He's Still Mad

BLAKE

Sifting through thousands of unanswered emails, I waited for the conference call from my father and my brother to come in. It was a beautiful, typical California day outside with clear blue skies and warm weather. I, however, was cooped up in my hotel room waiting for our weekly briefing to begin.

It was day four of my weekly hostage situation, aka Thursday. I worked almost every weekend, but I was looking forward to taking this weekend off. Danny and I had been at loggerheads more often than not this week and I needed some space away from him, or away from my computer rather—which is where it seemed he lived when I wasn’t physically close by.

The call came through when it was supposed to, almost to the minute. My father was nothing if not punctual. His face popped up on my screen first, followed shortly by Danny’s, in its own window. As far as I knew, my brother was in Arizona this week.

“Blake. How’s California?” My father asked.

“Still standing. The hotel is doing well, but I