Alexander
I saw it on her face when the spell broke. Madison had been sleeping curled up under my arm for maybe an hour. My arm was completely numb, but I didn’t remotely care. I just didn’t want to wake her. She looked peaceful and happy in sleep. Every stupid instinct in my body told me to protect and shelter her. Right then she needed sleep, so that’s what I would give her.
Increasingly sure that we’d be spending the entire night lying on the floor, I winced when my phone buzzed in my jacket pocket over Madison’s heart. Her eyes slid open, revealing their soft, multicolored hazel depths. She looked up at me, smiled sleepily, and then froze.
That was it. As soon as she remembered where we were, what we’d done, and what else had happened that evening, she shot up onto her feet like she’d been electrocuted. The loss of her warm, naked body against my side was more painful than the intense tingling in my arm.
“Madison,” I said softly, trying not to move or to scare her, “Madison, it’s ok. You don’t have to go yet. Come back.”
She looked down at me from where she was wriggling back into her underwear in disbelief. I extended a hand up to her, inviting her back down to the floor with me, but it was too late. She looked horrified.
Cursing myself for not turning the phone entirely off, I stood, straightening my own clothing with reluctance. For some reason, I felt like it was important that she be the first to speak. But as she scrambled to get her body covered as quickly as possible in total silence, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“You’re angry at me,” I stated. I was not exactly surprised that she might be, but I was disappointed that we’d returned so quickly to our previous dynamic of spite and acrimony.
“No, I’m not,” she replied, running her fingers through her hair to pile it back into a bun. She was purposefully avoiding my eyes, turning away every time I tried to read her face.
“Why are you rushing off then?” I followed up, honestly at a loss as to what was going through her mind. It occurred to me then that I didn’t really know her enough to predict how she would react at this point. A sizeable part of me fully expected her to throw me out earlier. I’d never actually gotten this far in my plan. In fact, I hadn’t thought much further than the sex. But the idea that she would just disappear now… Somehow the thought was an unsettling and upsetting one. It should be a relief.
“I’m not rushing off. I need to get home,” Madison said, finally looking at me with an expression of pure exhaustion and something else I couldn’t name. The expression burned me to my core, cutting through my remaining bravado like a knife and making me feel guilty and lonely at the same time.
“Let me drive you,” I offered weakly, “you’ve had a long, emotional day. You shouldn’t be driving.”
Madison laughed a short, humorless laugh. It sounded strange coming from her. I didn’t like it at all. I wanted to make her laugh, but not like that. Not bitterly.
“Now you care about my emotional stability?” Madison snapped, “That’s rich. Please, let’s not make this into something it’s not. I’m more than capable of driving myself home.”
I didn’t know what to say. I had just taken advantage of her emotional turmoil, yes, there was no doubt about it. But we’d both gotten something we needed from each other, and I had made sure she had really wanted it. I was sure she enjoyed it too, at least in the moment. But now the spell of the afterglow and endorphins had broken, and I apparently disgusted her again. Against my better judgment, but seeing no alternative, I told her the surprising truth.
“I really don’t want you to go,” I blurted. Then, I watched her full, pink lips part in obvious surprise.
“I really don’t care what you want,” she said bluntly, shocking me right back, “You don’t deserve that. You aren’t a nice person at all. You made fun of me all night and then manipulated me into sex after my fucking two-year relationship ended in spectacular fashion. You’re a textbook creep. I’m sure I’ll see you next week, and then after that we can go back to our own lives and forget all about this. Good bye.”
And just like that, she was out the door and out of my grasp.
I sat down on her office couch, completely confused and deflated. That conversation hadn’t gone at all like I’d wanted it to go. And now I was alone.
I had thought that I would get her out of my system once and for all tonight. Like lancing a wound, or scratching an itch, I would satisfy a sexual frustration more than a decade old and then it would be done. Gone. I’d go back to banging vacuous models and I’d continue on with my normal life just like Madison had said she planned to do. The thought of doing so now was entirely unacceptable.
Sitting there in the darkened office in the middle of the night, staring at the ground unproductively like Madison had been doing when I found her, something caught my eye. There was a blinking light on Madison’s office answering machine. Feeling nosy, but also just wanting to feel closer to Madison and her world, I sat behind her desk and played around with her father’s phone system. It took some doing, but I eventually figured out that someone had forwarded her office phone in Brooklyn to the machine here. She really needed to set a better password than 1-2-3-4.
I played the new message.
“Hi Madison. It’s me, Mariana. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there tonight for the dinner. I hope everything went well. I know how you hate schmoozing with the rich guys. I’ll be coming up tomorrow on the seven o’clock flight from D.C. just like we talked about. It’s been completely crazy the past couple of days. I’ve got a personal emergency I have to attend to in just about thirty minutes. Hopefully this upcoming meeting is nothing… anyway I promise I will be there tomorrow. Did you have a chance to look at the new closing documents? I have a couple of concerns, specifically about the possibility of diversions to the resource allocations from the joint venture. But this message is already too long. I’m rambling. Oh wait. Also, I’m sorry for telling Stanley you were back. He probably texted you something inappropriate. Ok, I’m hanging up now. Bye!”
