“I’m sure you knew that already.”
“It’s not a secret. Everybody knows you were staying there,” she says, distracted by a photo that she turns this way and that. “This picture looks as if it was taken from the lobby.” She puts down the photo. “You bring me back into the fold effective immediately, and I’ll help you find whoever did this.”
I study her with one eye narrowed. I’ve been asked by a number of people if I’ll hire Grace on full-time now that her three months are up. My answer has been an unwavering no. I think about the idea I had in mind for her, but I wasn’t planning on presenting the offer until she had at least six months of psychotherapy under her belt. However, it’s mighty superior of me to presume that she needs a shrink. And that’s what I feel at the moment—that I’m being a fucking superior prick.
“Only if you can prove that you really didn’t put those pictures on my doorstep.”
“I told you I didn’t.”
“Also, I can’t bring you back in on the architecture side. You’ve burned all of your fucking bridges there.”
She snorts sharply. “No, I have not.”
Grace can so easily make her pretty face ugly. I believe making her face ugly like that is a way to knock her opponent off center.
“Oh yes, you have,” I say, sticking to my guns.
She rolls her eyes.
I raise a finger. “Don’t say another word, because I don’t want you to make me change my mind.” I wait. She remains silent. Good. “As you know, I’m changing the name of my company.”
Grace squirms. I can tell she hates the sound of that.
“However, I’m keeping Kennedy Creative as a subsidiary of RT Modern Design.”
She scoffs.
I raise a finger to signal her to allow me to continue. “Kennedy Creative will be our interior design studio, and I was hoping you could run that arm.”
The scowl on her face slowly fades to shock.
“Is it a deal?” I ask.
She clears her throat and swallows. “It’s a deal.”
I extend my hand so that we can shake on it. Grace’s palms are dewy, and she’s shaking a little. “Good.”
She sniffs as she takes her hand back and regains her superior posture. “Well, I guess I’ll make that call.”
I narrow an eye. “What call?”
Grace takes her cell phone out of her purse and riffles through her contact list. “Just tell me what time and date these photos were taken. I know someone who can pull the footage from the cameras in the hotel lobby.”
Grace’s contact asked when she needed to see the footage, and she said, “Two days ago.” He said to give him an hour. The video shouldn’t be hard to obtain since it was only four nights ago.
That was thirty minutes ago. Now I’m driving to the hotel, and Grace is riding shotgun. She wanted to drive, but I told her that it’s time she gets used to me being in charge of her. That got a chuckle out of her. When I look at her, it’s as though a dark veil has been lifted from over her face. Deep down, I knew that if I gave Grace her own design arm to run, it would probably rid her of a tiny bit of the bitterness she harbors.
“I have to ask,” she says. “What were you doing alone with Carter?”
We’ve been riding in silence for the last ten minutes, and I kind of liked it that way. I could tell she had something to say, and I guessed Carter would be the topic of discussion.
“I was giving her a ride,” I say.
“A ride home?”
I clench my jaw. “Yes.”
She goes silent. I hope that’s the end of questions about Carter.
“I don’t believe it,” she says. “I don’t understand what men see in her. She’s so… blah.”
Good sense tells me to not reply. I know that Grace is baiting me. She wants to know why I like Carter so much.
“Yes, she has that tight little body and those pretty eyes, but no spark, no fire,” she says.
“What the hell is spark and fire?” I ask, hating that I let her lure me into this discussion.
“She has a blank look on her face all the time. She’s not that attractive.”
I snort.
“Oh, you think she’s attractive?” she asks.
I feel as if that question is merely a trick. I think she can sense that something happened between Carter and me, and she’s trying to chisel her way to the truth. But one thing I’ve always been good at is getting someone off my ass.
“I’ve known Carter for thirteen, fourteen years,” I say.
She watches me with narrowed eyes. “What?”
“She’s my best friend’s cousin. I used to spend summers with her and her family in Sag Harbor.”
Grace gazes out the window. We’re stopped at a light.
“She’s like part of the family.” I’m exaggerating, but I don’t give a damn. Whatever it takes to keep Grace off my ass about Carter.
“But why didn’t you say anything before?”
“It’s nobody’s business.”
“Robert, what you do with your employees is everybody’s business. Why do you think those photos have so much influence?”
The light turns green, and I go. “Because I’ve been fucking up for a while and developed a reputation.”
I’m waiting for Grace’s response, but she’s silent. I turn down the same street of the hotel.
“Well, you haven’t fucked up my father’s company, and for that, I appreciate you. And photos like that can take down the most straitlaced CEOs.”
I turn to look at her in shock. Damn, she just gave me a compliment.
Grace grabs the dashboard. “Watch it!”
I quickly face the road. “Shit!” I jam on my brakes and narrowly avoid colliding with a car that’s stopped in front of me. I check my rearview mirror. Thankfully no one was behind me.
I put a hand on Grace’s arm. “Are you all right?”
She’s staring at my hand. I remove it.
“Yes,” she says. “Could you just keep your eyes on the road?”
“Yes, I can. You just shocked the hell out of me with your compliment.”
