by London Casey
It was goddamn Callie.
Callie pushed her way between Angela and I.
She was in a black, low cut top, and leaned against the bar.
“Hello?” she called out. “Can I get a fucking drink or what?”
“Maybe you should let the rest of your tits fall out of your shirt,” I said.
Callie looked back at me. “See, you’re still bitter.”
“Over what?”
“Over the fact that you thought you were going to control me from day one, Jackson,” she said. “Do you not remember that first Halloween party? You thought you were so cool when you asked me to flash you in front of everyone? Poor thing. Rejection is a bitch.”
“Yeah, it is,” I said. “I guess you’re drinking in advance of what’s about to happen at work.”
“Um, maybe I should go?” Angela asked.
“No, don’t, sweetie,” I said.
I moved around Callie.
She stuck her ass out on purpose, making it press so tight against her dress.
I gritted my teeth.
I was pissed off.
With a cheaply thrown smile on my face, I looked at Angela. “I work with her. I have no reason to be near her right now.”
Callie stood and turned. “You shouldn’t either…” She pointed to Angela. “You know he’s married, right?”
“Married?” Angela asked.
“Married?” I asked with a laugh. “Please. That’s not even-”
“He hides his ring in his car,” Callie said. “His wife is a hospice care nurse. Works all kinds of hours. She’s a saint. She can’t see it though, poor thing. Is that what you want to be part of?”
Callie talked right to Angela. Overpowering her in seconds.
Angela was taller than Callie, but that didn’t matter.
“I’m just going to go,” Angela said. “This is…”
“I’m not married!” I called out. “I would never cheat on my wife!”
Fuck.
Now I had half the bar looking at me.
I looked around and groaned.
“I would not cheat on my wife,” I announced. “If I was married. But I’m not married. So it doesn’t matter who I fuck. Okay?!”
Callie started to laugh. She grabbed my arm. “You okay over there, Jackson?”
“I’m perfect,” I said.
“No, you’re not. I just cost you a night of guiltless and wild sex.”
“Yeah, you did,” I said.
“She’s not your type anyway.”
“My type? Tits, ass, and pu-”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Callie said. “Please, just don’t.”
She smirked and winked at me.
Friends. Enemies. Frenemies…
Whatever you wanted to call us.
She turned back to the bar.
“Can I please get a fucking drink here?” she called out again.
She leaned forward and kicked her right leg back a little.
I admired the way her skirt started to drift up her leg.
Not that it mattered.
She screwed me tonight with Angela.
I could let that go.
When I got the promotion that was coming my way, I knew my first order of business.
I couldn’t wait to fire Callie and watch her nice ass leave for good.
Chapter Four
Callie
The bartender acted like I wasn’t even there. He was tucked away at the corner of the bar, talking to two women who looked like between them they couldn’t count to ten even with the calculators on their phones.
I looked down at myself.
Maybe I’m losing my touch.
Or maybe the cheeseburger, fries, and milkshake were hitting my hips and ass too hard and I wasn’t hot enough to get a drink.
No way, Callie.
I heard that in Misha’s voice.
Guys would sleep with almost any woman.
Now at the end of the bar were two women who were rails. Who needed to be secured in the wind or else they’d just blow away. Who ate that fake salad crap I had back at my office.
Other guys knew how to appreciate a real woman.
A woman who could eat a meal, ease into her natural curves, and just simply enjoy life.
“Dammit,” I groaned.
I turned my head and swore I caught Jackson looking at my ass.
Hell no, Jackson. Hell. No.
I spun around and didn’t say a word.
“What?” he asked in a nasty voice.
He was pissed at me.
Rightfully so.
I cockblocked him into next Tuesday.
That was all part of my plan.
Keep him on his toes and his balls full. He’d end up flustered and stupid. Then I would be able to sweep in and seal this deal so I could look Vince in the eyes and make it known that the promotion was mine. That I would be second in command around the office.
And the best part?
Vince loved money.
So did I.
I could make him a lot of money. And a lot for myself too.
The other perk would be telling Jackson what to do.
“Hey, when I leave, there’s plenty of other victims here,” I said. “Don’t let that one get to you.”
“I had her,” Jackson said. “She was mine. We were connecting.”
“Connecting?” I asked. “The only thing you connect is your phone to a charger after scrolling through porn.”
“I don’t scroll through porn,” Jackson said. “I watch it. I admire it. You know, some guys skip around… they go right to the ending… not me. I appreciate the art of it.”
“Oh, the art of it,” I said. “Right.”
“I’m sorry. You’re Miss Innocence?”
“I never said that.”
“So what do you watch then, Callie? What gets the ice melting around your heart and in your panties?”
“I don’t wear panties,” I said.
Jackson laughed. “That’s something I don’t need to know.”
