The Christmas Fix

by Kristen Kelly

  But was a relationship what Charlotte wanted? I hated to admit it, but in the back of my mind I knew if Margo got wind of our affair, she’d make my life miserable. Charlotte’s too. Best to keep it a secret until we figured out what we both wanted.

  After shrugging into a shirt, I slipped on socks, padded to the kitchen. I opened the refrigerator door. I glanced back to Charlotte’s sleeping form. Though the cupboards were stocked, it was impossible to keep perishables when we’d no idea how often we’d use this apartment. I had a coffeemaker but no milk. Would she miss me if I slipped upstairs, snuck into the kitchen so I could grab milk for our coffee?

  I was pretty confident that no one was likely to come down here today, so Charlotte could sleep as long as she pleased. Just in case, she did wake, I’d leave a note.

  I tied the laces on my shoes, found a pad of paper in a drawer and was rustling around for a pen when my phone pinged on the nightstand. Dropping the pad, I picked it up my cell. It was Chase.

  Chase: Where the hell are you?

  Zac: What? I’m taking the day off.

  Chase: Like hell you are! You’re supposed to be here. The meeting is about to start.

  Zac: What meeting?

  Chase: You fucking kidding me? Hey, do you have a girl with you? Is that why you’re late? Fucking around on the most important day of the year? Put your dick back in your pants and get the fuck over here. Now!”

  Zac: I don’t remember any meetings scheduled which is why I took the day off.

  Chase: Don’t try my patience, Taylor! This was an emergency meeting. So get here. Yesterday if you can.

  Zac: Be there in five.

  Chase: Five minutes? Don’t get into any.. Wait. Where are you?

  Zac: It’s best, you don’t know.

  After covering Charlotte with a blanket, I grabbed my suit jacket, dropped my keys and wallet into my pants pocket and headed for the door. I felt a little weird leaving her like that, but she looked so peaceful. So...rested. I had a feeling that because she worked nights, rest wasn’t something she had in abundance. Besides, I planned on returning.

  WHEN I ARRIVED IN THE board meeting I was surprised to find Margo, looking frazzled and tired, back from her trip five days early. She brushed past me, offering a stern look, but didn’t say a word. Dropping into a chair besides some redhead I didn’t know, she punctuated the silence with her rhythmic pen-clicking over and over, a sign she was royally pissed about something or someone.

  Every board member, not only from our corporate offices, but others around the globe sat, looking stoic, along the ten-foot long table. Some of them I knew. Some I didn’t, but the fact that they’d traveled halfway around the world at the drop of a hat, gave me pause to worry. Muhammad Turk wearing a turban from our Indian office was in attendance, as well as some guy from Korea with a name I couldn’t pronounce. I recognized several others from Australia, Chicago, and the Philippines.

  What the fuck was going on?

  Glancing down, I made sure I had on a matching tie. I set my suitcase on the floor by my feet, always looking the part. The case was empty, but no one would know that but me and for a very important reason. After my discharge from the Marines and coming stateside, I’d been pretty fucked up. I’d done what every rich spoiled thirty-year-old did at the time. I partied. A misplaced effort to forget all the ugly I’d seen in the Middle East. Sunday nights were no exception. I’d barely make it into work on Monday mornings. Often I would forget my briefcase. I kept an extra, along with assorted ties in the drawer of my desk. I’d been known to wear mismatched ties, which never set well with Margo.

  I slid out of my chair, took another beside Chase. “What did I miss?”

  He let out an exasperated sigh, slipped a blue folder toward me. “Take a look at that and don’t say anything until I tell you to.”

  I opened the folder and scanned the contents. “Holy shit. We’re being audited, and sued.”

  “I told you not to say anything,” he growled under his breath. He stood up. “Lewis is here to explain it all. Lewis...the floor is all yours.”

  I leaned over in my chair and whispered. “This is bullshit. It negates everything we do here. I for one, vote we don’t give in to this crap.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Taylor.”

