His Many Rules

by Ali Parker

  "Sup, buddy? You headed to the office?" He sounded far too chipper for six o'clock in the morning. Being with Bethany changed everything for him.

  "Yeah. I'm going in to talk with Mark this morning. Heather is all up in my face trying to get me to bend her over the nearest piece of furniture. I'd never do it, but the bitch is crafty. She'll figure out a way to make it look like I did."

  "And you think Mark is going to help you?"

  "Why don't I like the way you just asked that question?"

  "Because I was reading an article in the paper yesterday that was an interview of big daddy Turner. You know her fucking family is loaded."

  "Of course I know."

  "The bastard is pledging two million dollars to a new project at UT. I'm thinking Mark might know a little something-something about that."

  "He does." I ran my fingers through my hair and pressed the gas, needing so badly to feel like I was in control of something. "He told me the other day that he wants Heather to be quite happy with her position in our department and it's my job to keep her there."

  "Oh wow. This is seriously getting better by the minute."

  "I have to go talk with him. I don't really have a choice Damon. He might be under pressure to make Heather's family pony up for whatever project they're interested in helping to build, but he's still got a fiduciary duty to the professors in the accounting department. Including me."

  "That's true. We'll see if he abides by it." Damon snorted. "I would just record the cunt making demands of me and play it over the loud speakers during the first class period. That should shut her up."

  I rolled my eyes. I had no clue how Bethany could deal with him. He was forever a child stuck in the body of a man.

  "All right. Good talk, buddy. I'll check in later."

  "Take care of yourself, Kendal. No one else is going to do it for you, man."

  "Not even you?" I smiled.

  "Oh yeah, I for sure will. Come work for me and I'll give you all the freedom you want, a plush corner office and more money than you'd know what to do with."

  "Your offer just keeps getting more and more attractive. Too bad I hate Corporate America."

  "Pick the lesser of two evils, my friend. You know what I'm saying."

  "I can't give up just yet. I've worked too hard for it."

  "You'll figure it out. You always do." Damon dropped the call and I let out a long sigh. He was right. I was fighting a battle for something that wasn't paying dividends. Where I loved teaching, it wasn't nearly as attractive as it had been when I was younger and still believed the world to be a relatively good place.

  I pulled into my parking spot and sat there a few minutes until someone knocked on my window. Eliza.

  After turning the car off, I got out and gave her a warm smile. "I'm glad to see you. We have a conversation that you owe me the other half of if I'm not mistaken."

  "We do." She moved back as I grabbed my bag and joined her in our short walk to the business building.

  "Tell me about the meeting with Daisy. Why did she leave?"

  "Because she fell in love with her boss, and he didn't return the favor. She was nothing more than a nice warm body to snuggle up with when he grew tired of his pregnant wife." She glanced over at me with disgust on her face.

  "Oh no." I shook my head as my heart fell. "That's horrible. Daisy was a great professor. So bright and friendly."

  "And young and stupid." She took a deep breath as I opened the door to the business building and waited for her to walk inside. "You're being the same way."

  "Young and stupid?" I moved up beside her, already knowing the answer to the question before I asked it.

  "Yes." She stopped in the middle of the hall and turned to face me. "You need to take care of this before it ruins everything you've worked so damn hard for." She poked me in the chest and glared up at me. "I cared about Daisy, and I care about you. Fix this before it's not able to be fixed. Do you understand me?"

  "Yes, Eliza, but it's not like Mark doesn't have his fucking fingers in the pie. He wants me with Heather. There's not a whole lot he's going to be willing to do to help me out. It does him no favors to crucify her even though the bitch deserves it."

  "Then you go above his head, Kendal. He's not the final voice in this organization. You go up as far as you have to go and you figure this out."

  I ran my hand down my face as my stomach tightened. "I don't want any drama. I just want to teach my class and try to live my life."

