by Hannah Ford
Nicole smiled, feeling her stomach with one hand. Just touching her belly was a comfort. She realized suddenly that she had everything she could ever want or need.
Together, she and Red would start a new business and a new family and they would be happy. Nobody could get in the way again, she would make certain of that.
Walking into Jameson International for probably the last time, Nicole couldn’t help but think back to her first time in the building, when she’d come begging for an interview, bowing and scraping at any scrap they decided to throw her way. Back then it had all seemed exciting, intimidating and like the end-all be-all of her life.
Funny how much things could change in such a short time. Now she felt like there was not much left to see or learn around there. She’d been to the top floor; she’d seen all the dirty tricks and a lot of the backroom politics that went on behind closed doors.
She’d even slept with the CEO, rode the corporate jet, felt like the cool girl on campus.
It was time to move on, time to start a new chapter.
Nicole stepped into the elevator and rode up to her floor, got off and headed for Remi’s office. Remi was her direct boss now, and so she would hand her resignation to the best friend she’d made at the company.
When she walked into Remi’s office, Remi was relieved to see her. “Are you okay, Nicole? Nobody knew what was going on with you the last few days!”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” She suddenly realized how hard this was going to be. She didn’t know how Remi would feel about the sudden announcement that she was leaving, even though Remi had expressed a desire to quit the company as well.
“Sit down,” Remi said. She had a pen in her hand and the end of it had clearly been chewed. Remi was a stress case, Nicole knew. She worked so hard, and a lot of the work was thankless. Today, the middle-aged woman was wearing a black button-down shirt, the top couple of buttons had been left open. As usual, she had a masculine, severe look to her—but Nicole saw past that now, to the sweet, sensitive woman underneath.
Nicole sat down and took a breath to prepare for the awkwardness to come. “So…I’ve been doing some thinking.”
“Uh-oh.” Remi’s eyes gained a new intensity. “That’s never a good start to open a conversation.”
“Yeah. I—you know how close I was—how close I still am—to Red.”
Remi nodded. “You two are still together? I didn’t want to pry.”
“We are. We’re very happy together.” She tried to muster a smile.
“You’ve grown up a lot since you first started here. It’s been a real rollercoaster ride for you.”
“It has. And unfortunately, I think the ride has come to an end. I need to get off now.”
“You’re quitting?”
Nicole dug into her purse and took the resignation letter out, handed it across the desk to her boss. “This is my letter of resignation. Sorry for not giving you more of a head’s up, but I’m definitely willing to stay on another few weeks if it would help.”
Remi read the letter. She sat back in her chair, stunned. “Wow. I did not see this one coming. I mean, I should have, but I guess I was too caught up in my own problems to realize that you had plenty of your own to contend with. I’m sorry if I’ve been insensitive to what you’ve been going through.”
“It’s got nothing to do with you. You’re an awesome boss. It’s just everything else that’s gone on. I don’t feel comfortable working for Kane Wright.”
Oh, and by the way—my husband and I are going to start a new company specifically designed to destroy this one.
“So.” Remi tapped her chewed up pen against the desk. “What’s next for you?”
“I’m still not sure,” she lied. “Red and I are going to be planning our wedding—“
“I hope there’s an invite for your coolest boss?”
“Definitely,” Nicole told her.
Remi smiled, and Nicole could see the wheels turning as she processed everything. “Listen, this might not be my place, Nicole,” Remi said, sitting forward now. “And I support your decision. No matter what, I really hope you and I will continue to be…well I think we’re friends.”
“I do too.”
“Good.” Remi sighed. “So, as a friend…I just hope you’ve given a long, hard thought to being unemployed with your husband for any extended period of time. I’d imagine it’s a very new experience for Red, and now you’ll both be home and out of work temporarily. That could be stressful for you guys.”
“Red is working on something new,” Nicole said carefully.
“Oh.” Her boss nodded as if that piece of information explained everything. “Well, what the hell do I know?” She laughed and stood up, extending her hand.
Nicole stood up too and they shook hands firmly.
“Thanks for being so understanding, and for being a great boss,” Nicole said.
“It was easy working with someone like you. And you’ve always got a reference from me.” Remi smiled but the smile was short lived this time. “Unfortunately, because of who you are and your relationship to the former CEO—I’d imagine word will come down that they want today to be your last day, Nicole. I just don’t want you to be surprised if that’s what happens.”
“It’s fine. I totally understand.”
They said their goodbyes and Nicole went back to her desk and began packing up the few things she’d accumulated over the time she’d been at Jameson International. She put most of it in her purse and then she threw out anything she could get rid of.
A moment later her cell was buzzing. She figured it was probably Red checking to see how they’d reacted to her quitting, but when she took her phone out of her purse, the caller ID said: Mom.
“Oh jeez,” she sighed. She debated the pros and cons of answering versus not answering and decided to just be a big girl and deal with her mother.
