The Billionaire Bum

by Samantha Blair

“I don’t know where he is,” I stammered. “I’m here because I thought he’d be here. I swear I don’t know anything. Let me go.”

  Apparently he believed me, because he was gone a moment later, and I was left with my heart beating wildly in the lobby of Hayes Industries. I practically ran down the front steps of the building and hailed a cab. This whole thing was getting crazier by the minute.

  Jackson

  When I brought my fresh clothes back to the hotel, I showered again. I was going to burn my jeans when this was all said and done. I had spent $42 on another t-shirt, socks, and boxers.

  I’d also bought a razor and another toothbrush. I hit up a second hand store for the cheapest pair of jeans I could find. They didn’t fit the same way as my regular jeans, but I could survive for a day or two. They were vintage right? I couldn’t quite convince myself of that.

  I got in a couple more hours of sleep and let my mind roll back and forth between Nick and Alissa. At six o’clock a knock came on my door. I let Jason into my hotel room. He was followed by a huge man whom I could only assume was Ben.

  “It’s nice to see you again, Ben,” I said. “Thanks for saving my ass the other day.” He smiled at me. “No problem, man. You were actually doing pretty well on your own.” We got down to business. Ben and Sean had been following Nick for more than thirty hours. They weren’t familiar with all of the employees in our company, so they took pictures of every individual that Nick interacted with. They put the large stack of pictures on the bed, and Jason and I started to dig through them.

  I stopped on a picture of Kayla. “Where was this taken?” I asked. Ben looked over the photo.

  “That’s his apartment. That woman went in about eleven last night and didn’t leave until about six this morning.”

  “Kayla Craigan spent the night with Nick Carver?” I asked. Jason shrugged.

  I went back to the pictures. From the look of things, Nick and Kayla were very familiar with each other. Ben had gotten pictures of them kissing several times, sharing cab rides, and eating together. When had this relationship developed? Was it before or after I asked Kayla to do the due diligence on his company? How long had she been lying to me?

  “Jackson,” Jason asked, getting my attention, “Do you know who this is?” He was holding up a picture taken in the lobby of our corporate office. Nick had his hand on the arm of a woman with long brown hair. He appeared to be whispering in her ear.

  Oh God. Alissa.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  What was she doing there? Her facial expression in the picture gave me no help. It was pretty much a blank expression.

  Seeing Nick with his hands on her made my blood boil. Was he targeting her? How did he even know who she was? Oh, no, what if she was in on this? What if she was part of his plan to ruin me?

  Jason was saying something, but it sounded muffled to me. I couldn’t fully process it.

  Why was she visiting my office? Was she looking for me? She was dressed like she belonged in a corporate office. Did she have a meeting with someone?

  “Ben, what can you tell me about this interaction?” I asked. I was trying desperately to keep my voice under control. Judging by the look on Jason’s face, I wasn’t succeeding.

  “Um,” Ben said. He flipped through a book of notes. “She was talking to the receptionist, and then he walked up and said something to her. We weren’t close enough to hear what he said, but the whole thing lasted less than thirty seconds, and then he took off. It’s my opinion that she didn’t know him. She looked uncomfortable with him.”

  I let out the breath that I had been holding. She probably didn’t know him. She wasn’t involved in this. That meant that she was looking for me. Oh God, that meant that she knew who I was!

  “When did this happen?” I asked.

  “About four hours ago,” Ben said.

  “Who is she?” asked Jason.

  “That’s Alissa,” I said. I felt so empty inside.

  “Alissa? As in the most wonderful French toast in the world Alissa?”

  “The very same. She knows who I am, Jason. What the hell am I going to do? She’s going to think I lied to her. She’s going to hate me.”

  Chapter 15: Those We Ignore

  Kayla

  I sat at a filthy desk in Nick’s warehouse trying to prepare the offshore accounts that we would need. As I waited for the page to load, I let my mind drift to the Hayes brothers. I had watched them last week in the boardroom as they argued in that playful way that they did. It was like they were in their own separate world when they got like that. Sometimes I wondered why they even had an executive board. It wasn’t like they ever took our advice.

