Checkmate

by Diana Nixon

  “Scarlett, where are you going?” My mom called after me.

  “I’m leaving!” I shouted more roughly than I intended to for her. She didn’t do anything to me to deserve my attitude, but I was just so pissed off! I wanted to tear down anything that got in my way of getting back home.

  “I thought you were going to stay for dinner.”

  “I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Is everything all right?

  “Better than ever.” At least now, I didn’t feel guilty for ignoring Dominick’s bullshit about loving me. The asshole obviously didn’t have a damn clue of what the word love meant.

  Chapter 14

  Scarlett

  I didn’t wait to see my father to say good-bye. My mom was a little surprised by my rapid departure, but I said Jillian was in trouble and needed me ASAP. Even though I said I would call her, I didn’t do that. In fact, I didn’t want to talk to anyone now. All I needed was space and a few hours of peace and quiet.

  I thought that going back home would make me feel better, but as soon as I crossed the threshold of my apartment, the reality swallowed me. I leaned against the closed door, feeling predatory tears running down my cheeks.

  How could he? How could he spend a night with Pamela and then come to tell me that he loved me? How could I be so stupid to fall for his charm?

  I didn’t even want to think about tomorrow. I had to go to work, even though I had no idea how to act in Dominick’s presence after what I read in the paper. Should I pretend that I didn’t see anything? Should I simply follow the newly set rules and stay away from him? Yeah, it was the best thing to do. After all, I needed him out of my life, and now I had even more reasons to want that. Why was he complicating my work life? Work was my world, my escape, how could this one man make me not want to go to work just to avoid facing him?

  Monday morning started with a terrible headache. I looked at the alarm clock and cursed mentally. I didn’t have the slightest desire to get out of my bed that at that very moment, felt like the safest place in the world. Slowly, I sat up and the memories of the last night flashed in my mind.

  I wasn’t going to go out, or drink. But after a few hours of misery, I realized that I needed a drink. And somehow, drinking alone didn’t feel right. So I changed into a pair of dark-blue jeans combined with a bright-red top, and went to Jaime’s. I liked the bar. First, because it was only two blocks away from my house, and second — because it was a gay bar, which meant I didn’t have to worry about waking up in another stranger’s bed before the sun was shining the next morning.

  “Margarita, please,” I said to the bartender.

  He nodded and smiled, as if he knew something I didn’t.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked, suddenly offended by his behavior.

  “You know where you are, don’t you?” He asked, nodding around.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Women come here only when they are depressed.”

  Well, shit…

  “Can you read minds?” I asked, taking a sip of my drink.

  “I wish I could,” the guy said. “I could make a lot more in tips if I could.”

  “You are straight, right?”

  He smirked. “Is it that obvious?”

  I looked at his stylish hairdo, freshly-shaved cheeks and carefully chosen shirt and pants. He obviously tried his best to fit into the atmosphere of the place.

  “Actually, yes,” I said, chuckling. “The look in your eyes betrays you.”

  “Oh, really? And what kind of a look do I have?” He asked, leaning over the bar counter.

  “Measuring,” I said. “I’m one of the few women here, and your eyes immediately found me when I entered the bar.”

  He laughed quietly. “Sorry, it was supposed to be your stay-away-from-men night, and now you think you should go somewhere else, because I couldn’t help myself and started flirting with you.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Jared.” He pointed to his badge.

  “Right. So, Jared, you are right: I came here to have a drink and enjoy good music. I’m sick and tired of my life, so please do me favor: pretend to be a gay, okay?”

  He nodded, smiling. “Deal.”

  And so, my night started. I didn’t know how many Margaritas I had, but when I came back home, I could barely stand on my feet. I didn’t even bother to wash my face, I simply went to my bedroom and passed out the moment my head touched the pillow.

  That’s why now I hated myself so much. I knew that that many Margaritas wouldn’t do me any good and cursed the day when Jill first made me try it.

  Looking at the alarm clock again, I realized that I had only half an hour to make myself look more or less presentable. I went to the bathroom and flinched seeing my reflection in the mirror. ‘Presentable’ was an unattainable goal for today. I shook my head tiredly and stepped into the shower, hoping I would live through the day without any more trouble.

  Luck is a bitch, I thought to myself, crossing the threshold of my office. My secretary wasn’t at work yet, and no one could warn me about Dominick waiting for me there.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, tossing my bag and jacket into the chair.

  The asshole didn’t bother to answer my question. He was still sitting on my couch with his arms crossed, watching me intently.

  “Do you have hearing problems?” I snapped, pretending to be looking through the papers, left by Stevie.

  “Is this how you treat all the men you sleep with?”

  “Excuse me?” I turned around, barely able to control my anger. Who the hell did he think he was to talk to me like that?

  “Oh, right. I forgot that you haven’t been with a man for ages.”

  My mouth opened and closed, I was too shocked to say a word.

  Dominick smirked at my expression and added, “Nothing hurts like the truth, right?”

  “What are all these smart-ass comments about?”

