Asa Nichols drank from his glass of single malt Scotch while listening to a speech by his soon-to-be stepbrother, Ellis. Their parents, longtime business partners, were finally announcing their engagement to the public and Ellis was explaining to the company shareholders how the upcoming marriage would only strengthen the value of ApexCloud, the family business. It was the fifth anniversary of the death of Asa’s father, yet he was there at the Wise estate to celebrate his mother’s engagement to the man who founded ApexCloud with his late father.
While Asa was a midlevel marketing exec for the company, Ellis was the head of public relations and the company’s spokesman. The company had been going through recent troubles and was under investigation for a number of criminal and ethics violations. With his natural ability to charm and mesmerize anyone he spoke to, Ellis easily answered questions from some shareholders and evaded questions from others. It wasn’t long before he was making his way around the room to converse with the guests and further calm any worries the shareholders may have had.
“You are something else, man,” Asa said the moment Ellis stepped out onto the balcony.
“You’ve been saying that about me for years,” said Ellis with a smirk. “I thought you were gonna skip this shindig tonight?”
“And miss watching my best friend work the room like only he could? Man, whatever that shit is you use on people, they don’t teach it at Harvard.”
“It’s all about knowing what people want to hear and phrasing it in a way that’s most palatable to them.”
Asa leaned against the railing and stared into Ellis’ eyes before asking, “You still hate it, don’t you?”
Ellis nodded and then asked back, “And you?”
“You know it, man. You know it.”
Although they were polar opposites when it came to everything from personality to sexuality, Asa and Ellis truly were best friends. Their fathers had been best friends since high school, so the two were raised together. Neither of them had siblings; therefore, their relationship resembled one of brothers at times. However, there had been an unsaid tension between them ever since the night of their senior prom. It had been nearly ten years since that night, yet the tension was there whenever they were around one another. The only thing that kept them from addressing the tension was the ambiguity of its source.
“We can wait it out in here until everyone is gone,” Ellis said while leading Asa into his father’s entertainment suite.
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