  Jackson threw his head back and laughed. He really was a beautiful male specimen. He would have made a good United States President – tall, good head of hair, articulate. He was a beautiful creature. It was a shame that I had to deceive him.

  I didn’t want to do it, not really, but I’d been sitting in Jackson Hayes’ shadow long enough. When I got the position on the board I thought I had made it big. I thought I would be part of the intimate group that knew what made him tick. I thought I would get to make important decisions, be a part of something larger than myself. You can imagine my shock when I found out that I was to be a glorified secretary.

  “Get the due diligence for the Wesin deal, Kayla. Where’s my report, Kayla? Are you sure these numbers are right, Kayla?”

  I had a masters’ in business management from a prestigious university. I was not a fucking administrative assistant. I hadn’t worked this hard just to be ignored.

  Nick was right. They didn’t care about anyone but themselves. Hell, they didn’t even notice anyone else.

  I left that board meeting with a fresh stack of assignments that were just as demeaning as all the others. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered now was Nick. He was going to screw the Hayes for more than one hundred million dollars, and then we would disappear.

  It was about time.

  Nick had grown on me slowly. I didn’t really like him at first, truth be told. He had kind of a hard edge to him, but once you got past that, he was a great guy. He was ambitious, decisive, and attentive. He asked me out four times before I finally caved in and said yes. That man didn’t like to take no for an answer. I smiled at the thought. There was something to be said for persistence.

  He was an incredible lover. He really cared about me. We would be happy together on some tropical beach with endless funds and no responsibility.

  Granted, I had always wanted more out of life than to be paraded around in a bikini, but at least Nick would pay attention to me. He was going to marry me. We would have a beach wedding at sunset. It would be everything that a girl could hope for.

  Screw Jackson fucking Hayes and the horse he road in on. It was time that he learned some humility.

  Chapter 16: Confrontations and Conclusions

  Jackson

  Did you ever feel like you were on the brink of screwing up the best thing that ever happened to you? It was like Romeo and Juliet, one giant clusterfuck of miscommunication that was bound to end in tragedy. There was no way that I could make this right. There was nothing that I could say.

  I was going to go over there, bare my soul to her, and then hope like hell that she would understand. I had planned to tell her anyway, not that she would believe me, but I really did want her to know. I just wished that I had been able to tell her on my own terms. Now she was bound to be upset and confused. How could I have messed this up so badly?

  And Nick! What the hell had he said to her? If he did anything to upset her, I was going to kill him. Forget gathering more information, I would drag his ass in front of the board right now and flay him alive. His girlfriend, Kayla, too, if it came to that.

  Jason was driving me to her restaurant. It was almost seven. She was sure to be swamped with dinner customers. What terrible timing. I was supposed to be at the bar at eight, but I had no desire to be there. I
needed to grow up and forget this whole ridiculous farce. I knew I couldn’t play homeless forever, but I was terrified that I would lose Alissa if I gave it up. I couldn’t let that happen. She was the first girl who had ever meant anything to me. She hadn’t even known my last name, but I felt like she knew me. I had to believe that she would understand, that she would accept me despite my deception. I wasn’t giving up that easily.

  Jason dropped me at the corner, and I jogged up the alley to the kitchen door. I knocked and an employee that I hadn’t met answered the door.

  “Would you please tell Alissa that Jackson is here to see her?” I asked. He gave me an odd look and then closed the door and disappeared inside. I paced the alley nervously.

  “How’s Hawaii?” her sweet voice called. I looked up at her standing in the doorway. She was so beautiful it hurt just to look at her. She was still wearing the skirt that she had worn in the photo. I wondered why she hadn’t changed. I had to physically restrain myself to keep from sweeping her into my arms and refusing to let go.