  “Well-” He rose to his feet and came closer. “I’m here for a payback.”

  That was it — the moment I felt my blood boiling in my veins. “So you think you have a right to come here for payback?” I shouted. “Don’t you think it’s me who should be bitching?”

  He frowned, staring at me in confusion.

  “Now, let me show you something,” I said, heading for the door. I went out into the hall and found yesterday’s paper on Stevie’s desk. Then I went back into my office and slammed it against my desk, pointing at the huge picture posted on Page Six.

  “See, I don’t think you deserve any better treatment after lying to me, over and over again.”

  “What the fuck is this?” He hissed, taking the paper in his hands. “Bastards!”

  “What? You didn’t expect anyone to catch you leaving your ex’s house in the morning?”

  “Scarlett, you got it all wrong.”

  “No shit?” I laughed sarcastically.

  Dominick took a deep breath. “I can explain.”

  “Explain what? The fact that you can’t keep your dick in your pants and need to fuck every woman around you?”

  “I didn’t sleep with her!”

  “Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Do you ever even believe your own lies?”

  “Trust me, Scarlett, this picture doesn’t mean anything. Just like the night I spent at Pamela’s!”

  “Uh, so now you tell me that you spent a night at her place but didn’t sleep with her? Your explanation sucks, Dominick.”

  “It was late and I-”

  “You what?” I snapped, staring at him. I was seriously tired of this conversation, as well as of everything that put Dominick and me in one sentence. “Just please don’t tell me it was an accident.”

  “Exactly!”

  “Please, save me from this ridiculous show. You surely couldn’t just trip and accidentally fall into her vagina.”

  “For crying out loud, Scarlett! How many times do I have to repeat that I didn’t sleep with Pamela?”r />
  “No amount of words will be enough to make me believe it.” I gave him the angriest glance that I was capable of. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do.” I turned on my heel and went to sit in my chair. The conversation was over.

  “Fine.”

  Dominick tossed the paper into the trash can and stormed out of my office, slamming the door shut behind him. For a second I thought I felt the floor vibrating under my feet. Now, he was pissed? Serves you right, douche, I thought to myself and got to work.

  Hours flew in a blur. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make myself concentrate on anything but the damn fact that I still wanted to see Dominick. I was so angry at him, but even more I was angry at myself for being such a love-struck idiot.

  “Ms. Wilson, your father is on the line,” Stevie said through the speakerphone.

  “Hey, Dad,” I greeted.

  “Is everything all right, Darling? You left without saying good-bye.”

  “I know, I’m sorry about that. But Jillian got into a trouble and you know her, waiting has never been her strongest quality.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “Um, nothing serious, she’s fine now.”

  “Oh, good to know that. So how are the things between you and Dominick going? We didn’t have much time to talk about that.”

  And that was the last thing I wanted to talk about now.

  “Everything’s fine,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t ask any more questions.

  “You sure? Don’t get me wrong, Scarlett, but you two seemed a little tensed during our dinner.” Oh, and I thought we did well. I was certain my parents wouldn’t see anything going on between us that night.

  Tensed was an understatement. Mostly I tried to ignore his gazes and meaningful smiles. But my father had always been hard to fool.

  “Is he trying to boss you around?”

  “What?” I almost laughed at the question. He didn’t even know how close he was to the truth. Dominick surely knew how to boss me around. Not only at work…

  “I know that he can be a little rough,” my father added, “but he’s a good man. And he promised to keep an eye on you.”

  What the…

  “Did you ask him to babysit me?”

  “I only asked him to cheer you up a little.”

  Un-fucking-believable…

  “Let me tell you something, Daddy.” I took a deep breath, trying to calm down and not to start yelling into the handset. “In Dominick Altier’s case, cheering up means only one thing. And I’m sure that it’s not what you want him to do with me.”

  “Oh-” There was a short pause on the other end of the line. “No offense, Sunshine, but I’m sure Dominick would never do anything like that to you. Or has he already tried to-”

  “No!” I said, before my father would end that question.

  “Then why don’t you give him a chance?”

  Was he being serious?

  “What kind of a chance are you talking about?”

  “A chance to make friends with you.”

  I sighed. Okay, that was not what I thought it would be.

  “Dominick and I are here to work, Dad. We don’t have to be best friends to conduct negotiations and sign contracts.”

  I could hear the smile in my father’s voice when he said, “You are so young, my girl. One of a few things that you should always remember is the way you treat your business partners. You will never be able to succeed, if you work with someone who doesn’t share or support your opinion. And trust me, Darling, friendship is the best basis of a good corporation.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll remember that,” I said, already knowing that Dominick and I would be anything, but friends.

  “There’s one more thing I wanted to discuss with you.”

  Thank God, the lecture’s over, I thought to myself.

  “Do you remember Bradley Leighton?”

  “Of Leighton’s Advertising?”

  “Yes, that’s the one.”

  “I do. Why?” As far as I remembered, my father didn’t like the man.