  Lewis—our head accountant—stood up, a man of supreme intelligence, despite the buck teeth, sloping forehead and baggy suit. His lips thinned and his forehead puckered as he gripped the edge of the table. As usual at these meetings, half of what I was hearing didn’t make any sense. All except the last few statements that is. “I think you need to read the fine print, Mr. Remington before you jump to any conclusions.”

  I ran a hand over the back of my head, feeling hopeful as I glanced toward Chase. “So, it’s not as bad as it looks. Is that what he’s saying?”

  Chase poured himself a glass of water, cleared his throat, and said, “I think we can find a way out of it,” he said before taking a drink.

  “How the hell are we going to do that?” Margo’s face was beet red. She had a blue folder in front of her. “You have a note here,” she continued. “On my copy only I’m assuming? You want me to sell my late husband’s stock. Is that it? Think again. I’m not doing that, Lewis.”

  “Mrs. Taylor. You may not have any choice. Unless I find another way, it may be the only way to save the company.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Chase said calmly. He strolled over to the large window overlooking the city, shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “With all due respect to your late husband,” said one of the board members. “I don’t want to see this company destroyed either.”

  “Nor me,” said another.

  “I will not sell my husband’s shares!”

  “Mrs. Taylor,” said Lewis evenly. “We all understand, you’re sentimental but you’re not the only one in the company here. This affects all of us.”

  “Fuck, sentimental,” Margo shrieked. “You think I don’t know what’s going on here? You’re trying to oust me and I won’t have it. I have lawyers and money. I’ll fight you with everything I got. I’ll fight you all if I have to and when I’m done, Remington’s won’t be called Remington’s any longer. It will be Taylor and /aon.”

  One bushy brow lifted over Chase’s eye, but he didn’t respond right away. He was used to Margo’s flare-ups.

  Trying to catch her attention, I leaned across the table, hoping I could calm her down. I certainly didn’t want any of the investors to think this was my idea. “Margo, maybe we should just listen before we make any rash...”

  She shot to her feet. “Zachary Taylor, don’t you dare go up against me in this. This is your legacy too.” She pointed a long-nailed finger over at Chase. “I know exactly what you’re trying to do. You want my shares. You’ve always wanted my shares. You won’t get away with this and I’m not selling. You hear me? I. Am. Not. Selling.”

  “Mrs. Taylor,” said Lewis. “No one is trying to make you do something you don’t want to do, nor are we asking you to sell out. It’s simply an option on the table. I have to tell you though, I’ve studied their demands and... Well, we’re in pretty deep here. I’ll go over our options again, but in my professional opinion, our back may be against the wall this time.”

  Chase turned from the large plate glass window, adjusted his tie. “Lewis, try harder. The way I see it, the other companies are testing the waters. I don’t want her selling those shares either. It makes us look weak. That would just give them reason to pounce that much faster.”

  Margo visibly relaxed a bit, but her jaw remained clenched.

  Chase glance in my direction with a calculated look. “Zac, when you’re backed up against a wall, what do you do?” Either he had an idea or he was buying time. I had no idea which but if it was buying time I knew just what to say to make our investors regain confidence in Remington Enterprise.

  “You break down the goddamn wall,” I said.

  Chapter 13
>
  Charlotte

  When I opened my eyes, there was a cold space in the bed. For a moment I didn’t know where I was, but then I remembered. Every muscle in my body seemed to ache, the memory of the previous night played in my mind. “Zac....” I listened for running water, thinking maybe he was in the shower but all I heard was a clock ticking away.

  I threw off the covers, stretched my arms overhead, and sat up. Where the hell was he? Groaning, I dropped my head back on the pillow, covered myself with the blanket, decided to stay in bed longer, all warm and cozy, waiting for Zac. To return.

  He didn’t.

  I fell back to sleep. When I woke, my stomach grumbled. I grabbed my watch on the night table. Shocked, I saw it was two o’clock in the afternoon.

  He’s not coming back.