  "Well, tough. Your life is suddenly locked into the middle of a huge vat of shit and you can paddle to the side and take care of making sure that no one else ends up where you have because of slutty women with hidden agendas, or you can just stand still until you eventually sink underneath the muck and wonder what the hell happened." She poked me again. "You're smarter than this. It isn't going away. Fix it."

  I watched her walk away, hating the part of myself that wanted to simply turn in my resignation and walk away forever. Mark wasn't going to be an ally in the fight I had against Heather. He was playing her part on the other side of the street and Daisy was me, just under very different circumstances.

  "So... who was she?" Heather walked down the hall toward me, catching me off guard by her question.

  "Sorry?" I muttered before walking to the elevator.

  She got in beside him and pressed the button for the top floor before turning and moving to stand right in front of me.

  Reaching out and wrapping my fingers around her perfectly pale throat sounded like the best choice at the moment, but it wasn't me anymore. My days of playing asshole alpha male were over. I hated that prick and promised myself I would never subjugate another woman to who I could be. No one. Not even Heather, though the bitch was begging for it.

  "Who is she?" Heather extended her phone toward me.

  It took a second for me to realize what I was looking at. Dana.

  "Why the fuck?" I snatched Heather's phone and pushed at her chest as she moved in to snatch it back. "Why do you have a picture of her?"

  "Because she's the girl you're dating... isn't she?" She muscled her way closer to me, and I snapped.

  "It's none of your goddamn business who I'm dating." I gripped her throat tightly and pressed myself to the front of her as something inside me snapped. "If you think for one second that you're going to come into this school and push me around after all the shit I've been through to be here... You got another thing coming, bitch."

  "Let go. Kendal. Let go." She clawed at my hands, and after watching her squirm for a minute I released her and walked out into the hallway.

  Fuck her. Fuck Mark. I was going to the top. I'd go sit in the goddamn president's office all day long until I got his attention. Or better yet... I'd pick up Daisy and her and I could take a trip down to the local news station. I wasn't being pushed around anymore. Not by anyone.

  "Kendal. I wasn't going to do anything about it. I just wanted to know who she is." Heather followed me to my office and stood like a wounded bird just inside the door as I set my stuff down and glared at her.

  "She's the woman I'm going to marry one day. The one who's going to give me babies and hold me at night when I'm tired. She's everything you're not. Get the fuck outta my office. This shit ends here."

  "Be careful." She brushed her hair back and lifted her phone to take a few pictures of herself. The angry fingerprints around her throat were incriminating, but I didn't care. If she wanted to ruin my career and the University let that happen after hearing my side of the story, then so be it.

  I didn't belong there anyway.

  She finally left my office after slinging a few more threats and promises to bring me to my knees again. Something about me bowing before her seemed to turn her on good. Funny. She was usually the one reaching up from the floor when we were together before.

  I moved through the rest of the day like molasses, hating myself and wishing there were a safe way to tame the bastard inside of me back into his ca
ge. I hadn't come face to face with the part of me that wanted to rule the world for a long time, and I didn't care to for the rest of my days, but here he was... out of the bag, unloosed.

  "You all right?" Bethany walked into the auditorium a few minutes before my first class started and put her hands on her hips.

  "I've been better." I wasn't going to lash out at anyone else around me, but that meant keeping to myself as best I could. "I'm just dealing with a few things here at work that are driving me toward rage."

  "What can I do to help?" Her voice was soft and kind.

  Dana. I needed to see Dana. To feel her against me. To remember why we were willing to fight for each other. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to see her, but fuck if I didn't want to. If she could take me when I was angry, then she could handle anything I could throw her way.

  "Nothing," I mumbled and pulled a few folders out. "Just help me get ready for the day and we'll be good."

  "You know I'm here for you, right?"

  "Yeah. I'm glad you are. I just need to work through some shit and figure out where I need to poke the bear and where I need to break the stick and run for my life."

  "Sounds... complicated."