  “He called me yesterday and offered a very promising deal. He’s working on a promo campaign for one of the Senate candidates. He said we could collaborate to make the campaign more successful.”

  “Why would he suddenly want to work with us?”

  “He was quite honest with me and said that his company is in need of financial support, but he doesn’t want anyone to know about that. So we can give him what he needs and help Leighton’s Advertising gain their former popularity. In return, we will receive a good percentage of their current and future project’s profit.”

  “Does he realize that by giving us power, he risks losing his company forever?”

  “I’m sure he does. But his company is like his second baby. He can’t let anyone destroy it and he knows that we always look for new opportunities to branch out. So I promised to save his company’s name, even if the name would be the only thing still connecting his family to Leighton’s Advertising.”

  “He must be desperate to agree to that.”

  “He really is.”

  “Okay, so what do you want from me?”

  “I thought you could become our representative in San Francisco, where their headquarters are.”

  Well, that was unexpected…

  “You mean you want me to move to San Francisco? But what about my work here?” And what about Dominick and me? Even though I felt like I hated him to death, the thought of losing him suddenly made my heart shrink.

  “We will find someone to replace you. Being our official representative will give you great experience and an opportunity to come back here as the head of our company.”

  “I know, but-”

  “Isn’t it what you always wanted, Scarlett?”

  I swallowed hard. Of course, my father knew how much I wanted to head his company. The problem was that now I wasn’t sure if that was still the primary goal…

  “You know, it’s been my dream for what feels like forever,” I said, staring blankly at my notebook.

  “You don’t sound excited. Do you want me to ask someone else to go to San Francisco?”

  “No, of course, not. I’ll go there.”

  “Good. Then I’ll call you back later to discuss the details.”

  “When do you need me to be there?” Suddenly the matter of time became the most important issue.

  “Next Monday.”

  “Okay.” We said good-byes and I hung up the phone, feeling my heart beating fast in my chest.

  So that was the end…

  The end of my tortures and sleepless nights. My father was right, I needed to think about my career. It was just about time to remember that I was a part of the family with a name that meant a lot. After all, I was finally given what I had been dreaming about for years — a chance to prove to everyone that I was my father’s daughter, his only heir and his only hope as far as his company went. I couldn’t let him down.

  I took my cell phone and called Jillian. “Have a minute?”

  “No, but whenever you sound like this, it means that you need me. What happened?”

  “I’m going to San Francisco.”

  “Well, that’s good news. Why are you so upset?”

  “I mean, I’m leaving New York and I don’t know when I’m coming back.”

  “Wait, what about your job and me? Are you going to leave me here to deal with my one-hell-of-a-boss alone?”

  I smiled. “You can handle him. I’m sure you will be able to show him who’s the real boss here.”

  “Damn true.” I could tell she was smiling by the tone in her voice.

  “Shall we have lunch together?”

  “Sure, if Mr. Perfect let’s me.”

  “Let me know, if he doesn’t. I’ll talk to him.”

  “I thought you two didn’t talk to each other anymore?”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because I saw him a few minutes ag
o, and he looked like a pissed cat in early March.”

  I laughed into the handset. “What?”

  “Well, you know, like a cat whose balls need a good massage.”

  “Oh, my God, Jill you sure he can’t hear you?” I said through my laughter.

  “I don’t really care. He gave me so much work to do, I’m kind of glad to know that his balls hurt.”

  “Okay, let’s talk about it at lunch,” I said.

  “I sure as hell don’t want to talk about that at lunch.”

  “Fine, we will just eat then.”

  “Okay, now I need to work my butt off to please his Highness’s ass.”

  “Good luck!”

  “Thanks, I will need it.”

  One thing that always surprised me about people like Jillian was that they never knew what a bad mood meant. Even if they had problems, they always knew how to deal with them. Even if it included an incredible amount of tequila in the form of Margaritas.

  I didn’t expect visitors that morning, so seeing Oliver, standing at the threshold of my office, was kind of surprising.

  “Sorry, I forgot to call,” he said, giving me his trademark smile.

  “No worries, come on in.” Unlike his brother, I was glad to see him.

  “I was actually looking for Dominick,” Oliver said, taking a seat facing me.

  “Isn’t he in his office?”

  “He is, but he didn’t want to see me.”

  “What?”

  “Well, he said he didn’t have time to listen to my smart-ass lectures. Which makes me think he had a fight with you.”

  I stared at him, surprised. “Does his bad mood always have something to do with me?”

  “As far as I know, yes.”

  “Well, I don’t think his belly-aching is my fault.” I smiled, hoping my voice wouldn’t give away my true feelings. “Besides, he sleeps with so many different women, anyone of them could have pissed him off.”

  Oliver laughed. “You two are so alike, you know?”

  I shook my head. “Never noticed that. At least we are certainly different when it comes to sleeping around.” I clicked my teeth and then cocked my head at him, then straightened it out again and gave him a meaningful stare.

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Oliver looked at me, squinting. “Especially considering that you are the only woman he has been having a relationship with since… well, forever.”