by Leddy Harper
“Well, this says fourteen.”
Mady grabbed the contract from my hand and began frantically flipping the pages. Since I didn’t know the extent of her disability, I just sat there and let her scowl. Although, I had a feeling she was too riled up to comprehend any of it—not to mention, she wasn’t even on the right page. But again, I didn’t say anything. I doubted she would’ve been happy to have that pointed out.
“I don’t understand…his original offer was for two weeks, but I made him change it to a month. Two weeks isn’t long enough. Anyone who gets paid only once or twice a month could wait for their paycheck to buy them, and then I wouldn’t get a penny from that sale.”
At least she understood the business side of this. Then again, she had been doing this for a while before I came along, so that didn’t surprise me. It did, however, make me proud to know she could stand up for herself when dealing with powerhouses like this Mickey character.
“Yeah, I remember that from your earlier messages.” I recalled their conversation from Instagram that she’d let me read. “It also looks like he never changed the payout, either. I knew I didn’t trust the fucker.”
“Hey, that’s not fair. We don’t know that he did this on purpose. It’s entirely possible that it was a simple oversight.”
I balked, confused why she’d stick up for that prick.
“I’ll talk to him and get it figured out. If he doesn’t change it, then there’s no deal. So you have nothing to worry about, Finn.” It was as though the irritation she exuded a moment ago had disappeared. Now, she was cool, calm, and collected.
I took the papers back and set the folder on the coffee table. “How about you let me handle it, okay? I promise I’ll be professional. I just worry that you’re giving him the benefit of the doubt while he’s trying to take advantage of you. You have a tendency to come across too nice at times, and some could perceive that as a weakness. I can email him and pretend to be you, so he won’t think that you went and got your watchdog to go after him. Would that make you feel better?”
At first, it looked like she was about to turn down my offer to stand in for her, but then her posture settled, and she nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine. Just don’t be an ass. And whatever you do, don’t make it sound like I’m accusing him of anything. Got it?”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Deal.”
Leaning forward, I grabbed her legs and pulled them across my lap, loving the way she squealed every time I did that. Then I lightly ran my fingertips along her outer thigh from her knee to just under the T-shirt of mine she’d put on after our shower.
“Now…what would you like to know about me?”
I’d promised Mady that I would keep my interaction with Mickey strictly professional. And I planned to keep that promise. Yet the longer I sat in the coffee shop, waiting for him to show up, the angrier I got.
Rather than just message him, I’d invited him to meet with me. And by “me,” I meant Mady, since I’d reached out to him from her account. It was the only way I could guarantee he’d agree to come. There was no way he’d meet me otherwise.
I’d picked a small café, simply because I had no idea what he looked like. I could’ve easily missed him in a Starbucks or somewhere similar. This way, when he walked through the door, I knew exactly who he was. Then again, I likely could’ve spotted him anywhere with his fancy sports coat and pressed slacks.
It seemed I was a bit underdressed.
“I’m sorry, I was under the impression that I would be meeting Mady this morning.” He set his narrow gaze on me, his brow furrowed with confusion.
“It was a last-minute change of plans. She had something to do, and rather than cancel with you, I told her I’d sit in for her.” I held out my hand to shake his and said, “I’m Finn Kelly, Mady’s assistant.”
He took the seat across from me, and we both sat down, neither of us bothering to get a coffee from the barista. I didn’t plan for this to take long, and it seemed he didn’t, either.
“Mady wanted to go over the contract with you. Now, I understand that you two had discussed the terms prior to the contract being drawn up, but if I’m being honest, I’m not sure what you agreed upon. All she told me was that there were a couple discrepancies between the verbal agreement and the contract.” I pretended not to know the details of their private conversations in order to keep the peace so the deal didn’t fall through during the eleventh hour.
He hummed, seemingly baffled by what I’d told him, and took the contract from me. He glanced through the pages before finally saying, “I apologize. Either the revisions didn’t save before printing, or my assistant didn’t read the note I had attached to the original. I’ll get this changed immediately. And please, tell Mady that I’m incredibly sorry about this. It was an honest mistake.”
I wanted to believe him, and truthfully, he appeared to be sincere in what he said. But that didn’t mean I’d changed my mind about him. I still couldn’t put my finger on what his intentions where with Mady. Regardless of the real reason the contract hadn’t been changed, I still didn’t like the guy.
“I will,” I said and leaned forward, catching him before he could stand. “There’s also one more thing I wanted to discuss with you. Take it or leave it, but I feel it needs to be said.”
17
Mady
“I’m so mad, Julie—like, Christine Bierman sending tittie pics to my boyfriend kind of mad.”
While her giggle through the line helped take the edge off a little, it also irritated me at the same time. This wasn’t a joke. Granted, if I weren’t so upset, I’d probably find the humor in my reaction, too. I’d been told that I could be overly dramatic from time to time.
“Oh, Mady…that happened over six years ago. Why does it still bother you?”
“You’re not listening, stinkface. I was only using it as a reference for my anger so you know exactly how I feel. I’m not talking about Christine Bierman. I’m talking about what Finn did…and how mad I am about it.”
