“Oh, so you’re here too,” said Stacey. “Are you guys into each other? Is that why I’m getting such resistance here?”
“We’re friends having dinner,” said Davis. “And it’s time for you to leave.”
“I don’t think so,” said Stacey. “I don’t give up that easy. How about it, Trigg? You two, double-team me. C’mon, if you’re straight.”
“Wow, you just cannot deal with rejection,” said Trigg. “Look, no offense, but we’re not interested. Plus you’re our boss’s daughter and an intern. Do you realize how bad that is?”
“Who is going to tell him? Not me,” said Stacey. “I just want to get off with two stud muffins. Are you two honestly turning down a sure thing—that’s this hot? And you’re not gay? Sorry, no. I’m not buying that.”
“What’s not to understand? This isn’t a college dorm,” explained Davis. “We work at the same company and you’re not even a full employee.”
“I might as well be,” explained Stacey. “I’ll probably be your bosses in a few years. Who do you think my father is going to leave running the hotel when he dies? You two?”
“He asked us to teach you the hotel business,” reminded Trigg. “So far, all you’ve done is complain and threaten the staff. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. I don’t think you father wants you to throw away everything we’ve built.”
“You mean he’s built,” she corrected. “C’mon, what’s the real story here?”
“God! Are you that conceited?” snapped Trigg. “You’re seriously messed up, Stacey.”
I had gotten my blouse re-buttoned and was creeping around the back of the house, looking for an escape. There was a back door, but in order to reach it I would have to cross the line of sight from the front door, where Stacey was.
I check the windows. One seemed like a workable option. If I could get it open, I could drop down to the air conditioner unit outside and then step onto the grass. The only problem was where did I go from there?
I guess I could run behind their neighbor’s house and then make my way to back street. I could call and Uber and sit on the curb in front of someone’s house. But I had to get far enough away so that Stacey couldn’t see me, especially if she drove away.
“Look, if you guys are real men,” said Stacey. “You’ll have sex with me. I’m young, I’m hot and I’m willing. You two realize that it’s bizarre that we’re not fucking already, right?”
“It’s bizarre that you can’t take no for answer,” said Davis. “There’s plenty of other guys out there. In fact, we have a hotel bar and I’m sure it’s full of horny guys. Why are you insisting on us?”
“Yeah, I would like to know that too,” said Trigg. “Or haven’t you heard of Tinder? I’m sure guys would line up to fuck you,” he finished sarcastically.
“Aw, thanks,” said Stacey, genuinely complimented. “I knew you guys thought I was hot. The thing is, I probably am going to be running my dad’s hotel one day and I could really use someone under me that I can trust. So…why not prove you’re trustworthy by letting me get under you?”
“That seems like an oddly immature way to build trust,” said Davis suspiciously.
I tip-toed to the bathroom in the back of the house. I had stacked the hamper and a few other things so I could get to the window. I wasn’t confident the hamper could hold my weight completely empty, so I filled it with towels. I unlocked the window, slowly and painstakingly raising it noiselessly. It was almost open wide enough for me to climb out.
That’s when it happened. The worst possible scenario. My living nightmare had been Stacey coming back in my life to ruin me. And here she was.
“Wait a second!” said Stacey spotting my scarf and purse. “She’s here, isn’t she?!”
Chapter 12
Davis
If Stacey wasn’t Wendell’s daughter, I would’ve slammed the door in her face and gotten her fired. I had to be careful. Trigg and I could get in a very awkward position depending how Stacey relayed this incident to her father.
I had to get ahead of it. Maybe I would call Wendell first to lay the groundwork for later. That way, if she called, he’d already know there was some friction.
But how would I tell him that Stacey was practically throwing herself at me? And Trigg! Jesus, what a mess. The only thing to do was go on the offense. She backed down once before. Maybe she would do it again.
“Okay, I’ve had enough!” I shouted. Getting Hallie mixed up in her sick games went too far. “Get out of my house! Do not come back!”
