by Hannah Ford
“Happy too. I’ve got no reason to go back.”
“I’ve got work,” Nicole said. “As it is, they’ll be furious at me for bailing on them three days in a row.”
“Screw them. You and I will just start our own company.”
Nicole looked at him to see if he was joking. He was toasting another marshmallow and this one was on fire too.
“Red, are you being serious right now?”
He blew the marshmallow at, glanced at her, and then popped the whole thing in his mouth. “Mmmmhmmm.”
“Is that a yes?”
He nodded. “Mmmm.”
“Red. Are you really going to start another company?”
He chewed for a long time and finally swallowed. “When you came back into my life yesterday, it was like my whole system got a jumpstart. Until you showed up, I’d just been chopping wood and taking walks, swimming, fishing. I tried hard not to think about what might be next for me. I didn’t feel like there was a next without you in my life.”
She blinked, tried not to shed any more silly tears. “Oh.”
“But the moment you were back with me, I felt all of this energy. And today, for the first time, I really wanted to get back in the mix,” he said, twirling his stick in his hands and staring into the flames. “Kane Wright will be officially acquiring Jameson International next week, and when he does, I’ll be sitting on a mountain of cash. Not what it could have been or should have been,” he clarified. “The stock’s down and with all the bad news, Kane Wright was able to get it for a song—relatively speaking.”
“So what does that mean?”
“Well, it’s a great deal for him. Jameson International is still a fundamentally sound company and so Kane will be bringing it back to prominence if he can.” Red continued to look at the fire as if hypnotized by its glow. “But today I got to thinking. Fuck him. Maybe I should start my own company—a new company from the ground up. And maybe I’ll kick his ass, this time.”
Nicole wasn’t sure she liked the sound of this. It sounded like Red was preparing to go back into battle and maybe risk everything. “And you—I mean we—we have the money to finance it?”
Red sat back in his chair. “Babe, we’re going to have something on the order of half a billion dollars when the buyout is completed. It ain’t what I used to have. I lost almost two-thirds of my net worth because of everything that went down with the EU and Germany. But I still have a whole lotta money.” He looked at her and grinned. “And I’m getting back in the game. I’m going to make Kane Wright wish he’d never laid eyes on me.”
***
The next day, they decided it was time to return to the real world and started out just after ten in the morning.
Nicole was grateful when the ride back to Brooklyn finally came to an end. They’d been on the road over five hours, and both of them had had to take their own cars, so it had been a lonely drive.
They’d stopped on the way to grab a quick bite and spend a few moments together. And then they’d stopped again to return Nicole’s rental car.
Danielle still hadn’t called back and now Nicole was truly getting worried. Nicole had called and texted her half a dozen times and still…nothing.
At around three-thirty in the afternoon, they arrived at Nicole’s apartment building.
“She’s not home,” Nicole said, as she opened the door and stared at the clearly empty apartment.
“It’s a weekday. She’s probably still at work.”
“I tried her store on the way here. They said she’d called out sick the last couple of days.”
“Uh-oh.” For the first time, Red looked concerned.
“You think something happened? I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll call Kane Wright and ask him point blank if he’s been in touch with her or bothered her in any way,” he said, after some thought.
“I feel like this is all my fault. If she’s in trouble right now, it’s because I got her involved in this mess.”
“Look, everything’s going to be fine, Nicole. I swear.” He took her by the shoulders and kissed her deeply.
She kissed him back. “Will you call him right now?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t look happy about it, but he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. A moment went by and then someone picked up. “Kane.” Pause. Red made a disgusted face. “Yeah, it’s me.” Long moment. Nicole couldn’t hear anything but a vague mumble from the other line. “We’re looking—hold on, let me fucking talk. We’re trying to get in touch with Nicole’s roommate and she seems to have disappeared. Have---wait—what?” He strained to listen. “Kane, what the fuck is going on?” Again, straining to listen. Red seemed totally baffled by whatever Kane Wright was telling him. “Yeah. Fine. Fine.”
He hung up, shaking his head in dismay.
“What happened? Is something wrong? What did he do to her?”
“I have no idea, Nicole. I’ve never heard him in such a great mood, I could hardly get a word in. He must have really done something shitty. That’s what seems to make him happiest—when he does something really nasty and underhanded.”
“Does he know where Danielle is?”
“Yeah, apparently so. He said they’re together right now and she’s going to be home in the next couple of hours.”
“Oh, no,” Nicole said. “He did something terrible to her, didn’t he?”
Red looked at his phone as if it might speak up and tell him more. “I really don’t know. I can’t imagine what he could have done, but I have a pretty bad feeling right now.”
“I can’t sit still. Should we call the police?”
“No. Let’s hang tight and wait and see if and when she comes back, how she’s doing. We can talk to her and find out exactly what happened. Okay?”
“Okay. But if he hurt her in any way—“
“Then we’ll make sure he doesn’t get away with it.”
“Promise me, Red.”
“Nicole, of course I promise you. I’d never let him hurt one of your friends. Your friends are my friends now.”
