by London Casey
As far as Jackson went, he just nodded over and over.
“Don’t do that,” I said to him.
“Do what? Feel proud of you?”
“Proud? I messed up.”
“When did you sleep with her?” Lincoln asked.
“A while ago. When I went away…”
“Oh, the cabin thing,” Liam said. “That setting will get you every time.”
“Let me guess,” Jackson said. “You two were alone. You’re used to bossing her around. You see her dressed down. Suddenly your cock is hard and you order her to suck it.”
“Not even close, asshole,” I said. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I pushed away from the table.
“Come on, Cole,” Lincoln said. “What do you want us to say? Of course we’re going to bust on you for it.”
“It’s a serious thing,” I said.
“What did she say about it?” Liam asked.
“Nothing. We agreed to let it go. We were drunk and horny.”
“Then what’s wrong?” Jackson asked. “She sounds like a great secretary.”
“I can never do that again,” I said. “I almost feel like firing her just so I don’t have the constant reminder of it.”
“You’re not going to fire her,” Lincoln said. “Just let it go. Everything is cooled off, right?”
“Have her sign something,” Jackson said. “Some kind of NDA. I don’t know.”
“Have her admit to letting me fuck her and now I need her to keep quiet?” I asked.
“That sounds messy,” Liam said.
“I just wanted to tell you guys,” I said.
“Yeah, but you’re all tensed up about it,” Lincoln said. “Was it good? Bad?”
“Yeah,” Jackson said. “Gives us some details here. You fucked your secretary. That’s wild stuff. Even for me.”
If I was outdoing Jackson’s crazy antics then I was definitely heading for serious trouble.
Speaking of trouble…
My eyes gazed around the fancy bar and I noticed a woman sitting alone.
“Can I get you something to eat?”
“No,” she said with a big smile. She was dressed in the clothes from the night before. “I’m going to work my way home, Cole.”
“Right.”
“Let me ask you something. Do you even know my name?”
I grinned. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“Damn,” she said. “You’re really hung up on someone, huh?”
“Not at all. I’m single. I’m not just out of a breakup or anything either. Last night was-”
“We’re good here,” she said. “I had fun. And we never have to talk to each other again.”
She was a devilish looking woman. Exactly what I needed to keep me company. To clear the air. To cleanse my pallet, so to speak.
As she walked by me, I reached for her hand. “Last night was fun.”
“You’re not going to ask for my number, are you?”
“No. Maybe I’ll see you around again sometime.”
“That’s the spirit,” she said.
She was tall, skinny, black hair, her face different from when I met her because of all the makeup she had been wearing.
All of which didn’t bother me.
She was the opposite of what had been on my mind.
Hence the whole clearing the air feeling.
When she got to the door and opened it, I whistled for her.
She whipped her head back. “Did you fall in love?”
“No,” I said. “Your name is Taryn.”
“Good job, Cole,” she said. “Good luck letting go.”
“Of you? That’s easy.”
“Not me. Whoever it is you can’t stop thinking about.”
Taryn left the apartment and I gritted my teeth.
There was no way one night with Maya was going to fuck up everything I had been working for.
I grabbed my phone and texted her.
Are you at the office yet?
I waited impatiently.
Just as I started to text her again, she replied.
Yes. Working on the Lonelly account. Need anything?
I tapped the edge of my phone to the counter a few times.
We need to talk. In person. Be in my office in thirty minutes.
I hurried to take a shower and collect my thoughts.
When I got to my office exactly thirty minutes later, Maya was waiting.
Doing what she was told to do.
I walked around my desk and turned to look at her.
“Have you told anyone about us?” I asked.
“What?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“No, Cole. I haven’t said anything. Why? That was… a while ago.”
“I’m going to be real with you, Maya. What we did was a big mistake. We got caught up in a moment. I have a lot on my shoulders at the moment. We’re close, Maya. This deal is going to close and it’s going to be good for everybody.”
“That’s good.”
Her cheeks started to turn red.
“You still think about it.”
“Excuse me?”
“That night. It’s on your mind. Right?”
“I don’t want to talk about it in this setting, Cole.”
“I’m not taking you out on a date to talk about it,” I said.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“I think we need a more stringent agreement here, Maya. Something more than just a verbal agreement.”
“What?”
“I need to know you’re quiet about everything,” I said. “Us. This company. We need legal proof of it.”
“You want me to sign something saying I won’t tell anyone we had sex?”
“We’ll call it a relationship that didn’t work,” I said. “I don’t need that leaking anywhere. That I was with my secretary.”
Now her face was bright red. “You’re being serious right now?”
