by Marie Astor
“Marry you?” she repeated, as though he’d said something ridiculous. “Why would I want to get married now? Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?”
All around them people were politely averting their eyes. Mortified, he sat down. “You’re right. Perhaps I rushed things a bit. What do you say we get some fresh air?”
“I don’t want fresh air. I want to know what you want out of life. I thought we wanted the same things, but now you’re willing to sell your soul to my father and slave away for him at his company?”
“I wouldn’t put it as ‘slaving away’. Your father has offered me a very generous salary in exchange for my services.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Is that why you dated me all these years? To get to my father?”
“No! How could you even say something like that?”
“Because you clearly have no idea what it is I want in life. You only care about what you want.”
“That’s not true. I want what’s best for both of us. I want us to be together.”
“Yeah? And how do you see that happening? By me marrying you and being a nice little housewife in Oregon?”
“You could still pursue your interests—”
“My interests?” she almost shrieked. “I don’t have ‘interests’. I have passions, which I intend to pursue. And I don’t see how I’m going to be a playwright in Newport, Oregon. What am I going to do—stage high school plays?”
“That could be a place to start,” he shot back and instantly regretted his temper, as Jennifer threw a glass of champagne into his face.
“I’ve had it,” she said in a strangely calm voice as she pushed back her chair. “I’m going to the hotel to get my things. I’ll be staying at a friend’s place tonight.”
He hurriedly threw several hundred-dollar bills, figuring that that ought to be enough to settle the bill and rushed after her. “Jennifer, wait up! You’re overreacting!” He pushed the door open, ready to run after her, but was surprised to see her standing calmly on the sidewalk.
“Isn’t it a wonderful night?” she asked, her face a picture of serenity.
“Yes, it is a very nice night,” he agreed, wondering if she had a mental disorder he hadn’t been aware of until now.
“I’m sorry for the way I acted in there. But I think it’s time we were honest with each other. I think we want very different things out of life. You obviously want a corporate career, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not what I want—”
“But we can figure it out, Jennifer. We can structure our lives so that we both get to live our dreams.”
She shook her head. “That’s just it, Brad. I don’t want to structure my life. I want to live it to the fullest. And I don’t think I could do that while being married to the man who works for my father.”
“But I’ve worked for your father for the past three summers. It never bothered you before.”
“You’re right. I just thought it was a temporary thing you were doing so that we could be near each other during summers. And I . . . I stayed with you because I liked being with you and thought that once you were done with school we’d be free to do what we wanted. But now I understand that we want different things. I guess I was too self-absorbed to realize it earlier. I really did mean all the things I’ve been telling you about.” She spread out her arms, as though trying to embrace the night air. “Look at this wonderful city! I want to see my plays on Broadway, I want to go to India, I want . . . I want . . . to live life as it comes.”
You don’t know what you want, he thought, but said nothing. It was easy to make grand, exciting plans when your father footed all the bills.
“I may seem spoiled to you and flighty, but this is who I am, and I’m not going to change for anyone. I think it’s best for us to take a break,” she said gently.
“Take a break?” he croaked. The only thought that kept hammering through his brain was that he was going to lose his offer from Orion.
“And don’t worry. My dad will still hire you. He loves you like a son—a son he wishes he had instead of a daughter. Goodbye, Brad.” She kissed him gently on the cheek, and with her head thrown back high started to walk away from him.
He remained silent, his hands hanging stiffly on either side of his body. He wasn’t going to go after her. His pride had been hurt too deeply.
A week later Brad started working for Peter Langman. He was the first to arrive at the office and the last one to leave. He hadn’t heard from Jennifer since their fight, but he was too hurt to call her. Every day he waited for a phone call from her, but it didn’t come. Finally, after another week he tucked his pride away and called her cell phone. Her number had been disconnected. Worried, he asked her father about it the next day.
“Oh, Brad, I’m so sorry about it, but the girl’s got no common sense. I know it makes me a bad father to say this, but it’s the truth. I guess she’s taken after her mother,” he said, alluding to the fact that Jennifer’s mother had been an actress before her married her. “Suffice it to say that she doesn’t listen to either of us. Jennifer left for India a week ago. She’s going to be teaching English there, volunteering at some school or something. She forbade me to tell you under a threat of not speaking to me ever again.” He shook his head. “Sometimes I feel like I’m my daughter’s hostage.”
“I’m sorry to hear it, sir.”
“And I’m sorry to have to say it, Brad,” he sighed. “I’ve come to think of you as a son during these past few years, and I want you to know that that is not going to change. I see a great future for you at this company.”
“Thank you, sir. I will do my best to earn your high opinion of me.”
“You already did, Brad. Just keep up the good work.”
