The Platinum Reunion Read online

  The Platinum Reunion

  ISBN 978-0-9962825-5-0

  Copyright © 2017 by T V Hartwell

  First Edition

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce or distribute this book or portions thereof in any form or fashion whatsoever.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, businesses, organizations, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, situations, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  *The following story contains mature themes, strong language, and sexual situations and is intended for adult readers.

  www.tvhartwell.com

  The Platinum Series

  Book One

  The Platinum Triangle

  Book Two

  The Platinum Rebound

  Book Three

  The Platinum Reunion

  The Platinum Reunion

  Book Three

  The Platinum Series

  Chapter One

  “Jake, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tom said, sounding perplexed and taken aback by his son’s hysteria.

  Jake was trembling. Filled with rage, confusion, and disbelief, he could barely keep his voice calm and even. “Reverend O said that Mom told him before I called off my wedding that Amanda was my sister. It’s as if he knew the wedding would be canceled. What the fuck, man. What’s going on?”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. Tom didn’t answer back at first.

  “Dad! Are you there? What’s going on?”

  “Jake, calm down. As I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Amanda…your sister? Where’d he get this ridiculous story?”

  “Mom! He said Mom came to him and told him right before my wedding. He was surprised that I didn’t know. When he said it, I gave him this look like, ‘What the fuck?’ And then he got all nervous and uncomfortable and said that he thought I knew. When I told him that I didn’t know what he was talking about, he said, ‘You should speak with your parents’ and refused to say anything more.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, son. I’m as stupefied as you are right now as to why he’d tell you this wacky story. Amanda’s not your sister. What? Did he suggest that she was some love child of mine or something?”

  “He didn’t say.”

  “Well, who does he think is the parent of whom? Amanda’s certainly not related to me or Jamie. You and Harry are the only two kids we had.” Tom chuckled, seeming more amused than disturbed by this story. “I think our well-meaning priest may be growing a little senile,” Tom continued jokingly, trying to make light of the situation. “Seriously, he probably counsels so many people and families from the parish that he’s getting his stories and the people involved crossed. I’m sure this is all a big misunderstanding. Your mother will be amused, no doubt. How bizarre.”

  “But why would he say something like that if he wasn’t sure about it? He’s around the same age as you and Mom, so he hasn’t exactly reached the point in his life when senility is commonplace.”

  “Jake, I can assure you, he’s mistaken. Amanda’s not your sister or any other kind of relative of ours. We’re not blood relatives to the Climents in any way whatsoever. If we were, we would’ve found out about it way before now and staked our claim to our share of the family fortune. This is so ridiculous. I can’t believe this, and I can’t believe he accused your mother of telling him this story. There’s no way in hell she told him that. I mean, can you imagine?”

  “You’re probably right,” Jake slowly conceded, feeling relieved and a little embarrassed by his seeming gullibility. “But he sounded so sure of what he was saying. It was weird. But then, I agree that I can’t imagine Mom going to talk to him…about anything personal. They’re not exactly close friends, are they?”

  “No. Not at all. I mean, we’ve known Tim for years and consider him a dear friend of the family, but he’s not someone your mother or I would naturally turn to or confide in about anything. At least, that’s to the best of my knowledge. I guess I shouldn’t speak for Mom. Maybe she secretly complains to him whenever I drive her nuts about God knows what.”

  “Yeah, for constantly leaving the toilet seat up and leaving your stinky socks on the floor all around the house.”

  “Yeah, exactly right,” Tom said with a chuckle. “Seriously, though, what a bizarre story. Can’t wait to tell Mom about this. You caused my heart to stop there for a minute. Not because of the story but because you sounded like you were having a nervous breakdown. I haven’t heard you sound that upset since you were carjacked in high school.”

  Jake laughed at himself, feeling foolish. “I know. Sorry, Dad. I guess I overreacted.”

  “What made you go and see Tim in the first place?”

  “Oh…it’s a long story. I’ll tell you later,” Jake said, still sitting in his car outside Revered O’Mahoney’s house. Jake became uncomfortable sitting there because he sensed that someone was near his car, watching him. That carjacking he’d experienced years before as a teenager still spooked him. Jake switched on the ignition so that he could pull away. “Anyway, I’m sitting here in my car, Dad. I need to get your advice on a client issue I’m dealing with at the moment, so I’ll call you back later tonight or sometime tomorrow.”

  Jake hurriedly ended the call with his father, but just as he was about to drive off, there was a knock on the passenger side window. Jake jumped at the sound and turned his head quickly to see a figure looking through the window at him. It was dark and Jake couldn’t make out who it was at first. He initially thought it was a homeless man motioning at him to roll down the window, but then Jake realized it was Reverend O’Mahoney. At that point, he went ahead and let the window down.

  “Jake, you left your wallet,” the reverend said as he stuck his arm through the open window to hand it to him. “You must’ve dropped it on your way out.”