“No,” challenged Stacey. “You’ve got that EA here. No wonder you don’t want to fuck me. You’re both already fucking her.”
“You are a psycho,” dismissed Trigg. “Seriously, you need some therapy, Stacey.”
“I can’t believe this!” said Stacey. “Although, in a way, it makes total sense. She’s here right now and you’re about to fuck her, why screw things up with me, right? Jesus, if only I had been in the office a few days sooner, right?”
“I’m alerting your dad, Stacey,” I promised.
“Hey, let’s not get crazy,” she said backing off. “I’ll leave. If you admit you’re double-teaming her.”
“The only thing I’m admitting is that I’m repulsed by you,” I said, finally dropping the pretense of being polite. “Seriously, you make a lot of effort to look nice on the outside, but you’re pure ugly on the inside.”
“Jeez, man,” muttered Trigg.
“You think I’m ugly?!” screamed Stacey. “You haven’t seen ugly!”
Wheeling around, Stacey took a step outside and kicked over a potted plant near my door. The dirt spilled out onto the sidewalk. She picked up the pot and smashed it on the front step.
“What do you think of that, huh? Freaks!” she shouted. “I know you’re in there, Ms. Executive Assistant! I can see you! You’re done at the hotel! You’re all finished!”
Stacey completed the rant by flipping us both off. She stomped to the street, got into her car and peeled out. I shut the door and texted Wendell. I had to get ahead of his daughter’s madness.
“What the hell are you doing, man?!” snapped Trigg.
“I’m texting Wendell,” I explained. “We gotta get rid of Stacey.”
“He’s never gonna listen to us. And what the hell was that calling her ugly on the inside?” snapped Trigg.
“She is.”
“I know she is but you don’t say it! That’s like the worst thing you can say to a human being and you said to the world’s worst human being!” ranted Trigg. “I wouldn’t fuck her with your dick! Obviously.”
“Obviously.”
“What did you text him?” asked Trigg.
“ ‘Wendell, there may be a problem with Stacey’s internship. We should talk.’ ” He looked up. “Sound good?”
“No! No matter how you word that, it’s bad,” ranted Trigg. “No matter what you say, no amount of talking is going to turn the man against his daughter!”
“I’m not trying to turn him against his daughter,” I insisted. “I’m just trying to lay the groundwork to get Stacey out of the hotel. Wendell’s on a cruise. He probably won’t answer me for a while.”
“Yeah, in the mean time, you’ve pissed her off!” shouted Trigg.
“Calm down,” I said, lowering my voice. “Let me remind you who started this. We could’ve hung back, laid low and maybe sometime in the future then asked Hallie out.”
“Oh, like you’re not cool with this now? Is that what you’re saying?” said Trigg, stealing a glance toward the back of the house.
“No! That’s not what I’m saying!” I whispered. “I’m saying, we could’ve waited. Stacey would already be gone and we wouldn’t be dealing with this. Plus look how upset Hallie gets when you even mention her name!”
“Yeah, I don’t blame her,” whispered Trigg. “Stacey tried to fuck me in the changing rooms by the pool. I mean, she was this close to tearing off her clothes and grabbing my dick!”
&
nbsp; “Well, keep that to yourself,” I advised. “Hallie is upset enough. She obviously doesn’t want to deal with the thought of Stacey trying to have sex with us.”
“Hallie is exactly right about that psycho! She’s not going to stop until she gets what she wants or punishes everyone around her for not giving it to her! Who knows what it’ll take so that she might move on.”
“She’s nuts. I don’t trust her for a second. Hell, she could say anything to Wendell.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t push her!” insisted Trigg. “You’ve set her off! Look at what she did to your pot!”
“Who cares about the stupid pot?” I countered. “It’s exactly why we have to get ahead of the story. If we control the narrative with Wendell, we can keep her from gaining to much ground on us.”
“We need something on her, D,” suggested Trigg. “I should go back to the hotel and check the security cameras.”
“What could you possibly find?”
