empty promises and he wasn’t going to allow his art gallery modifications to turn out the same way. At thirty-three years old and already retiring from the only job he’d ever wanted to do, Gage demanded things run on time in order for him to have some semblance of a normal life in his future.

This gallery was a little risky.
He’d chosen to locate in Chicago’s South Side, his hometown, rather than in some trendy part of New York City. The opening of his gallery fell strategically close to the breaking news of his final investigative report. It’s why the push to finish this remodel came so quickly. Both his gallery debut and the airing of his last report were designed to catapult him into regular reporting on CNN or
60 Minutes
, but from behind the desk, not in the field. Having the gallery to run and a desk broadcasting job to anchor would be monumentally easier jobs than running through the underbelly of every third world country, trying to piece together how crappy people truly were to one another.

Gage jogged back upstairs to his personal living quarters
to prepare for the day. He took a quick shower and wiped the mist from the mirror with his wet towel. Always comfortable in his own skin, Gage stood completely naked, looking at himself in the mirror.

His eyes resembled those of a much older man. He
’d seen too much in his need to stand on his own two feet. He’d also spent a lot of time trying to make his facial features more rugged to hide the feminine features he’d been born with. In the beginning of his career, no one had taken him seriously, discounting him, time and time again, because of his pretty boy good looks. He grew past tired of always being told he would be better off modeling or acting than trying to be taken seriously as a photo journalist.

Inner personal drive and nothing more forced him to make people take notice of his work. Ten years later, he
had a dark tan from years of working in the sun and blond sun streaks running through his sandy blond hair. He’d always kept his hair length close to a buzz cut. It helped with the itching when there wasn’t a bath readily available for days at a time, but now that he was back to being a regular citizen again, he’d decided to let it grow. He kept it a little longer in order to do some of those cool, slightly disarrayed hair styles so popular today.