Nicole left the cubicles and went into the hallway near the bathrooms to talk without disturbing anyone. “Hi Mom,” she said, feigning enthusiasm.
Her mother didn’t even try to fake it. Her voice was cold and distant. “Hello, Nicole. I was wondering why we hadn’t been hearing from you the last few days, but then one of my friends was kind enough to forward me a link to the new article about you and Red.”
“Huh? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe you haven’t seen it. But apparently, the entire world—except for your father and I—knows that the two of you are back together.”
“Who printed this article?” she asked, her stomach suddenly in knots.
Her mother made a noise of exasperation. “That’s not the point, Nicole. You’re back together with him, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, simply.
“Well, isn’t that just lovely,” she muttered.
“Mom, I really hope you’ll support me. I hope you’ll support my relationship with Red because—“
“So the wedding is on again?”
“I feel like I’m being cross-examined.”
“I’d just like to know what’s going on with my own daughter. I didn’t realize that meant I’m cross-examining you. But since you refuse to tell me anything, and I have to find out from the Internet—“
“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know someone had reported on us.”
“This relationship is unhealthy, Nicole. You’ve been up and down, up and down, dragged around by the whims of this rich person who has no regard for anyone but himself and his money.”
“That’s not true, Mom.” Nicole closed her eyes and tried to stay calm. “Listen, I’d love it if we could all get together for dinner and try to start fresh. Could we do that, Mom?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can get past what this man has put your through.”
“Well you need to try, for me.”
“Nicole…” her mother sighed.
“Will you give it another try, for me? Please? Red and I are going to be spendin
g our lives together and I’d like it if you could be a part of that, too.”
“This is not a man who can make a lifetime commitment.”
Nicole was fed up. “Do you want to try or not? I’m pretty much done with this conversation.”
There was a long, long pause. “Fine,” her mother uttered after what felt like an eternity.
“Maybe you and Dad can come to the city and we’ll all have dinner together.”
“That works.”
“I love you, Mom. I’ll be in touch, okay?”
Her mother curtly replied that she loved her too, and then they got off the phone. Nicole let out a weary, tired breath.
It never ends, does it? She thought.
A moment later she was back at her desk, on the computer, staring at The Rag’s front-page headline.
RED AND NICOLE TOGETHER AGAIN!
Beneath the headline was a picture of the two of them coming out of the rental car place the day before. Nicole was shading her eyes from the sunlight, and Red’s arm was on the small of her back as they walked toward his car in the parking lot.
Nicole couldn’t believe it. The Rag was back to reporting on them—in fact, it was probably written by that same creep, Anderson, who’d hounded them until Red had gone and bought the paper.
But Red no longer owned Jameson International and so he no longer owned The Rag. In point of fact, Kane Wright would be the new man in charge over there. Nicole could imagine plenty of scenarios where Kane might like to encourage The Rag to go even further in its stalking and harassing tactics. Kane Wright and The Rag—the two entities seemed tailor made for one another.
“This isn’t good,” Nicole said aloud. “This really isn’t good at all.”
***
Red came into the city to meet her for lunch. They went to Five Napkin Burger, a great little restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen.
“I need a milkshake,” Nicole said, wiping the hair out of her eyes. She’d been paranoid the whole way over to the restaurant that someone was taking pictures, and she’d had to explain to Red all that had gone on that morning; the call from her mother, the realization that The Rag was once again publishing stories about them online, her concerns about Danielle and Kane Wright being married.
The waiter took their orders; Nicole wanted the original five-napkin burger and a black and white milkshake, Red got the burger salad and a beer.
“This will all sort itself out,” Red told her, taking her hand across the table.
Nicole glanced around the place. It was fairly crowded with typical New Yorkers and no one seemed to be paying them the slightest bit of attention. “I just feel like we’re going to be under the microscope again. The last thing I want is for my mom to be finding stuff out about us through the tabloids.”
“I can handle The Rag and that clown Anderson,” Red told her, thanking the waiter as he brought over his beer. He picked it up and took a long sip.
“What if Kane Wright uses them to harass us and release those things about you—the things he’s been threatening us with?”
Red shrugged. “I told you already, I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done and I’ll defend it publicly if necessary.”
Nicole wasn’t so confident. The media could easily twist and distort Red’s reasons for helping those illegal workers come to the United States. For many Americans, anybody with dark skin and a Middle Eastern sounding name was practically Osama Bin Laden reincarnated. It wouldn’t be easy to make a public case that Red was doing the courageous thing in trying to help political dissidents.
“I think maybe we should try and bury the hatchet with him,” Nicole said, eventually.
“With who?”
“Kane Wright.”
Red just laughed. “I think you and your friend Danielle have both been drinking the same Kool-Aid.”
“I’m serious.”
The waiter came with Nicole’s black and white milkshake, which tasted amazing.
Red looked her in the eye. “Nicole, there’s no way in hell I’m going to be BFF with Kane Wright just because he put the moves on your roommate.”
