by Leigh, Anne
I pressed FaceTime on my phone and waited for her to pick up the line.
“Hold on.” I saw the ceiling of her apartment on the screen of my phone. “I’m just drying my hair.”
“Okay.” I put my hands behind my head and waited for her. The whirring sounds of the hair dryer was loud on the line.
After a minute, her face free from makeup lit up my phone and jumpstarted my heart.
Her violet eyes were smiling and her pink lips were turned up. “You should be resting.”
“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” I chuckled and sat up against two pillows on my back. “What are you wearing?”
Ali looked like she was in her room. I’d met her roommate, Carly, whose face turned red a lot when I spoke to her. She was an English major with a penchant for athletes and she had a huge crush on my cousin, Kassius. He was all she could talk about during the impromptu pizza dinner Ali and I had at their place, and I was laughing so hard when she became mute when I called Kassius out of the blue. My cousin had a lot of fans; he was probably rolling his eyes at what I’d done, but he made Carly comfortable enough for her to say hi.
“I have tons of books to read, Matteo.” Her lips puckered in complaint. The way she said my name meant she was warning me not to get her riled up tonight.
“I’m just asking what you’re wearing, babe.”
“The last time you asked what I was wearing we ended up having phone sex,” she snickered, but the glow on her face was telling. I was turning her on.
“Last time was just last night.” Intimacy was crucial to us. I loved knowing that I got her pussy wet, and that she couldn’t get enough of me. “So…what are you wearing?”
Ali might like to wear t-shirts and jeans every day, but her lingerie collection was out of this world.
She lowered the camera so I could see the black lacy confection encasing her breasts and the tiny black panties that came with them.
My cock was ready to cross over the international date line so I could sink into her pussy.
“Fucking A.” My voice was leaking with need, my hand already reaching for my cock inside my boxers.
“Ugh…” Ali’s beautiful face was now colored with blush, her eyes responding to the desire that we couldn’t contain whenever we were with each other, even when I was thousands of miles up in the air. “See. I told you.”
“Put your fingers inside your panties, babe,” I commanded. She said she had some studying to do. I didn’t want her failing her classes because I was sex-starved for her. I knew how demanding professors were. I attended Columbia. It wasn’t a walk in the park.
“I miss you.” Her eyes flashed with longing, but her voice dripped with need. “I miss your touch. I love it when you put your fingers inside me.”
And that right there was enough to make me blow my load, but I kept it cool. It was a struggle, but I didn’t want to crash before I made her burn.
I instructed her to circle her clit just the way she liked it, and by the time my hand was coated with precum, Ali was already hitting the high notes.
Just a few dirty words, and she was wetting her undies in no time.
I grabbed a few tissues from the bathroom and cleaned my own mess.
“See how relieved you are? Now you can concentrate on basic economic issues,” I teased and her giggles lightened the heaviness in my chest. I missed her, too. I’d gotten so used to her presence that my day felt emptier when she wasn’t in my arms.
She was only in her second year of college. I traveled a lot and there were times when our schedules wouldn’t match and we’d have to make do with phone calls and video chats.
“Explain to me in your own words what opportunity cost is and tell me how they manifest in business practices,” I said, watching as her eyes widened in shock.
Oh yeah.
I downloaded her class syllabi to my computer.
I was a busy man, but I didn’t accomplish my goals without doing my own homework.
Ali was important to me.
Her classes were important to her.
If I was going to take minutes from her busy schedule so we could jack off together, I was also going to show her that I could make time for her pursuit of knowledge.
“You don’t have to.” Her expression was patronizing, the flushed glow of her recent orgasm still fresh on her features. There was nothing else that I’d want except to be there, in the flesh, with her right now.
But this was better than nothing.
“You’re important to me, Aligator,” I said matter-of-factly. “Now let’s study. Maybe I could remember how to apply these basic principles at T & T.”
She laughed loudly, and I knew without a doubt that it was a sound that I would never get tired of. That it would be the sound that I’d always want to come home to.
The gleaming skyscrapers of Malaysia’s capital were odes to the amalgam of cultures that thrived inside it.
This was the second time I was staying in this city, and I found it to be culturally dynamic. The richness of its culture would be seductive to the woman who was currently sleeping in her bed eighty-five hundred miles away.
“We’re pleased to have your business, Matteo.” Java Tengku, with his dark olive skin and towering height reminded me of Kassius’ friend and former teammate, Nelson.
I shook his hand, and finished the rest of my lunch.
I was here to personally ascertain the growth of T & T’s empire in Southeast Asia. Hotels in Singapore and Thailand were largely owned by local families. Of course there were dozens of hotels that were owned by foreigners, but T & T had built twenty hotels in Malaysia and we were hoping to add ten more in a span of two years.
The tropical climate was excellent for hotels by the exotic beaches. Tourism was high in the months of April to October, and that was the time where T & T hotels made the biggest return of investments.