Brad shook his head, waking up from his reverie. He’d been a boy when Jennifer had rejected him, but he’d carried the hurt and fear of rejection with him ever since. Instead he focused on his career, deeming women to be nothing more than a form of entertainment, a pleasure to be paid for. He’d even convinced himself that engaging in a serious relationship might harm his advancement chances in the company, assuring himself that Langman preferred to see him single and might hold it against him if he saw Brad with a woman other than his daughter. In hindsight he realized that Langman thought no such thing. On several occasions he’d asked Brad if there was a lady in his life, but Brad had always dismissed his mentor’s questions, saying that his priorities were with the company. He pretended not to notice the puzzled, almost pitying look on Langman’s face, convinced that being single and one hundred percent dedicated to his job was the ideal corporate image. It all worked well for a while until it didn’t. If he’d had a woman in his life to share both his victories and his failures, he would’ve reacted differently to Langman’s decision to hire Wright instead of him. Sure, being passed over for a promotion would’ve hurt, but he wouldn’t have been as obsessed with it. Instead of seeking solace in gambling and purchased caresses from an escort, he would’ve found comfort in the arms of the woman he loved, a woman who would stand by his side no matter what. And he wouldn’t be in the mess he found himself in today. All these years he’d sneered at the idea of monogamy, but now he realized that he’d been secretly longing for it the entire time. Luckily, it wasn’t too late.
He knew it was too early in the stages of their relationship, if he could even call it that—for crying out loud, he’d only just met her, but he’d felt something real between him and Katherine this weekend. It was amazing really, almost unbelievable. She was barely in her twenties, a college kid, but in the late night conversations they’d shared, he sensed depth and profoundness in her beyond her years. She was an old soul, just like him, and he was lucky to have found her. He’d had his eyes on her for a while, but he probably wouldn’t have made a move had it not been for his excessive drinking on Thursday night. For once he didn’t regret the consequences of having one too many. On the contrary, he welcomed the outcome.
<
br /> They’d spent Thursday night and all Friday making love and then he convinced Katherine to spend the weekend with him. He took her to Portland and together they roamed the city where he grew up. They visited museums and walked along the city streets holding hands. They saw a couple of movies and had decadent—to the extent made possible by local chefs—meals at local restaurants. With Katherine’s hand in his he walked the same streets he’d walked as a boy, with all his boyhood memories and dreams flooding his mind. He’d accomplished most of his ambitions, and yet his life still felt empty and he hadn’t even realized it until he saw how different it could be with a woman by his side. Not just any woman, but a woman he cared for and who cared for him equally.
Delight as he might in his newly found ability to love, Brad knew that now was not the time to get all lovey-dovey and lose his focus. He was in hot water and the only way he was going to get out of it was if he kept his mind focused. He had to find a way to get out of Tian Wang’s hold, and for that he was going to need evidence. Then he’d go to the authorities and turn the whole thing over to them. He was also going to hire a lawyer to represent him, a lawyer who could negotiate immunity for him—he’d cooperate fully, but in exchange, the authorities would protect Brad from Tian Wang and he’d walk away a free man. The key was to obtain all the specifics on Wang’s plan before its execution so that he would have something to bargain with the authorities. This was going to be the tricky part. Brad suspected that except for Irene Zong and Tian Wang no one had the complete details of the plan. And without a complete plan, he had nothing to go to the authorities with. What was he going to say? Hello, Tian Wang is forcing me to cooperate in his scheme to sabotage Orion by blackmailing me for sleeping with underage girls. Oh, and I also owe him millions that I lost gambling in his casino. I don’t really know exactly how Tian Wang is going to do it, but he’s going to destroy the plant because he’s mad at Orion for taking away his contracts and it’s going to be horrible. Please protect me from Wang and help me stop his horrible plan. A statement like that was liable to land him in an asylum for the insane, and while that would offer a certain degree of protection from Wang, it wasn’t exactly the arrangement Brad was looking for. No, if he was going to get out of this predicament, which he was determined to do, he had to get concrete evidence.
Brad’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a ringing phone. He saw Steven Wright’s name on the caller ID, cringed, and picked up the receiver. “Brad Weiss here.”
“Could you come into my office?” Wright demanded rather than asked.
“I’ll be right there.” Cocky prick, Brad thought as he pushed back his chair and walked out the door. He tried to keep his cool as he told himself that he wasn’t going to put up with Wright’s crap indefinitely. If he played his cards right, very soon Wright would end up in jail, right alongside Tian Wang.
Brad was surprised to see that Wright’s vigilant secretary was not in her seat, guarding the sacred entrance into her boss’s chamber. He walked into Wright’s office without knocking. “You wanted to see me?” he asked gruffly.
Wright lifted his head from the papers he was seemingly poring over. “Yes, please close the door and have a seat.”
Calmly, Brad closed the door and took a seat. “Yes?”
“Would you mind telling me why you were out of the office this Friday?”
“I sent my secretary an email stating that I was working from home.”
“Is this your definition of working from home?” Wright threw a stack of photographs across the table.
Brad was stunned into silence by images of himself and Katherine. Their entire weekend had been catalogued: him and Katherine having dinner in his neighborhood restaurant in Newport, him and Katherine in Portland, him and Katherine holding hands and kissing.
“A leopard can’t change its spots, huh?” Wright leered at him.
Brad tossed the pictures aside. “I don’t see how my personal life is any of your business.”
