Mr. Daark (5)
(Part 5 of 15) Tomato-faced: straight male friendship
5
At the end of the day, Austin Daark took an elevator down with Jax. They didn’t speak of the meek man although Jax wanted to, and Daark got straight to business.
“What’s my negotiation budget looking like?”
Jax answered without hesitation, “Upwards of a couple billion dollars.”
“You’re a good man, Jax. Pax Co. is lucky to have you if only as an accountant. You’d do well at my table.”
Jax’s face felt warm, and he thought he could have been blushing. Daark said nothing about it, so he assumed he wasn’t tomato-faced. Jax held his tongue about the little game with the sneeze. A sense of pride swelled within him, which was a grander feeling now that he had seen what happened to the men on Daark’s bad side. It seemed rather odd that the insult still conjured up a vivid image for Jax although he believed that he had never met the meek man’s daughter. The insult suggested to Jax greater intentions on Daark’s part, but before this could be explored, Jax felt the elevator slow down to end the ride.
“When should I expect another sticky note?” Jax asked.
“I’m not sure, but when your bed doesn’t feel right to sleep in, I’ve been there.”
“Is that gonna mess with my sleep?”
“Just take some sleep meds, and it won’t matter.”
When the doors opened, their privacy disappeared, and Mr. Daark left without another word.
God, Jax thought, it’s like having Edward Scissorhands for a friend. Especially now. No one wants to point out the sore thumb, but it’s there.
Once again Daark had wormed his way into Jax’s head. It seemed worse now that Jax knew for sure. He got so distracted that if Taylor hadn’t texted him, he would have forgotten to pick up his son, Jake.
Of course she fucking would, he thought, gripping the steering wheel tighter.
It didn’t matter to him that he would have forgotten without the text. The idea that she assumed he would forget pissed Jax off. Did she just look at him and see the word FAILURE written out in big red letters on his forehead? He couldn’t keep his son from having nightmares nor remember to pick him up from school. Nothing about Jax was right in the eyes of Taylor.
It didn’t matter all that much to Jax when he reached the school. He went back to daydreaming about Mr. Daark, and he only half-wished he’d arrived sooner. Some parents had no lives outside of parenthood and came to the carpool line an hour before school let out. Taylor would’ve done that, but she was doing something else. Jax couldn’t remember what she was busy with, but if he had to guess, it was either a job interview or nonsense with some other housewife. Jax didn’t really listen. He just said “Mm-hm” when asked to pick Jake up from school. What else would he say? “No, sorry, I’m booked up?” That sounded absurd even for him.
But whatever, Jax didn’t have any hobbies to attend to anyway. Daark was becoming a sort of hobby. A hobby was nothing more than a little task that made you feel good or self-important. Most dads liked to fix things up on the weekends, but Jax strayed from that tradition. He figured most times that some things either didn’t need fixing, or some projects didn’t deserve building. For now, it seemed, Jax was building something with Daark. Not the obvious friendship, but something more like an empire. That’s what Jax thought it would become anyway. Perhaps it was too hopeful to think he’d be the right-hand man to Daark, but that was how Jax saw the two of them.
Jake got into the backseat of the car and buckled himself in before spouting off about his day at school. It was the general nonsense of a seven-year-old right up until the middle of the car ride when Jake said something that warranted a legitimate response.
“I told my friends the boogeyman’s at your work. They don’t believe me. I told ‘em you said it.”
“Why would you say that?”
“You said it,” Jake pouted.
“I know. I just thought we agreed it was a slip of the tongue.”
“But you said it daddy!”
You said it daddy, and you can’t take it back. Jake couldn’t articulate everything he felt. I know there’s a boogie man. He was under my bed and now he’s in your office. I know it, I know it, I know it! You can’t lie to me daddy!
Jax sighed. “I know buddy. I’m sorry. I didn’t really mean it”
“The boogeyman’s at your work,” Jake declared firmly.
Well, he’s not as bad as you make him out to be, Jax thought.
“Can we just drop it?”
The boogeyman gave Jake some material to think over in quiet times, like Aaron Jax did so many times with the fire.
“So he’s real?”
“We’re dropping it, remember?”
“Okay.”
Jax had no idea whether or not Jake could drop it, but he started to see that it wasn’t his problem. Jake could talk to Taylor, she could be mad, and Jax would go on with his life, trying to keep a level head about himself when thinking about his marriage. This management of ideas had been a task in itself already. For the most part, Jax believed any thought not acted upon could stay. Any hatred or unkind thought against Taylor felt nearly harmless to Jax. Sure, it soured him a couple moments out of the day, but bad feelings could be ignored for the sake of his own greater happiness. That was the theory anyway. Any moral could be cast aside for the pursuit of happiness. So far, Jax’s happiness hadn’t exactly called for casting aside morals, but if it did, Jax didn’t think much of a few dropped morals. They say, Do what’s right even when no one’s watching. If Jax had followed that particular moral rule, he would surely go insane. Jax wasn’t your moral hero. He was the dust mite subsisting off of what he could. He dealt in shade and underbelly, the place where money flew in and life drained out.