by Nella Tyler
“Well I have another client in twenty minutes, so that’s all I got for time. Let’s process the shit out of this company.”
“Really? Another client. Wow, Mike that’s good. Are you building up a good clientele? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“Well Evan, probably because we spend most of our time talking about you and your women. Not that I mind,” Mike joked with me.
“Ah, yes we do. Ok, well let’s get back to talking about me.” I smiled as I put my feet up on his desk.
Michael was used to me and my need to talk about my issues with him. It was just how we did things. I always needed to bounce ideas off of him and he always made himself available to help. We both needed each other and it worked perfectly that way.
“Yes, let’s get back to that,” Mike said as he made his way around to his desk.
“So Rebecca says that Alicia had a previous company and two people that worked with her were charged with money laundering.”
I noticed an immediate change in Mike’s face. He suddenly was much more interested in paying attention to me.
“That’s serious shit Evan. What happened?”
“I’m not totally sure. Alicia wasn’t charged with anything and neither was her finance VP, who happens to be her finance VP for this company as well.”
“Evan, this is sounding pretty shady. Did Rebecca find anything solid on the current company?”
“Nope.”
“Well, perhaps they learned from their mistakes with the first company?” Mike said with a raised eyebrow.
We both knew that it didn’t work that way. People didn’t do illegal things and then suddenly change their ways. It was much more likely that they just go better at hiding the problems.
“I know what you’re thinking, Mike, but there is nothing in the current public records. Not a single number out of whack.”
“That’s a problem right there. You know that perfection is not something that a normal company will have in their books. There is always mistakes. Always an area that you can tell is not funded properly or a part of the company that is struggling. Are you telling me there is no weak area in ALL Warren Clothing?”
I could tell Mike had the same suspicions as I did. There was always a problem. Either the company did good at selling, but not good at customer service. They had a great production line, but horrible delivery. Good sales, but bad asset management. There was always something. Even the best run companies you could see what areas the needed to work on. It was freaky that Alicia’s company seemed totally stable without any areas which needed extra work. It was more than freaky, it was wrong. Something was being hidden.
“If there is a weak area, I haven’t found it.”
“Just don’t invest in it. You know there’s something going on,” Mike said as he looked at the numbers from the day of trading. “Oh, shit. They are climbing high today.”
“I already invested. Personally and professionally.”
“Shit, Evan. You need to get out. Now.”
A glimpse of fear flashed across Mike’s face and I knew that I had made a mistake. I shouldn’t have bought the stock. I should have just let this one go by without investing in it. My heart sank as I thought about the thousands of dollars that I had in the company. It was too much to back out now. I was in too deep. Plus, I was making money; why would I back out now?
“Mike, there is no way. The stock has climbed over twenty percent today. It’s a solid investment. At least right now. But I need to find out what they are hiding before something illegal comes out.”
“Well, how the hell do you plan to do that? It’s not like you’re going to be able to just ask this Alicia. She’s not going to tell you.”
I had to agree with Mike. There wasn’t a possibility of just asking Alicia and quite frankly I wasn’t sure she really knew what was going on. I had a sneaky suspicion that her finance VP was the real one causing the issue and I certainly didn’t know how to prove any of that.
Alicia didn’t seem like the kind of person who would purposely deceive people. I knew people and Alicia just wasn’t that kind of person. I admittedly didn’t know her all that well yet, but she didn’t strike me as the embezzling type of woman. Her eyes were too honest.
Everything about Alicia was honest. The way she looked at me, the way she dressed, even the way she talked; all so honest. I really couldn’t believe that she had even been involved in the first company that Rebecca had told me about. It didn’t seem like something that the Alicia I knew would do. Well at least the Alicia that I had met over the last couple days wouldn’t do something like that. I needed to get to know her more. I needed to get some alone time with her.
“I know. I have a date with her tonight.”
“Of course you do. What do you think you’re going to do, fuck the financials out of her?”
We both laughed, but Mike wasn’t too far off from what I was thinking. I did want to build the trust between Alicia and I so I could try and figure out what was going on. I wanted to be able to trust her, she was delicious to look at and I just couldn’t imagine she was in on whatever deceit was going on.
“Maybe,” I winked.
“Seriously Evan, you can’t just fuck her and think she will give away all her company secrets. It’s not that easy. She will see right through you and then you’ll have nothing.”
“I know. But I actually like her. I’d like to get to know her a little and maybe I’ll get some clues to what is going on. I’m taking her out tonight because I like her, not because I want to get financial information about her company.”
As I said the words, even I couldn’t believe them. How was I going to convince Alicia to trust me if I couldn’t even trust the words that I said? I needed to decide if I wanted to take Alicia out on a date or if I wanted to get her to give me the financial information on her company. I couldn’t have it both ways and I knew it.