  "The things that matter most in life usually are." I winked at her and turned back to my notes. She and Dana would come to be good friends, I had no doubt. That being if Dana and I survived the shit storm that was headed my way.

  Heather was a conniving bitch with a hard-on for fucking up my life and Mark was hungry for success. Things weren't looking too good, but like Eliza advised... I was being forced in a corner. I could crouch down like a little bitch and hope for the best, or I could come out with my claws drawn and expect a bloody mess.

  Time to get dirty.

  Chapter 38

  Dana

  "Yes, Mom. I'll be there. I might be bringing a friend if that's all right?" I pressed the phone to my ear and leaned against the glass window at the end of the hall in the hospital.

  "A girl friend or a boyfriend?" My mom's probing was never subtle.

  "A boyfriend. I'm dating this guy on and off and I think you'll really like him."

  "Oh nice! I'm so excited for you. Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

  "Because I know you like to get up in my business, and I wasn't sure I was ready for that."

  "And now you are?" I'd hurt her feelings.

  "I think so. Is it just you tonight?" I turned as someone tapped me on the back. Jackie stood behind me, bouncing on the balls of her feet like she was about to burst at the seams with great news.

  "No. Your sister and brother will be here, and your Uncle Pino."

  "All right Mom. I'll be there around six tonight, okay?"

  "See you then, Mija."

  I pulled the phone from my ear as Jackie let out a long squeal. I smiled in spite of myself. "What?"

  "He called! He totally called me."

  "Who? Parks?" I crossed my arms over my chest, still not quite sure how I felt about this guy that Jackie was regularly losing her shit over.

  "Yes! I was just there on Sunday and it's only Tuesday and he called!" She danced around in a small circle in front of me, chanting that he called over and over again.

  "Did you expect him not to call? You just spent a shit-ton of money flying up there to spend the weekend with him. Why would he not call?" I hated to piss on her parade, but her obsession with this guy was getting creepy.

  "Because he's busy, Dana." She put her hands on her hips as her smile faded. "Don't do that."

  "Do what?" I moved around her and walked back down the hall.

  "That." She pressed her shoulder against mine and groaned. "You're making me feel weird about wanting him to call. It's natural when you really like someone to want him to pay you attention."

  "Oh, I know." I stopped and turned to face her. "But this guy hasn't exactly been on the up and up with you."

  "But he called." She put her hands together and gave me a cute frown. "That's something... right?"

  "Yes. It's something." I reached out and tugged at a long strand of her hair. "Please don't let your heart get invested in this guy. He's a player."

  "And so am I." She turned and skipped over to the nurses’ station, leaving all the older women to watch her with confusion on their faces.

  "She's in love." I lifted my hands to the side as if surrendering to the idea.

  "Oh. I see," one of them muttered and rolled her eyes playfully. "Just make sure it's not with a doctor or a surgeon. Those guys are users all the way."

  "What?" Jackie turned as her smile faded again. "Not all of them are that way. That would be like saying all of us are calloused."

  "We are." Another looked up and smiled. "Well, all of us but Dana."

  "I'll take that as a compliment." I grabbed one of the charts that had my rounds on it.

  "And you should." Tinsley moved around and dropped down in her chair with a loud sigh. "Mrs. Delmaz has been improving over the last twenty-four hours. It's almost like you bringing that stupid bird up here triggered something inside of her. Dr. Lewis is talking about releasing her to assisted living by the end of the week if she keeps it up."

  "Really?" Excitement buzzed through me.

  "Yep. Did you take the bird back to her house?"

  "No. I took him to the shelter, but I'll call right now and have them pull him to the side. I'll go pick him up."

  Jackie moved up beside me. "That's a lot of effort for someone you don't know."

  "It's worth it." I glanced over at her. "Healing someone isn't always about shoving a pill down their throat."

  "Oh Lord, we got a dreamer." One of the older nurses stood up and stretched before giving me a warm grin. "But... I love that about you, kiddo. Don't let go of the thought that it's the small things in life that matter most."

