by Nella Tyler
My entire life had been a weird combination of me giving up on some things without trying at all and then hyper focusing on other things until everything in my life had been forgotten. I didn’t understand enough about myself to know why I was able to so easily give up on some tasks but yet be consumed by others. But Alicia and her company were certainly something that I was consumed by.
“Let’s look at what we have on this Bill Yobi guy so far,” Mike said as he took out a piece of paper and started to take notes.
“Well we know he was arrested with her last company,” I said.
“We know he’s overly protective of her, based on how you said he acted at the stock exchange.”
“Yep,” I said as I remembered him chasing Alicia and I down the hallway.
“Is he her father? A boyfriend? Some other close relationship?” Mike said. He clearly had the same thought process as I did.
“I asked about him being her father. She laughed and said no. I mean I think she would have told me if he had some sort of other relationship with her.”
“Well how long have they worked together? Maybe she just really trusts him?”
Mike was again thinking the same as I was. Alicia had worked with Bill for well over five years; he had been her advisor in the clothing world ever since she first started. Perhaps there was a dependency on him because he was the only person she knew for such a long period of time.
I personally felt like there was some sort of fatherly guidance that Alicia got from him, but I couldn’t understand why she was so loyal to him. She obviously didn’t want him to control her and I had seen that the day we ran away from him on the stock exchange. But maybe that was just some childish game to Alicia and not actually something that was important. I didn’t know what the conversations were like between them. It was entirely possible I knew nothing about Bill at all.
“I think you’re right. I think she has just known him so long that she trusts him. Maybe I’m wrong about the guy. But there is just something that I don’t like about him. I wonder if we delved into his personal finances if we could see what else might be going on. I mean if money is being stolen from her company by him, we should be able to find it somewhere. Right?”
Mike didn’t answer but went right to looking for the financial we had on individuals that worked at ALL Warren Clothing. We didn’t have much, but it was a good placed to get started. The good thing about financial information was even when you tried to cover it up in one location; it usually showed up somewhere else. You couldn’t cover up every purchase or bank account. You could only minimize the trail towards them.
I had the address of where Bill lived which was the first thing to catch my attention. He lived in the upper east side of New York where pretty much any apartment was well over a million dollars.
“Look up his address, Mike; I think I know where this is.”
I watched as Mike pulled up a real estate website and typed in the address. We both sat back in awe as we saw a multi-million dollar penthouse come up on his laptop. I couldn’t afford a place like that and I knew Bill shouldn’t be able to with his role in a new start up company. It was an immediate red flag.
“This isn’t possible. I can just show this to Alicia. She will know that something is wrong,” I said.
This was the information I needed to convince Alicia. Obviously he couldn’t pay for such a lavish lifestyle with the money he made from working with Alicia. I got excited with the thought that I would be able to show this to Alicia and she would forgive me.
Having Alicia so angry with me felt horrible. My insides felt like a school girl who had been turned away by her boyfriend. I was usually the person who caused this kind of chaos in others. I wasn’t the person who had these feelings.
Most of my adult life had been spent avoiding deep relationships. I hated this feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like how out of control I felt when someone left me. That was why I was always the person who left others. Or I would get into relationships that were specifically set up to end after one night.
I was in new territory and it was doing quiet the number on my body. I felt nauseous and out of control and I needed to do something to get back into control very quickly.
“Evan, there is no real information here yet. Maybe Bill’s rich grandmother died. We have no idea where the money really came from you can’t just go and confront her again. You’re likely to get slapped.”
“Hey, guys, can I help you with the research today?” Rebecca said from the doorway of my office.
Both Mike and I stopped and stared at Rebecca as she stood in the doorway. I didn’t want her to be involved at all anymore. I knew I was going to have to be firm with her this time. I hated this part when it came to women I had fucked.
“No thanks, Rebecca, we have this,” I said to her.
“Come on, I’ve been helping all along,” she said as she came in and sat down.
I just looked at Mike with wide eyes and tried to figure out a way to nicely tell her to leave. I wasn’t in the mood to pretend to care though.
“No, Rebecca. We don’t need your help on this.”
Here face went red and I could tell she only held back her anger because Mike was in the room.
Rebecca stood up slowly and put on what looked like the worst pretend happy face I had ever seen. She obviously didn’t want to show how disappointed she was to Mike, but she couldn’t hide it. I felt like she would have bit me again right then and there if Mike had not been in the room. Luckily for me, he was there.
“Alright guys, I’ll talk to you later,” she said with a smile as she left.
I jumped up and locked the door after she was gone. I didn’t want her barging in again.
“Wow, that was a little creepy, Evan.”
“I know, like seriously she was super cool before and she’s turning into some sort of stalker or something.”
“Her eyes went totally weird when you told her no,” Mike added.
“I know. I tell you she totally bit me on purpose the other day. Like straight out Dracula shit.”
