by Claire Adams
“What are you talking about?” I asked very carefully.
“Aria, you’re a really smart girl, don’t play dumb now. Unless you have found a way to give me the twenty-thousand I already paid back in—”
“Yes, I will pay it to you in installments as soon as I can,” I cut him off.
“You can’t do that. Did you read the contract?” He asked again, now sounding genuinely concerned. “You should never sign things without reading them properly. Just advice for the future.”
“I skimmed it,” I snapped. “And have no idea which part you are referring to!”
“The part where, if you break the contract, you owe me the sum I have already paid on your mother’s behalf. Within 10 days. Oh, and you lose your job, but I guess that’s the part you had already figured out on your own.”
I felt the ground escape from my feet. How could I have been stupid and gotten into something I couldn’t get out of, without even reading the contract?
“You can’t do this to me,” I said, tears running down my face.
“I don’t want to,” he said gently. “I want us to enjoy each other and if you don’t it won’t be nearly as fun for me either, believe me when I say that. I never wished to coerce you into anything, but you are leaving me no choice. We were having a great time until you went and fucked it up.”
“I fucked it up?” I yelled in anger. “I did? Really? I don’t recall telling you who you could or could not speak to and trying to control every aspect of your life!”
“I was looking out for you, god damn it! Don’t you see that? That jerk hurt you and yet you were standing there being nice and friendly, willing to go on coffee dates with him, as though he hadn’t wronged you in any way.”
“It wasn’t a date and never was going to be. You’re the one who doesn’t see it! Spending all that time with you was what really helped me move on from Rick. This whole year I had been moping about how hurt I was, never fully able to accept what he had done.” I was crying. “Then you came along – and – and – I saw how much fun I could have and what I was missing out on while nursing a heartache. You helped me get over him, and that coffee was going to be a symbol of my new-found strength. To show I didn’t care. But you just saw me smiling at another man and decided all on your own that I was wronging you in some way. It was not okay for you to tell me to stop talking to him, Zayden. Do you understand that?”
“We’ve already been over this. It doesn’t matter anyway, Aria. You’re stuck in this contract, whether you like it or not. It would be immensely helpful to the both of us if you just accepted it and tried to enjoy yourself.”
I felt like I was trapped in a windowless room with nowhere to go. How could he be okay doing this to me? There was no way I could produce twenty-thousand dollars in such a short time, and he knew it.
“I won’t enjoy any of it. I promise you that. And I’ll try and make it so you don’t either,” I said with all the spite I could muster, then hung up before he could reply.
For the next hour I sat in the teller’s booth with my hands covering my face, bawling my eyes out, not even caring that there were cameras set up here and Zayden would be able to see how miserable I was. There was hardly any shred of my pride left anyway. I had sold all my dignity for sixty-thousand dollars. I was that girl.
Chapter 10
Zayden
I angrily slammed the phone onto my bed. I wasn’t controlling. That was a terrible excuse to get out of the contract. It wouldn’t be a contract if she could just bail at any time. It felt for a bit like I was being taken advantage of. I was getting the shabby end of the deal anyway. In a fit of fury, I had failed to notice that Gina was watching me from outside my open door.
“What was that about?” She asked with an annoying smirk.
“Why do you care?”
“Cause you’ve been swearing uncontrollably for the past five minutes. I am just curious,” she said.
I hadn’t even realized I was doing that. Aria was capable of making me feel completely and utterly out of control.
“It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
Gina didn’t take the hint. Instead, she made herself comfortable on my bed and extended her hand, which I refused.
“Zayden,” she said, looking at me sharply. “If we are going to make this work, we have to learn to be friends.”
“I don’t have any interest in being your fucking friend. Now get out,” I snapped.
She didn’t flinch. Instead smiled, which annoyed me to no end. “Lady troubles I presume?”
“Did I not tell you I didn’t have any ‘ladies’ to worry about?” I asked, wishing she would just get out of my room.
“That’s not what it sounded like on the phone. You haven’t seemed so passionate since we first met. Come on, you can talk to me. I know you better than you know yourself.”
“Bullshit. If you knew me you wouldn’t be here in my room when I just want you to leave me the fuck alone.”
“I’m just trying to help. I don’t suppose you have had the chance to consider my offer yet?”
“Clearly I’m dealing with much more important shit right now. If only you saw beyond yourself for just a second.”
She got up and approached me, while I clenched my fists, still burning with anger.
“Do not touch me,” I said, glaring at her.
“I wasn’t going to.” She shrugged and walked towards my liquor cabinet. “I am way past any pretenses. I told you what I wanted and I am not going to make futile and needless attempts to try and sleep with you anymore.”
She walked towards me with a glass. “Scotch on the rocks. You look like you need a drink.”
“You think you know me so well because you know what I like to drink?” I scoffed. “Guess what? So does ever teenage girl in the country who reads ZEN magazine.”
