The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [55]
Taking a deep breath, Eric said, “Ben, do you have any idea how hard this CMI thing has been on me? From the moment you told me about how Maxwell got the info, I wanted to write the story. I waited, though. I waited until all the smoke cleared, until all the papers were finished obsessing over Maxwell and the decision. I waited until all the hoopla was over. And all I ran was a small piece that tried to explain it.”
“Do you hear what you’re saying?” Ben asked, shaking his head. “Are you trying to say I should thank you for waiting a bit before you put the knife in my back? Do you have any idea how warped that logic is?”
“I don’t know why you’re so crazy. They’ll never be able to prove—”
“That’s not the damn point!” Ben yelled. “Stop rationalizing your actions and think for a second! You knew this would happen. You knew it, and you didn’t care.”
“Ben, I never meant for you to get in trouble. What do you want me to say? I’m sorry. I’m sorry a million times. What the hell else do you want?”
“I want you out of this house.”
“What?” Eric asked.
“Ben, you can’t do that,” Ober said, his voice cracking.
Ben looked at Eric. “You heard me. I want your ass out of this house.” As Eric shook his head in disbelief, Ben continued, “I’m not joking, Eric. This isn’t some silly high school fight. I don’t want you in my life anymore. I don’t trust you, I don’t like you, and I no longer need you as a friend.”
“What if I won’t leave?”
“Then I will,” Ben said. “Our lease is up on the first of the year. That gives you a month and a half to find a new place. If you want to fight me on it, we’ll take a vote. If no one wants to vote, we’ll flip a coin. Either way, I refuse to have you in my life anymore.” Turning his back to his friends, Ben stormed up the stairs to his room.
“Eric, just let him cool off.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Eric said, walking to the front door. “I’ll be at the paper if anyone needs me.”
When the door slammed, the room was silent. “I really think he’s serious,” Nathan finally said.
“He can’t kick him out of the house,” Ober said. “We can’t let him do that.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Nathan asked, surprised by Ober’s reaction.
“We can’t let him break us up. When I moved here, it was to be with the four of us.”
“Ober, you have to relax.”
“Do you think he’ll really kick Eric out?”
“I don’t know,” Nathan said. “But when he went flying toward Eric, I thought Ben was going to kill him. This isn’t an easy thing to forgive.”
“You have to talk to him,” Ober said. “Promise me you’ll talk to him.” When he saw Nathan heading toward the stairs, he asked, “Where are you going?”
“To talk to Ben.”
“Are you going to talk about Eric?”
“No, I’m going to talk about Murray Simone, King of Hair.”
“What’d he say?” Lisa asked the moment Ben arrived at work the next morning.
“It was a disaster,” Ben said, hanging his coat in the closet. “He had no excuse.”
“Nothing?” Lisa asked. “He didn’t even make up an excuse?”
Ben grabbed the cup of coffee from Lisa’s desk and took a sip. “He tried to tell me he was going to get demoted, but it was pathetic.”
“Did you at least take a swing at him?”
“Lisa, I’ll have you know, I’m a man of words, not violence.”
“But didn’t you want to rip his face off? Didn’t you want to just bust his teeth in? Didn’t you—”
“I get the idea,” he said, fidgeting with his red and gold tie.
“Wait a minute,” Lisa said. “You hit him, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t hit him.”
“Ben, don’t lie to me….”
“I just threw him into the wall, threatened him a bit, and told him to move out.”
“All right, Mr. Tough Guy!” Lisa said. “Give me all the gore.”
“It wasn’t anything. I just lost it for a second.”
“I can’t believe it. I can’t even imagine you losing it.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because you’re such a wuss.”
“Oh, and you’re so tough?”
“Trust me, I kick ass when I have to. And given time, I’ll kick your little ass as well.”
“Lisa, I don’t want to hear your sadomasochistic fantasies in the office. That’s sexual harassment,