Enjoy a free sample of one of my other novels.
1
Nicole
So, this is what he left me for…
As my gaze swept over the busy skyline of New York City, I shook the thought out of my head. Blake was the past and, right now, I was there for the future. Behind me, back in the penthouse, I could hear my mom and stepdad’s subdued, yet clearly contented conversation.
Moving with them had been a no brainer. There was nothing for me back in Willow Creek; just a crappy, minimum-wage job with no benefits. As if that was enough to keep me there. Anyway, my old town was full of old memories too. Ones I’d rather not revisit.
Like of Blake and me. Even though it had been years, all that we’d done together, wherever I went in town, whatever I ended up doing, every few days, I’d run into memories of him. I guess it wasn’t totally unexpected. He’d been a big part of my past, after all.
I turned away from the balcony, taking in one last eager breath of fresh air. There. I was already dressed for the interview in the only pair of pressed pants I owned, and a plain, but suitable, white-collared shirt. Professional, but demure. I just hoped I had prepared my answers well enough.
“Honey, you look great,” my mom said, “Doesn’t she, Paul?”
My stepdad put his arm around my mom.
“Just like her mom,” he said.
“Where did you get that from?” I teased him, “The Stepdad’s Handbook of Perfect Answers?”
He just winked at me, “Don’t want to give away all of my secrets.”
I smiled. That was one of the things my mom and I loved to tease my stepdad about; just how damn perfect he was. He was a genuinely kind, sweet man and, more remarkably, almost always said the right thing, too.
To be fair, I guess my mom had waited long enough to find her Mr. Right. She’d raised me completely alone, and, for twenty years had hardly dated at all. So, I guess she’d earned her Paul. He was a good guy.
“Do you think we should go over the questions and answers again, Mom?” I asked.
She gave me a playful swat.
“Nicole, how many times do I have to go over this with you? You’ve got this job. You have the qualifications, you have the know-how, and, you’re smart as all get-out. They’d be fools not to hire you.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I said, giving her a side hug, “Maybe you should come with me and give the interview instead.”
She just chuckled, tucking a flyaway blonde strand behind her ear. We had different hair colors — Mom’s a carefully maintained blonde bob and mine, a tangle of brownish red curls that reached my shoulders — but people still saw our heart shaped faces and wide set blue eyes and knew we were related. Some people even thought we were sisters.
“You know I’d love to come with you,” Mom said, “But something tells me that wouldn’t exactly speak to your professionalism.”
“Or my independence,” I agreed, looking around.
“Paul, this is seriously the most beautiful place I’ve ever stepped foot in, but…”
“You are not going apartment hunting, yet,” Mom said firmly as she walked me to the door. “After all, you don’t even know if you got the job yet!”
I turned to her with an incredulous frown. “I thought you said I totally had it!”
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” Mom said, one of her favorite old school proverbs.
“In other words,” I clarified, “You just want me living with you and Paul for as long as humanly possible.”
My mom, clad in a beautiful chiffon blouse, crossed her arms across her chest.
“Is that such a crime? Wanting to be close to my daughter? I mean, when you moved back home to Willow Creek, your house was just so far.”
“Don’t remind me,” I said.
A crappy rental at the edge of town, a good forty-five-minute commute from anywhere decent, was just one of the many sacrifices I had made to move home. A crappy apartment, and what ended up being an unworthy job I’d stayed at for far too long, in dismal hopes for a raise and promotion I never got. But that was behind me.
“Anyway,” I said, “I think I’m going to head over there early, maybe get a coffee on the way. I want to make sure I know where this place is, and you know how I am with directions.”
A smile crept onto my mom’s lips.
“Just make sure you don’t mention the Halloween incident of ‘03 at your job interview and you’ll be fine. Ace it.”
“Mom!” The Halloween incident of ‘03 was the infamous time my mom had let my friends and I trick or treat alone. We’d been old enough, twelve, and I’d supposedly been old enough to know my way around my own neighborhood. Supposedly being the key word.
As it turned out, I somehow ended up getting us into the next county, lost, scared and in tears as the rain poured over us. Which was when someone had shown up to save the day. It had been the first time I’d ever laid eyes on Blake.
I shook my head. No, I was not going down that rabbit hole again.
“Bye, Mom,” I said, hugging her and, over her shoulder, calling, “Bye, Paul.”
“Bye, kiddo!” he said, lifting a glass of orange juice in salute, the light reflecting off his bald head. “You’ll ace it!”
As I walked out of there, still smiling, I could only hope that they were right. When my mom had tentatively approached me with the idea of moving to New York City, since she and Paul, lived there, I hadn’t been sure what I thought of the idea at first.
I mean, New York City? It was a big city and had all the big things to go with it; big rent, loud noises, big changes, and big stress.
I guess I would have to see about that one. At any rate, I was now there. I’d made the leap, not that I was risking much. I was leaving my same old school friends in Willow Creek, all of whom were already dutifully married and had a kid or two. Thanks to that, it wasn’t like I’d even managed to see them that often anyway.