“I am, Maya. There’s too much at risk here. Believe me, I trust you. I just-”
“I can see that you trust me, Cole. I don’t know why you think I would do that to you. Or myself. I’m the secretary who slept with her boss. That’s not who I am. And it was weeks ago. I can’t believe…” Maya shook her head. “You know what? Whatever you need, Cole. You’re the one who’s paranoid. Not me.”
“Good. I’m glad we see eye to eye then. Now bring me those files. And something to eat. I’m starving. I had a late night last night.”
I winked at Maya.
Her red face turned angry.
The more she hated me, the more the memory of us together faded.
Mr. Pickle sat across from me at my desk.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I think we let the lawyers look it all over and you and I take a well-deserved break.”
I smiled. “I think I can live with that.”
Things were finally moving the right way again.
Maya was back to herself. I was back to myself.
More time had gone by.
Everything felt… normal.
“Tell you what,” Mr. Pickle said. “Why don’t we plan another trip to the cabins? How’s that sound?”
“Again, I think I can live with that.”
“I sure hope you bring that secretary of yours,” Mr. Pickle said with a wink.
I had no choice but to laugh at him. “I don’t know about that. That wasn’t quite the, uh, situation I had been hoping for.”
“Ice cold that night?”
“No comment,” I said. “There could be legal implications.”
Mr. Pickle laughed and clapped his hands together. “You’re better off. I like the way things are right now, Cole. Nothing is holding either of us back. That’s why I’m sitting here with you. I’m not the kind of man that just dishes out money, you know? There are a lot of companies out there I can buy, sell, fuck with… whatever I want to do. But when I look a
t you, I see myself. You’re a good-looking man with a ton of cash and a lot more on the way.”
Trust me, I looked nothing like Mr. Pickle. Nor would I ever look like him.
The women and the money thing? That was accurate though.
“My advice,” Mr. Pickle said as he leaned toward my desk. “Get someone else for the next trip. You need them paid, quiet, and ready to be fucked.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“Now, how about a drink? Let’s get a scotch or something. Call your secretary. Send her down to my car as I have a special bottle for us.”
I reached for my phone and called Maya’s office.
Maya didn’t pick up.
It was Janice. She worked in a different part of the office.
“Where’s Maya?” I asked.
“She went home sick,” Janice said. “She threw up.”
“You could have stopped at sick,” I said.
I told Janice what I needed her to do.
There was a moment or two when I thought about texting Maya.
But that wasn’t my job.
My job was to have a drink with Mr. Pickle.
And think about how fucking perfect my life was.
Chapter Seventeen
Maya
I hung over the toilet and groaned.
I had nothing else to deposit from my stomach to the toilet.
The feeling hit me like nothing had ever done before.
It wasn’t an upset stomach where I knew something could happen.
It was just… boom.
“Bad eggs?” Bev asked.
She sat next to me.
I looked at her and took a deep breath. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to get you sick.”
“I’m not going to let you throw up alone,” she said. “It’s a terrible feeling.”
I nodded. “I don’t like throwing up. I feel like I’m choking.”
“You did good just then.”
“Yeah, this was different,” I said. “I don’t know. Maybe because I didn’t eat breakfast.”
“You didn’t eat at all?”
“No. I had no appetite this morning.”
“Okay, on your feet,” Bev said.
She helped me up.
I braced myself to feel like hell. To feel dizzy, clammy, feverish.
But I felt fine.
I felt good.
I felt normal.
I looked at myself in the mirror.
“Hmm,” I said.
“What?” Bev asked.
“I feel better now. Like… really better now. I’m actually kind of hungry.”
“Well, you’re not eating a big meal. I’ll make you some toast. Dry. I’ll see if we have some ginger ale. If not, you’re getting water. Go crash in bed.”
I listened to Bev and wandered to my bedroom.
I sat down on the edge of the bed and took a deep breath.
I honesty felt fine.
Almost relieved in a way.
I touched my stomach and thought about what I ate the night before.
Something obviously hadn’t settled well in my stomach.
It really didn’t matter much now.
I was home.
I showed up to work, got sick, and now I was back in bed.
Bev brought me toast and ginger ale.
I didn’t want it, but I ate it.
And I felt fine.
I felt great.
In fact, I grabbed my laptop, threw in my earbuds, and went to work on my new story.
The asshole boss story.
It was flowing really easily.
At one point I stopped writing and laughed.
I was getting paid to write about how much I hated Cole.
I guess throwing up this morning wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
For as eccentric as Bev acted, she proved herself to be a great caretaker. Even though I wasn’t actually sick, she made me stay in bed all day. Honestly, it was like a mini vacation. She served me and I typed words.
My stomach growled for some real food like a pizza, but Bev insisted I stick to a bland diet, just in case.
By eight at night, I begged her for real food.
She looked down at me and touched my forehead.
“You’re cool,” she said.
“I’m not sick,” I said. “I think it was just something I ate last night. I threw up a couple times quick and that was it. I’ve felt fine all day.”