Mike shook his head back and forth. I could tell he wasn’t very happy with my plan at all.
“No, no, no Evan. This girl is trouble. More so than your typical flings. You need to just sell off your stock at the end of the day, take your profit and be done with it.”
He knew I wasn’t going to listen to anything he had to say if it involved staying away from a woman. I needed my women in my life and Alicia was for sure someone I needed. My mind couldn’t stop thinking about her. Which was strange considering I still hadn’t slept with her yet.
The fact that I had not slept with her just drove my desire for her even more. I couldn’t wait to have her naked in my bed. My body needed to feel her skin underneath me, our bodies moving together; this needed to happen tonight. I couldn’t wait any longer.
“I don’t think she’s trouble. I think she might have gotten herself in over her head with this financial stuff and her company. But she’s a good woman; I think I’ll risk another date with her.”
“Evan, you’re going to regret this. You know its called insider trading if you are found to have had knowledge about the IPO before it came out.”
Mike always had to bring things back to the serious side. He had a knack for making sure I remembered the consequences of my actions, in all areas of my life. Even when we were kids he was the one who would try and talk me out of stupid shit. Throughout college, I had these grand plans and Mike would always try and talk me down. In the end though, I usually convinced him to take part in my wild ways instead of him convincing me to stop whatever my plan was.
“I didn’t know anything about her company that wasn’t public.”
“Well if you start fucking her the day her company goes public, that’s going to look pretty suspicious.”
Mike had a point. It would look pretty shady on my part if something came out down the road about Alicia and her company and I was seen dating her the night of the IPO. I felt a twinge of concern wash over my body as I contemplated what Mike tried to say.
He obviously was coming from a concern from me and just wanted me
to stay out of trouble. I also didn’t want to be implicated in anything that might look like I did anything wrong, but I really had not done anything wrong.
Up until that moment, I had only researched Alicia’s company using all the available public information. Even the information Rebecca had gathered was all public record. I felt like we were had a stand still. If I moved forward with my investigation of Alicia’s company, I would likely have to start doing research that wasn’t quiet as legal as what had happened so far.
“I need to get more information. What if that Bill guy is trying to frame her? What if he’s the one cooking the books and she knows nothing about it? I really need to get inside and get more information.”
“Evan, get inside her or get inside the company?”
“Both,” I said as we both laughed.
“You are going down a slippery slope, Evan. This girl could really be in deep with some money laundering or crazy shit like that. You don’t need your name attached to any of it. Lay low and don’t cause any trouble.”
“Me? Cause trouble? Never!”
“Seriously, Evan, don’t be seen in public with her and don’t let anyone you knew see you out together. You can’t have your name anywhere near this when whatever she is hiding becomes public.”
“I’ll do my best, Mike. I do like to spend time in the privacy of my bedroom. Perhaps I’ll convince her to do our date there.”
Mike continued to shake his head as he walked me out and we said out goodbyes. His next clients were already there and I took my cue to get going.
Chapter 15
I loaded myself into the Uber and made my way over to the restaurant Alicia and I had decided to meet at. This time it was her choice and I was more than excited to see where we would be eating. The day had been really long and I was exhausted, but not tired enough to give up on date number three with Alicia.
The car pulled up in front of the address that Alicia had given me, but when I got out I didn’t see a restaurant anywhere around. There was a beauty salon, a travel store and a kid’s trampoline business. I sent a text to Alicia to see if she had arrived yet; she was going to have to come and get me since I had no idea where the restaurant was.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Alicia said as she came around the corner.
“Well, don’t you look sporty.”
Alicia had on some skin tight yoga pants and a t-shirt—certainly not something I would have expected her to be wearing on a date. But she looked happy. Her face had a huge smile on it and I couldn’t help but smile back at her. She looked like a different woman. All the torment of the IPO seemed to be gone and she was much more relaxed.
“I need to burn off some energy and thought a little jumping around would do.”
“Oh,I can help you burn off some energy, let’s go back to my place,” I winked at Alicia.
“I brought you some shorts and a t-shirt. Let’s get in there and have some fun.”
Alicia totally ignored my flirting and before I could protest she was inside and signing us up to bounce on some giant trampolines. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why she thought this was going to be a good idea. It looked like something children and teenagers did, not grown adults. But I wasn’t about to give up on our third date so fast. I wanted to bring her home; I wanted to get some naked alone time. So if I had to jump on some trampolines, then that was exactly what I intended to do.
Once we had placed our things into lockers and I had changed, we walked up to the entrance of the trampoline room. When I say room, I mean a very large area that was filled with giant trampolines. They were all along the ground and even the walls. Each of them placed together with padding around the edges. I couldn’t help but smile. It actually looked like a lot of fun.
I watched for a minute as Alicia bounced into the room and made her way to the other side.
“Come on, Evan,” she yelled toward me.