Sure, I’d miss my old haunts -- the library and the little duck pond that only ever had geese in it -- but this was a new opportunity. And, as far as I was concerned, I could definitely use one of those.
I exited the condo. It was a bit of a rush just getting onto the streets; sirens, dogs barking, car horns and exhaust all assaulting me at once. I paused, took a breath. You can do this.
I wasn’t just referring to walking down the extremely busy, and slightly overwhelming, New York City street, but the interview too. Screw the fact that it was the best opportunity I’d found. I could do it. I had to.
I glanced at my phone; at the directions I’d set out in advance on Google Maps. I took my time walking, trying to imagine what it would be like if I actually landed the job and this was my commute, at least for the next few days, maybe weeks. I didn’t expect, or want, to move out right away, but I didn’t want to stay either. I was twenty-seven years old, after all.
I had already lived alone when I went to UC Berkeley for my Computer Science degree, and again after that when I moved home. I really wasn’t used to living with anyone, let alone my mom and Paul. They weren’t obtrusive and Mom had never been the nagging, “What are you doing right now?” nosy type. But still.
If I had a decent job, I wanted my own place; to feel like I was my own person. It was that simple.
I paused on the sidewalk. My gaze drifted over the carved, wooden sign. “The Elk.”
Judging by the people sitting at the window, tapping away on laptops, and others visibly chatting as they stood in line, it had to be a coffee shop. I still had another five minutes before I reached my destination, but I was also thirty minutes early for the interview.
Generally, I liked to show up fifteen minutes early, but thirty seemed a little desperate. Maybe I could use a liquid boost of energy after all. I headed in.
Inside ‘The Elk’ a pleasant, reassuring scent of coffee wafted toward me. The music was subdued, some Arcade Fire song I was pretty sure I’d last heard years before. Overhead, the fans distributed the muffled conver
sation and music nicely.
The lineup was moving quickly, so when I arrived at the front, I ordered my usual double-double, then stood off to the side to wait. When they called my order, I picked up my cardboard cup, and took in a slow, full smell of… Hot chocolate?
“Did they give you my hot chocolate?” A blonde girl asked me. She was holding a similar cup of what had to be my coffee.
“I think so?” I said, holding it out to her, “Here.”
She gave it a sniff, her close-set brown eyes falling closed in ecstasy as she nodded.
“Yep. That’s the one.”
“This thing is yours, then,” she said, her nose scrunching upwards, “I thought they were trying out a weird, new recipe or something.”
“You come here often, then?” I asked.
She nodded. “It’s the best place around that doesn’t charge you up the ass for a friggin’ hot chocolate.”
I laughed. “Sounds like my kind of place.”
I hadn’t grown up poor, but I hadn’t exactly grown up wealthy either. Mom hadn’t been cheap, but she’d known how to make do with what we had. She thankfully passed that on to me, how to recognize things that were good quality, but affordable. It wasn’t always easy, especially with how things were made for quick consumption and regular replacement these days.
“Yeah, I’m an artist, actually,” she said, “There’s this great art shop nearby, which is why I moved here.”
Her eyes twinkled.
“I’m Tammi, by the way. I live nearby What about you?”
“I’m Nicole. My mom and stepdad live a few blocks away,” I said, “I moved here from California to live with them until I get on my feet.”
“Cool!” Tammi said, “Do you like art?”
“Yeah, but I just got here, so I haven’t had a chance to check out all of the awesome galleries yet.”
Tammi snorted.
“You’ll need a few years to do that. I mean, there are the big ones; the MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim. But there are a ton of really badass little ones too, like LUMAS, which is kinda near here. Would you ever want to go sometime? You seem cool, I’d love to show you around.”
I blinked at her. Was there a kind of scam involved in this? I didn’t want to be too trusting. In California, if someone just tried to become your friend out of the blue, it usually meant they wanted to involve you in their cult or some pyramid scheme. Then again, this girl and I really seemed to click. She had a great energy, and I could use a friend in the city.
“Sure,” I said, finally taking my first long-awaited sip of coffee, “I’m going to a job interview now, but what’s your number?”
We exchanged numbers and parted ways with a smile. I headed out the door, sipping my coffee. Although Tammi had seemed cool, that was probably the last I’d hear from her. I mean, even with my own friends, how many times did we exchange the typical, “Oh, we just have to hang out,” realizing three months later, neither of us had ever followed up.
Anyway, it was time to get my head in the game. I took another sip of my coffee and headed to my interview.
2
Blake
“Mr. Mitchel, are you listening?”
I scowled and nodded. Of course, I was listening. I was there, wasn’t I?
“The CTO position must be filled ASAP,” Melvin stated indignantly, furrowing his eyebrows.
I nodded again. “Understood.”
I had to seriously resist the urge to snort. Melvin had always been one for theatrics, but right then he spoke with such gravity, as though we’d wake up to find an apocalyptic world if the CTO position went unfilled. The guy had a stick up his ass, that was for sure.
“I’ve got it handled,” I said. “I have interviews going on today and tomorrow.”
As the other bald, or balding, board members nodded their heads solemnly, Melvin cleared his throat. That was his favorite thing to do in order to divert the attention from whoever was speaking, back to him.