  Jake took it from him. “Oh…jeez. I didn’t even realize I’d pulled it out of my pocket. Thank you.”

  “Well, you left in a panic. I’m so sorry to have upset you,” the reverend said with sympathy in his voice.

  “No worries. I just got off the phone with my dad, and he’s pretty sure you’ve got things a little mixed up. Think you’re confusing our family with another one at the parish, perhaps?” Jake spoke with a hint of irritation in his voice.

  The reverend bit his tongue and did his best to remain diplomatic. “Although we didn’t get to finish our conversation about all that’s been troubling you lately, I have one parting word for you.” The reverend paused and then gravely said, “The truth will set you free.”

  Chapter Two

  After finding out that Jake had had not one but two sexual liaisons with another guy since they’d ended their friendship, Kirby’s hurt progressed to anger and then rage. When he’d returned home from the gym, Kirby entered the house, closed the door behind him, and stood there in the living room, fuming. He tossed his keys to the wall so hard that they deeply chipped the plaster. He walked into his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his hands against his shaved head and then covered his face, sighing hard and deep. “You fucking son of a bitch.” Kirby got back up and ripped the sheets off the bed. He began beating the pillows and slamming them to the mattress before tossing them aside to the floor. “I hate your ass. I could choke you right now. Son of a bitch.” Kirby went for his phone. He needed to talk someone.

  Kirby didn’t even offer a greeting when his cousin answered his call. He just yelled into the phone. “I’m done with Jake. I hate his faggot ass so much right now.”

  “Oh my God! What happened?” Myla asked, sounding alarme
d but eager to get the scoop.

  Since Kirby had come out to Myla more than a month before on Christmas Eve, she had become his go-to person for discussing relationship issues and his ill-fated love for Jake in particular.

  “You’re not going to believe this.”

  “What? What happened, Kirby?”

  “I finally ran into Jake at the gym today.”

  “Okay. How is he?”

  “Still sucking dick. He’s already moved on to another dude. And another black dude, at that.”

  “What?” Myla yelled in shock.

  “You heard me.”

  “Who’s the guy?”

  “This knucklehead dude from the gym named Reggie. He’s a fitness model with half a brain. He can’t get a real job so he models and pretends to be a trainer, mostly to lonely old women and gay men who like to ogle him.”

  “So Jake told you this? He admitted to hooking up with him?”

  “No. Reggie told me. I saw them talking to each other at first. And then, as Jake started to leave, I walked up to him to say hello. It was my first time seeing him since October, when he moved out. So I say hi and ask him how he’s been, and he acted like a complete jackass. I mean ice cold.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Not much, really. He asked how my parents were and about the TV show—”

  “Okay. That was nice—”

  “Oh, please. It was all fake. He really didn’t give a shit. Just making small talk. That’s all. So anyway, I asked him if he’d gotten my messages, and he was like, ‘Yeah, but I don’t have time to talk to you because I’m on my way to an appointment.’”

  “And then what happened?”

  “Nothing. He just left.”

  Myla gasped. “Mannnn…I can’t believe he just blew you off like that and after not seeing you for so long. Did you confront him about Reggie? I thought you said he wasn’t into other guys. That he’d only been with you.”

  “I spoke to Reggie after Jake left. I was doing my workout and Reggie came up to me, and we started talking. So I asked him how he knew Jake, and—get this—he said Jake had reached out to him on this gay hookup app called Alpha Beta—”

  “Alpha Beta?”

  “Yeah, the guys on there who are tops are listed as alphas and the bottoms are betas. So you know up front before contacting someone who does what.”

  “Oh Lord,” Myla said, sounding as if she were giving a verbal roll of the eyes.

  Kirby chuckled at her, piling on with more details. “Yeah, tops show off their dicks and bottoms show off some ass and then they pick and choose which they’d like to try out.”

  “Okay, Kirby. You can spare me the gory details. I get it,” she said as Kirby laughed. “I can’t believe Jake would do something like that. I mean, it’s not like I know him all that well, but based on the little I do know and what you’ve told me, this doesn’t sound like him.”

  “I can’t believe it. I’m so upset right now. It makes me wonder if he’s done this before. He came down so hard on me when I admitted to fooling around with other guys, and now it looks like he may have been doing the exact same thing. It’s like…dude, really? What a hypocrite.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe this was the wake-up call I needed. I should just forget about his weak, sorry ass and move on.”

  “Hmmm,” Myla uttered contemplatively while Kirby remained silent for a moment on the other end of the line.

  “Maybe I should just go back to dating girls, period. That way I could make my mom happy. Live a normal life, have kids. I’m not sure I’m really cut out for this gay thing anyway. I’m tired of the bullshit. I can’t take it anymore.”

  “But do you really want to date girls again, Kirby?”

  “Yeah, I still like girls,” he said unconvincingly.

  “But are you prepared to be faithful and commit yourself to a serious relationship with a girl without fooling around on the side with a guy like you were doing when you were with Laren?”

