by Lilah May
“What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with us being in love?”
“If only we were the only ones in our little world. If only it were that simple.” She’s uncertain, not sure where to turn.
“It is that simple.” But if she’s lost, I’ll guide her. I’ll show her what’s right.
“What about your parents? Ava? What about you, Bobby? You’re still so young. You have the rest of your life to live.”
“And I want to live that life with you.”
“But how do you know? You haven’t even graduated college.”
“I’ve been with plenty of girls, and they’re nothing compared to you. And I’m more of a man than anybody you’ve ever been with. You know it. I can take care of you, love you, fuck you, better than any other man.” I take her hand and place it on my bulging cock. Even when it’s not erect, I know the thickness and length is formidable. She moans quietly as she feels the searing heat and she involuntarily gives it a rub, making it twitch under her hand.
“I just — I just can’t get rid of this feeling that we’re making a huge mistake.”
I bolt to my feet. “We’re not. Something like this that feels so right, so natural, can’t be a mistake.” She stands, and holds my hands, looking down. “Look at me.” She does.
And I kiss her, full on those sweet lips, and she kisses me back, grabbing onto my shirt, as if she were drowning. I don’t let her go for a minute before reluctantly releasing her. “Does that feel wrong?” She pants, out of breath, and it takes her a moment to catch it.
“I-I-I don’t know,” she stutters. “Bobby. I thought about it and I don’t think I can. We’re not meant to be. Our love isn’t a romance, it’s a tragedy. We were born in different lifetimes and no matter how hard we try, things can’t end up good between us.”
“That’s bullshit. You always overthink things, care too much about what might happen, who you might hurt. I don’t give a shit about all that. I will rip time apart and cement our lifetimes together if I need to.”
“Bobby, I think we’re just confused. You’re young. And I just got out of 13 year marriage. I don’t think I really loved you like that. And I don’t think you —”
“Don’t say another fucking word.” I bury her head into my chest so she doesn’t finish her sentence. I know I’m scaring her, but if she denies my love, I don’t know what I might do, what might come over me.
The dangerous part is that I could take her right now if I want to, or worse, if I lose control. Her eager body is completely submissive in my overpowering arms. I could force myself on her and she wouldn’t resist. She would open herself up to me, yielding to her desire and mine. Then she would know how right we are for each other. That our love isn’t an illusion, some kind of mistake.
But I can’t. With what that fucker Donald just did, I would be the same thing, the same little disgusting monster he is. I have to wait. I have to have just a little more patience. I have to make her want me, both in her heart and body.
I take her by the shoulders and stare into those sweet, loving eyes and declare, “I love you.” Not just to her but to myself.
“I’m sorry.” She doesn’t return those three sweet words, shying away from my gaze as if she’s afraid of me. It hurts so much, more than any of the beatings I’ve taken in the ring, more than all those years watching her trapped. But I can take it.
I take her back in my arms and simply hold her, trying to swallow her with my body. What are a few more days of heartbreaking, gut wrenching pain? Especially when I know that I’m so close to making her mine.
“No, I’m sorry,” I reassure her. “It’s OK. I understand why you feel that way. You just need time. And I’ll give you that time. But not too much because I can’t wait that long.” I reach down between her legs and trace the lips of her pussy, the moisture seeping through her thin panties. She shudders on contact. “And it looks like you can’t either. The camping trip this weekend. I’ll give you till then.”
CHAPTER 25
BOBBY
And finally, the time comes. Well, almost.
I didn’t want to come to this meeting. Especially when I had been looking forward to seeing Lisa after so long. Well, it wasn’t that long. Less than a week. But it felt like years. I didn’t text her, call her or visit her. I want to give her the space she needs but it’s torture. Every second I think of her, every minute I pick up my phone and force myself to put it back down.
First, I need to handle this one little thing.
Thanks to Liv, who found out every step of their plan, we aren’t walking in blind. But they still hold the buyer’s power, knowing a small duo like us couldn’t handle the logistics of the app’s potential reach ourselves.
We had to be careful. Especially with James King at this company’s helm. I don’t know how they held up every other VC firm in the city, forcing us to come to them, but it’s definitely impressive.
Alex waves to me frantically. Of course he’s already here. I’m probably late.
“You’re late!” He reminds me, of course.
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” I shrug. It doesn’t matter to me. We’re doing them a courtesy.
“They’ve been waiting for ten minutes. And it’s on a fucking Saturday! Are you crazy?”
“They’re the ones who wanted to meet today. I was happy to wait till Monday.”
I’m back in the West End and I take the time to take in the spectacular height of the tower, 108 stories of steel and glass, the tallest tower in the West End. The Willis Tower. To have a floor or even half a floor in this building means you’ve made it, it means your company is part of the elite, one of the most valuable businesses in the city, if not the country.
“King Investments is one of the most powerful venture capital firms in the country, with a huge presence in Silicon Valley, China, and New York. Each one of these guys we’re meeting today is worth at least half a billion dollars.” Alex gives me the lowdown.