“I’m hoping that The Orchid will be done before the heavy rains.” Being north of the equator, the country had the typical tropical monsoon climate, a fact that I’d been educated on by the employees of T & T in the region, so even in the dry season, there was still rain. Construction had to be suspended when the weather didn’t cooperate but surprisingly everything was coming along just according to plan.
“They should,” Java answered, emanating confidence and serenity. For a man who owned 10 percent of T & T’s holdings, the four times I’ve met him in person and the many times I’d been on conference calls with him, Java never showed ill temper even when the discussions became heated. “We’re actually three weeks ahead of schedule.”
“That’s good,” I said, drinking the hot tea that had been served to us at the start of lunch.
He opened his laptop and showed me the numbers. They were very impressive. His company, JT and L, was an asset, and I was eager to see how the merger with the Chan Enterprises would provide an in for us to percolate the unspoken monopoly of the Chans in the neighboring countries.
When Java personally called me three months ago, I wasn’t completely on board with the idea of partnering with the Chans.
They were a hotel dynasty in Southeast Asia.
Dynasties had deeply rooted connections, and they could neatly fuck us over once they’d gotten their use out of us.
I had my R & D team establish a team of ten to study the advantages and disadvantages of the merger.
But Java had delivered the final stamp of my approval when he gave me intel on why the Chans were offering up a spot in their dynasty.
They were 1.5 billion dollars in the hole.
The damages brought by the storms and the recent natural disasters wrecked their savings and the scandal of their daughter marrying an international drug kingpin further deepened the grave that they were in.
Through JT and L, T & T would be fronting three hundred twenty million and we’d regain 5 percent of the Chan’s shares along with a lock on future developments.
T & T had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I’d never met Wilson Chan, but I heard he was a ruthless businessman.
His son, Carter Chan, had called me when the deal was finalized. He spoke with a British accent and was courteous. According to Elaine, he was thirty-four and had been engaged three times. My secretary tended to give me their personal facts because I had no time for them.
Carter and I planned to meet up in the winter when he came up to New York for a fashion event.
I guess he was heavily involved with the textile industry too, another tidbit that Elaine fed me. I was looking forward to talking with him in person. I was also thinking that maybe I could dangle some figures so they’d give us another 5 percent.
Another five might not mean much right now.
But with the way the millennials were spending so much on travel and exotic destinations, 5 percent was going to transform to eight figures in another ten years.
Java had another meeting to get to so after he’d said goodbye, I stayed in my chair and looked down.
The view from up there was breathtaking. The Petronas Towers was a man-made marvel and a historical landmark. The food inside the restaurant was more than average, but it was nothing compared to the feeling that the ambiance gave me.
That I was on top of the world.
I was standing there, eighty-eight floors up from the ground, but I knew that the feeling was just a mirage of how I felt when I was standing next to Ali.
I didn’t measure my life in seconds or minutes, I measured it in the feelings that are invoked inside of me.
There was satisfaction of being on top of the business world.
There was elation on being named number one on Forbes’ list of billionaires under 30.
But there was also a responsibility that came along with all of that –
And there were times when I felt that the material rewards weren’t enough.
They just made me feel lonelier…
And emptier.
“I can’t hear you,” I laughed as I made a crackling noise on my phone.
After my meeting with Java and the subsequent meetings with investors and partners, I was finally resting on top of the Egyptian cotton sheets in my hotel room.
“Screw you.” Nic’s voice was loud on the other line, “When did you and my sister start dating?”
“We’ve been secret lovers since she was fifteen.” Which meant that I was 19, and that only made my best friend cuss me out more.
“Stop pussyfooting around, Teo.” Oh, now he was being serious. Nic called me dumbass or baby face on a regular basis. Him calling me Teo was a sign that he was losing patience.
My best friend might be the coolest dude in the NFL, but when it came to his sisters, he let his temper fly.
“I had to hear it from Mom. She was all, ‘Do you know if Matteo’s gonna be in the country for Christmas?’” Christmas was time with our respective families. The older folks still vacationed together after Reece’s passing, but us, the younger ones, tended to be on our own. College, extracurricular activities, and life took over our schedules, so we hadn’t really hung out with our folks for vacation purposes for a while now.
Nic kept going, “I was so confused on why she was inviting you. I mean it’s cool and all, but why just you? Why not Greyson and Kassius and everyone else too? Then she’d said, ‘Because Ali and Matteo are dating.’ Dad tried to ground me with all the fucks I let out. Too bad for him, I can pay my own way now.”
Nic’s been paying his own way even before he was done with college. Like me, we liked to forge our own path in the world.
Sure the money that our families had really helped.
But we weren’t leeches, we wanted to know we’d succeeded because of our hard work.
“Sorry.” I should have told him, but time got to me. I’d been so caught up with spending time with Ali and her leaving to go back to San Francisco and everything related to business, that telling my best friend that I was with his sister didn’t flash in my mind on the top of my to-do list.
“Yeah. You’re gonna be sorry when I smack your face.” I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not and now was not the time to egg him on.
“Ali and I are dating. I’m pretty serious about her,” I said. As my best friend, Nic had seen how I’d changed after Reece’s death. I didn’t talk much. I kept to myself and I stayed away from Ali.