  Kirby didn’t answer her at first.

  “Well?”

  “I don’t know. I think I could be with a woman and do what I need to do to keep her happy, but I can’t sit here say that I might not stray every now and again.”

  Myla sighed, sounding disappointed. “See—”

  “I’m just being honest with you,” Kirby said defensively. “I like women, but I like being with guys too. What am I supposed to do?”

  Well, you can’t have your cake and eat it too, Kirby. You need to make up your mind and decide what you want, because no woman is going to want a man who’s disloyal and cheats on her, especially with another man. It’s bad enough when a man cheats with another woman, but with another man? That’s too much—”

  “I know, I know…,” Kirby trailed off.

  “You need to follow your heart and leave Aunt Joyce out of this. Making her happy is not a good enough a reason to marry a woman, let alone bring kids into the situation. You need to know deep down that a woman is right for you and what you truly want. Do you feel you can fall in love with a woman, Kirby? I mean, really in love, deep in love? Did you ever feel that for Laren?”

  “No,” Kirby said flatly. “I liked Laren a lot when we first started dating, but I can’t say that we were ever in love. At least, I wasn’t.”

  “So have you ever really been in love with a woman?” Myla asked, sounding curious but doubtful.

  Kirby paused a few moments before finally answering her. “To be completely honest, the only person I feel I’ve ever really been in love with is Jake.”

  “Do you still love him?”

  Kirby winced and snickered to himself, struggling to come up with an answer that guarded his heart. “I don’t know… I guess… I don’t know what I feel right now, really.”

  “From your tone, it seems like you do. It’s okay. That’s why you’re so angry right now…because you love him, and he hurt you. You should confront him and tell him how you feel.”

  “But I’ve already done that. What more can I say? At this point, it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t feel the same way about me. Jake cares more about his image. He wants to have a wife and kids to keep up appearances because that’s what’s expected of him. He doesn’t want to be in a relationship with me or with any guy, it seems. He just wants someone who will stay on the down-low with him. Someone he can keep in check and get to go along with what he wants, on his terms.”

  “You two sound very much alike. Just a minute ago you were saying that you should marry a woman and have kids too…because that’s what’s expected of you. If you’re not willing to be faithful and only want to be married just for show, to keep up appearances, and to make other people happy, then you’re both fucked up.”

  Kirby didn’t have a comeback.

  “You should stay away from women, Kirby, because you know almost any woman who gets with you is going to want to keep you to herself. You’re a hot commodity. You have so much going for you. On paper and in the flesh, you’re exactly what a lot of women want and dream of having. But you can’t keep stringing them along like you did Laren, knowing that you like guys and hooking up with guys on the side. That’s not right.”

  Chapter Three

  Leading up to his meeting with Reverend O’Mahoney, Jake had battled with himself over whether to pursue Amanda again. He increasingly felt that their chance at reconciliation was slipping away. Amanda seemed so radiant and happy beside Adam. When they’d broken up before, while Jake was still attending law school, Jake and Amanda had remained in contact with one another and secretly rendezvoused several times, unbeknownst to Adam. This time around, however, Jake and Amanda’s communication had ceased entirely. There were no more text messages, late-night phone calls, or secret hookups. It felt over. Done. But after his meeting with Reverend O’Mahoney, Jake became more determined to seek a reunion with Amanda against the odds. With the claim of Amanda being his sister emphatically dismissed by his f
ather, he’d put the thought behind him. It seemed too far-fetched and improbable to him anyway. The following day, his mother, Jamie, sent him a text that further assuaged any lingering doubt. Her tactic was at once direct and cunning.

  I heard you found out about your secret sister yesterday. Now you know why I didn’t want you to marry her all this time. :)

  Jake reckoned his mother’s nonchalant reaction was nothing more than playful sarcasm. He replied, Lol. That would be quite the well-kept secret. But you’ve never been good at keeping secrets.

  This is true, Jamie wrote back.

  As the week progressed, Jake couldn’t get Amanda out of his mind. Despite Reverend O’Mahoney’s parting admonition to him, “The truth will set you free,” Jake took those words to mean something else entirely. The truth to him was that he regretted walking away from Amanda. It was a mistake—a mistake that he needed to correct. Jake felt that if he didn’t try to reconnect with Amanda and reclaim their love, he would regret it for the rest of his life, and he’d never be free of the agony of thinking about what could’ve been.

  ***

  “Hey, buddy,” Jake said, greeting Will at one of their favorite craft beer watering holes near the beach in Santa Monica.

  “Hey, man. Happy Friday!” Will said as he and Jake did the slap-and-grab handshake.

  “Happy Friday, indeed. It couldn’t get here soon enough. What a week. I see you’ve already started without me, bro.”

  “Well, you were running late. Thought I’d get a head start on things,” Will said with a grin.

  “I’ll have what he’s having,” Jake said to the waitress who showed up to their table in short order.