I remarked the message as being unheard to cover up my intrusion. Too bad it wasn’t Cunt-face begging for forgiveness. That at least would have been entertaining.
Mariana was the other attorney working on the deal from LifeBuild with Madison; I knew that from the emails we had exchanged over the past few months. This message was boring, although I was curious about Stanley, whoever he was. The thought of anyone creepy texting Madison “something inappropriate” irrationally pissed me off.
Turning my attention from the phone, the pages of the deal’s closing agreement were strewn on the surface of Madison’s desk. We must have inadvertently knocked the pile over earlier. It would be bad manners not to clean up Madison’s desk after fucking her on it.
I put the pages back into the proper order. It’s almost a compulsive habit for me. I can’t stand for things to be out of order, particularly when there is an obvious order they ought to be in. But as I counted the pages in each section to make sure I didn’t miss one, I started rereading the agreement itself.
Clearly, I should have paid closer attention to this document on the flight over instead of getting distracted by getting the sexy flight crew that wanted to take turns blowing me. There was a lot of important information in it. Usually I would trust the lawyers to take care of the details, but something Mariana said her message had begun to pique my interest.
An idea started to percolate in the back of my brain, half-formed and fuzzy. Fully half of this deal was devoted to language detailing how resources from Durant Industries would flow directly to humanitarian development causes. Each cause was explicitly earmarked. The resource allocations—that’s what Mariana had called them. These weren’t my dollars, at least not directly, but the allocation of those dollars and their investment was something that my company had contractual rights to influence under our limited joint venture agreement. Inspired, I fished around in Madison’s desk until I located a red pen.
Madison
was right I guess. I was not a nice person much of the time. I was, however, the sort of person that gets what they want. And I wanted Madison. The agreement was bleeding red by the time I was finished with it. It was almost seven a.m. and I was completely exhausted, but I felt confident that my plan would work. It was definitely one of my better ideas, although I guess I should have thanked Mariana.
10
Madison
“What the hell is this?” I growled, slamming the ‘revised agreement’ onto the sleek, modern desk in front of Alexander. I was positively livid.
That morning, an email had arrived in my inbox from him, with an attachment named ‘urgent proposed changes’. I’d been hungover, still reeling from the sudden end to my relationship and engagement, not to mention sore and confused by what had taken place between Alexander and me afterward. This bullshit was so not what I needed.
“Hello Madison,” Alexander replied amiably, “Why yes, my Saturday is going just fine and no, I don’t mind at all that you just barged into my house.”
“Knock it off! What is this?” I snapped, flopping down in the chair across from Alexander and glaring. The sudden appearance of a furious woman seemed to have no effect on his mood at all. If anything, he seemed extremely pleased to see me. His housekeeper had been less pleased. I probably owed her an apology.
“Oh that. Well, I was reading through the agreement again last night and I realized that I could reallocate the earmarks since Durant Industries is technically operating with my company in a joint venture in Colombia. I have equal right to control the investments, did you know that? But I wasn’t consulted at all. Anyway, I thought I’d make a few improvements and just wanted to get your opinion before I shared the changes with the other parties.”
“Reallocate the earmarks? You took the money from charitable and humanitarian development and dumped it into Colombian real estate investments that would benefit one person, you. You’re literally stealing from the poor. There’s no way this would ever be accepted by the other parties. This would kill the deal.”
“Actually, I was thinking we could structure the dividends from the investments so that the government of Colombia would receive a portion. I picked great investments, and everyone will make much more money this way. The Colombians can use the money for whatever they see fit.”
Alexander was fucking with me. And not in the fun way.
“That’s illegal and you know it. At best, it’s negotiated bribery and even if it weren’t, we both know there are elements in the Colombian government that are hideously corrupt. That money would never do anything but make the rich even richer while the needy suffered. You should know better than this! You have to know this isn’t allowed.”
“I merely think these are wiser investments,” Alexander replied to me calmly. His black eyes were shining with suppressed laughter. This was some kind of messed up game to him, I realized.
“You did this just to lure me here,” I guessed, “You know that introducing something like this at such a late stage would either kill the deal entirely or stretch the process on for months while we tried to somehow make it legal. This isn’t even about the deal. This is about you and me. It’s about last night.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Alexander said to me. His voice was bland, but he was trying not to smile and losing badly. His stupidly cute, mischievous smile won out over his neutral expression. It made me want to punch him.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air angrily. The more upset I became, the calmer and more relaxed Alexander looked. “Are you some kind of twisted sadist? Do you get off on making me upset? I think you do. That’s sick. Or do you just enjoy sabotaging billion dollar deals that would help, potentially, millions of disadvantaged people for your own greediness? I’m not even sure which is worse.”
Alexander folded his fingers together, leaning forward over his desk to regard me down the bridge of his nose with a frightening, smoldering expression. He could probably make executives quake and wet themselves with that look. Me though? I’ve seen his pale, naked ass now. I’m no longer at all that intimidated. Now as for making me wet…well that was entirely beside the point.