We walk into the lobby which stretches upwards for at least four floors, from the ceiling hangs a huge glass chandelier except it’s as big as a bus. That had to cost a few million dollars alone.
“So what? You know that with everything in the pipeline, we’re worth at least double that not to mention all the equity we already own in the apps we sold. If I had to estimate, we’re worth about a billion.”
“That’s future money you’re talking about. If you want to get that money, you’d do well not piss these guys off. They’re all connected like a fraternity. You fuck with one of these companies, then all of them start ignoring our calls.”
“Look, they want something from us. Not the other way around. We’re in the power position here so act like it. They’ll jump on any hint of weakness we show.”
“Ohhh. So that’s why you came late.”
“Yup. It was on purpose.” Thwack. Alex wasn’t falling for that.
“You think I don’t know you? Now get your head in the game. It’s show time.” The elevator doors slide shut. Alex is murmuring his lines over and over again. He puts on a damn good presentation. He really is a one-man show. I just handle the tech questions.
“Don’t worry Alex. You’ll be fine.” I reassure him.
“We can’t all be entirely cold-blooded like you. The rest of us mortals down here get nervous even if we think we’re ready.” The elevator dings and the doors slide open. A secretary greets us, asks us if we want something to drink and then leads us into the conference room.
When she opens the door, a line of men sit on one side. Old, paunchy, greying balding men, just like the ones you would expect heading a multi-billion dollar company. All except the guy to the left. Sitting at the far end of the table was the man from the gym.
James King. I knew it had to be him.
He looks not even close to 30, while the rest are well over 60. His blue eyes and blonde hair are still just as perfect, the genes that guy inherited must have been purer than the driven snow.
&nb
sp; The man in the middle, however, looks faintly similar to George Washington with his big nose and frilly wig, but that’s as far as the likeness goes. The rest of him looks like Santa Claus. He stands first.
“Welcome, Mr. Nelson, I believe?” Santa Washington says.
“Yes, pleasure to meet you. And this is my partner, Mr. Carter,” Alex replies, cordial as always.
“Thank you for coming in on such short notice.” Not like they gave us much choice, but I keep my mouth shut. Alex might just self-combust.
“It was no trouble, Mr. Campbell. We were looking forward to this meeting.”
“And Mr. Carter. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“You can call me Bobby.” I don’t like to talk much at these meetings.
He laughs, a deep belly rumbling laugh. “Well, then. You can call me Phil and let me introduce you to the rest of the board.” We go through the necessary handshakes and introductions.
At first I thought he was an up and comer, someone who had been allowed to sit in for the experience but then I see him for real. His eyes are sharp and in one glance seem to already have looked us over and assessed us. When he looks into me, I look into him.
He is the head shark, the CEO, the rest are just fringe men, window dressing. The one making the decisions is him and he’s trying to hide it. I can’t blame them. We’re doing the same thing. And he knows it, just like we do.
“Why don’t you get started, Alex?”
“We all know that everyone loves dogs. I’m sure everyone one of you has had a dog at one point.”
“I’m allergic.” It’s James interrupting and I hate him even more. He’s trying to trip Alex up, test us. Or he is just an out and out dick.
“Well, even if you don’t. You know someone who does.” Alex doesn’t trip easily. “Now, I know that sympathy doesn’t really work for us cold business people.” Hmmm...risky joke. But they all burst into laughter. They love to make fun of how the rest of the world thinks of them. “But this app will tug at the heartstrings of every normal dog owner out there. That’s somewhere between 37% and 47% of the households in America. Close to half the country is our potential market. Those are insane numbers, not to mention all of the sympathetic non-dog owners.”
“Is that it? You just want dog owners and dog sympathizers?” James interrupts again.
“Of course not. We aim to expand this app so that advertisers can target consumers locationally, when a consumer passes by their store or a store selling their items. It can include any discounts or promotions occurring at that time. But of course this is all while focusing on our main service which is the lost dog functionality.”
“Come on. Let’s not lose the big picture. If we can transfer this as quickly as possible to solely advertising, offering special deals to keep the consumer subscribed, we all know that’s where the money is.” Someone who doesn’t own a dog not understanding an app for lost dogs. Big surprise.
“Actually, we’re very devoted to keeping the app’s main service as a location helper for dogs. With dog chip technology becoming more widespread, it will be easier warn drivers in a more concentrated fashion. Instead of having them slow down within a mile radius, we can warn them within 100 meters.” Thank you, Alex, for defending the dog part, but I don’t think it’s gonna work on this cold-hearted bastard.
“Forget about the dogs. It’s not happening. Talk to me about the advertising potential.” He had dollar signs for eyes, and all he sees are big piles of cash.
“You’re definitely right about the advertising potential,” You don’t need to cater to this asshole, Alex. Fight back. “But we can have our cake and eat it too. The advertising revenue doesn’t disappear just because we maintain services to dog owners. In fact, I am positive that this will net us consumer sympathy as well as garner many more subscribers than if we did not offer the service at all. What that translates to, in words you might understand, is more money.” There you go, buddy.
