by Tyler, Nella
Being a partner in my firm was the ultimate goal. I had to keep my portfolio growth and that meant I had to figure out what was going on with Alicia’s company.
Chapter 18
My brain couldn’t calm down all night as I thought about all the possibilities with Alicia’s company. My investment in her company could literally make my career, or it could be the end of my career if there were some sort of fraud going on.
I started my day with a renewed focus to figure out what was going on with the financials. There was no reason Alicia should have a hard time getting orders to her customers if everything was as it was supposed to be.
My mother always told me if you feel like something is off then it probably is. We just don’t get those worried feelings about things if there isn’t a reason for it.
At work my first stop was to visit with Rebecca. She had done such a great job researching the company already and I needed her opinion on why Alicia might not be able to deliver her products to the customers.
“Hey pretty lady,” I said as I snuck around the corner to Rebecca’s desk.
“Oh, no; here comes trouble.”
Rebecca lit up as I stood over her desk. She was a beautiful woman and I enjoyed our weekend together very much, especially her tits. Damn I got hard every time I saw them.
She sat at her desk with her huge breasts snug in her business appropriate top. I wanted to reach over her cubical and flick open one of her buttons and just see those beautiful breasts pop out of her top.
“You know it,” I said with a wink.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Gade?”
“I need your help and I can’t go on another weekend getaway.”
“Oh, so I’m supposed to help for free?”
“I think we can arrange something,” I said as I licked my lips.
Luckily the cubicle protected her from seeing my bulging cock as it pressed up against my suit pants. Oh, I would definitely make something work to have another night with Rebecca; it would be a welcomed night, especially after what had just happened with Stacey.
“What’s up? Are we still looking at ALL Warren Clothing?”
“Yeah, I was out with Alicia and she said she is having a hard time fulfilling orders.”
“Hmmm, like is she saying they don’t have inventory, not enough staff? What exactly is the problem?”
“I’m pretty sure she said she didn’t have enough inventory. Which was really weird because I thought they had several warehouses full of product.”
I waited as Rebecca pulled out some files and looked through them. She flipped through several pages and then came across a paper that she had looked for.
“I think I see where the problem might be. They only have two dozen employees according to this paper. There is no way in hell they are managing even a single warehouse with that many employees. I need to see exactly how many employees they have. This form is a year old. Do you know how many she has now?”
I shook my head. I really didn’t know much about her company at all, but I suspected that she had twenty-four employees at the new headquarters office in New York. So she had to have many more employees if you included her warehouses.
“When I was at her office the other day I did see a file box that had payroll information. But I didn’t look at it close enough to see the number of employees.”
“Can you get in there again?”
“I guess, but what exactly do I need to look at?”
“Number of people on the payroll, locations of where they work, those would be great.”
She said it like it would be so simple for me to just waltz back into Alicia’s office and get that information. I really wished I had known what I was looking for when I was in there before. It was going to be much harder to get in there a second time.
“Alright, but before I do this again, give me some ideas of what else I should be looking for. If I run across anything else I want to get that information this time because there is no way I’m going to get in there a third time.”
Rebecca thought about it for a minute and made me a short list of what I financial items might be helpful in our research.
Names of suppliers, addresses of warehouses, the location of employees, shipping company accounts, plus anything that had Bill Yobi’s name on it.
“Just take a picture of the items with your cell and I can zoom in and find what I need. There is something really shady going on there though and I doubt they will have all the information at the office. Most likely Bill or Alicia will have the top secret stuff at their homes.”
That was exactly what I had thought and I knew there was no way I could get into Bill’s house. There was a small possibility that I could eventually get into Alicia’s house, but I really didn’t have much confidence in that either.
At the risk of looking like a total stalker, I made my way back over to Alicia’s office to try and get into the file room again. This time I had no intention of actually talking to Alicia though, I just needed to gain access to the file room for a few minutes.
The sexy front desk woman recognized me immediately. She smiled wildly and picked up the phone to call upstairs to Alicia.
“Wait,” I said as I put my hand out and motioned for her to hang up the phone.
“Don’t you want Alicia?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to bother her. Do you know if she is free right now or not?”
“I’m sorry, her assistant is the only one who has her schedule. Would you like me to call her?”
“Yes, I think that would be best. I’m going to run to the little boys room,” I said it as I walked passed her.
I didn’t want to give her the opportunity to stop me. I just needed to get into that file room, take a few pictures and then get out of there.
I moved slowly down the familiar hallway and watched for anyone to come out of the offices. It didn’t seem like there was anyone around so I made my way straight to the file room. This time the door was wide open, though.
I looked into the room and saw that all the boxes had been moved. The room was empty. My hopes of finding the information I needed was gone and I was left without even the slightest idea of where I should look from there.