“Just take the drink and relax. I can draw you up a nice bath if you want. I’m here for you. Although you don’t think that’s possible, obviously.”
I begrudgingly accepted the drink and took a large swig, surprised by how much better it made me feel. “Happy?”
“Not yet. Who were you speaking to? What’s bothering you so much?”
“It’s work,” I lied. “A very important deal might be falling through but I won’t know until tomorrow. It’s a takeover of a boutique bank that would have really helped our expansion strategies.”
“Is the boutique bank named Aria?” She said, probably feeling clever. “I heard you use that name.”
“Aria is an employee helping me with the paperwork. Do you want to see her employee profile from the bank? You probably don’t believe she is actually working for me do you?”
“Oh, I believe she’s working for you alright, but in more ways than one.”
“You want to be friends?” I snapped. “Then don’t fucking push it and trust me. I don’t know if I will be accepting your offer yet, but if you want me to then you really need to do better than whatever this is.”
“I made you a drink!” She exclaimed as though she had just built me the Eiffel Tower.
“And now I am asking that you get out.”
“Fine. I tried.” She marched away, leaving me alone with my thoughts again.
I had no idea how I was going to deal with the Aria situation. I had two options. The first was completely unacceptable: I could terminate the contract on her terms. No, that was not happening. I would have to be really weak in order to let a twenty year old girl win like that. Letting her off easy would be admitting defeat, something I had never done in my life, and I wasn’t going to start now. This was why I wanted to continue the contract. Plus, I craved her body. I slept every night dreaming of the times we had sex and thinking of all the ways in which I could please her and she could please me. I wasn’t going to sit there and pretend that the sex part didn’t matter; it did and it was quite a significant part of why I enjoyed our dalliance so much.
But there was more…
There w
ere the sassy conversations we had. There was her intelligence. There was her stubborn defiance that at once made me so fond of her and so frustrated with her. There was the way she laughed: so contagious. And the way she removed her perfectly red hair from her eyes, slightly frowning through the side of her mouth, assuming nobody would notice her annoyance with the strand that dared to interfere with her vision. There was also the way she fucked me: with so much passion and effort. For someone who had only had sex once before me, she was more talented than any woman I had ever slept with. She just knew how to drive me completely and utterly insane, in and out of bed.
Somewhere between the contract and the dates in my office and all the talks about her Economics paper, Aria Roberts had managed to penetrate a part of my being that I believed had long ceased to exist. This wasn’t something I was proud of, but it was, unfortunately, a fact that I could no longer ignore. I cared about Aria, more than I had cared about any girl or woman in a long time. It mattered to me that she was happy and it mattered to me that she was happy with me. The way things had taken a turn, she was not going to be happy with me if I forced her to stay in the contract. But the alternative was to let her go, and that was not something I would allow happen.
The second option was to force her to continue the contract – the option I had already inadvertently chosen, the minute she talked of possibly breaking it – but to find a way to make her happy with me again. No matter what I had said to her about my reaction to her ex-boyfriend, truth was it was pure jealously.
Something I really needed to keep in control, at least around her, even if I felt it inside. She had said I had gotten too controlling. I wasn’t sure how I could fix that. That was the side effect of my entire existence: being on top of the food chain all my life involved the ability to get everyone around me to do as I say at all times. Mesmerized by my wealth and power, not a single person – other than my mother, and she too had to use emotionally manipulative tactics to defy me – had ever felt the need to criticize my approach. People usually just resigned to accepting me as a superior and did as I said.
Aria was obviously different from most people I knew, so I had to find a new approach. I didn’t have to, technically. I could let her continue the contract and be miserable. Some part of me felt like that was exactly what she deserved. But, no. I would not be able to handle an encounter with her where I knew that she would rather be any place in the world other than with me. If she wasn’t enjoying herself, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy her company. She wouldn’t be the Aria I had grown to care for.
So perhaps it was time to try something new. I picked up my phone and called Aria. She didn’t answer so I kept calling until she did.
“I get it, I am confined to your contract until eternity and beyond – or whenever you decide you are done with me. You made it very, very clear already. What more do you want?” She sounded like she had been crying.
“I want to apologize,” I said as softly as possible. “For my behavior. I am sorry.”
There was silence on the other end for what felt like a lifetime. She must have been shocked. This apology was probably the last thing she was expecting.
“Are you really sorry?” She asked, sounding much less miserable.
“I am. But I am not letting you out of the contract. That’s not negotiable.”
“Then why are we having this conversation right now?”
“Because I want to apologize. Because you deserve an apology. This contract is meaningless if you hate me.”
“Well I don’t…hate you. I never said that,” she said, and I felt relief spread through my whole body.
“In that case, I will see you in the office tomorrow?” I was clutching the phone very close to my ears. “You are out of vacation days, you know. The other tellers might think I’m playing favorites.”
She giggled, to my surprise. “Well, you are.”
