Chapter 29

David had seen Beth pull to the side of the road but he continued down the highway toward the city. He wasn’t comfortable enough driving the box truck to merge into traffic more often than necessary so he followed Phil down the road.

He exited and drove the girls past the apartment before turning into its underground parking lot. By luck, he got stopped at a traffic signal and he got the chance to see Katelyn and Tiffany crane their necks upward at the 12-story building.

“Those are stores on the bottom floor,” Tiffany pointed out.

“A bakery, a clothing store and a bar,” David confirmed.

“How many apartments are in there?” Katelyn asked.

“Seventy-three,” David answered. “There are eight one-bedroom apartments each on floors two through seven; six two-bedroom apartments on eight through 11 and Phil’s apartment at the top.”

“And he owns this?” Tiffany asked incredulously.

“He does,” David agreed as he turned into the parking lot. Phil had put his keycard into the slot and pulled to the side since he had forgotten to pass one of them to his father. He got out and walked to the box to enter the card again when David drove through.

“I wondered if he just planned for us to park in the loading zone,” his father said with a wink. “See, he’s a small-picture guy, too.”

David parked beside the elevator to make unloading easier while Phil stood and waited for his mother and Hailey.

“Did they stop for lunch or something?” he mumbled to Katelyn when she walked over.

“I think Hailey was a little emotional and your mother stopped to console her,” Katelyn told him. “Your Dad said if you’ll part with one of the keycards he’ll start carrying boxes up.”

“Fuck that,” Phil said. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “Hey, Rick, this is Phil Warner. I’m in the garage and we have some things we need to haul up. Can you bring an elevator key back? I’m just going to shut down one of them until I can get this crap unloaded. Great, thanks.”

Phil had turned and walked away before he conducted the call to the doorman. He turned back to find Katelyn a foot behind him.

“Your dad told us who owns the building,” she said, shaking her head. “Why did you keep it a secret?”

“You had just told me that you were going to pay your share of everything,” Phil replied. “I didn’t think it was a good time to point out that I net $100,000 a month from a gift my grandpa gave me.”

“Good point,” Katelyn remarked. “Does Hailey know?”

“I haven’t told her,” Phil admitted. “I was going to let everyone know this weekend. I wasn’t exactly hiding it from you. It was more like waiting for the right time.”

“And the ‘apartment’ is really the penthouse, isn’t it?” Katelyn pressed.

“Sort of,” Phil admitted. “It doesn’t have a private elevator or a helicopter pad. It’s spacious enough for four or five people to live there comfortably.”

“We’ll let it slide for now and we’ll act surprised when you tell Hailey,” Katelyn promised. “But let’s keep this ‘waiting for the right time’ thing to a minimum. You have money – OK, a lot of money – but that doesn’t change who you are. At least it doesn’t to me. Deal?”

“Deal,” Phil said, holding out his hand for a fist bump.

Katelyn gave him a hug instead, a first.

“You’ve got a wonderful family,” she said. “I really like your dad and your mom is just super.”

“I trained them well,” Phil joked. “Excuse me, I have to disrupt my tenants’ lives for a few minutes.”

Phil turned off the elevator and helped load the boxes on to it. They had just finished when Beth and Hailey pulled in.

“Timed that about right, didn’t you?” Phil joked.

“We actually had to sit outside for a few minutes until you finished,” Hailey replied, wrapping him in a tight hug.

“You OK?” he asked.

“Your mom was a big help,” Hailey admitted. “I’m resolved to see this through.”

Phil and David rode up with the boxes while the females waited in the garage for the second elevator to descend.

“Spilled the beans on me, didn’t you?” Phil asked when the doors closed.

“I was surprised you hadn’t told them,” David admitted. “I wasn’t about to lie to them. We had just finished a discussion about trust and it seemed counter-productive for me to hedge on something that isn’t really a secret.”

“I understand,” Phil said. “I should have told them earlier. The apartment discussion came just after they all declared they were going to pay their fair share of rent, utilities and food if they were going to stay at the apartment. I planned to let them know everything when we got here.”

“I figured as much,” David said. He and Phil started to unload the boxes in front of the doors and stopped when the elevator chimed and the door opened. The three younger females exited, looking around in fascination.

“This is beautiful!” Hailey announced.

“You should have seen the look on that witch’s face,” Tiffany said. “Some haughty broad got off on seven and told us that no one was allowed on the upper floor because no one lived there. I looked her up and down and informed her that we lived there. I thought she was going to swallow her tongue.”

Phil rolled his eyes and figured some tenant would give the doorman a ration of shit about letting teenagers in the building – or worse, she would call the cops and report a trespasser.

“Play nice with the other tenants,” he warned. “They all pay a lot of money to stay here and we get to live here for nothing. Please?”

“I’ll play nice if they play nice,” Tiffany said smugly. “Now let’s see this shrine to opulence.”

She ran her keycard through the door like she owned the place and pushed the door open. The apartment was sparsely furnished but it was spacious. The living room, kitchen and dining room were built on the “open space” plan so prevalent in the 1990s. There was a breakfast nook separating the kitchen from the dining area, a table with four chairs, a couch, two chairs, two end tables and a coffee table.

A stereo system was installed along one wall and a large television set adorned another.

“Whoa!” Tiffany said, her head jerking in every direction. “This is cool!”