“Well, I won’t give those to you anymore, at least not while you’re driving.”
I think she just told a joke. I glance at her. She’s half smiling. That was a joke.
We make it to the hotel, and Grace’s contact meets us in the lobby. He’s a young guy in his twenties, wearing a suit with a security logo on the jacket. His name is Brent, and Brent and Grace grin at each other. Speaking of two people who look as if they’ve fucked before… I keep my thoughts to myself as he and I shake hands, and he leads us to the control room.
“What you were looking for wasn’t hard to find. This guy isn’t a professional,” Brent says.
“It’s a guy?” I ask.
Grace elbows me gently. “I told you I didn’t do it.”
“He thought it was you?” Brent says as if he can’t believe Grace would ever do something like that.
“That’s because he doesn’t know me like you do,” she says to Brent then winks at me.
I shake my head. I’m sort of charmed by her, which surprises the shit out of me.
Once we get to the control room, all the monitors are on and the video is cued up. Brent tells us that he had to pull some strings to let us into this room. I’m sure he’s hoping that it will win him some fuck points with Grace.
Grace rubs his back. “That’s what you do—the impossible.”
I stop myself from blowing sharply between my teeth. Poor guy, she’s playing him.
Brent turns red. He cuts on the video and puts his finger on the screen. “And there he goes.”
Grace and I move in closer to the screen. Our faces almost collide, and we both draw back a smidgen.
“Well, well, well…” Grace says, grimacing.
“Well, well, well indeed,” I say.
“So what are you going to do, Robert?”
“There’s only one thing to do.”
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Grace is still staring at the culprit with the camera as though she has a lot on her mind.
“Thanks for showing this to me,” I say to Brent and pass him five one-hundred-dollar bills.
He flinches, taken aback. “Anytime.” He’s a happy camper.
“Ready?” I ask Grace.
She’s still lost in the video. “Huh?”
“I asked if you’re ready.”
She tears her eyes off the screen. “Sure, right.”
Grace hugs Brent on the way out. He asks her to call him, and she says okay. I don’t think Brent or I are convinced that she’ll call. Thank goodness I passed him the cash.
Grace is still quiet on the way out. She appears to be heavy in thought.
“Hey, do you want to grab a drink?” she asks.
I follow her gaze to the lobby bar. I want to say no and make up a lie about having a meeting later today, but I’ve already met my daily quota of lies.
“Sure, I have time for a drink,” I say.
Grace asks the hostess if there’s someplace quiet we can sit. I ruffle my brows. I’m a little worried. Maybe she’s going to tell me that she did have something to do with the photos of Carter and me. I’m nervous as we follow the young lady with a long swinging ponytail to a quiet spot between two wood panel walls near an electric tabletop fireplace. I order a whisky.
“I’ll have one too,” Grace says.
I smirk at her. “I learn something new about you all the time.”
She closes her eyes. Damn, she looks miserable. “So I’ll just say it. I’m the one who got Carter put out of her apartment.” She opens her eyes to gauge my reaction.
I go rigid as if she just punched me in the gut. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
“I thought I should tell you that before we move forward with Kennedy Creative Interior Designs.”
“How can I ever trust you after that?” I shake my hands out of frustration. “Who does this shit? You’re messing with people’s livelihoods because you’re fucking pissed?”
Grace looks at her lap. “I know, but shit, I can’t take it back.”
“Grace, what are you going to do to me when I piss you off? Because I will piss you off.”
“I don’t know. Key your car?” She smiles weakly.
I sniff a chuckle. “This is no time for jokes. Shit.”
“I know…” She sighs. “Carter and Tyler are always on and off. You know, they rarely have sex, so I don’t even know what draws them together.”
“Huh?” I’m fucking confused by what that has to do with her fixating on Carter the way she has.
“I went crazy, that’s all.”
I get control of my anger, confusion, and disgust. “Listen, I’ve had a lot of sex with a lot of women, and none of it drew me to them.” It kills me to say this, but I say, “Carter and Tyler must have something special, and no matter what you do to fuck with it, they’re the only ones who can break their bond.”
Grace rolls her eyes as if she doesn’t want to consider a word of what I just said. “I think Tyler’s codependent, and Carter’s too lackluster to do anything about it.”
I have no idea what she means by that, and frankly, I don’t need her to clarify. “How the hell did you get her kicked out of her apartment anyway?”
Grace messes up her thick blond hair. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her do that when she’s frustrated. “While they were on a break and she was working on a project in Barcelona for three months, I stayed at the apartment with Tyler. I left my green dress in one of the drawers.”
A waitress brings our whiskeys, and I give her my card and tell her to keep the tab open. We’re going to need more than one each after the day we’re having.
“And then…?” I say after the waitress leaves.
Grace frowns at the waitress. “She was flirting with you. Did you see that?”
“No, I didn’t.” I’m getting impatient.
“Well, I’m sitting right here. She doesn’t know that we’re not together.”
“And this is coming from a woman who fucked around with a co-worker’s boyfriend?”