  I couldn’t read her expression. It was a mix of anger and fear and confusion all at the same time. I just wanted to make it better, to see her smile. “God, Alissa, I am so sorry. I was going to tell you who I was, I swear to you…”

  She shook her head. “I can’t have this discussion right now, Jackson,” she said, cutting me off. “I have a restaurant full of customers, and I somehow managed to order the most bizarre combinations of foods at the market this morning, then one of my servers didn’t show up, so we’re kind of behind, and truthfully I just can’t have a breakdown right now.” She took a deep breath for a moment, and I could see the tears in her eyes. “I am angry at you for deceiving me, and I am very confused right now, but I promised Lexy that I would hear you out. I will hear you out, but not right now. I can’t do this after the day I’ve had.” She was going to give me a chance. She would listen to me. Thank you, Lexy! She was just asking for a little space. I needed to be reasonable about this.

  “Of course, Alissa,” I said. “You’re being more than fair. Just tell me what time you would like for me to be here, and I’ll be here. I promise, I’ll explain everything.”

  “No,” she said. “I’ll come to you. The dinner crowd dies down around nine. I’ll be ready around ten. Where will you be?”

  I considered that for a minute. She might as well see the whole picture at this point. “I’ll be at work,” I said, “tending bar at the 31st Street Bar and Grill.” Confusion flashed across her face. “Unless you want me to call in and say that I’m not coming?” She sighed. “No. Don’t leave the poor bar owner shorthanded. I know how it feels. I’ll come up and have a drink when I’m done.” She turned to go back inside. “You are one strange man, Jackson Hayes.”

  The door closed behind her, and I slumped against the brick wall. She said she was angry and confused. I could understand that. I was confused as well. At least she had given me the benefit of the doubt. She was willing to be rational about this. She wasn’t throwing anything yet, and she was going to come to the bar later to be with me.

  I walked out of the alley to the subway. I had a job to get to.

  Alissa

  Could this day get any stranger? Seriously? He really worked as a bartender? I guess he wasn’t lying about everything then. I couldn’t think about it or I would go nuts. I was going to stop making assumptions and wait until he had a chance to explain himself. For right now I needed to focus on filling the dinner orders.

  I had to chuckle every time I looked down at the dinner specials. Jackson had me so damn distracted this morning that I’d purchased three kinds of lettuce, but no cucumbers, peppers, or really anything else appropriate for a salad. I bought a massive amount of tomatoes –

  hence the tomato soup and the sudden abundance of marinara sauce on everything. I had no idea what to do with the tilapia because I hadn’t actually bought enough of it to serve it for a meal. It was a mess. I was never letting Jackson come on a shopping trip again. He was just too damn distracting.

  The worst part was that I couldn’t even mange to be angry. He swept into my life and turned everything upside-down in a matter of days, and all I wanted to do was finish the dinner service so that I could be with him. I was hopeless. I didn’t care who he was, how much money he had, or why he was dressing like a hobo. I just wanted to be with him. The rest would sort itself out somehow.

  Dinner dragged on even longer than usual, and it was already 9:30 when I marched my tired ass up the stairs. I took a shower and pulled my hair up. Forget the power clothes, I was going to be comfortable for this discussion. I was damn well going to take advantage of the bar scene too; I needed a drink.

  Lexy offered to go with me, but I couldn’t deal with her right now. Truthfully, I didn’t even want to talk. All I wanted to do was sit and drink and listen to what I was hoping was going to be a very logical explanation for why my whole life had turned upsidedown over the course of two days.

  I took a cab to the bar and tried to steel my nerves. What was the worst that could happen? We could decide that we couldn’t get over this, and then we would never see each other again. I would go back to my normal pre-Jackson life. I didn’t like that idea; in fact, thinking about it gave me an acute pain in my ribs, but that really was as bad as it could get. I would watch his career from afar, and he would forget about me.

  A small part of me was hoping, though, that maybe he wasn’t just slumming with me.

