“Order whatever you want Billy, it’s on me,” he says again. So I do. I choose a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a salad, because since I’ve been seeing Lily I’ve kind of got into eating salads. When I finish ordering James turns to the waitress and smiles.
“I’ll have what he’s having.” He smiles, and she smiles back. She’s pretty, not Lily-pretty, but then not many girls are. But she obviously likes James because she can’t take her eyes off him.
“Oh, and a couple of beers too.”
She smiles back at him and takes a while to write it down, looking up at him over her pad, and fluttering her eyelashes. Finally she leaves, and James tears his eyes from her behind to look at me.
“I bet you’re wondering why I asked you here?”
I give a sort of shrug, to show I am, but it’s not a big deal. But then I’m irritated when he doesn’t tell me.
“How did it go with Lily’s dad?”
“What?”
“Those dead seahorse things? By the Fonchem site? Did she talk to him?”
“Oh.” I don’t go on. The truth is I don’t know. She told me she’d speak to him, but I don’t know if she did, and I haven’t liked to bring it up again. It’s awkward. It’s not like it’s her company exactly.
“Lily’s touchy about Fonchem.” James goes on, speaking very casually and easy. “It’s one of the things I learned about her. One of the things.” He does a half roll of his eyes. “You gotta see it from her perspective. She didn’t ask to be born a part of the Bellafonte dynasty. And maybe when she does inherit it all, she might want to do things a different way. But right now, there’s very little she can do to influence the way the company is run.” He stops, and gives me a moment to argue if I’m going to, but I don’t.
“She’s not one of these girls who has her dad wrapped around her finger. He makes business decisions. Regardless of what she says.”
I still don’t answer. It’s like he’s building a case against things I haven’t even said.
“And also, think of the kind of company it is.” James goes on. “Think of what they do.” He pauses. “Chemicals, pharmaceuticals. We all love to hate them, right up until we find out we use what they make, every single day of our lives.” He leans back in his seat, glances down, and laughs a little. “This table here. It’s not a solid piece of wood, you see that? It’s resin bound hardboard.” I look, you can see at the edge he’s right.
“Almost certainly made with resins manufactured by Fonchem, or one of the companies like them. And you might say, well we don’t need hardboard tables, we could use real wood, but if all the furniture in the country was made of solid wood instead of hardboard, that’s millions more trees cut down every year. Billions maybe.”
I don’t answer. Though I could point out that you could use sustainable forests, where trees are replanted as they’re cut down, but I get the point. And it’s kind of what I’ve been thinking, when I’ve said how conflicted I’ve been feeling seeing Lily.
“And it’s not just hardboard, it’s everything, our whole lives…” He looks around, searching for another example, and grabs the ketchup bottle, made of plastic. He puts it down again. “But you know this Billy, you’re smart. Anyone can see that.” He sits back, and the waitress comes back with the beers. She sets James’ down very carefully, right in front of him, and straightens the glass, then puts mine down without hardly looking at me. James flashes her a smile, then goes on, still talking to me.
“She’s grown up in that world, where everyone’s a hypocrite. Where we all use the products her family’s company make, but we’re the first to lay into them for daring to make them in the first place.” He stops, and takes a long sip from his beer. Then a few seconds later he speaks again.
“Let me guess, she said she’d speak to him, and then she’s said nothing more about it?”
Eventually – and carefully – I nod in reply, and James gives a look that says I knew it. He looks away, out the window. When he looks back he nods too, much more vigorously. Then he drums his fingers on the table, like he has a tune in his head.
“Tell me Billy, have you ever wondered about us? About the five of us, I mean. We’re kind of an odd group, don’t you think?”
I frown as he says this, then I try to keep my face neutral, because obviously I’ve thought that a lot, but I don’t want him to know.
“There’s a reason for it.” He stares at me now. It feels like his blue eyes are piercing into mine.
“What reason?”
“I need to know I can trust you, Billy. I think I can trust you. But can you promise me you won’t repeat what I’m about to tell you. Not to anyone?”
“What is it, you’re about to tell me?”
He keeps staring for a second, than breaks into a grin. “Come on, stop messing. This is serious.”
So I shrug again, and when he keeps waiting I tell him. “OK, I won’t tell anyone.”
“You gotta promise. I swear, I’ve never told anyone else this. But you’re… You’re kind of a part now, too.”
“OK. I promise.” I don’t really believe in promises like this. In a way I wish I’d thought to record this.
But he nods and seems happy. He takes a moment to compose himself before he goes