“Fuck the dogs. We’re not interested in the goddamn dogs. We’re interested in —” My turn.
“Look, we know exactly what you’re interested in thanks to Santa Claus over there. You really should get your people in line.” I stare straight at James King and no one else. “You’re interested in exploiting consumers. You’re interested in the billions of dollars in revenue you can earn from locationally targeted advertisements, which every single fortune 500 company is going to want a piece of. We know you have companies lined up down the street, ready to jump in on this. We know you’ve nailed down the estimated profit and already informed your shareholders how much to expect in the coming quarters. But you guys really jumped the gun. Because you still need one thing. Our code. But we couldn’t give less of a shit about that.” I could see Alex almost faint next to me. “Just like you don’t give a shit about the dogs. We understand how much this app is really worth. So if you want our code, we want the dogs. It’s simple. Let us know how much you want to offer by the time we drive back to Northfield, if not, you’re going to have a lot to explain to your shareholders. So you better start giving a shit about dogs or at least pretend to. Now, I’ve got somewhere more important to be.” And then I walk out, without a look behind me. The old men are scoffing and muttering, but James King doesn’t say a word. Alex knows he has to walk out with me, present a united front and all, but I know he’s barely suppressing the urge to run back in there, apologize, and grovel for any kind of offer their still willing to give us.
As soon as the elevator doors close, Alex is screaming in my ear and I can feel spittle land on my cheek.
“What the hell were you thinking! What did I tell you right before we walked in? Don’t piss them off! And what did you do? You walked in and you pissed in their faces. You pulled your goddamn cock out, that cock you’re so fucking proud of, and slapped each one of them in the face before pissing all over their table and taking a shit on their floor. What the fuck!” I let him take it all out on me. He deserves it. He was doing great but I just couldn’t stand that fucking guy, James King.
Something about him just pissed me off. That aloof frigidity. Maybe cause I’m the complete opposite of him. I’m fire and he’s ice.
He probably didn’t even get angry at my outburst, calmly internalized it and logically determined the best course of action. If we ever make robots look like humans, they would look and act like him.
When Alex is all sputtered out, I just turn and hug him.
“Thank you Alex. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” I take him by the shoulders and face him straight on. “But you know how important that was to me. And they sure as hell didn’t want what we wanted. So fuck them. I don’t want to do business with a company like that.” I mean people like James King.
“I know, I know. But still, there’s a right way to do things and there’s your way of doing things.” Looks like he finally calmed down. “What if right now they’re calling all their friends up again and telling them to never give us an offer not just for this app but for any of our other apps again?”
“If they have friends then they definitely have enemies. We’ll be fine."
CHAPTER 26
LISA
“For god sakes, Donald. You’re an adult. You can’t just do whatever you want, whenever you want, and especially whoever you want without having to face the consequences. You decided to abandon us for that whore, so deal with your decision and stay out of our lives.”
“You know I could get everything in the divorce and leave you penniless, after what happened the last time? This time I have a doctor’s report and everything.” I’m not falling for his tricks. If he was going to do anything, he would’ve done it already. He’s just trying to manipulate me again. This time, over the phone.
“Yea? Who’s gonna believe you? You have any witnesses? And we already signed the papers. You think I’m the same gullible fool you married 15 years ago?”
“Christ, I gave you everything you wanted in the divorce and this is how
you treat me?”
“You cheated on me, Donald. Do you understand? You did all this to yourself. You fucked up so now deal with it.”
“You know our marriage was all but finished anyways. I just sped things up.”
“Great, Donald. So I should be thanking you for cheating? What the fuck do you want, Donald?”
“I just heard about the camping trip.” What a way to start the weekend.
“Who told you about it?” Ava must have. No one else would. This was supposed to be our trip away from Donald. She must really be having a hard time with this divorce, no matter how much she acted like it didn’t affect her.
“What does it matter? I just wanted to get together like old times.” How is he ignoring what happened just the other night? Or for that matter, our entire marriage?
“Old times for me were torture. So, I’m sorry if I don’t want to get together like old times.”
“Come on! It’ll be fun.” He’s not listening to a thing I say. Like always.
“No, Donald. With you there, it won’t be fun. If you show your face at Sunrise today, I’m going to get a restraining order. I mean it.”
“But that campsite is mine,” he whines. He always was a whiner, and he remains true to form.
“Do you want to go to court over this? You think I’m an idiot? I know you’ve squirreled away money for your mistress. If you want, I’ll take half of that, too.”
“But what about Ava? She misses me!”
“She knows everything and she thinks you're scum.”
“You bitch. Stop filling my precious angel’s head with your poisonous words.” He always has been paranoid.
“I’m going to ignore what you just said because I’m trying to act civil. Actually I’ve been trying to get her to visit you. But she refuses. As she should. There’s really no other way to spin what you did.”
“She seemed fine when I was there the other night.” Does he have no tact? No shame? Bringing up the what happened again?