“I don’t know! Maybe we weren’t the only guys she propositioned, right?” suggested Trigg. “Maybe she banged Stan.”
“No offense to Stan, but he’s heavy and like 55,” I dismissed. “She doesn’t seem into...”
“Stan’s a manly guy though,” Trigg said. “Besides, it’s not about having ideal sex, it’s about punishing daddy. That’s what these girls like Stacey are all about. Makes sense she’d bang him.”
“Isn’t Stan married?” I said, trying to remember.
“Yeah, so?” said Trigg. “Guy like that and a young thing throws herself at you. Could you resist?”
“With Stacey? Absolutely,” I assured Trigg. “No amount of easy sex is worth that amount of gross and crazy.”
“I agree with you in principle,” said Trigg. “But I don’t know. Old guy. Last chance for a fling. Might be tempting.”
“I don’t want to get Stan fired, even if it were true!” I snapped. “Forget about Stan. Let’s just calm down and figure this out.”
We walked to the spare bedroom. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. “Hallie?” I called, knocking. “You okay? Please open the door.”
There was no response. Trigg pulled me aside.
“Maybe she needs some space,” he suggested. “This kind of thing could push her over the edge.”
“How did she look when she heard Stacey at the door?” I asked.
“She totally freaked out.” Trigg blinked. “In fact, you got any Valium in here?”
“Judging by what the Long Island Iced Teas did to her, I think that’s a poor strategy,” I advised. “Maybe I have something in the bathroom a little less strong. Plus we just had wine.”
We got into the bathroom. It looked like someone had piled up a bunch of stuff to climb out the window, which was wide open.
“Oh, shit,” said Trigg. “Hallie? Hallie!”
“Don’t yell out the window,” I whispered. “That psycho Stacey could still be out there!”
“Well, what do we do?”
“The bedroom door is locked,” I noted. “Hallie has to be in there.”
“Kick down the door?”
“I would like to avoid that for obvious reasons.”
We went back to the bedroom door.
“Hallie?” I said. “Look, you can stay in there if you want, but Trigg and I just want to make sure you’re okay. And still here with us.”
“I’m okay,” came her voice from somewhere far from the door. She sounded distant in more ways than one.
“Thank God,” sighed Trigg in relief.
“Can you guys just give me a few minutes?” called Hallie.
“Sure, we’ll be in the kitchen if you need us,” I said.
“We’re here for you, Hallie,” added Trigg, his voice earnest and urgent.
I guided Trigg back into the kitchen. He plopped on the couch while I got out the bourbon.
“Need a drink?” I offered.
“Yeah, sure,” said Trigg.
I poured us each a shot. Trigg swigged it back in one gulp.
“Ooo, that’s good,” he noted, shaking his head slowly side to side, savoring the sensation. “Listen man, I’m sorry. I think you were right. I rushed this whole fucking thing.”
“Ah, don’t beat yourself up,” I assured him, wiping my mouth after taking the shot. “I’m an adult. I could’ve said no. I jumped in too.”
“But we’re agreed there’s no backing out now, right?” asked Trigg.
I hesitated. Was I doing the right thing here? Maybe I was fucking up everyone’s life by holding onto this. Whatever “this” was. Was it a relationship? Was it just sex? It didn’t feel like it was just sex, but maybe I was caught up in the moment.
“I don’t know, man,” I said looking away.
“I can’t give this girl up,” said Trigg staring in the distance. “I can’t. I never thought I’d ever meet someone that I could— I thought life would just be work and hook-ups and more work—”
“But now? ”
“But now,” began Trigg, “I got a life, a career and some maturity. I want to share that with Hallie and my best friend, D.”
“We could be throwing it all away though,” I said looking off. “We built that business. That hotel is just as much ours as Wendell’s. Plus, to start over? At the bottom somewhere else? Jesus. That would be rough.”
I was speaking of work but couldn’t stop thinking about Hallie. It’d been a long time for me too, since I knew a woman that I didn’t want to let go of. Her blend of strength and vulnerability was just a magnet for me. I couldn’t pull away.