“You’re the one who said my friends are your friends now.”
“Is Kane Wright your friend now?”
“Maybe he will be,” she replied, drinking her shake.
Red’s expression darkened. “I don’t think so.”
She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “We have a chance to smooth things over for a while. Let’s do the right thing and have a double date. Let’s be the bigger people.”
Red just shook his head. “He’s going to burn us if we let our guard down.”
“I didn’t say that we should make him the godfather of our child. I said we should maybe have a drink with him and try and play nice for awhile.”
“Our new company is going to do anything and everything but play nice with Kane Wright and his organization. We’re going to be battling it out day and night to take back what he stole from us.”
“Fine. I understand that we’re starting a company and I want to be a part of it. But can’t we at least call a truce between you and Kane Wright until after the wedding?”
The waiter brought their food and both of them were quiet for a time. Red was picking at his salad, clearly preoccupied. Finally he put his fork down and looked at her. “You’re right. I’m letting my emotions get the best of me.”
“Thank you for seeing that,” Nicole said, relief flooding her. “It will make things so much easier if the four of us can at least be civil with one another.”
Red smiled darkly. “And as Sun Tzu says in The Art of War, we must keep our friends close and our enemies closer.”
***
Nicole’s mother called her at almost seven o’clock that Friday and told her they were stuck in horrible traffic just outside the city.
“How long before you get here?” Nicole asked, rolling her eyes, as Red came over and massaged her neck.
“Honey, I have no idea how long. I don’t know if there’s been an accident or if this is just normal Friday evening traffic.”
“Well how far away are you?”
“The GPS said we were less than an hour away until we hit this gridlock. Nothing’s moving as far as the eye can see.”
“Well, there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ll just keep the food warm and hope it lets up soon.”
“We’ll call back to give an update in the next half hour or so.”
“Thanks, mom. Bye.” Nicole got off the phone and looked at Red.
“That bad?”
“They’re running way late. They would have been late even without traffic, that’s what annoys me most,” Nicole said, opening the oven and checking on the chicken. She took her baster and squirted more broth over it to keep it moist. “It’s ready now. In an hour it’s going to be completely dried out.”
“Relax. What’s the worst that happens—we have chicken jerky for dinner. I like chicken jerky.”
“That’s not funny,” she said, but she was laughing just the same.
He put his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up towards his, and then he leaned in and kissed her deeply.
As usual, the anxious thoughts and fears seemed to slowly ebb, like the tide going out. “If you could just kiss me all the time, I’d really be happy the whole day,” she told him.
“Why didn’t you say so? We can arrange that, no problem.” He leaned in and kissed her again, then on her neck, then moving toward the swell of her cleavage.
“Red! Stop it!” She pushed him away, giggling.
He grabbed her ass with both hands and pulled her against him. “Come on. Now we have time for sure.”
“I need to make sure I keep an eye on the food,” she said. “Please don’t get me crazier than I already am.”
“You’ll be totally relaxed afterwards. Think about it,” he said. “Danielle’s gone out with Kane, your parents are stuck in Friday rush hour traffic. We can get completely
naked right in this kitchen.”
She felt her nipples stiffening and her body responding, especially her lower half. Nicole was still surprised at how wet he could get her just with his talk. But she shook her head no. “Time for that later,” she said. “I need to be on my game right now.”
Red sighed. “Fine. Have it your way.”
“Do you think it was a mistake having them over to my apartment?”
“Nicole, we went over this and over this,” Red told her, walking to the fridge and grabbing a beer. “You said you didn’t want to freak them out by having them come to our house.”
“Our mansion,” she corrected him.
“I believe your exact words were that you didn’t want them to get smacked in the face by my opulent lifestyle.”
Nicole went to her mashed potatoes and glanced at them. “These are hardening. They’re going to be gross.”
“You’re getting caught up in your head,” he said, having a long drink from his beer.
She glanced up from her soon-to-be fossilized potatoes. “Must be nice to just hang out and drink a beer while your fiancé does all the work.”
“It’s not as easy as it looks to be this laid back,” he said with a smirk.
“At least at the house Chef Roland could have helped me deal with this disaster.”
“That would be great, having your folks eat food made by a personal chef in a multi-million dollar mansion.” Red laughed. “Afterwards we could have gotten a helicopter to fly us around the Statue of Liberty.”
“It probably would have been better than this,” Nicole said. She opened the oven again, shook her head. “I need to put some tinfoil on this to keep it warm and keep the moisture in.”
“Where’s the tinfoil again?” Red asked, starting to open cabinets.
“Thanks for at least trying to help,” she replied, opening the third drawer of the cabinet beside the sink. She took out the aluminum foil and pulled out a long strip to overlay the chicken.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” he said, for the millionth time. “Nothing ever goes as badly as you think it’s going to.”
Nicole thought to herself that those sounded like famous last words.