Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Hopefully, that was the right place to start because I wasn’t sure how patient I could be.
Thankfully, she didn’t make getting that information difficult. Sitting straighter, she actually looked very pleased with herself. “Edna Randolph. She wants you to spend a weekend with her grandson mentoring him. We were mingling after the auction and she said she thought you would be a wonderful example for him.”
That was annoyingly vague.
“That’s it? Nothing about the gallery or the board?” What was I supposed to be helping him with? And which grandson? The reigning grande dame of the Randolph family was about a thousand and she had at least twenty grandkids…and those were only the ones that popped up in the social scene on a regular basis.
The Randolphs might’ve been rich but they bred like rabbits.
I’d managed to get stuck having to attend entirely too many of her functions over the years and I couldn’t have picked more than a few of her grandkids out of a lineup. Hell, for all I knew, they could’ve been the two idiots who’d jimmied open the side door because they thought rich people paid cash for paintings.
Okay, think.
I definitely couldn’t get out of it. On the bright side, though, she couldn’t ask me to do anything illegal or just plain weird because it might get out into the community. But…I really didn’t like how deliberately vague she’d been.
The old bat was ancient, but she wasn’t stupid.
“Of course not.” Mother huffed, looking at me like I was being ridiculous. “I wouldn’t take chances on your job, Gray.”
Yeah, just my reputation and possibly my safety.
“I appreciate that and I’m sure it will be good publicity for the Center.” Buttering her up just enough to make the rest easier, I tried to dial back the anger so she’d think she won. “We’ll have to make sure Amy gets some kind of recognition for helping you with the idea.”
Amy was one of the volunteers who was very competent but who enjoyed manipulating people and wanted to work her way up the social ladder by any means necessary. That’d first started out by trying to convince my mother that being gay didn’t mean I shouldn’t have the right partner—aka Amy—on my arm at social events.
It’d taken a startling amount of time to make my mother realize that as a gay man, it would look weird if I showed up at social events with a woman.
Mother beamed, clearly not sensing the danger just out of sight. “Yes, she was very thoughtful. But I think she was upset when she didn’t win. The bidding got completely out of hand, though. You went for quite a lot.”
And she was very proud of that fact.
I had a feeling my sales price was going to be mentioned in her yearly Christmas card at the very least.
“I will be sure to thank her for her thoughtfulness when she’s escorted out of the building later this afternoon.” Anyone who made decisions like that didn’t need to be allowed unrestricted access to teenagers who didn’t always think things through.
Mother just blinked like her android brain couldn’t process the information, so I decided to help. “You both lied to at least a half-dozen different people or falsified the information to slip it in at the last minute.”
They’d done something ridiculous because the event staff was always very careful.
“Nothing like this was supposed to make it through to the auction because we’re doing our damnedest to prove those kids aren’t circus freaks to parade around. If this gets out, we’re a laughingstock and no one will take us seriously next year.”
Utter silence.
Some days I was amazed at my father’s patience for having lived with her for ten years before they’d divorced.
Somehow her utter lack of reaction made me angrier than if she’d had some stupid illogical argument to defend herself.
“I—and a lot of other people—worked very hard to make sure the events and objects that were auctioned would be sought after and coveted.” That finally had her wincing. “The gallery only gives out three of those internships a year and one of them always goes to the auction.”
Well, we only did three because it was slim pickings finding teenagers who actually wanted to learn about art, but I wasn’t going to point that out. If a parent wanted to pay a ridiculous amount of money to make sure Biff or Buffy got exposure to the arts, we’d suffer through it because it would give another kid a fabulous leg up in life.
“You sold your son because a woman who won’t take no for an answer wanted to buy me for a weekend.” God. Just… “I bet she even tried to talk you into helping her buy me.”
And that had her eyes narrowing.
“You knew I would’ve said no and you went behind my back. You have no idea what situation you’ve exposed the gallery, the Center, and me to.” My only saving grace was that Edna Randolph hated any kind of negative publicity.