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to kill myself in here,” I yelled back as I tried to walk into the room.
Soon after walking a few steps on the trampolines I decided to put a little more bounce into my steps. Before I knew it I was jumping along just like a teenager. It was fun. It was exhilarating. I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Now, isn’t this more fun than dinner and drinks?” Alicia asked as she bounced as high as she could in front of me.
“I do like to watch you bounce.”
“I really needed a stress reliever today. Thanks for coming with me.”
“Sure thing. I always wanted to bounce myself to death with a beautiful woman. It’s one of those things that I just had to do before I die of a heart attack from the market.”
I bounced myself over toward Alicia and we took turns on the trampoline. As one of us bounced up, the other came down. We had the giant apparatus to ourselves and continued to take turns as we talked.
“Thanks again,” she said.
“You are more than welcome. I’m actually having fun. This is a great workout. I think we should come here in the mornings before work.”
“I think they actually have a workout class in the mornings. We should totally come. I bet it’s filled with busty moms in spandex bouncing up and down for an hour. You would have a blast.”
“Yeah, just what I need; a morning hard on before going to work.”
Alicia laughed and I couldn’t help but stop and stare at her. She was truly beautiful when she laughed. It stopped my breath.
“Why are you staring at me?”
I couldn’t help it. As I watched her, Alicia looked happy. She looked like this was her normal self. I wanted to see more of this woman. I wanted to see her happy. I liked to see her happy. I liked this side of her.
“You are beautiful.”
No games, no bullshit. She was beautiful. The way her hair bounced with her as she moved up and down. Her smile, damn that smile was amazing. She brightened up the entire room as her vibrant energy filled it. I was mesmerized.
“You’re staring,” she said as she continued to bounce.
“I can’t help myself.”
“Well stop it,” Alicia stuck out her tongue and proceeded to bounce all the way to the other side of the room.
She bounced up against the wall and then bounced her way back over toward me.
“I’ll race you to the other side. Whoever wins gets to decide what we do next,” I said as we both leaned against the edge of the trampolines.
“Ready, set, go!” Alicia yelled and then took off bouncing toward the other side.
“That’s cheating,” I said as I took off after her.
She was much more experienced and I could tell, but I had more strength in my bounce than her and I quickly overtook her. In just a couple bounces, I had made it to the other side of the room and waited for her to get there.
I smiled ear to ear as she bounced up to me.
“Oh, you have some secret skills; I see how it is.”
“Yes, I’m secretly a trampoline ninja. I just use my investing persona to cover up my real identity.”
“Oh, I normally hate it when people lie to me, but a bouncing trampoline ninja is probably something you should keep on the down low.”
I grabbed her and pulled Alicia toward me. By this time both of us had stopped bouncing and we were smack dab in the middle of a moment. Her eyes locked onto mine and I felt the electricity between us. It was undeniable; she couldn’t fight it, neither could I.
“I’ll try not to overpower you with my ninja skills.”
“Mmm, yes keep those ninja skills to yourself,” Alicia said as she leaned in even closer to me.
I couldn’t resist another second. I grabbed her and lifted her up off the ground.
Alicia wrapped her legs around me and I held onto her. My hands gripped her ass and we looked into each other’s eyes. If I could have fucked her right there, I would have. But instead I decided to take a different approach.
My lips made a move toward her neck and I just tucked the
m in there. Gently I kissed her, but then just held onto her and hugged her tight. It felt good. She felt good. I wanted to stay like that for as long as she would allow.
Alicia wrapped her arms around my neck and held on.
We stayed wrapped in each other’s arms for longer than I had ever held a woman before. It was a weird feeling, yet it felt so right. She had just had one of the most exhausting days of her life, maybe that was why she held on so tight. I wasn’t sure, but for whatever reason, it was perfect.
“So, where should we go next?” Alicia asked.
“Ice cream. I think we need ice cream,” I said.
“Really, ice cream. That’s where you want to go?”
“Yes.”
“Nowhere else?”
I had to laugh. I did want to take her back to my house, but there was something else going on between us and I needed to explore it some more. I needed to take her someplace where we could relax and really get to know each other.
“Nope. I’d really like to take you for some ice cream,” I smiled as I let Alicia down so she could stand up.
“Ok, let’s go get some ice cream.”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the trampoline room and toward the locker rooms. As we each went to the locker room to change, I felt like I was giddy like a teenager.
With a quick change we were on our way toward the local ice cream parlor.
My normal dating game had already been totally blown up; there was no coming back from it now. I had just spent the last hour bouncing on trampolines, which was for sure nothing I would have taken a woman to do.
“I haven’t gone for ice cream in years,” Alicia said as we walked down the boardwalk toward the ice cream parlor near the ocean.
“Neither have I. So are you excited that today is almost over and you survived your IPO?”