“First of all,” Alexander finally replied, “Enjoying the sight of you getting irrationally upset isn’t sadism. At the very worst it’s just… erotic schadenfreude. But really, anyone would have the same reaction, so you can’t even blame me. You’re completely adorable when you’re angry. Secondly, I’m not in this deal for anything but the development potential. I run a business. I’m a capitalist, and no, that’s not a dirty word to me. Any humanitarian outcome is purely incidental.”
“Delightful,” I replied sarcastically, attempting to tamper down my emotions. If he enjoyed seeing me angry, I’d simply deny him that. If I could. “I suppose I should be impressed by your honesty, as repugnant as it is. Well if the bottom line is all that matters to you, know this: if you submit that version of the agreement, you will probably get nothing because it will destroy any trust the Colombians have in us to deal honorably. They are coming here to sign in four days, not negotiate, except for a few minor details.”
“Maybe so,” Alexander rebutted, “but if it didn’t kill the deal, I may end up with a far more profitable outcome. So, would everyone else.”
“Everyone except the people who need it most. And you just thought to do this last night? After months of negotiations, after countless hours selecting the right organizations to fund that would lead to real and sustained growth, you’re just going to change course entirely? Throw it away for a shot at a higher bottom line?”
“This is a high risk, high reward strategy.” Alexander said matter-of-factly, “honestly, you don’t need to be so concerned. This is what I do for a living, and I’m amazing at it. It may take a few months, but we both know Colombia needs this deal. They won’t walk away from the table at this juncture and neither will we; it would be a total public relations nightmare. And don’t worry about the poor. No matter what, the investment in the economy will eventually trickle down anyway.”
This was unbelievable. Did he actually just say ‘don’t worry about the poor’? He might as well have said ‘let them eat cake’. I balled my hands into fists and could feel my fingernails digging painfully into my palms. I took a deep, cleansing breath before continuing. A migraine was coming on, I just knew it.
“Even if that economic argument had merit, it would only be applicable to mature, first-world, capitalist economies. Not Colombia. Listen to me. You need to give this up right now. It’s nuts. As part of your legal team, I’m telling you to let it go.”
“You need to convince me,” Alexander said with a smirk, “I’m not convinced yet.”
“Convince you? What part of my argument is insufficiently persuasive? Do you want me to repeat myself?”
“I have something else in mind.”
My mouth fell open in disbelief. I look at him with blatant, unadulterated disgust. This deal means a lot to me, but it wasn’t worth my self-respect. Nothing was. Honestly, I thought he’d be above that sort of behavior.
“Not that,” Alexander said indignantly, “I don’t blackmail women into sex. I don’t need to, trust me. As you well know, I can get plenty of enthusiastic female company without doing much besides breathing. You really do not think highly of me, do you Madison? I need to change that.”
“Well now that I know you only blackmail women into activities other than sex, you basically have nowhere to go but up,” I replied snidely. Alexander frowned in what might have been a fleeting moment of real contrition. It passed so quickly I wasn’t sure.
“Dinner,” He barked out a moment later to my surprise, “I’m confident that if you come with me to dinner tonight that your charm, wit, and beauty will convince me of the errors of my ways.”
I was flabbergasted. This was officially the worst way anyone had ever asked me out on a date. And that included the drunk
homeless man that followed me for three blocks one evening tunelessly screaming the lyrics to “Pretty Woman” at the top of his lungs. And he hadn’t been wearing any pants at the time.
“You’re blackmailing me to go out on a date with you?” I finally managed to spit out.
“I suppose I am, if you insist on looking at it like that. It’s a party actually, a benefit.”
“A benefit? Are you really so hard up for a date to a charity event that you have to resort to this?”
“Hardly. But I think this particular benefit will be instructive for us both.”
“Instructive? How? What is the benefit for?”
“It’s a surprise, but I promise you won’t dislike it. I would never blackmail you for a bad cause.”
“There is no good cause to blackmail someone. You’re an asshole.”
Alexander ignored the insult.
“How does seven o’clock sound? I’ve already had a gown sent over to your house, since I know your things are all still in Brooklyn.”
“Excuse me? You already had it sent over? This was your plan all along?”
“I also sent over some heels and jewelry. I hope you like them. Now, if I’m not mistaken, don’t you need to get to the airport to pick up Mariana?”
Shit.
I looked down at my phone to check the time, furious and confused— mostly furious. If I left right then, I could get there in time, but only barely. Alexander had planned this perfectly, including somehow knowing when I would show up to argue with him. I didn’t even know where he lived until about thirty minutes earlier, when I texted Clara. I was not even sure how he managed to put this together… and I’d fallen right into his trap.
“I hate you,” I said, rising from my chair with the last shred of my dignity, “I’ll go with you to your stupid event tonight, but if you screw up this deal or somehow humiliate me, I promise I will figure out a way to destroy you.”
Bleeding Heart Page 6