“You brought it up.”
“Actually, you did,” Jackson said. “So worried about what kind of porn I watch.”
Just as Jackson said that, a woman passed him by.
She looked at him quickly, surprised.
He reached for her and touched her arm.
“It’s fine,” Jackson said. “Porn is healthy. It’s natural to want to pleasure yourself.”
The woman hurried away.
I clapped my hands together. “Wow. That was rough to watch. You’re off your game tonight, Jackson. You better get some sleep. Rub one out. We have a big meeting tomorrow.”
“I am not off my game,” he said.
“I really need a drink,” I said. I looked to my left. “This one yours?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I was going to get Angela another one. Oh, Angela… I miss her already…”
I grabbed Jackson’s drink and downed the whole thing in one big shot.
It was fire and needles in my throat.
“Holy shit, Callie,” Jackson said. “That was a double… you know what? Have another. Have ten. Go home. Throw up. Sleep in tomorrow. Just take the day off.”
“Nice try,” I said. “I can handle my liquor, my sleep, and my meeting.”
“Your meeting?” Jackson asked.
“I’m the one who got the jump on LoriTech.”
“Bullshit,” Jackson said. “I’ve been watching them for a while.”
“You have not. Tell me about the CEO then.”
Jackson stepped up to the bar, bumping into me to get me out of his way. He stuck his fingers into his mouth and whistled.
Of course the bartender looked right at him.
Jackson put up two fingers and the bartender went to work.
Then he looked at me with a cocky grin.
I hated his dark, messy hair that still looked good. His dark eyes, perfect cheekbones and jaw line. Even the stubble on his face… he
was such a cliché guy.
“The company was formed in a college dorm two years ago.”
“Not true,” I said. “The initial idea was three years ago. In Dicky’s parents’ garage. Which, by the way, are you going to be able to say Dicky and keep a straight face?”
“I’ll just picture a dick wiggling in your face,” Jackson said.
“You’re going to think of some guy’s dick? That’s what you do during meetings?”
“I don’t need games to get through meetings, Callie. I’ve got this locked down.”
“You think so?”
“Their goddamn growth has been double digits for six quarters straight,” Jackson said. “They’re poised for a triple digit pop with the right backing. Which is Amado Investments. The company my father started. The company my uncle took over. The company that’s going to be mine. You know the company, right? Oh, yeah, you work there…”
“That’s good,” I said. “I can’t wait to boss your ass around.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jackson said. “I’m not into ass play. At least not on me.”
“Sorry to break it to you, Jackson, but I’m going to own your ass after this meeting,” I said.
The bartender put drinks down on the bar.
“You know, you offended my friend here,” Jackson said to the bartender.
“I did?” the bartender asked.
“She was asking for a drink and you ignored her,” Jackson said.
“Stop,” I said. “He’s too busy over there with the super skinny girls. He can’t handle a real woman like me.”
“She offered to flash you and you missed out,” Jackson said.
“Look, I’m really sorry,” the bartender said. “That drink is on me.”
“No,” I said. “Put it on his tab. Double the cost even.”
I grinned at Jackson.
The bartender slipped away.
“Hey, you don’t need to pimp out my chest,” I said. “I do just fine.”
“Just fine…,” Jackson said.
The smirk on his face pissed me off.
I was not going to take the bait and talk about my sex life.
Or that fact that my sex life was so dead, I would visit it once a week at the sex life cemetery and bring it flowers and talk to it and remember all the good times when it was alive.
“So,” Jackson said, lifting his drink. “Cheers?”
“Cheers,” I said.
“Ready to talk business?”
“I’m always ready, Jackson.”
“That’s how you close it,” Jackson said.
“That’s weak.”
“What?”
“We’re going to shell out some serious cash to these guys,” I said. “They aren’t stupid. They know the competition is stiff. They know if they don’t get to market fast, they’re fucked. And if they’re fucked, so is your uncle’s money.”
“It’s not my uncle’s money,” Jackson said with his lip curled.
Oh, is someone still mad that their father died?
I cringed.
Shit. That was mean.
“Sorry,” I said. “The company money. Whatever you want to call it. This is a move fast kind of deal. They need the money yesterday to get to market and then it explodes. We get our money back, plus a gigantic return, and everyone is happy. I’d rather take cash than equity.”
“I disagree,” Jackson said.
Of course you do.
“Why?” I asked.
“We take both cash and equity from them. Cash secures us in the investment so we don’t lose any money. But the equity… they’re going to sell.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Jackson said. “I did a little digging. A little talking. Dicky’s play is to grow and sell. Even if Michael doesn’t want to, Dicky will force some kind of buyout or whatever. Either way, they go to market, the value pops, Dicky cashes out… we cash out too.”
I gritted my teeth.
Jackson took risks.