“I love you, bro, but she’s my sister.” He’d never been one to mince words. He was always honest with me. “You didn’t talk to her for years, and now you’re with her? Can you really convince me that everything is okay?”
He wasn’t an idiot either.
Nic, like me, passed his classes with flying colors.
“Ali and I talked. I apologized to her for everything I did wrong, for not talking to her about how I felt. I know it’s not enough, it will never be. I’m not making excuses either,” I sighed, removing my shoes as I slumped on the chair. “She’s always been special to me, Nic. Ali…she’s an extraordinary woman. She’s independent and she’s beautiful and I’m done with hiding my feelings for her.”
He was silent for a long time; I thought he’d hung up on me.
Then he said, “She may be independent, but she’s also vulnerable. I’ve always known that you were special to her. She cried so much when you didn’t want to talk to her.” A knife sheathed inside my heart at his words. “It took her a long time to get back on her feet when you kept her at a distance while you dealt with your grief. I’ve seen her at her lowest point, and it wasn’t just because of Reece. It was also because of you.”
“I’m sorry.” There wasn’t enough sorry’s to make the pain go away, but I’d try. For Ali, I would try.
“She’s old enough to make decisions for herself,” Nic said, knowing my best friend, he was rationalizing how he was feeling about Ali and I. “If she wants you, I can’t say no to that. I’m not gonna be against it. I can’t be. If you make her happy then I can’t stand in your way.”
I didn’t think he’d ever stand in our way. “You know me, Nic.”
“I do.” There was respect in his voice. “You may be an asshole to me, but you’ve never been a pussy chaser. You’ve always been a good guy. And you usually make good decisions. Mostly good. That Tabitha girl was an exception.”
Tabitha was a social climber whose paws were lodged onto me before I finally had the clear mind to get her off my back. I’d met her at a rager twenty miles away from Columbia.
I’d dated her for four months, and it was a time when I’d gotten into heavy partying and drinking. If it wasn’t for Nic, the bad situation I’d gotten myself into would’ve turned worse. I’d let her talk me into skipping classes so we could party all night, and I’d forgotten about the friends who really cared about my welfare.
It was one of the few times that I’d used my family name to get into clubs and let loose on my morals. I had a calculus exam on a Monday, and Tabitha and I had flown to Vegas from New York. Mom had learned that I was in town, and she’d had a company party that same weekend.
I’d brought Tabitha with me and twenty minutes into the gathering, she was drunk. She wasn’t a good drunk either. She’d badmouthed every one within a few feet from her. It was one of the rare times when Mom didn’t look at me as her precious son. She’d asked me to take care of my problem before she called security on my date.
I missed my calculus exam and I’d missed more classes after that. Nic and Kassius staged an intervention. My ears were shut out from listening to them, and Nic had been going on and on about how stupid I was, but when the mind wasn’t ready to listen, no matter how much sense the other person made, it wouldn’t.
In the middle of their ganging up on me, Nic received a call.
It was Ali.
Nic had taken the call, but my mind was already on the caller.
Even in my darkest days, just the mention of her name was enough to ignite a light inside me.
She was asking about something mundane, about applying
for college, if she’d caught him at a bad time. I was sober, thankfully, to hear the one-sided conversation. And when Nic said, “Love you too, Ali,” I pictured myself seeing her face and finding a smile on it.
It had been years since I’d spoken to her, but she had never been just a memory for me.
Tabitha was enraged when I broke up with her. I cleaned up my act, and had to beg my professors to redo some of the papers that I’d missed. I passed my classes with B’s. It wasn’t my best, but it was good enough for me to get through the semester.
I never told Nic and Kassius the reason why I’d been enlightened. They thought it was their intervention that did it. That was partially true. But the biggest part of it was that I wanted to be on the other side of that phone call. I wanted to see Ali again. And I wanted to be worthy of her.
“Yeah. Tabitha wasn’t a good choice, but I learned a lot about myself from being with her. I learned that I could never let someone like that influence me.” When Reece passed away, I’d kept the grief inside of me. My parents sent me to therapists, but I never paid attention to them. When I got to college, I found myself looking for an excuse to let go. Tabitha was a portal to that excuse. “It wasn’t me, and I know I’m lucky to have you and Kassius, for always being there for me.”
“How about when things get tough? When the honeymoon’s over? Are you going to be there for my sister or are you going to ignore her again?” I couldn’t blame Nic for all the questions. He was concerned for Ali.
“I’m trying to get better at this. To speak to someone when I feel like the doors are closing in on me.” I’d been talking to a counselor online, a person that I could trust to help me when I was at a loss. There was a group of them and they helped me realize that everyone processed grief differently. I was practicing mindfulness, of being in the present, and being with nature and in the wilderness was also a good thing for me. It was why I brought Ali to Red Rock when I wanted to talk to her. I felt freer with my emotions when I was breathing air around Mother Nature. “I like Ali, Nic. I see a future with her. I know she’s younger than me, but I’ve always felt that she was older than me in other ways.”