“I’ll start over with you, D,” promised Trigg, looking back at me and giving a curt nod. “Even if Wendell fires you for some random reason sometime, I’ll go too. Fuck it. This wouldn’t be any fun without you.”
“Thanks, man,” I said. “Means a lot. Guess I’m in. I was never really out though. Just thinking things through out loud. What’s the plan?”
Trigg grew serious, thoughts focusing. “We gotta show Hallie that we’re all in with her,” he put forth. “That last night wasn’t just some fling or fluke. We gotta do it again. We have to have the most sexual night of our lives and show her that could be every night.”
“It’s going to be tough. Stacey effectively murdered the mood,” I said.
“Well, obviously, we don’t talk about Stacey. Just give her some time, she’ll come out here, I know it,” Trigg said. “I think when she sees us and we start talking to her, we can help build her back up. Damn… she is one sexy woman.”
“Yeah, it’s almost like she doesn’t know it,” I noted. “I guess from what she said of high school, she wasn’t used to getting positive attention.”
“Well she’s sure got skills as an EA,” said Trigg.
“Yeah, we need someone else in the company to independently verify her skills,” I said, thinking that I also wanted her protected from any fallout. “If she had that validation from someone other than us, maybe it’d mean more to her. Someone professional.”
“Like that Hotel Impossible guy,” suggested Trigg. “He’d be good.”
“Yeah, but he only shoots his TV show in bad hotels,” I remembered. “Our hotel is just too good.”
“Give me one more bourbon,” requested Trigg. “Then let’s see if we can coax her out.”
I poured another couple of shots. Trigg held up his shot glass for a toast.
“To the future. Friends to the end,” he toasted.
“Friends to the end, buddy,” I answered.
Our shot-glasses clinked and Trigg whipped his head back for the shot.
“Shit,” he said. “Any more of these and I’m not going to be able to have sex tonight.”
“Now that, I have pills for in the bathroom,” I kidded.
“No, shit. You take Viagra?”
“Oh, yeah. You get so hard.”
“Can I have one?”
“I’m kidding!! I don’t take that!” I laughed. “At our age, we’d be hard for a week if w
e took it.”
“That would be quite a week,” joked Trigg. “Okay, let’s do this.”
We went back to the guest bedroom door. I knocked.
“Hallie? Babydoll? Can we come in? We just want to talk, okay?” I asked.
After a few seconds, the door unlocked and we went in.
Chapter 13
Hallie
I needed time to think.
When I was in high school and Stacey was bullying me, I would go off alone in the woods sometimes. I would find a place to hide so I could sit and just listen to the quiet of the woods.
Since I couldn’t do that, Davis’ spare bedroom had to do. I could hear their muffled dialogue in the next room, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I tuned it out and just meditated. Eventually, after my stress level went down, I could think again.
Stacey’s a grown up and I’m a grown up. She can’t hurt me physically. She’d go to jail. All she could do is try and get me fired. That’s it. And the upside, I would never have to see her again. I would be extremely sad if Trigg and Davis got fired too. I had to know if they were really on board with being with me.
I opened the door to them and they filed inside. Both came straight to me, rubbing my shoulders with looks of concern.
“Look guys,” I said. “I don’t want to cost you your careers. We don’t need to do this. We can all move on. Maybe after Stacey’s gone, we could try it again.” I kept my eyes on the floor. I didn’t want to be a pity case for them. But I also didn’t want to lose them. They needed to decide on their own.
“I can’t speak for Trigg, but I don’t think I could last all that time without you,” said Davis. “Especially working together in the office. Just too tempting.” His lips grazed a kiss across my cheekbone.
“Yeah, I’m with him on that,” added Trigg. “We decided that we want a relationship with you and we’re willing to suffer whatever consequences that brings. Regardless of Stacey, or anyone else.”
“Do you— Do you both really mean that?” I asked, warmth swelling in my chest.
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