Mike just laughed.
He was used to me and my women troubles. Mike found humor in all my situations. Including the time I got arrested because the woman I was with had actually robbed a bank earlier in the day. I still hadn’t lived that one down. Luckily I had a great alibi for earlier in that day and the woman confessed and said I didn’t know anything about it. Mike gave me quit the lecture about choosing my women more wisely.
“Do you think I should go check out his place? See what else I can find?”
“No, Evan. If you want to know what I really think, I think you should sell off your stock and give up on the whole thing. I think you’ve got yourself in way over your head and you don’t need to be involved with this girl. There are plenty of other women who don’t have these kinds of issues.”
“I’m not giving up, Mike. I’m so close.”
Mike just shrugged his shoulders. He knew better than to argue with me when I had decided something. We had known each other for too many years for him to argue with me about things that I decided to focus on.
I think he was just as confused as I was about the things that I was willing to let go of and the other things that I focused on. But Mike seemed to just let things roll off his back without a worry.
“No reason to go over there, Evan. We can see that his place is expensive. It was last sold for thirty-two million dollars back in 2005.”
“I just need more. I need to find out for sure if he was the one who purchased the apartment. He seems like a smart man, I’m not sure he would be dumb enough to purchase that expensive of a condo with money he stole from Alicia’s companies.”
“You’re right. It does seem a little obvious. I think I have a guy that can help us find more information. You should try and make up with Alicia though or all of this is going to be for nothing.”
I knew he was right. No matter how much I wanted to figure out wh
at was going on with her company, if she was pissed at me it didn’t matter at all.
“Ok, I’m going to work on her. You work on finding the financial proof I need to blow up Bill Yobi’s lies. I need real proof though. I need his name on some documents so I can show Alicia he is using her.”
Mike and I ended our day of investigation and he went off to try and find the answers I needed. I went home and tried to figure out what I could say to Alicia that would bring her back to me. She was pissed, but hopefully not too angry to forgive me.
I had never worried so much about a woman and her dislike toward me. Something about Alicia had drawn me in though. I was hyper focused on her and there was no way I was going to give up until everything had been settled.
I was committed to making sure I helped her figure out who was stealing from her and I was going to have to deal with the consequences if she continued to hate me. I really hoped when it was all done she would be able to forgive me, though. It made me physically ill to think that she might not ever be willing to forgive me.
Chapter 34
I stood at the window in my apartment and stared out over the city. It had only been a few weeks before that I had a hot blonde bent over right there and fucking her. I didn’t have the urge to go get a woman from the bar though, instead, my mind was consumed by thoughts of Alicia’s warehouse.
It was a huge building in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t even seem like a good choice for someone who wanted to store large amounts of cash. You could do that anywhere in the city if you had to. Simply rent an apartment and keep the money there. Why did they put the money into a warehouse? Why did they choose a place so far away from everything else? There had to be significance to the location.
“Alicia, I know you’re pissed but I would really like to talk to you. Please come by my apartment anytime or the office,” I said into Alicia’s voicemail.
I gave my address and then hung up. I hoped that she would be willing to stop by so we could discuss what was going on. If she was really involved then she wasn’t going to call me back. If she was really involved she would cut off all communication with me and try to hide out.
I hoped she would call. I hoped she wasn’t involved at all.
My mind raced with the thoughts of everything. What had started as a plan to just get research on a company had spiraled out of control now. I was in much deeper than I ever thought possible. My life was wrapped up in Alicia and her company and I wasn’t going to be able to move on until I figured everything out.
I felt the pressure of the situation and the uncomfortable nature of what was going on. I was Evan Gade, my life didn’t get mixed up with women like this. My life was about work, making money, and fucking hot women. Something had gone wrong with my plan and now I wasn’t doing any of those things. I had stopped being able to work efficiently, stopped making money and I certainly wasn’t fucking anyone lately.
Sleep found me late into the evening.
In the morning, I felt more exhausted than usual. I really wanted to get everything figured out with Alicia but I might just have to give up. I couldn’t go around being exhausted forever. Sooner or later I would have to get back to my normal life.
My mood was glum as I headed into the office and waited for Alicia to contact me. I would give it a day or two and then if she hadn’t reached out to me by then I would have to move on.
“You look like shit, Evan,” Natasha said as I came down the hall toward my office.
“Thanks.”
“I take it you weren’t able to get Alicia to forgive you yet?”
“No answer when I called.”
“Well you need to get over it. You have a fucking job to do Evan. Your clients need to make money and they need your full attention.”
Natasha was right. Something had taken me over and I didn’t have enough energy to concentrate on Alicia and do my work. Something was going to have to change. I wasn’t about to risk losing my clients over this mess. If I had to see off the stock to ALL Warren then that was what I was going to have to do.
“You’re right Natasha. I’m going to focus on work today.”
