Chapter Three
Kevin stared at the e-mail in front of him as he tapped a pen on the desktop. The mayor was contracting with an outside company to handle tourism for the city. Chicago had been outsourcing various things for years. Some of it made sense, other things didn’t. He wasn’t sure which category this fell under, but he knew that with the advent of this kind of push, there would be opportunities for promotions, or at least lateral moves.
The mayor was looking for ways to implement such a program. The details outlined were vague, so Kevin dug into research. He looked at how other major cities attracted tourism. He came up with a handful of companies that were currently doing the types of things the mayor wanted: a single website where business could request proposals for conferences and conventions, a searchable calendar of events, a solid marketing plan. Bottom line, the mayor didn’t want another committee draining city resources without producing positive results.
Kevin wrote up a proposal for the mayor, but he saw the need for an additional player. A position for which he would be the perfect candidate. Within his proposal he included the creation of a liaison position within the mayor’s office so that the mayor could be kept in the loop without having to be hands-on.
With it being July, the timing of such a program seemed odd. But if the right company got into place, they could move quickly to use the winter season to promote Chicago as a vacation spot. The city was great in the winter, especially with outdoor skating downtown and indoor winter festivals at Navy Pier. But nothing could touch summer in the city. From sunup till late at night, everyone could find something to do in the summer.
Kevin clicked over to the calendar of events and it looked bare-boned. It should’ve been packed. July had barely started. Then the pieces clicked into place. He’d remembered hearing some office gossip about the woman who had run the city events website. He’d never gotten the full story because he hadn’t cared, but if she’d been canned—or more likely, forced to resign—that would’ve opened the door for the mayor’s new plan.
Thoughts of summer brought him to his own plans. The highlight of the season would take place later this week, the annual block party at home. His dad’s house, the block where he’d grown up. As far back as he could remember, the block party had been the defining point of his summer. Damn, probably the best part of everyone’s summer. Balloon toss, relay races, and the football game against the O’Learys were staples of his childhood summers.
The block party was a place of many of his firsts. It was during one of those football games that he’d broken his first bone. It was at one of the bonfires that he’d kissed his first girlfriend. It was the place where he’d first gotten drunk.
It was also the place where he’d first met Kathy. He didn’t think she’d attended a block party since. He felt bad about that but didn’t even know why. She hadn’t grown up in his neighborhood. But all of them had brought friends to the block party over the years. He knew without having to ask that she stayed away because of him. One more reason for Moira to hate him.
He pulled out his phone and called Jimmy.
“What do you need?”
“Does it physically hurt you to say hello when you answer the phone?” Kevin asked. “How the hell does Moira put up with you?”
“I have other charms. You only call when you want something and I’m at work, so spit it out.”
“Not true. Sometimes I call to get together for drinks.”
“Yeah, you want to get together.”
Kevin sighed. Jimmy was in a mood. Maybe it would’ve been easier to go to Moira, even with her general pissy attitude toward him. “I want you to get Moira to invite Kathy to the block party.”
Jimmy laughed. It was quiet, maybe more of a chuff, but it was there. “Don’t you think if she were interested, she would’ve called you?”
“I think she wants to keep her distance from me, and I get that. But if I want to convince her that I’m a different man, she needs to see that in a place that’s not threatening.”
Now Jimmy started to laugh in earnest.
“What the hell is so funny? I’m not the same guy I was five years ago.”
Jimmy coughed and then said, “I know that. But I also know that there’s something about the block party that brings out your juvenile side. You fuck with Moira every year. Hell, you fuck with everyone.”
“I can control myself. I promise.” He sighed. “I want Kathy to think about me in a different light. We had dinner a couple of weeks ago to coordinate bachelor/bachelorette parties and we’ve texted since then. But I need an in, and I think the block party could be it.”
He could picture Jimmy shaking his head as he debated. Jimmy came across as an asshole to most people, but what they didn’t see was that if Jimmy cared about someone, he’d do anything, even risk the wrath of his fiancée. “What is it about this woman? When she disappeared years ago, you didn’t seem all that affected. Why now? Why her?”
“I can’t explain it. When I saw her at your engagement party, I was genuinely disappointed that she had a boyfriend. I’ve spent the better part of a year thinking about my time with her, and she’s single. I was young and stupid, but what we had was more than fucking. With every other girl I’d been with back then, it was nothing more than a good time. Kathy was different. I felt it then and I screwed it up.”
Silence met him and he thought Jimmy had hung up. “Jimmy?”
A heavy sigh. “That’s what I get