“They don’t need to know that. Anyway, I would really like to see you tomorrow at the office and we can discuss the contract and how to proceed in a manner that pleases you. How does that sound?”
She simply said “okay,” which was still better than a “no.” I could work with “okay.”
“Have a good night Aria, I will see you tomorrow.”
“You too,” she said and then hung up.
Tomorrow I would have to employ all the skills I had accumulated as a businessman in negotiation, so that when the conversation was over, Aria would think it was her idea to continue with the contract.
For now I was just relieved and fell into my bed, finally relaxed after a very difficult few weeks.
THE BOSS #3
Chapter 1
Aria
After the bizarre phone conversation I had with Zayden, I was very confused about my own feelings. He had apologized, and certainly sounded remorseful. If he wanted to continue this – whatever this was – he probably would not go back to his controlling ways. Or so I hoped. On the one hand, I really, really wanted to believe him—the truth was that I missed spending time with him, even though I hated to admit it. On the other hand, if I had learned one valuable lesson in my twenty years of existence, it was that people did not change. This wasn’t for lack of trying, but human nature demanded a deeply ingrained sense of self that was intrinsic to each person, and getting rid of that was not very different from getting rid of an actual organ. My dad had taught me this. Growing up, I saw the efforts he made to be more financially responsible; he really wanted to change and it was obvious even to a ten year old. Yet he managed to drag my family into bankruptcy, the price of which we were still paying today. Especially me. If it hadn’t been for my dad’s terrible decisions, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now. My mom wouldn’t be in the situation she was in to begin with. Sometimes, it was very difficult not to hate him.
My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, and I was glad, because I was entering dangerous territory: Allowing my thoughts to drift towards my father was like opening a can of worms that was best left shut very tight.
“Come in,” I said yawning.
The door swung open. It was Nick. “So, you’re being kidnapped for breakfast.” He looked pleased with himself, perhaps because he had been trusted with the job of kidnapping me. Stacey usually saved any endeavor that involved persuading me for herself, knowing Nick was too weak against my glare.
“I am starving. I’ll get ready in five.”
“Wait, what?” Nick looked disappointed. “You aren’t going to make me convince you?”
“No, Nick, I’m sorry,” I laughed. “Tell you what, I’ll tell Stace I didn’t want to go, but you worked your big Nicholas charms and I changed my mind.”
“This is why I keep you around,” he said and winked. “She’s meeting us at the diner. She went for a run. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”
“She wants to be healthy?” I asked quizzically.
“What for?” He looked so clueless I wanted to pet him. “What does that do? She is already perfect, as far as I see it. Is she trying to tell me to work out more?” He tentatively surveyed his skinny arms.
I sighed. “It’s not a trick. She’s been reading too many blogs again. You know she’s a hypochondriac. She thinks she will die of a premature stroke if she doesn’t start running.”
He shook his head in what appeared to be disapproval and frustration. “Five minutes, Aria.”
---
To my relief, the diner wasn’t cramped like it tended to be during breakfast hours. Today was the day I was finally going back to work after all the drama, and I really needed a nice, calm morning to get through what was sure to be an action-packed day.
Stacey was already seated and waiting for us at a booth when Nick and I entered. She was still in her exercise-wear and looked very energized. Maybe I needed to start joining her in these morning runs. I sure could use the pick-me-up.
“Had a nice workout?” I asked Stacey sitting across from her as Nick found his way next to
her.
“It was incredible! Did you know there is a hiking trail behind the lake? And clearly not many people have discovered it because I have been going every morning and it is just me and beautiful birds and swans by the lake. It’s mesmerizing.”
“Will it be as mesmerizing if you had company?” I asked tentatively.
Stacey’s whole face lit up, as Nick banged his on to the table, as though unable to understand why not one but two people in his life suddenly wanted to run in the morning.
“Aria, I’ve wanted you to join me this whole time!” She sounded very excited. “But you’ve been, you know, having a rough week, and I didn’t want to make it seem like I was pushing – but I mean – I did think it would help you work through some of the stress from–”
“Calm down, Stace,” I said giggling. “You don’t have to be nervous about asking me to do anything with you. You know that! So how about tomorrow morning?”
“Yep, get ready by five.”
“No way! How long do you run?” I checked the time; it was eight in the morning. One hour until I had to be at the bank.
“Well, I only run for probably an hour total. But I sit by the lake and think and write on my blog and it’s so wonderful. It’s like–”
Stacey’s voice was interrupted by Nick’s hysterical laughter. “You take your laptop on your runs?”
She gave him a really confused and affronted look. “Of course. I take my car to the hiking trail, leave my laptop in it, run for an hour, and then sit down and write while I enjoy nature.”
“Sure, enjoy ‘nature’,” he said making air quotes with his hands.
Stacey raised her voice. “At least I’m outdoors and not spending all my time locked in a room playing video games.”
Nick opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Stacey added, “I will put a dollar in the jar, whatever.”
“The jar?” I asked the both of them, slightly amused.