“It becomes my business when you start screwing company interns,” Wright hissed. “We can’t exactly afford a sexual harassment lawsuit here.”
“Orion’s policy allows dating among company employees,” Brad replied calmly. “This is a consensual relationship. Violating a person’s privacy, however, is illegal last time I checked.”
Wright’s jaw clenched. “Do you have to chase every skirt? Have you forgotten what’s at stake here? No matter, this will refresh your memory.” Wright pressed a button on his phone.
As if on cue, the door to Wright’s office opened and a small Asian man entered the room. He was dressed in a business suit and carried a briefcase with him.
“What the hell are you talking about? And who the hell is that?” Brad barely finished his sentence when he received an answer—a quick, forceful blow to his stomach delivered by the Asian man with lightning speed. He doubled over in his chair, barely able to breathe from the pain. Another blow followed, this time to his ribs.
“Remember, nothing on the face,” Wright instructed the man.
With force incommensurate with his petite frame, the man lifted Brad to his feet and delivered several more blows to his stomach and ribs.
“That should do it,” Wright cautioned. “You don’t want to overdo it.”
The man released Brad, settling him back in the chair as though he was a rag doll. “Mr. Wang expects you to act more prudently in the future,” he said as though he were discussing the weather.
Brad nodded, unable to speak or breathe from the excruciating pain that was pulsating through his body.
“I trust that you’ve been sufficiently reminded of the seriousness of the situation here,” Wright continued after the man had left. “Going forward, I expect your full attention on the project. We are coming to the crucial part. Details will be provided during the corporate retreat this weekend. You’re expected to be there. That’ll be all for now.”
Brad staggered from his chair and tried to reach for the door. Each movement was pure agony.
“Collect yourself before you leave,” Wright barked. “We wouldn’t want anyone to suspect anything. Take the rest of the day off.”
Ignoring the scorching pain, Brad forced himself to walk in a straight line to pass Wright’s scrutiny. Once outside Wright’s office, he closed the door behind him and pressed his back against the wall to catch his breath. He noticed that Wright’s ever-present secretary was still absent from her seat—the bugger had thought of everything.
Cringing from the pain, Brad made the torturous walk down the hall. He barely made it to the bathroom in time to empty the contents of his stomach. His entire body was in painful agony. All those kickboxing lessons he took with his trainer proved to be completely worthless in a real-life fight.
Brad guessed that the beating he’d just received was only a preview of things to come if he was ever to disappoint Tian Wang again. He feared to think the retribution that would come then. But even more than the physical harm to himself, he feared any harm that might come to Katherine. All too soon he’d learned that letting someone into your heart was as dangerous as it was wonderful. Now he had two people to worry about. He splashed his face with cold water and finger combed his hair. The pain was starting to relent a little bit, just enough for him to be able to reach for his Blackberry and send a message to Katherine. He had to see her tonight and make contingency plans.
***
Delilah felt Ally’s reproachful gaze burrowing into her as she sat down behind her desk. She pretended to stare busily into her computer screen, but she knew that it was useless. She’d have to fess up to Ally soon, but maybe she could have a few moments of peace beforehand. She’d just spent an excruciating half an hour recounting every detail of her weekend with Brad to Jake and she needed a breather. She didn’t actually recount every detail—that would’ve taken a hell of a lot longer than half an hour—but she did give him an overall summary. To her surprise Jake had praised her. He told her that she was doing “g
ood work” and that she should continue her “contact” with Weiss. According to Jake, something big was in the works. Irene was planning a corporate retreat with Weiss and Wright. It was supposed to happen next weekend, but that was all Jake had been able to find out—and even that information came into his hands thanks to Ally bugging Irene’s office. Jake’s attempts to get more details out of Irene as to the whereabouts of this gathering had been unsuccessful. And now he wanted Delilah to pry it out of Brad. She sighed, the proverbial weight heavy on her shoulders. As unbelievable as it sounded, her weekend with Brad had meant much more to her than great sex. She liked him, liked him a lot, and possibly was even in love with him. Ally had been right—Delilah should’ve listened to her and stayed away. She’d thought her heart was bulletproof, but now she was surprised to learn that playing with her heart was a very dangerous business. She had a very difficult decision to make.
“Coffee?” Ally eyed her meaningfully, making it clear that saying no was not an option.
“Sure.” Delilah rose from her chair. At least Ally had the patience to wait with her questioning until they were outside.
Several minutes later they were seated in a diner a few blocks away from the office. Ally eyed Delilah pointedly, waiting for her speak, but Delilah sipped her coffee as though she had nothing to tell. If Ally wanted details, she’d have to pry them out of her.
“So how was your weekend?” Ally asked, visibly exasperated.
“It was good.” Delilah took another gulp of her coffee. She felt physically and mentally exhausted. She’d barely gotten a wink of sleep all weekend, but it’d been so worth it. The pleasure she’d experienced during the last three days would be enough for a lifetime of memories. It would have to, for it was unlikely that she’d ever meet another lover as amazing as Brad.