Moving Out

June 10. Tiffany Najbreit’s Mansion.

“Crazy run that you’ve had these last two months,” Sean says, clapping me on the back.

We’re standing on one of the upper balconies in Tiffany’s house, enjoying the red-gold sunset with beers in hand. Tiffany and Ella Sue booted us out of the kitchen after I made one too many snarky comments—apparently, my years of experience as a professional chef mean nothing in the face of their secretive “girl-stuff know-how” when it comes to baking.

“I mean, crap, I thought it was impressive enough that you’d gotten an exhibition up at the Broad, but man, you were working on this STX stuff behind the scenes too?” Sean says, whistling a note of respect after he takes a swig of his beer.

“You’ve done pretty well for yourself too,” I smile. “Ella Sue’s a damn fine pull.”

“Yeah, but you’re moving into a house full of damn fine pulls, aren’t ya. But maybe that doesn’t matter, ‘cause you’ve already got yourself one?” he asks, ribbing me as he looks over his shoulder meaningfully.

“Tiffany’s just a good friend,” I say.

Sean gives me a disbelieving look.

“We may have fooled around at some point,” I concede. “But come on, who wouldn’t have, if given the chance?”

“I wouldn’t,” Sean says. “I’ve got myself a girl for myself now, thank you very much.”

“Not even a month and she’s already got you whipped,” I laugh.

“You joke, but I’ve never been this serious with a girl before. We were talking about her moving in with me, now that you’re leaving LA,” he says.

“Hey, good for you,” I say, genuinely meaning it.

“Yeah,” Sean says, nodding, a smile creeping onto his face as he thinks about it more. “It’s a level of commitment that I’m… I mean, me last year? Never would have wanted to be tied down for anything. Even Merrygold was just a fling, you know? But I think Ella Sue’s something special.”

“She’s a special one for sure,” I echo. “So you better take damn good care of her.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I hurt her and you’ll kill me,” Sean laughs. “But you know what? It would be justified. So I give you permission to kill me if I ever hurt her.”

“You shouldn’t hand out your **** warrant so casually,” I say. “Ella Sue has told you how I did in Eric Simonds, yeah?”

“Oh man, you’re the super big tough guy,” Sean says, rolling his eyes. “Dude, she’s told me the story so many times now, I’ve lost count. But also, scoring the twins before that too? Shieeet…”

“I thought you said you had eyes only for Ella Sue now,” I say, taking my chance to rib him back.

“I’m only human,” Sean laughs, just as the door behind us bursts open.

“Cake’s ready!” Ella Sue announces.

She runs up to me and Sean pulling us back indoors by our hands, tugging us harder than would be strictly necessary. Tiffany, standing by the door, gives me a look, and we share a smile.

The cake set out on the table is a real beauty.

“Yo, what bomb-ass kind of cake is that?” Sean says, hunching over it with glistening eyes.

“A malted chocolate drip cake!” Ella Sue says proudly.

“It’s the same cake Ella Sue made to welcome me home, back when I had to visit the hospital,” I say. “I’m touched. Thanks, you two.”

“Don’t thank us before you’ve tried it,” Tiffany says.

“Wait, wait, hold on, you’re not going to tell Sean?” Ella Sue says to me, folding her arms. “I thought we’d talked about this.”

“Yes, we agreed that we could tell him some things, but that—”

“Whoa, what’s this all about?” Sean says, looking between the two of us. “Is this something I should know about?”’

“Yes,” Ella Sue says, nodding vigorously.

I meet Tiffany’s eyes again, feeling a bit exasperated. She puts an arm on my shoulder.

“Tell him what you need to, it’s not that big of a deal,” she says.

I get the subtext, and I only hope that Ella Sue does too.

“I wasn’t in the hospital, not really. I was getting plastic surgery,” I say to Sean. “And um… the debt might have been something that would have been tough to pay off. So I struck a deal with the surgeon, where he’d forgive the debt if I could get a big celeb into his practice. I managed to get the deal done with Eric.”

“No shit,” Sean says, his eyes wide. “So that’s why you had me poking around the Playboy party? For evidence against him?”

I nod.

“Damn,” Sean says, looking impressed. “And you knew all this, Tiffany?”

“Not at first,” she says, giving me a look. “But I figured it out eventually.”

“She even offered to be the one to get surgery,” I say, putting an arm around her shoulder.

“Tiffany’s too nice,” Ella Sue says.

“Why thank you,” Tiffany says, taking a small bow. “But anyways, shouldn’t we be cutting the cake? Claude does have a flight to catch this evening.”

Most of my belongings have already been shipped over to the Najbreit Estate over in Connecticut. All that remains is a few packed suitcases waiting for me back home.

“We’re gonna miss you, man,” Sean says, clapping my back and pulling me in for a side hug.

“Don’t forget to give us a call from time to time,” Tiffany says, joining the hug, her body fitting snugly between us.

“Don’t forget about me!”

Ella Sue jumps in and tries in vain to get her arms around all of us.

“Please do call,” she says. “I don’t even know what I’m going to do without you…”

She sniffles a bit, getting a little teary-eyed.

“I’ll try to make it out here as often as I can,” I say. “I’m going to miss you all too.”

“It feels like the end of an era, doesn’t it,” Tiffany says, resting her head against my chest.

“Or the beginning of a new one,” I say.

I pull away from the hug and pick up the cake knife, slicing clean and deep into the layers of chocolate.

“Cake, anyone?”