“All very commendable actions, indeed,” he said unconvincingly.
Robert, the former CEO of Top Line and my mentor, had had his detractors and doubters when he announced his plan to hand the company over to me, but none were more vocally opposed and unconvinced than goddamn Melvin. The little man was like an evil tortoise, no matter what I did — even though I’d managed to increase company productivity and revenue in the last three years — nothing swayed the old goat.
Probably because his braggart and, oddly tall, son had interviewed for the job and was turned down.
“Yes,” Melvin said with a sniff.
“As I was saying, we of course do respect your wishes as company leader, but if the position remains unfilled by Friday, we will have no choice but to consult our own list of very qualified candidates.”
Melvin smiled unctuously, as the other board members clapped for some reason.
The board members all had their areas of expertise, being business moguls and generally, people of knowledge. But their experience did not extend to hiring, mainly because they just hired their friends and family, regardless of how unfit they were for the task at hand.
I had already had to fire about five different secretaries, two different CTOs, and a handful of assistants, thanks to their ‘suggestions,’ before I’d finally gotten the memo that they didn’t know shit about hiring anyone.
“That’s fair,” I answered, intertwining my fingers. “Although I’m confident that won’t be necessary, as I’ll be able to fill the position ASAP. In fact, I’m conducting these interviews personally, since I know just how important it is that the person is qualified and a true superstar.”
Everyone bobbed their heads in agreement, except for Melvin, who looked singularly bad tempered. Was it because I hadn’t accepted Melvin’s offer of a cream-filled donut before the meeting? I never could tell what pissed the crazy old man off, just that the list got longer and more random with each day. If I was lucky, the old coot would retire in the next five years, but I wasn’t counting on it either.
“Ok,” Melvin said in his high-pitched voice, “Meeting adjourned.”
Everyone wandered off, so I grabbed my folder off the table and started to make my way back to my office. When I arrived, I immediately spotted Jordan, who was already there, waiting.
“Board meeting that shitty?” my best friend asked knowingly.
“You know it.”
“Who do they even want to stuff the position with, anyway?” Jordan asked.
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug, “I haven’t even consulted their list yet. Pretty sure the suggestions would piss me off too much.”
Jordan smirked. “Remember that hot little Mandy, was it? The only job she’d had was working for her dad, and when she was your assistant, just spent the whole day on Facebook or painting her nails?”
I grimaced. “Did you come to torture me, or are you here for a reason?”
“Hey,” Jordan said, pouting. “I can’t come talk to my best friend?” He smirked and leaned in, whispering. “I came to tell you about Tracy.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, utterly disinterested.
That had never dissuaded Jordan before though. There was nothing he enjoyed more than regaling me with sordid tales of his different conquests.
“Yeah,” Jordan went on, enthused. “I mean, man, she was an heiress. We chilled in her pool and she had inflatable pool toys made of money!”
“There was actual money floating in the pool?”
“Nah, just in the shape of dollar bills,” Jordan conceded, “But it was sick.”
“Sounds like it,” I muttered, still unimpressed.
Jordan made a skeptical noise. “Man, you really need to get out more.”
“As you keep saying,” I began, “And as I keep telling you-”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jordan said sarcastically, “You’re busy. Busy being hung up on your ex is more like it.”
I shot a glare at him.
“Fuck off.”
&nb
sp; Jordan threw both hands in the air.
“What? You know it’s true.”
“I find bars boring, that’s all,” I said.
That much was true. Yes, they were useful if you were looking to hook up with a girl, but it wasn’t like it was particularly hard to find one anyway. Besides, the music was too loud, the drinks were watered down, and how the hell was anyone supposed to have a reasonable conversation when everyone was shouting over the music?
As for what Jordan had said about my ex, screw that. It had been years. There was no way I was still hung up on Nicole. Besides, she was a million miles away. It didn’t matter.
“I’ve just been busy,” I told Jordan.
Jordan shrugged.
“Speaking of busy, I have some reports that I should get to finishing. Let me know if you need any cyanide or extra coffee to deal with that board room business.”
“Not yet, thanks,” I said grimly, giving my friend a wave as he left.
* * *
After Jordan left, I prepared myself to go over the first applicants’ credentials but found my mind wandering back to the last time I’d seen Nicole.
Neither of us had known it was going to be the last time.
Funny, how it was years ago but it felt like I was there, now.
“You’re insane,” Nicole said emphatically as I spread the picnic blanket over the snow. I’d taken her all the way to the mountain, one of the few with snow, for a reason.
“You’ll like it,” I replied.
“Yeah, no,” she said. “There’s a reason I’m very happy living in California. No snow, no picnics in snow.”
“Come on,” I said seriously. “How many people can say they’ve had a picnic in the snow?”
“There’s a reason for that too,” Nicole said, shivering already, as she plopped down, wrapping her arms around herself. She was wearing a thick wooly coat but couldn’t stop her body from shaking uncontrollably. I got down too and wrapped my arms around her, lifting something to her nose.
Bad Boy’s Secret Baby Page 18