“Okay, okay. How about you start at the beginning? What did he do?”
I dropped my head back until it rested against the concrete wall and rolled my eyes. I’d gone outside to call Julie so Finn couldn’t overhear my conversation. I needed my best friend to calm me down before I even attempted to talk to him about it. So there I was, my knees pulled up in front of me as if keeping me hidden while I sat on the side of my house, avoiding Finn.
“He set up a meeting with Mickey, pretending to be me, and then basically accused him of trying to take advantage of me.” Closing my eyes didn’t stop me from seeing red. I still couldn’t believe he’d done that.
“The sunglasses guy?”
“Yes, Jules. Keep up.”
“I guess I’m confused why Finn would do that.”
I huffed, wishing I had done a better job of keeping her updated on my life. “There were a couple of things in the contract that I hadn’t agreed to. In fact, we’d agreed to something else, yet it wasn’t changed in the contract he gave me Saturday night. Finn caught it and got pissed.”
“Well, I can’t really blame the guy. He’s your assistant, right? Isn’t he supposed to doublecheck things and make sure they’re accurate? At least you know he’s got your best interest at heart.” She had a valid point, but that didn’t justify what he did.
“If that were it, I’d be fine. But then he convinced me to let him handle it on my behalf over messenger. I thought it would be okay since he has more experience with this sort of thing. Everything seemed fine; Mickey sent over the revised contract on Monday, so I signed and mailed it back that same day. Then, about half an hour ago, I got a message from Mickey asking if I had time for a quick chat over the phone. I thought it was to iron out contract details, but boy was I wrong!”
“What’d he say?” she asked, finally sounding interested in my drama.
“Basically, rather than just email him to get the whole contract issue straightened out, he asked Mic
key to meet him. Except he did this from my account, so Mickey thought he was meeting with me.”
“When did this happen?”
“On Sunday.” I almost spilled the beans by saying it was after I’d left Finn’s to see my parents, but thankfully, I caught myself. If she found out that Finn and I had started dating, this conversation would wind up being much longer—and not at all about why I’d called her in the first place.
“Okay, carry on. So Mickey met with Finn, thinking you’d be there…”
“Yeah, and apparently, he was accused of attempting to take advantage of me by not changing anything in the contract, as well as being inappropriate toward me.” I couldn’t roll my eyes hard enough at that. “Finn thinks he’s trying to manipulate me by being flirty.”
“For fuck’s sake. Everyone is flirty with you!”
“I know!” I slapped my thigh for emphasis and said, “But he has a problem with it.”
Julie was quiet for a moment, the wheels in her head likely turning with something I’d said. “The last time we talked, you told me that you guys slept together, but you hadn’t heard from him after returning from the dude ranch. What ended up happening with that?”
This was the conversation I was trying to avoid. Not because I wanted to keep anything from her, but because this wasn’t the time to discuss my relationship status with Finn. I was in need of being calmed down before approaching Finn about it. So, rather than lie, I gave her as much of the truth as I could. “He said he didn’t call me because we’d agreed to meet up the next day. It’s no big deal, though. Things went back to normal between us—until he pulled this stunt.”
“Well, do you think he likes you? Finn, I mean. Not Mickey. Well, maybe him, too.”
“There’s no way Mickey likes me—at least not in the way you’re insinuating.”
“And Finn?”
I hummed and hawed for a moment, thinking of a way to get out of answering her. “I honestly don’t know the extent of his feelings toward me. He’s been nothing but a perfect gentleman. But even if he does, that doesn’t give him the right to do what he did.”
Rather than prod more about Finn’s feelings, like I’d expected her to do, she switched things up by asking, “How well do you know Mickey?”
“I’ve spoken to him a few times and had dinner with him last weekend. Why?”
“And how well do you know Finn?”
I stared at the blue sky in thought. “Considering all the time we’ve spent together, I’d say pretty well.”
“Then why would you immediately take Mickey’s side before asking Finn what happened?”
I hated it when she called me out on things, but not as much as I hated not having the ability to fully explain myself. The fact was that, ever since finding out about my deal with Mickey, Finn had acted jealous. He’d made no secret about his disdain for the guy, so really, I didn’t have any reason to doubt what Mickey had told me. But again, that wasn’t something I could confess to Julie without her questioning Finn’s jealousy, which would give her enough ammo to finagle every last detail about Finn from me.
“I don’t know. I do plan to talk to Finn about it. I just need to cool off a bit before I do, because if I don’t, I’ll flip the fuck out. Which I really don’t want to do.” And that was the complete truth. I cared about Finn, and I valued him as my assistant. The last thing I wanted to do was put him on the defensive and risk ruining what we had.
Julie’s hum vibrated through the line. “What was it that you used to do back in college to calm down? You used to repeat something, but I don’t remember what it was.”
That put a smile on my face. “The steps for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” Just remembering that helped lessen my anger.
“Yeah. Do that.”
“Thanks, Jules. I knew you’d find a way to help.”