  Heart racing and not in a good way, I vaulted out of bed, slipped on my panties and shirt, then searched for my shoes and socks. They were gone. Where the hell had I kicked them off? The floor was cold against my bare feet as I searched from room to room. Finally, I said fuck it, then scudded into the kitchen.

  He’d left me. Fucking left me half naked in the dungeon! No, not the dungeon. The Boom Boom Room. What an idiotic name. I bet he made it up.

  I am so stupid. What if someone came down here? What if it was some big CEO from another company? Well, I for one wasn’t sticking around to find out.

  Where the hell had he gone and why hadn’t he said goodbye?

  Everything is a damn secret with Zac and to think I was feeling guilty about lying to him about who I am. He didn’t deserve to know the truth. How could he do this to me? I felt like a toy you played with, but never took out of the box. Never shared.

  I wanted to scream. Kick something. Break something. Talking to my best friend would help. Abby was the one person that would never judge me for dating someone I wasn’t sure I trusted.

  I thought about the obvious implications; anger boiled inside my brain and I didn’t know what to do about it. Yes, I did. I would be strong. Resist those adorable dimples. Ignore those rippling abs. No more late-night conversations. No more secret dinners. We were done. Besides, I didn’t need the distraction.

  After I’d finished dressing, save for the shoes I never found, I got on the elevator and headed for the main door. As I was exiting the building, I texted Abby.

  Charlotte: Really, really, really need to talk! Can you call me when you have a break?

  Abby: Sounds urgent. You okay?

  Charlotte: Fine

  Abby: Was that you I saw sneaking off the elevator with no shoes?

  Charlotte: Yeah.

  Abby: Do I want to know why you had no shoes?

  Charlotte: No. Where were you?

  Abby: I had a doctor appt. Then I dropped off lunch for Chase.

  Charlotte: You okay?

  Abby: Fine. Not preggo. Again!

  Charlotte: It will happen.

  Abby: I hope so.

  Recently, she’d quit her position at Remington’s, hoping the relief of stress would make her womb more receptive.

  Charlotte: It will.

  Abby: You available after five? Chase is working late. I have no one to eat dinner with tonight.

  Charlotte: He’s not slipping into his old ways is he?

  Abby: Huh?

  Charlotte: Working all the time.

  Abby: No. Something big is up with that merger we had. Huge! It’s very stressful for Chase and I’ve grown to understand that the extra hours could not be helped. This is totally out of his control. Be glad you don’t work in Corporate.

  I didn’t know what to say to her, because it felt like the bottom just fell out of my stomach. Why was that? A job cleaning offices was merely a stepping stone. Not a career and I was okay with that. Would it really lead me to Stanford though, onto something wonderful in the corporate world? I was pretty certain I’d be accepted; it was the tuition I was worried about. Of course I did have my backup plan too.

  Abby: Charlotte? Still there?

  Charlotte: Yeah. Why don’t we meet at Bold Hills for dinner?

  Abby: Awesome idea girlfriend.

  Charlotte: See you then.

  “YOU WENT BLONDE,” I said when Abby approached the table.

  “Blondes have more fun. Right?” But she wasn’t having fun. Far from it. Her eyes appeared vacant, like she’d been searching for something, or someone for far too long. “I’m worried about you, Abby.”

  “Don’t be. I’m fine.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes. Hey, how do you like this place?” she asked, changing the subject.

  I focused on my surroundings. High beamed ceilings, graceful arches. And light. So much light. A painting taken at sunset, about seven feet long, graced the wall at one end of the room. If I could just get Abby out of her funk, I’d see that brilliant smile she kept hidden. “This place has special meaning for you, doesn’t it?”

  “Our favorite restaurant,” Abby said taking another bite of her steak. “Chase’s too. I can’t believe they’re turning it into a Mexican restaurant.”

  “You don’t like Mexican food?”

  “No. I do. I just like other food better. Besides, they’d completely gut it. Take out the barns, the bold architecture. All of it. I don’t want to see that happen.”

  “Is that because Chase proposed to you...” I pointed my fork toward the painting, “...right over there?”