  Maybe he really had come back because he wanted to get to know me better. Maybe my breakfasts would be enough to keep him around for a while. I smiled at that. I wouldn’t mind waking up with him at all.

  I paced back in forth in front of the bar for a few minutes. It wasn’t particularly crowded for a Friday night, which was good for conversation. It was now or never.

  I walked into the bar and spotted him immediately. He was reaching up to put glasses away above the bar, and his shirt rode up enough that I could just barely see a sliver of skin above his low rise jeans. Hipbones didn’t come any sexier than that.

  Focus, Alissa! You are not here to fantasize about his pelvic area.

  I sat down at the end of the bar and waited for him to acknowledge me. It didn’t take long. He was a pretty attentive bartender. He gave me the most beautiful smile when he recognized me. Relief crossed his face. Did he really think that I wouldn’t come? I was later than I had said I would be, but I knew he would be here all night. I hadn’t meant to worry him.

  “What can I get for you, beautiful?” he said.

  You. Just you.

  “Um, what’s your beer on tap?” I asked.

  I settled on a light beer, and he went to the other side of the bar to get it. I really needed to focus. I was supposed to be hurt and angry, but I just wanted to watch him walk back and forth all night. He caught me checking out his ass, and I blushed all the way to my roots. Damn him!

  He delivered my beer and gave refills to a group at the end of the bar. When everyone was situated he returned his attention to me. “Alissa,” he started, “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.

  I never meant for you to be involved in this complicated, confusing mess. It’s a long story, but if you’ll let me, I’d like to just start at the beginning and work my way through.”

  “I think that sounds like a great idea.” I could tell that this wouldn’t be easy for him, and I did my best to reassure him that I would hear the story the whole way through before passing any kind of judgment.

  He started with how he’d tripped over the homeless man in the street that day. He described himself as pious and self-absorbed. How could he have come so far in just four days? I couldn’t imagine him being so cold to anyone.

  He told me about the bet with his brother, and I had to fight to contain my laughter. It really was ridiculous. Who made that kind of a bet? Jason sounded like a character.

  He broke from the story to get me another beer and to check on his other patrons. When he came back,
he told me about sleeping in the airport, looking for work, his struggle to get a social security card, and his first night in the shelter.

  He really had gone through a lot in the first two days, and I was a little surprised that he hadn’t given up. He told me about the thief and the split lip. Finally, an explanation for the fight and the smelly clothes! He could have gotten hurt, though; he had really taken this bet to the extreme.

  Then he told me how he felt the first time that he saw me. “My whole life,” he stated,

  “people have judged me because of my family, my money, and what they think they know about me. For once, I just wanted to know that I could make it on my own. I wanted to know that people could accept me for who I was and not what I had. When you looked at me, I felt like you saw me, and not the man that everyone else sees.”

  I could feel the tears running down my cheeks.

  I do see you, Jackson, and I want every part of you.

  I tried not to interrupt. He needed to get this out, and I needed to hear it.

  He told me about Jason and Ben.... and Nick. He also told me about the photo that he had of Nick and me, and I have to admit, I was a little freaked out by it. I was also relieved, in a way, to discover that I hadn’t really been alone. Nick Carver was seriously creepy.

  Jackson told it all the way through until the present moment and then left me to my thoughts while he cleaned up the bar area and poured a couple of shots for the group on the other side of the room. I was grateful for our current location. He had given me a ton of information to process, and I wasn’t sure that I was ready to respond just yet. The bar was keeping him busy enough that we couldn’t really get into a heated discussion. Lexy was right about me; I overreacted to everything, but this was too important to me. I couldn’t let a rash decision on my part screw this up.

  I sat and drank until the bar was ready to close. Jackson and I had agreed to go have pizza when his shift was over to finish the discussion.

  Now that I’d gotten the time that I needed to process my thoughts, I had a lot to say. I wanted to tell him that he was an idiot for endangering himself with a stupid bet. If he ever put himself in harm’s way like that again, he was going to get more than a split lip from me.