She giggled and said, “Anytime, stinkface. Let me know what happens.”
“Will do!”
We said our goodbyes, and then I sat there, against the side of my house, for a little bit longer, running through the process of making a sandwich. Pull off a paper towel and set it on the counter. Get out two slices of bread and lay them flat on the paper towel, next to each other. Open the drawer and find a butter knife—place that next to the bread…
After completing the lengthy process of sandwich making one-oh-one in my head, I was ready to face Finn. Well, I wasn’t ready, but I was no longer furious, which was as ready as I’d ever be. Confrontation wasn’t my thing; I avoided it at all costs. But this wasn’t something I could ignore or pretend didn’t exist. If he was, in fact, meddling with my business in a way that could pose adverse effects on my brand, no matter the reason, I had to put a stop to it. Being my boyfriend didn’t give him the right to control any part of my life, particularly my business transactions. I’d been very upfront about that from the beginning.
“Where’d you go? I thought you were just going out to your car, but I checked outside a few minutes ago, and you weren’t out there.” Finn watched with wary eyes as I approached the kitchen table. He had to know something was amiss.
I took the seat across from him and prepared myself to jump right in. “Did you meet up with Mickey on Sunday?”
His slow nod let me know that he wasn’t prepared to get caught.
“Any reason you failed to mention that to me over the last few days?”
With a shrug, he said, “I guess I wanted to wait to see what he’d do.”
“It’s Wednesday, Finn. He sent the contract on Monday. I sent it back. The whole day went by yesterday without a single word about it. When exactly were you going to tell me? Not to mention, you promised you wouldn’t accuse him of anything.”
Bewilderment marred his brow and narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t. Is that what he told you?”
“It doesn’t matter what he said, Finn.”
“The hell it doesn’t.” This was the defensive reaction that usually kept me far away from confrontations. “All I did was point out the errors in the contract and asked him to change them per his conversation with you.”
“And then you brought up how inappropriate you think he is with me.”
He blinked a few times, clearly unable to get himself out of this one. “Well, yeah. I won’t deny that, because that’s not how someone in his position should be conducting business. In any other industry, that could be misconstrued as sexual harassment.”
“But we’re not in any other industry.”
“You think I give a shit about that? It shouldn’t be tolerated at all, regardless of the nature.” He seemed to be losing his patience—as well as his grip on his anger. He wasn’t shouting, per se, but his voice had definitely risen above normal chitchat levels.
I contemplated walking away, since I was not in the mood to deal with his excuses, but I couldn’t. I needed to send a clear message to him that I wouldn’t tolerate anyone trying to control any aspect of my life. Over the years, I’d had enough of that with my family; there was no room for someone else to come in and take the reins.
But then he reached across the table and grabbed my hands. “Mady, please hear me out. I swear, I didn’t accuse him of anything. I told him that you couldn’t make the meeting, so I filled in on your behalf. And based on the conversations you two had regarding certain terms, I was confused why they hadn’t been amended in the final contact he provided. That’s it.”
If he were lying, then he was damn good, but I had a hard time believing that. There was such an overwhelming sense of truth in his eyes that I couldn’t help but trust him.
“As far as him being inappropriate, I simply mentioned that a man in his position should think twice before engaging a woman in that manner. And I’d like to point out that I would’ve said the exact same thing even if we weren’t romantically involved. I think of it more as a big brother move. If anything, I was giving him solid advice to keep his name and company out of the headlines.”
I pulled my hands away
and placed them in my lap. I wasn’t ready to let this go just yet. “Apparently, this meeting was set up through Instagram—under my account. I gave you permission to contact him, but you took it to another level. You purposely led him to believe he was meeting with me. Why? And if you feel so justified in what you did, why did you delete the message?”
“He wouldn’t have shown up unless he thought it was you.” Finn huffed and scrubbed his face with his palms, as if this conversation exhausted him. “And I deleted the message in case you saw it before I was able to meet him. I didn’t want you to call it off before I had a chance to sit down with him to discuss my concerns.”
Even though his reasoning made sense, it was still a dirty move. “I’m not going to lie, Finn…the fact that you’re getting so involved in my business that you’re practically pushing me out of things makes me a little uneasy. I don’t appreciate anyone trying to take control while I’m kept in the dark like that.”
“I’m sorry, Mady. I really am. I didn’t mean for you to feel like I was trying to control anything. I just know how sweet you are, how soft-spoken you can be with those you aren’t very comfortable with. And I worry that this Mickey guy—or anyone else like him—will use that to manipulate you.”
I couldn’t fault him for that, considering I was well aware of how easily I could be taken advantage of—it’d happened more times in my life than I’d care to count. However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t take care of myself, and I needed Finn to understand that.
“Why did you even have to meet with him in the first place?” I asked, needing all the answers before this conversation ended. “Why not just email him? Or put it all in a message. You could’ve still done that from my account, pretending to be me, and gotten your point across all the same.”
“Because if he already thinks he can manipulate you, having it come from you wouldn’t make much of a difference. I needed him to see me. To know that you have someone in your corner watching out for you.”