I didn’t.
He could take risks because his uncle would never fire him.
“I stand by what I said,” I said. “We’ll see what happens in a couple days.”
“You know I’m right,” Jackson said. “Now, how would you close this out?”
“I would tell them my lemonade stand story.”
“What’s that?”
“When I was a little girl, I sold lemonade to pay for the rent,” I said.
“That’s cute.”
I punched Jackson in the arm. “It wasn’t cute. It was serious. And my point is that I know what it’s like. To stand there on the edge of being completely broke, out on the street. It takes balls to push through it.”
“Oh, shit, Callie… do you have a set of balls?”
I slowly smiled. “My balls are bigger than yours, Jackson.”
“Prove it,” he teased.
I touched his arm. “One look at me and you’d come so hard in your pants, you’d cry. Trust me.”
Jackson wiggled his shoulder. “I’m out of here. Stop overthinking this. You’re going to fuck it all up.”
“I won’t fuck anything up,” I said.
Jackson threw a lot of money on the bar. “There’s enough for another drink or two. Maybe you can loosen up enough and get laid tonight.”
“Asshole,” I muttered as Jackson walked away.
I finished my drink and pushed away from the bar.
Jackson wasn’t going to get into my head tonight. Or tomorrow. Or ever.
He wasn’t getting into my head or my pants, panties, skirt, bra, whatever.
Although it was about damn time a woman brought Jackson to his knees.
Chapter Five
Jackson
Callie really fucked up my entire night.
The last thing I wanted to do was fall asleep with her on my mind.
But that’s what happened.
My bed was too big to sleep alone in.
Not really, but I had set out to enjoy myself.
Coming home and jerking off into the sink, picturing Angela bent over it, wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was Callie popping into my head just as I started to blow my load. The first spurt into the sink was disastrous because it was Callie’s face I pictured. After that, it was back to Angela.
Definitely not the night I had wanted or needed.
I slept just fine though, waking up a few minutes before the alarm on my phone.
I sat up in bed and stretched my neck.
Instantly, my mind went into investment mode.
There wasn’t a time in my life where I didn’t think about money and investments.
I was born into that world and it was all I knew.
My father used to bring me to his office and let me spin in his chair.
When that got boring, I would kick myself off the walls and pretended I was in a car without brakes. That didn’t last long because I ended up breaking some expensive glass thing in his office.
I remembered that so vividly because I figured that was going to be the moment my father would kick my ass six ways from Sunday.
Instead, Big Jack stood up, walked to me, and asked if I wanted to see something cool.
To me, anything my father thought was cool, I thought was cool.
He sat me on his lap and we looked at stock quotes together.
Then he started to teach me how to read quotes.
Things like an evening star and doji were suddenly part of my life.
The rest became history.
I always thought of my father the day of a big meeting.
Sometimes I wondered what his legacy truly was. Or what kind of direction he would have taken the company if he were still alive.
But… there was no use in dwelling on the past.
All I had was the present.
My feet on the floor.
My dick hard a la morning wood.
And my deep desire to close this deal, get my promotion, and not so gently show Cal
lie the door.
The company would never fully work with both of us there.
She was smart. Beautiful. Savvy as hell.
All of that I could give her.
But she could take that - and her attitude - and go somewhere else.
I hated that I went to bed thinking about Callie and woke up the same.
At the same time, it was going to be me and her in the meeting together. We would have to play nice, smile at each other, and make sure the company’s money was going to be spent the right way.
One bad investment and it could shake things to its foundation.
My uncle had a hard-on for tech companies. He wanted in on everything, all at once, all the time. He would spout off orders and company names and let everyone else figure out what was right or wrong.
This one with LoriTech had a very big payoff.
And it also had the same size of risk.
Callie was right to want to protect the investment before anything else.
I was bit of a wild card, going to the very edge all the time, but it’s also what made me money.
I did my normal routine of coffee, eat, and shower before I stood at my closet, looking for my favorite suit to wear.
This one was my closer.
I wore it for all my big meetings, and it had yet to fail me.
After I got dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror.
I smiled and then started to laugh.
I could taste the return on the investment already. It was going to net the company a shit ton of cash. It was going to get me the promotion. A big fat bonus check too.
As much as everyone pointed out that my father started the company and my uncle ran it, I didn’t have access to the money. Sure, I grew up well off and never had to worry about much in life, but my father made sure that I was going to work my ass off for every penny I earned. Nothing was to be handed to me. Everything went into the company. And to my uncle. He controlled everything.
And soon enough, I would control everything.
I made good money, lived well, and had no problem with the way things were arranged.
Work was competition.
And I never lost.
I exited my apartment, running figures through my hair.
As I walked by the next apartment door, I noticed that the door was slightly open.
People were in there, cleaning.