  “The first time, yes.” Abby’s face split into a wide-open grin. “He was so nervous, he’d changed his shirt three times before picking me up for our date?”

  “Seriously? I’ve never even seen the man ruffled.”

  “Well he was ruffled that night. Of course, I’ve never made it easy on him. Did you know he spilled wine all over my dress?”

  “No.” I laughed.

  “Yup.”

  “That’s nothing. Want to hear the rest of the story?”

  “There’s more?”

  “God yes.” She took a deep breath, the smile never leaving her face. “So I was on this special diet back then and Chase was very supportive.” She bobbed her head. “You know. Without making me feel fat that is. Long story short, he asked the cook to make me this scrumptious low-fat cheesecake and to make it look exactly like the high fat variety. You couldn’t even tell it from the real thing.”

  “That’s sweet.”

  “It was, but I really wanted the good stuff you know so I switched his cake with mine when he wasn’t looking and guess what he found?”

  “Let me guess. Your ring was in his cheesecake?”

  “Yep. And he starts feeding me. In between he’s eating his own cake, not even paying attention, all the while commenting on who much the cake tasted like the full-fat version and how pleased he was with himself. So he’s feeding me cake on a fork. One for me. One for him. One for me. One for him. And I’m watching his face as he does this. Mind you, we’d both had quite a bit of wine and we’re laughing because here we are two grown people feeding each other cake like we’re little kids.”

  “I can so picture this in my head.”

  “It was pretty funny until he swallowed the ring and started choking.”

  No!”

  “Yeah, I know. The real proposal was in the hospital. After they pumped his stomach.” She flashed her diamond ring at me. The sparkles under the overhead lights literally blinded me with their brilliance.

  “Was it worth it?”

  “Hell, yeah. Well, not the choking part.” She scooped more dressing onto her salad, then cut into her steak. “Okay your turn, what did you want to tell me?”

  “I fucked Zac Taylor.”

  Abby’s fork paused in mid-air. She stared at me from across the table, shook he head as if she weren’t sure she’d heard me correctly, blonde hair bouncing. “Did you just say what I think you said?”

  “Do I need to paint you a picture?”

  It was then that the wine steward strolled by. Abby snapped her fingers to get his attention. “We’
d like another right over here when you get a minute.” The steward rolled the cart over to our table. “Two bottles please of ...that one looks good. Two of those.”

  “Very good, Miss,” said the man. He grabbed another bottle from below the cart. Then he opened one of the bottles and poured it in both our glasses. “I’ll be back around to open the other when you’re ready,” he offered.

  Abby kept on eating and drinking. Finally, I said, “You didn’t say anything. I need your opinion.”

  She put down her fork, sipped her wine. “Okay, let me get this straight. You slept with Zachary Taylor, the man who’s screwed more women than Henry the Eighth. You may not know this, but his mother is a barracuda in the company as well. I shudder to think about what she’ll do when this big merger goes south. She holds most of our shares and she’s a bitch from the word go. You do not want to get on her bad side, Charlotte.”

  “What does Zac’s mother have to do with anything? I’m not sleeping with her.”

  “Point taken. Maybe I’m reading too much into this. So how long has this been going on and why didn’t you tell me before now?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “A few weeks,” I said avoiding her gaze. And I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure if it was going anywhere.”

  “And is it? Going anywhere I mean.”

  “I...I don’t know. He’s sweet and he’s an awesome cook. We get along really well but...” I was not about to tell her he left me naked in the basement.

  “Wait. He cooked for you?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “From what I hear, Zac never ever cooks for any of the ladies he dates. Not since...Well he was involved at one time. That’s the only woman that I know of that he’s ever cooked for. Sounds serious, Char.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” I admitted. Hearing Abby talk about Zac warmed my heart but how could I get over the fact, he’d just left me there in the basement. Like some rag doll he didn’t want to play with any longer.

  Abby’s eyes narrowed. “I’m surprised Chase never mentioned he was seeing you.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t know.”