The best way for me to focus was to spend the morning on the stock market floor. There was no better way to refocus my energy on investments than to be smack dab in the middle of all the excitement.
From the newbie’s to the old pro’s the stock market floor was where it was at when you needed to get back into the game. I loved it on the floor. It felt like home to me.
The buzz of the trades, the loud yelling of the traders: it was intoxicating. Similar to the high I felt when I took a new woman home or had fun with her in some random location; but the stock market didn’t require emotions. In fact, the best work traders were able to separate the emotion of the trades from the logic of the deal.
I had lost my focus. By getting involved with Alicia, I had done exactly what I shouldn’t have done. I had made the investment into her company something more personal than it needed to be.
By the end of the day, my focus had returned and I was in full on trading mode again. I sold off some stock that I didn’t think was helping the portfolio grow and I had started investing in a couple new companies. It was a very productive day, except for one thing; I hadn’t made the decision if I was going to sell off the ALL Warren stock or not yet.
“Mr. Gade, there is a Ms. Warren here to see you,” Natasha said over the speaker phone in my office.
My stomach dropped and I jumped up. Hopefully she hadn’t come with the intention of slapping me again.
“Hi, Alicia,” I said as I opened my door.
She sat in the chair next to Natasha’s desk and looked visibly upset. But she didn’t look angry, instead she looked very sad. Her eyes were puffy like she had been crying and I just wanted to sweep her up into my arms.
“Hi, Evan,” she said as her eyes met mine.
I reached my hand out for her and she grabbed a hold of me. I held onto her and made our way back into my office.
“You alright?” I asked.
“No. I’m not alright. I don’t know what’s going on at all,” she barely got the words out of her mouth before she totally broke down in tears.
I couldn’t understand much else that came out of her mouth after that, but Alicia started rambling on and sobbing all at the same time. The only thing I could think of to do was pull her close and hold onto her. She obviously was upset and I wasn’t familiar with sticking around to deal with that kind of emotional outburst. Hugging her was the best I could think to do.
“It’s alright,” I said as I rubbed her back. “What’s going on?”
I shouldn’t have asked her a question though; she continued to cry and tried to answer me. I had no idea what she said.
After about twenty minutes of hugging her, she finally pulled away from me and seemed to have calmed down. Her eyes were puffy again and I had an urge to run far away. Not because I wasn’t worried about her, only because I wasn’t comfortable being around someone when there was so much emotion going on.
Historically, if a woman got emotional, I walked away. I just didn’t have the temperament for comforting women. My specialty was making them moan, not making them feel comfortable. But surprisingly, I didn’t mind comforting Alicia.
“Evan, I don’t know what to do.”
“Okay, now that we are all calmed down. Tell me again what’s going on. I couldn’t really understand you.”
“I tried to talk to Bill and told him that it sucked people still remembered what happened before. He got really upset and freaked out. It scared me.”
“What do you mean he freaked out?”
“He said he was taking a day off and going to check on some things. He got pissed and thought I believed you and wanted to know why I would trust someone else and not him.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I couldn’t say much. I really hadn’t believed he would do anything bad ever to me, but the way he got so angry i
t was horrible.”
Alicia was about to start crying again and I didn’t want to deal with that.
“Let’s take a couple big breaths and see if we can figure out what’s going on. Maybe you just caught him off guard. We don’t know anything for sure yet.”
I had to calm things down a little and I didn’t want her to think I was targeting Bill personally. The only reason he kept coming up was because of his history with Alicia. Well maybe that wasn’t totally true. I also had my concerns about him being her finance VP and not having a graduate degree in business or finance. He just didn’t seem qualified to be a vice president of a company.
It was also extremely unusual that he would have a multi-million dollar condo without even having his MBA. Surely he couldn’t be getting paid that much money from Alicia.
Alicia hugged me again and held on tight. It felt good to have her arms around me. I liked having her guard down and feeling her so close to me. Normally all I would have been thinking about was how I could get her into bed. But I wasn’t. At that moment I was just thinking about how I could help her.
“I’ve had a bad feeling about a lot of things with my company lately, Evan. I just don’t know what’s going on. There have been people complaining about getting double billed. There are people complaining that they haven’t gotten their orders. I just feel like things should be running so much better.”
“I can help. But you have to be honest with me,” I said as I stepped away and went to my computer.
I wasn’t ready to tell her that I had been researching her company since the day I met her, but I did really want to use this conversation as a starting place for us to move forward. I wanted to help her figure out what was going on with her company and ensure she was making the most profit from her organization. She didn’t need another failed company on her hands and I wanted to make sure that we prevented that.
“Thanks, Evan,” Alicia leaned in and kissed me.
I couldn’t resist. Emotionally, I was exhausted as I was sure she was too. It was a huge step that she had shown up at my office and it made me think she really did not know what was going on.