“Glad you approve,” Phil said, swatting her on the butt so she’d get out of the doorway. She walked in and turned in a circle trying to take in the whole area. The bedrooms were down a corridor, two rooms on one side and one room and the bath on the other. The master suite was at the end.

Phil and David did most of the lifting but everyone chipped in to bring the boxes from the hallway into the apartment.

“I have to run the key back downstairs,” Phil said. “You guys take a look at the rooms and pick out which one you want. Let me know how we’re set up for furniture. We’ll go out tomorrow and get whatever we’re going to need for long-term use. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I have a feeling I’ll need to apologize to the doorman for having a tenant chew him out about letting mouthy teenagers into the building.”

Tiffany blew him a kiss before padding off down the hall to inspect the bedrooms. He returned to see his mother in the hallway frowning at him.

“Uh-oh,” he said. “What did I do now?”

“Where are the girls’ beds?” she asked.

“What girls?” he wondered.

“Danielle and Madison,” she said. “Their rooms are empty.”

“Oh, they wanted those for college,” Phil said. “I told them I’d have Rick ship them over to them. Shit, I never replaced them. I didn’t even think about it. This place has looked the same since I was 10 years old.”

“No, you didn’t replace them,” she said. “The only bed in the entire place is the master bedroom. Tiffany didn’t seem to mind the prospect of a group sleepover but Katelyn was a little concerned.”

“Crap,” Phil said. “I wasn’t planning an orgy if that’s what you’re wondering. I just forgot the girls had asked for their beds. I figured we’d have to replace them and put them into storage because they were only twins, I think. I can see what Rick has downstairs; just give me a minute to get everyone organized. I’m going to suggest we wait on dinner until tomorrow. It’s later than we hoped and I’m not sure Hailey wouldn’t just rather relax here with a pizza or something.”

“Probably a good plan,” Beth said as she turned to head back inside.

“Hey!” Phil said. “You and I need to have a little discussion before things get out of hand. We agreed when I turned 18 that it was my life to live so long as I adhered to the laws and statutes of the land. If I want to sleep with a houseful of women, I will. If I want to use them and toss them to the side of the road afterward, I will. I appreciate the help you’ve offered Hailey today but any decisions about what goes where and who goes without does not concern you. Do we understand one another?”

Beth’s eyes widened momentarily but she nodded.

“I know you like her, Mom,” Phil said in a conciliatory voice, “but our relationship is ours. If it ends, it ends. That’s not what I want but I also don’t plan to change who I am because you like a particular person I’m dating. I’m not sleeping with Tiffany or Katelyn or Molly. That doesn’t mean I never will and it doesn’t mean I won’t decide I fit together with one of them – or someone else – later.”

“I do like her,” Beth admitted. “But I understand what you’re saying. I’ll stop playing the meddling mother.”

“I wouldn’t have said anything except for the whole Ginger thing last year,” he said. “Just because you like someone doesn’t mean that I have to.”

“Got it,” Beth said with a laugh. “You know she got pregnant and ran off with some guy older than your father?”

“I’m not surprised,” Phil said, putting his arm around his mother’s waist and ushering back through the door. “I sort of suspected she wanted to hang out with me so she could take Dad away from you.”

“Good luck with that one!” Beth grinned.

Hailey had just enough time to scoot back toward the bedrooms before anyone figured out she’d overheard the entire conversation.

Hailey was subdued when Phil and his mother walked back in.

“Can we just order pizza tonight?” he asked. “I have to make arrangements for a couple of beds. I forgot those had been shipped out. We can try to find something at a furniture store tonight or make do with what I can find here. What we can’t do is get glammed up, hit dinner and find bedding for everyone. I promise I’ll take everyone out tomorrow night.”

Beth cleared her throat.

“We’ll take everyone out tomorrow,” she clarified. “Just as I planned to take everyone tonight. It will give me a little extra time and maybe find somewhere nice.”

“Sure,” Phil agreed. “I wasn’t sure if you had plans for tomorrow.”

David clapped his son on the back as they left. He slipped $100 into Phil’s hand and winked. Phil rolled his eyes but thanked him.

No one had ever sampled a pie in the city so Hailey did some internet research and made the order while Phil called the doorman to see if here were any beds in the storage. The man couldn’t say for sure but promised to check. Phil wondered if he was going to be stuck buying a pair of inflatable mattresses on his way to pick up the pizzas, some chips and drinks.

He was surprised when Hailey declined his invitation to join him but offered to let him use her car. Phil was the most familiar with the city so it took him only 45 minutes to pick up three large pizzas (so they could have breakfast in the morning), three bags of chips and two six packs of soda. He also picked up a canister of coffee, an assortment of coffee filters because he couldn’t remember what size the coffee maker at the apartment took and non-dairy creamer and some sugar. He kicked himself for not checking the cupboard before he left. Just to make sure no one would starve he grabbed a box of corn flakes and some milk.

He called ahead and Katelyn met him in the garage to help him carry the haul upstairs. Hailey was still downcast as they ate. Even Tiffany’s ribald humor fell flat. It wasn’t until Phil followed her back to the bedroom that he had a moment alone with her to ask if she was OK.

“I’m OK,” she said in an unconvincing tone.

“You don’t seem like it,” Phil said, gathering her onto his lap. “I’m here if you want to talk.”

“For how long?” she asked.

“Uh,” Phil replied. “What are we talking about? Right now or longer term?”

“I heard what you told your mother,” she said. “I was coming outside to get you and I overheard your comment about doing whatever you wanted to do.”