“Good.” She tried to smile but her face couldn’t make the expression right now. She was just too worried.
They spent the next couple of hours trying to distract themselves; watching bad sitcoms on TV, ordering food from a nearby Chinese restaurant, talking about the baby. As much as Nicole wanted to try and be happy and think positive thoughts, she was way too anxious. She’d been starving and yet when the food arrived, she found she couldn’t even eat any.
And then it happened.
There were footsteps on the stairs—clomping, loud stomps.
“I think she’s coming home,” Nicole said, and both she and Red stood up, anxiously awaiting her arrival.
Nicole tried to psych herself up. Just remember, if she’s hurt in some way—or even just threatened—she’s going to need you to be calm and rational, Nicole reminded herself.
The keys rattled in the lock and then the door opened.
Danielle stood before them, and they were both stunned into utter silence.
“What’s going on, guys?” she said, grinning from ear to ear.
It didn’t even look like Danielle, Nicole thought. First of all, she was tan—really, really tan. She was wearing a low-cut sundress, Prada sunglasses (the label was evident on the frame), and her hair was newly styled into a combination of braids that made her look like she’d come there from another country.
Hustling in with her bags (she had lots and lots of bags somehow), Danielle was as cheerful as Nicole could remember ever seeing her.
Red and Nicole exchanged looks. Had she somehow been brain washed and returned home a Stepford Girl?
“I just got so tired climbing all those steps with these bags. Sorry I didn’t hug you both,” she said, putting her stuff down right in the middle of the living room and then hugging Red like he was her long lost brother.
“Last time we met you weren’t nearly this friendly,” he said,
eyebrows raised as he met Nicole’s confused gaze.
Nicole just shook her head. “Uh—Danielle—where the heck have you been? I called you like a dozen times.”
Danielle broke off her hug and came towards Nicole with open arms. “Oh my god, sweetie. I’m sorry. Were you worried about me?”
“Yeah, I was.” But Danielle was already crushing Nicole in the tightest hug she’d ever received. She could smell a strong scent of perfume and hair product as her friend embraced her.
“Like I said—sorry. I meant to try and call you but the whole thing’s just been such a whirlwind.”
“What whole thing? I’m sort of lost,” Nicole said, suddenly going from feeling confused and anxious to annoyed in record time.
“Well, I’m not even sure where to start.”
Red folded his arms. “Why not start at how you ended up going to The Cayman Islands with Kane Wright?”
“Oh my god! How did you know? Did Kane tell you?” Danielle asked, giddy.
“Just a wild guess.”
“Please tell me you didn’t,” Nicole said. Her stomach felt sick and this time it wasn’t morning sickness.
Danielle perched her Prada sunglasses atop her newly braided hair and looked at both of them. “I didn’t want to go with him at first. I thought he was a total jerk.”
“He is a total jerk,” Nicole replied.
Danielle’s lips pursed and she seemed to be trying to bite back a nasty retort. “I understand,” she said, her voice shaking just enough to betray her emotion, “that you and Red have a lot of reasons to feel hostile towards Kane. But you don’t know him.”
“I hate to tell you this, Danielle. But you don’t know him either. Did he sweep you off your feet, buy you expensive things, stroke your ego?” Nicole asked her. “None of those things are difficult for a man like Kane. Spending money is no different than breathing air for him.”
“It’s not about the money, Nicole. And you, of all people, should know better than to make it into that.”
“I’m sorry. I just can’t figure out what happened. When I left, you wanted nothing to do with the guy. And then—“
“Then I spent some time with him,” Danielle said. “And I don’t really feel like justifying myself to you right now. Excuse me, I should put all this stuff in my room and then I need to get some rest. Kane’s coming to pick me up later on for dinner.”
Danielle collected her bags—although she could only barely carry them all at once—and walked into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Red looked at Nicole. “Did that really just happen?”
Nicole sighed. “Shit.”
“Well, as long as she’s happy, right?”
“Yeah.” Nicole didn’t know what to say or think. She was conflicted. On the one hand, she was judging Danielle in much the same way others had judged her about Red. On the other hand, she actually knew Kane Wright, she knew him enough to be fairly certain he wasn’t a good person. And regardless, he’d done too much to hurt the father of her child.
“Do you want to get out of here, come home with me tonight?” Red asked her.
“I don’t know. I’m worried about her. I still want to make sure she’s really okay.”
“Babe, she’s okay. Liking a jerky guy isn’t a federal offense, last I checked.”
“The thing is, I feel totally responsible. If it wasn’t for me—“
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Nicole.” He came over and wrapped his arms around her. Then he kissed her full on the lips.
Instantly, she felt better. Her entire body relaxed. She rested her head against his chest. “What about that money you wired? Is he just going to keep it?”
Red sighed. “I have no idea, but we can deal with it later. Come home with me.”
Nicole shook her head. “I need to talk to Danielle a little more and try and make sure she’s really okay. And I should probably apologize for treating her the way I did.”
“You did nothing wrong.”
“Also…I want to get up early and head into work. I’m giving my notice tomorrow.”
Red pulled back and looked her in the eye. “Why are you giving notice?”