While I made my way back to the front desk, I looked in a couple other offices that were opened, but none had the boxes that I needed.
“Sounds like Alicia is in meetings all afternoon,” the receptionist said. “Would you like me to leave a message for you?”
“No thank you, I’ll just give her a call. I don’t want to bother her.”
Then just like clockwork, Alicia and a group of men walked out of the elevator and straight toward me. I looked like a small child caught in the act of stealing some candy. I knew it looked odd and I had to figure out a good reason to be there and fast.
“Evan, what are you doing here?” Alicia seemed a bit annoyed that I had shown up again at her work.
I knew I couldn’t use the same excuse that I had come for lunch. We certainly had not made a lunch date and she had a group of men with her. I wasn’t about to look like some needy guy who had shown up without being asked.
“I lost my work cell, just thought it might have slipped out when I visited yesterday,” I looked at the receptionist and begged her with my eyes to go along with my plan.
“Nobody has turned in a phone if anyone does I will certainly call you,” she said as the beautiful woman went along with my lie.
“Thank you so much,” I said to the receptionist. “It was good seeing you, Alicia, I’ll see you at the gallery tomorrow night.”
The men behind Alicia were not known to me, except for one: Bill Yobi. He stood and peered at me like he wanted to kill me right there in the lobby. I wasn’t quite sure what I had ever done to him that he hated me so much, but he definitely hated me. The look in his eyes could have killed me on the spot if he had laser vision.
I waved and made my way out of the building and around the corner. My gut sad that I
should wait and watch Alicia with the group of men. It was odd that she had a so many men involved in a women’s clothing company. I wondered if the men were investors or part of her company. Yet I couldn’t help but think how utterly strange it was that Alicia never had other women around here; especially at work.
I tucked myself into a doorway as Alicia and the men she was with left the building and drove off. Part of me wanted to turn around and go back into the building and flirt with that receptionist and see if she would tell me where the boxes had been moved. But I realized it would be too much of a risk because the receptionist likely would talk with Alicia.
“Sir, you are going to have to move from that doorway,” a young kid dressed in a security officer's uniform said.
“I’m sorry.”
I stepped out of the doorway and started to walk down the street before a great idea came to me.
“Do you know where ALL Warren Clothing brought their storage boxes? I helped pack them and lost my phone yesterday.”
“Oh yeah, Mr. Yobi had the boxes sent to Ms. Warren’s condo. I’m sure you could just ask her about your phone.”
“Oh, yes, thank you.”
Of course, I could just ask Alicia. I’m sure she would love to have me over to her house and let me have an hour to rummage through her secret documents. I had to laugh as I thought about how I had just had the documents in my hands but then let them slip away.
My frustration level was through the roof and, of course, the first thing I thought about was heading back over to Edward’s Bar. But after the event with Stacey, I really didn’t have the energy to go there again. Instead, I made my way home and decided to spend the evening hunkered down on my own couch without distractions.
I enjoyed having some time to myself every now and again. It didn’t happen very often, mostly because I liked spending naked time with women much more than I liked being alone. But overall, some independent time to relax was often very useful to me. It gave me the necessary time to reflect on life as well as plan my days ahead.
Most people took their weekends to relax, but I worked almost every day of the week. I didn’t get time to just sit around and worry about things. I worked hard for my money and that involved working all weekend long, nights and holidays. Working hard was something I loved to do, it meant that I was closer and closer to being the best in my field.
Although I still had a long way to go if I wanted to make partner. My portfolio would need to be strong for at least a year and I would need to bring in almost double my current clientele. I was possible, though, I knew it was; especially because of the level of work I was able to put into building my brand.
Chapter 19
Unfortunately, Alicia hadn’t called or text me since we had seen each other at her office last. This girl was either extremely busy or playing the ultimate game of hard to get; I wasn’t sure which it was just yet.
To be honest, I didn’t know if she was even going to show up at the gallery event that we had planned to meet up at. She was obviously a very independent woman and didn’t need a man on her side, but I couldn’t help but think she wanted a man around.
The way she looked at me when we were alone together made me think she wanted me to be the man she kept around. It was near impossible to get a read from her when we were around other people, though. Or maybe it was just when we were around people she knew?
It wasn’t really my kind of thing to call a woman and ask if she was going to be at an event, especially if we had already planned to meet there. Typically women didn’t stand me up, they were eager to show up to spend time with me.
When I arrived at the gallery, I instantly realized that I was very much underdressed for the evening. My expensive jeans and black t-shirt made me feel like I was one of those hipster guys who didn’t feel the need to conform to traditional dress codes. Yet, I was very much the kind of guy who conformed to dress codes. I loved dress codes! It made me feel secure in both my work and private life; so I felt very exposed as I stood in the gallery in my casual attire.
