“Yeah, and here’s to fucking a lot of different women!” Aiden smiled as he picked up another shot.

As I stood at the table drinking one shot after another, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and Yasmin stood there and started at me.

“Why haven’t you called me or answered any of my text messages?” she asked with an attitude.

“Why would I call you?” I replied.

She grabbed my wrist and led me out to the backyard to a spot where it was quiet. “What do you mean, Collin? After we had sex, you said it was the best you ever had and that you really liked me.”

Shit. I was totally wasted that night. I sighed as I looked into her green eyes. “Yasmin, sex with you was great, and I think you’re a really sweet girl, but it was only about the sex. You knew that.”

“No, I didn’t know that!” she yelled. “I don’t do one-night stands, you bastard! You told me how beautiful I was and I thought I meant something to you,” she said as tears started to stream down her face.

I didn’t need to stand here and listen to her whine. I needed a beer, and as I began to walk away, she grabbed my arm. “Fuck you, Collin Black! You’re nothing but a cold-hearted, emotionless bastard, and I hope you get what you deserve. I really thought you were different from the other guys.”

I stared at her as she cried. Yeah, I felt bad, but I couldn’t do anything about it. “I’m sorry, Yasmin, but you thought wrong,” I said as I shook my head and walked away. I went back inside the house as I left her sobbing outside. I grabbed a beer from the cooler and downed it as fast as I could.

“Whoa, bro, slow down,” my friend Brett said. “It can’t be that bad.”

“You have no idea,” I said as I finished the bottle and grabbed another one.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was one in the morning. Shit. I had to be at the office by seven for a meeting. The party was still going strong and Aiden was up in one of the bedrooms with some chick. I found Brett and asked him if he could call me a cab so I could get home. He laughed and led me to his car.

“Forget the cab, Collin. I can drive you home. I’m the designated driver for tonight.”

“Thanks, man. I owe you.”

I had Brett drop me off in the parking garage so I could take the elevator right up to the penthouse. I stood there and felt sick to my stomach as the elevator went up. Ugh. I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I drank way too much. As the doors opened, I tried to make it up to my room, but stumbled up the stairs and fell. I didn’t care. I just needed to lie down and that was exactly what I did. I passed out at the top of the stairs and slept in the hallway.

I felt jabs in my side and when I carefully opened my eyes, I saw my dad staring down at me.

“What the hell, Collin!” he yelled.

I put my hand on my forehead and closed my eyes. “Dad, stop.”

“Get your sorry ass up right now! You reek of alcohol and you need to be at the office in an hour. Go get in the shower and clean yourself up. I don’t have time to deal with you right now. This isn’t over,” he said as he stepped over me and walked downstairs.

I lay there, my head pounding and vibrating like a train racing down the tracks. I didn’t want to get up and go to the office. I wanted the comfort of my bed for the rest of the day. Suddenly, I felt someone grab my arm.

“Come on, Collin. Get up,” my mom said as she helped me. She took me into the bathroom and set me down on the toilet. She started the shower and lifted my shirt over my head.

“Okay, Mom, stop. I can get undressed myself.”

“Be careful, and your cocktail will be waiting for you when you get out and come downstairs. You better hurry up because your dad is pissed off.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said.

“Sometimes I look at you and I don’t even know who you are anymore,” she said with disappointment as she left the bathroom and shut the door.

I carefully got up and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water stream down my body. I washed up and then got dressed. I walked downstairs and to the kitchen where my dad was sitting at the table and my mom was standing by the counter, holding that shit cocktail I’d come to drink on a regular basis.

“Drink it now!” she said in a stern voice.

“Mom—”

“Don’t you ‘Mom’ me, young man. You go sit down at the table and don’t say one word. Do you understand me?”

I nodded my head and sat down. My dad just glared at me from the opposite side. “We’re going to talk about this later and you’re not going to like it.”

“Dad—”

“Don’t ‘Dad’ me. Finish your drink and get your ass down to the parking garage. We have a meeting to get to,” he said as he shook his head and got up from his chair.

After I managed to choke down the cocktail, I put on my shoes and kissed my mom goodbye.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“You’re always sorry, Collin, and sorry just isn’t cutting it anymore.”

I stepped into the elevator and looked down as the doors shut.

****

Once again, I held my composure in the meeting. Julia kept staring at me from across the table and all I could see was disappointment from her too. It seemed like I couldn’t make anyone happy anymore. Once the meeting was over, my dad told me to follow him to his office. He told me to have a seat and then looked at his watch.

“Diana will be here soon, so I’m going to make this quick. I think you are one of the smartest people I know, and you have an excellent business sense. You need to get your damn head out of your ass and stop acting like a spoiled rich kid, because make no mistake about it, I will fire you from this company and completely cut you off. Do you understand me?”

I nodded my head as I got up from the chair and started to walk away. I put my hands in my pockets and stopped before I reached the door. “Hailey told me yesterday that I need to move on and that she’s seeing someone else. Just imagine what it would be like if Mom said that to you.” I slowly opened the door and went to my office. I sat down at my desk, turned my chair around, and stared out the window at the busy city. My head was still pounding, so I opened my desk drawer and took out the bottle of ibuprofen. As I was about to pop some in my mouth, Julia walked in.

“Hey.” She smiled.

“Hey. If you came to lecture me again, don’t bother. Dad just threatened to fire me and cut me off.”