“Well, you said we’re starting that new company. I don’t want to work for your chief rival.”
He smiled. “I’d love to have you come and work with me. My first employee!”
Red picked her up and twirled her around, making sure to put her down gently, so as not to hurt her sore ankle.
“I love you,” she told him, kissing him.
Their mouths molded around each other, their tongues intertwined. She put a hand up and felt his rugged, bristly new whiskers. Even now she was horny for him. She wanted him to pick her up and fuck her against the wall.
But then they broke off their kiss. “I should go home,” he said, checking his phone. “You and Danielle won’t resolve anything with me lounging around here, and I need to get back and do some paperwork.”
“Okay,” Nicole said, missing him already. “Drive safe, though. Seriously, don’t drive above the speed limit.”
“When you’ve handed in your notice tomorrow, call me. I’ll meet you in the city,” he told her, heading toward the door.
“Okay.” She smiled, tugging on his shirt as he left. “You know how amazing you are, right?” she asked.
Red grinned, stopping and looking at her. “Baby, I got nothing on you.”
***
“Knock, knock,” Nicole said, standing outside Danielle’s door.
“Come in,” she called back.
Nicole opened the door and put a smile on her face. Danielle was lying in bed on her laptop, typing rapid-fire. She looked up at Nicole and tried to smile in return, but it was obvious her heart wasn’t in it.
“Listen, I want to apologize to you for how I reacted when you first came in,” Nicole said, holding the doorknob and twisting it in her hand nervously. “I just was so worried about you these last two days when I couldn’t get in touch with you…”
Danielle put her laptop to the side. “I’m sorry that I didn’t think to leave you a message. It just all happened so fast and you kind of disappeared yourself.”
Nicole laughed. “Talk about pot meeting kettle. I did the same thing as what I was frustrated with you about, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, kinda sorta.”
laughed too. “And it’s like the tenth time you disappeared on me without telling me what was going on.”
“Shit. I’m really a big dummy,” Nicole said. “Forgive me?”
“Of course.”
“So…it went well with Kane?” Nicole said.
“I feel weird telling you about it. I mean, I want to shout it from the rooftops, but with all the baggage between you guys and Kane, I don’t know if you want to hear me gush about him.”
“Gush away,” Nicole said, forcing levity to her voice that she totally didn’t feel in reality.
“Seriously?” Danielle said.
“Absolutely,” Nicole replied. She came over and sat at the foot of the bed.
Danielle scooted up and leaned forward. “Nicole, I’m totally freaking out. I don’t know if I can really say it out loud. But I want so badly to tell you!”
“Tell me,” Nicole said again. “I want to hear everything.”
“Well, maybe you should take a look at me and tell me if you notice anything different.”
“Of course, I noticed your Prada shades and your cool new hairdo right off the bat,” she said. “But I guess there’s more—“
And that’s when she looked down and saw Danielle’s hands. Not her hands. Her left ring finger, to be precise. How had she not seen that huge, glittering rock on her roommate’s finger?
But there wasn’t just a diamond ring on that finger. There was also a white gold diamond encrusted wedding band underneath the engagement ring.
Danielle watched Nicole with wide, joyous eyes. “Now you see?” she squealed, holding her finger up and wiggling it fro
nt of Nicole’s face. “Nicole, I’m married! I’m Misses Kane Wright!”
***
As Nicole took the train into work the next day, she tried to organize her thoughts. In her purse, she had her resignation letter printed out and folded in half.
She’d actually been in the midst of composing it the night before when Kane Wright had buzzed the apartment to pick up Danielle. Nicole had heard her roommate making happy noises and telling her new husband she’d be right down.
After her ecstatic friend had left, Nicole peered into her bedroom. It looked as though Danielle was already starting to organize her stuff for when she moved out.
Nicole wanted to be happy for Danielle, but she couldn’t get past the fact that her best friend in the city was now married to her fiancé’s one true enemy. In point of fact, Red was starting up a new business geared to smash Kane Wright’s empire, to destroy the man that had tried to ruin him.
Danielle was somehow blissfully unaware of just how strange and uncomfortable the situation really was. She’d blown it off, telling Nicole how they would all get together soon for dinner.
“I think if the four of us all have dinner and drinks, before you know it we’ll be fast friends,” Danielle had told her at one point. “Besides, the husbands always follow their wives when it comes to social etiquette. And the two of them have sooo much in common.”
Yes, like the fact that they hate each other down to the bone.
But Nicole decided not to spoil Danielle’s fun. She’d have to deal with the truth at some point, so maybe it was nice if she enjoyed this blissful fantasy while it lasted.
Coming back to the moment, Nicole tried to put all that other drama to the side. Right now she had to come to terms with quitting her first real job. She couldn’t work at the company that had unceremoniously dumped the man she loved, the founder of the organization. Especially not after they’d then handed the whole enchilada off to Kane Wright. Kane would simply fold Jameson International into his larger organization, like a sponge soaking up a pesky soda spill.
Nicole was finished with Jameson International. Her time there had been lovely, but it was over now.