Logically, I knew that no one really cared about what I had on. Men just weren’t the center of attention when it came to clothing, but as I looked around at the evening gowns that the women had on; I wanted to hide.
My instinct guided me toward the corner of the room where I was not as visible, yet I could see everything that was going on. I kept my eyes peeled for Alicia and hoped she wouldn’t just leave when she realized the dress was so much more formal than I had thought.
Then I saw her.
She had on a short green dress, which was casual but looked appropriate enough for the event. In fact, with her hair pulled up in a bun, Alicia could have pulled off any look she wanted in that dress.
“You showed up,” she said to me after she made her way across the room.
“Me? Of course I did. I wouldn’t give up the opportunity for date number four.”
“Yep, maybe this time you’ll get lucky,” Alicia leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.
The funny thing was, I felt pretty damn lucky already. I grabbed her and pulled her up against me and took her mouth with mine. I didn’t wait until the end of the date. I didn’t want to. I wanted to kiss her and I was going to do exactly that.
She pulled back from me at first, but then quickly gave in to her desire for me. It felt like we were the only two people in the room as I held onto her and our bodies worked together to entice each other.
Slowly, I moved my hands from her hips down to her ass, but Alicia grabbed them and pulled them back up. While she kept kissing me.
Then I tried to do it again, but she held onto my hands and pressed them into her back so I couldn’t moved them. I wiggled my hips so she could feel my cock as it hardened. That’s what she did to me. She needed to know that just her lips against mine made my body react like that. Her body and my body were like electricity when they were together. The voltage was high and the more I kissed her, the more I was drawn to kiss her more and more.
“I think you dressed up a little too much,” Alicia said as she pulled her lips away from mine.
“You think?” I said as I shrugged and smiled.
“Good thing you’re so damn good looking, I doubt anyone will notice your clothes.”
Alicia was happy again. It was like a switch that turned on when she was away from work or the people she worked with. The Alicia that stood in front of me at that moment was the same one that had been at the trampoline place before.
This Alicia, she was the one I liked. She was happy and confident. Her genuineness overpowered me and made me want to do anything I could to make her life easier. She wasn’t guarded or sad, she wasn’t evasive or worried; this Alicia needed to come out much more often.
“You look amazing,” I replied as I tried to take the attention off of me.
My hands moved up and down her hips as I felt the fabric of her green dress under my fingers. I could have fucked her right there. Everything about the moment had my body on high alert and I wanted to bring her to a back room and screw her until she screamed and screamed with desire.
Alicia played it so cool between us; I had to wonder when the last time was that she had even had sex. She was so distant, I wondered if she had ever had a man and had her heart broken. That seemed like a huge possibility.
“Thanks, Evan,” she kissed me again but this time on the check. “Let’s go take a look at these paintings. Should we?”
“Yep, that’s what we are here for. Let’s do it.”
Alicia grabbed onto my arm and let me lead her around the room as we looked at each of the paintings. She was utterly entertained by the artwork and seemed enthralled with all the details. It was so enjoyable to watch when we met up with the artist and Alicia and her were able to talk about creativity and working as independent artists.
I noticed Alicia got bashful when it came to talking about the success of her company. She didn’t tell the artist just how large her clothing line had gotten
, most likely because she liked to identify herself as an artist.
To me, Alicia certainly was an artist. It didn’t matter how big her company had grown to. Alicia still enjoyed the creative aspect of designing new clothes. I could tell it on her face as she talked about her new designs, she was passionate about them. Her life revolved around the creative aspect of her company and she appeared to hate the business side of things. This made me feel like she was ripe for the taking when it came to being swindled by Bill or anyone else who was trying to control her financials. Alicia just didn’t understand how quickly someone could control her entire company if she wasn’t careful.
My heart ached for Alicia. I knew there was something shady going on with her company and I wanted to just come out and tell her. But the problem was that I didn’t have firm evidence yet. I didn’t have anything more than a suspicion that something was going on. I also didn’t have a clear idea if Alicia was part of the problem or not. Although I didn’t think it was possible, Alicia could have been the best actress ever and could have been deceiving me the entire time. I had no proof one way or the other.
“You want to take me home tonight?” Alicia asked as she sipped on her fourth glass of champagne.
“Of course I do.”
I had waited over a week to hear those words from her mouth. Yes, I wanted to take her home. I wanted to take her right into her bed. My body wanted to do things to her that would make her scream out in pleasure. It was the only solution to the thoughts that I constantly had in my head of Alicia.
“Let’s go then,” she winked at me.
I grabbed her hand and lead her out of the gallery and to a cab that was out front. As we got into the cab Alicia blurted out her address and we didn’t waste any time. I leaned over and met her tender lips with mine and let my hand move slowly between her thighs.