“I’ll get you some real food, but you have to look at something first.”
“Sure,” I said.
Bev hurried out of the room and came back with a t-shirt.
“If that’s a picture of me throwing up I’m going to move out tonight,” I said.
“It’s not that at all,” Bev said. “But… you did inspire it…”
She turned the shirt around and at first, I didn’t understand what it was.
“Uh…”
“Just look,” Bev said. “It’s a bathroom. Well, it’s two bathrooms. And they’re dancing.”
“The entire bathroom is dancing,” I said.
“And it’s, like, you know, party until you get sick,” Bev said. “But it’s the bathroom. So where do you get sick at then?”
Bev smiled big.
I kind of got what she was trying to say.
I pointed to the shirt and laughed. “Okay, I like it.”
“Yeah?” Bev asked. “I’m going to keep that one.”
“Yeah, you should,” I said. “Just keep working on the punchline, you know? But that’s good. I mean, right, yeah, if a toilet gets drunk and has to throw up… where does it throw up?”
Bev snorted. “Yes! You get it!”
“Now how about some pizza?”
“I’ll order some right now,” Bev said.
She danced out of the bedroom.
I caught the whiff of the ink and I blinked a few times to get used to the smell.
I got out of bed to shut the door and crack my windows open a little bit more than normal, just to get some fresh air in the bedroom.
Thirty minutes later, Bev brought me pizza.
An hour after that, I was asleep.
And I had a dream about dancing toilets.
My getting ready for work routine wasn’t all that special.
I didn’t spend hours in front of a mirror to make myself look perfect, sexy or anything like that. I kind of pushed up against the rules of Cole’s company. He would have preferred me in some sleek, black dress like I wore at the cabin, so I did all I could to wear the opposite.
Nice pants. A nice shirt. Nothing shown off.
I knew he hated it.
For me, I felt comfortable.
I squirted a glob of toothpaste to my toothbrush and the second I touched my teeth, I threw the toothbrush into the sink and stepped back.
“Oh, no,” I whispered.
I touched my lips.
My brain and stomach agreed that the taste of the toothpaste was the most disgusting taste in the world.
More than that…
I jumped for the toilet and fell to my knees,
I started to throw up again.
In between heaves, I called for Bev.
She came barreling through the bathroom door and gasped when she saw me holding my hair back, mid-vomit.
“Oh, Maya,” she said. “What is…”
Her voice trailed off.
I finished throwing up and sat back on my heels.
I looked at her.
“Maybe that pizza wasn’t such a good idea,” I said.
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I don’t think this has anything to do with the pizza.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
My stomach gurgled. I leaned forward a little but nothing else happened.
Bev stepped to the sink and crouched down to open the cabinet.
She brought out a box of tampons and shook th
em. “Maya…”
“What?” I asked.
“Do you remember when you first moved in here what happened to us?”
“No.”
“We realized we were… synched up…”
“What are you talking… about…?” I asked as I looked at the box of tampons.
Bev nodded. “Yeah. I’m kind of working my way into another time of the month and you’ve already missed one…”
“No, I didn’t,” I said. “Wait. Let me…”
“Maya, you know how much I track mine,” Bev said. “For personal medical reasons.”
“I know.”
“Maya, this box should be empty,” Bev said. “We should be teasing about who’s buying the next box. Do you not remember our monthly night of chocolate, wine, tampons, and crying together?”
“Shit,” I said.
“Maya…”
“Don’t say it,” I said. I shut my eyes. I touched my stomach. “Just don’t say it, Bev.”
“I have to say it,” she said.
“Bev…”
“Maya, are you pregnant?”
I texted Cole that I was sick again. That I was sorry I couldn’t come to work.
I wanted nothing more than to curl up in my bed and decide what to do first. Panic. Cry. Scream. Or just go to sleep and wake up and know this was some kind of weird joke being played by the universe.
Bev left to go get a pregnancy test.
A fucking pregnancy test!
How? How could…
Cole’s name lit up my screen.
He was calling.
I sighed.
“Morning, Cole,” I said.
“You don’t sound sick.”
“Want me to take a picture of the toilet?”
“Oh, that’s gross.”
“You obviously don’t believe me.”
“I didn’t say that,” he said. “I’m just making sure you’re not quitting.”
“Quitting?”
“Yeah. If you want to quit, just quit. Don’t play the calling off game bullshit. I need to know if I should be hiring someone else.”
“Wow. Here I thought you were checking up on me.”
“It’s not my job to do that, Maya. But it is your job to be here at the office.”
“Of course. Sorry, Cole. Want me to come in? Vomit all over the place? Get everyone else sick?”
“Well, if you throw up again, you should see a doctor,” he said. “Maybe you have food poisoning. Or an ulcer.”