Grace narrows an eye at me. “Okay, I deserved that.” She pauses as if she’s waiting for me to negate that, then she realizes she’d better not hold her breath. “Anyway, I asked Valerie, the manager, to let me into Tyler’s apartment to get the dress.”
“But Tyler wasn’t living there,” I say.
“No. He won’t take his name off the lease as long as Carter wants to live there.”
“And that bothers you?”
“Yes.”
“You like Tyler?” I ask.
“I kind of love him.”
“And he kind of loves Carter?”
“I think so.”
Shit, I have to take a drink.
“Anyway, Valerie and I got to talking. She wanted Carter out too. She said Carter keeps coming on to her husband, Johnny. So I told her I would pay up Tyler’s lease if she wanted to kick Carter out. She said she would need a letter from Tyler first, so I wrote one.”
“You forged a letter from Tyler?” My head’s spinning. There’s no fucking way I can have this woman run any part of my company.
Grace puts up her hands as if to steady my reaction. “Listen, I didn’t have to tell you any of this. Did I?”
I sigh hard. “No, you didn’t.”
“That’s because I feel like I’m ready to make a new lease on life.”
“Just the other day, you dropped your fucking list on my desk and tried to extort me with it.”
Grace sighs and takes a drink. “I did that half-heartedly.”
I grunt cynically. “What the fuck does that mean?”
She throws her hands up. “You know what? Maybe you’re too perfect to know what I mean by making a new lease on life, but I’m not. Something really woke me up here. Matt and I doing crazy shit in the name of love? I just want to prove to myself and you that I can be a different person, that’s all.”
I sigh and hold up my hand so the waitress can see me. “You want another whisky?” I ask Grace.
“I haven’t even started on this one.”
The waitress is on the way.
“Finish it,” I say.
“But what’s the verdict?”
“I know about new leases on life. I’ll give you one.”
The waitress arrives. “What can I get you?”
Grace slaps her credit card on the table. “Two more whiskeys on me.”
The waitress looks at me for corroboration.
“You heard what the crazy lady said,” I say, smirking at Grace.
She bursts out laughing. The waitress looks at Grace as if she’s insane.
“See? Crazy,” I say.
Grace laughs harder.
Wednesday morning…
Another day, another wacked employee to deal with. The person I’ve been waiting for arrives and sits down at his desk. I walk out of my office. I see that Carter’s workspace is still empty. It’s nine thirty. She’s usually one of the first to arrive. I turn my gaze directly across the room to where Matt Franks sits. Strangely enough, our eyes meet. Matt watches me as I walk to his desk.
“Can I see you in my office?” I ask.
He stiffens. “Um, sure.”
I wait until he stands. “After you,” I say.
I glare at the back of his head. I’m more worried about where Carter is than I am angry at Matt for pulling a stupid stunt like using doctored photos to get me to fire Carter. I can’t help but think that I’ve crossed a major line by having sex with her. If I kick myself one more time for not keeping it in my pants, then I’d put myself in the hospital.
Matt stops beside a guest chair in front of my desk. I can tell the guy is so scared that he’s probably already shit himself.
I sit and get comfortable. “Have a seat.”
He hesitates but sits. “I’m sorry, but what’s this all about?”
I look him in the eye,
and he squirms. “You have no idea why I asked you to come into my office?”
He shakes his head and gulps. “No.”
I take the envelope out of my top drawer, open it, and show him the photos. “Do these look familiar to you?”
“Um, no.”
I drop the photos in front of him. “Why not? You took them.”
Matt shakes his head in shame. Shit, if I weren’t so empathetic, I would tell him to pack his things and get the fuck out of my building.
“Why did you do it?” I ask.
His eyes are watery. I hope he doesn’t cry. I wouldn’t know what to do if a grown man bawled right in front of me.
“I don’t know,” he says with a sigh. “I was mad at her for…” He clenches his lips.
“Mad at Carter for what?”
“She sort of dicked me around.”
“You went through all of this because she dicked you around? Women do shit like that all the time.”
He shrugs.
I shake my head and let out a sigh of resolve. “Shit, Matt. You know I have to fire you, right?”
“I don’t care. As long as she works here, I don’t want to be here.”
I can’t help feeling sorry for the poor guy. He looks as if he’s only in his mid-twenties, and he’s already having problems dealing with women.
I rub my top lip, trying to think of what to say to him. “A guy has to be pretty out there to follow a chick and take pictures of her with her boss—and then threaten to expose the boss for fraternization if he doesn’t stop fucking her.” I watch to see how he reacts.
He blinks as if nothing I said computed. “I wasn’t trying to get pictures of you and her. She kept saying that she wasn’t fucking around with Tyler, so I wanted proof.”
“Was she fucking around with you?”
“She broke it off with me.”
“So why the hell did you need proof?”
He looks at me as if that’s the hardest question to answer on an IQ test. “But what the fuck? You’re the one who’s fucking her.”
I’m taken aback. “Is that your response to what I just said?”
“Aren’t you?” His tone is demanding.
I look him square in the eyes. “No, I am not and never have.”
He searches my face for the lie I just told. I know he can’t find it. His face turns red as he scratches the back of his neck. “Shit, what the fuck did I do?”
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