  "Thanks." I pulled the clipboard to my chest and turned to walk down the hall. It didn't matter what anyone else thought. Thelma was getting better and if I had any part to play in that, big or small, I was thrilled.

  After finishing up my shift, I finally got over to the pound and picked up the bird in the nick of time. They'd lined up a buyer for the next day, and my luck couldn't have been better. I dropped him off at my apartment, not knowing where else to put him and I headed out to my mother’s.

  Kendal hadn't returned the text I sent right after I got off of work asking him to come to dinner with me. I knew he was busy. I didn't expect him to join us, but damn if I didn't want him to. There was an old run-down hotel just a mile from my mother's place that we could stay at for the night if he was up for it. I just needed to feel him against me something desperate.

  I pressed the button with his number on it and held my breath, half expecting him not to pick up. When he did, it took me a few seconds to find my voice.

  "Dana?"

  "Oh... Yeah. Hey. Sorry." I rolled my eyes and took a quick breath. "I wanted to see if you might be willing to come out to my mom's tonight for dinner. Nothing formal, but she lives in the suburbs near Plano. It's about a forty-minute drive north of the college, but we could eat and hang out. There's a hotel about a mile down the road we could-"

  "Yes." The relief in his voice left my heart melting. Good. He wanted me as badly as I wanted him.

  "Okay. I'll text you the address."

  "You want me to bring anything with me? Dessert? Wine? Flowers for your mom?"

  I smiled at the thought of him showing up with flowers for my mom. "Bring anything you want to bring. My father passed away a few years back, so it's just her now. My sister and brother might be joining us, but regardless, I want to see you."

  "Me too, baby. It's been a rough start to the week."

  "Agreed. Be safe and I'll see you soon." I dropped the call before it got awkward. I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but it seemed like a silly ending to our conversation, though it was true. He was all I could think about when I wasn't knee deep in the hustle and bustle of the hospital.

  I needed to m
ake some firm decisions about my schooling. The mini-mester started on Monday, and if I was going to transfer, I needed to do it soon. I'd wrap up my internship and take a round of winter classes to hopefully catch up. The tuition at Baylor was fifty percent more than UT, but I could handle taking out another loan. I'd figure it all out if it meant spending more time with Kendal.

  "Shit." I pressed the gas, almost missing the turn to my mother's neighborhood. I backed up and turned the car to the right as someone honked loudly and drove by me a little too closely for comfort. "Jeez. Asshole."

  A few minutes later I was sitting out in front of my mother's small two-bedroom house. She'd had a beautiful place back in Houston, but wanted to be up north where there was more opportunity. If it was there, she hadn't found it yet. She was still working two jobs, breaking her back in manual labor. I needed to consider her when I made all of the decisions I had coming up too. My brother was useless and my sister rarely came around anymore since my father died. She was a daddy's girl and for some reason she couldn't bear the thought of being around the rest of us.

  She said it hurt too much.

  "Well, so did losing you and dad," I grumbled and got out of the car. My brother's beat-up blue truck was up on cinder-blocks near the back of the house, which was never a good sign.

  I walked in the side door that opened to the kitchen and smiled as my portly little mother turned from the stove and her face brightened.

  "Oh! My baby is home." She motioned for me to come to her. "You look so beautiful, Dana. I love these scrubs. What is this... little hearts?" She pulled me into a tight hug and buried her face against the side of my neck.

  I wrapped my arms around her and cradled her against me. I had to find a way to make her life better. She'd given everything she was to our family and had very little to show for it.

  "Where's Brandon?" I kissed her on the cheek and released her.

  "He's in the back... asleep. You know your brother is useless."

  I glanced around at the small house and cringed on the inside. Did Kendal come from money? Were his parents wealthy before they died? Would he accept how laid back and down to earth my mom was? She was going to want to hug him. Fuck.