by Michele Hauf
“What the hell is going on?” Kennedy Monroe dropped her purse along with the bottle of wine she’d picked up on the way to her boyfriend’s apartment. Unfortunately, the glass didn’t break. She would have loved to see the red liquid pool all over his brand-new off-white carpet.
“This isn’t what you think,” John said as he jumped from the bed, snagging his jeans and hiking them up over his hips. He hobbled, nearly knocking over the lamp as he hiked them to his hips. “You’ve got to let me explain.”
Explain? Was he serious? How the hell could he explain away the fact that his dick was in her best friend’s vagina? On what planet was that okay? Did he think he would come up with some awesome excuse like he accidentally put his penis in her pussy, and I would magically think, okay, that makes sense and forgive him on the spot?
“I’m so sorry, Kennedy.” Tallulah pulled the sheet up to her chin as she sank into the pillows with bright-red cheeks. She looked as if she were more embarrassed than regretful.
On second thought. She kicked the bottle. It sailed across the room, smacking the wall and shattering into a few large chunks while the red wine seeped into the fabric as if it were dying of thirst.
“What the fuck is your problem?” John asked.
“I can’t believe you’re asking me that while you’re standing there naked and my best friend is in your bed with no clothes on.” For good measure, Kennedy pressed her bare feet into the stained flooring careful not to step in any glass. She couldn’t wait to skip through the rest of the house, leaving behind a nasty trail of a constant reminder of his infidelity.
“I’m sorry.” He frowned. He actually frowned. Like he was sad he just got laid. When in reality the only thing he probably felt bad about was getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“You’re sorry? You’re fucking my best friend, and all you’ve got is you’re sorry?” The gravity of the situation hit her brain like a tidal wave crashing into the pier, destroying everything in its path. Kennedy’s parents always warned about eating where she shits, and come tomorrow morning, unless she called in sick, she’d have to walk into work and see John and Tallulah at the office. She knew it was a risk taking a job where her boyfriend worked, but never in a million years did she think her friend of over ten years would stab her right in the heart.
This went way beyond breaking girl code.
“We didn’t plan for this to happen,” Tallulah said with a meek voice.
Kennedy laughed as she paced at the foot of the bed, making sure to leave little red footprints wherever she went. She warned John about getting such a light-colored carpet.
“Jesus, you’re ruining my floor. Can you please stop that and give me a chance to put some clothes on so we can talk about this like rational adults?”
“Talk? Rational?” She stopped dead in her tracks and sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly through her nose like a bull ready to charge. “Rational would have been talking to me before you decided to have your cake and eat it too.” Needing to get the hell out of there, she bent over and snagged her purse. She pushed past John, giving him a good shove with her shoulder.
“Kennedy, where are you going?” he called after her.
“Home.” She choked back a sob. Early today, the nice lady who bought her family furniture and her kitchen table had picked it up. All Kennedy had left in her apartment was her clothes and her bed. She gripped the door handle and glanced over her shoulder. “I was supposed to move in next month. When did you plan on telling me?”
John’s gaze dropped to the ground. He curled his toes. “I was going to tell you tonight at dinner. I didn’t expect you to show up. We had agreed I’d pick you up at your place.”
She let out a sarcastic laugh. “I wanted to celebrate my good news.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” he asked as he adjusted his slacks reminding her that just a few minutes ago, he’d been doing the nasty with the one female that Kennedy thought she could trust.
“I sublet my apartment. I could have moved in next week.” She slipped her feet into her favorite black pumps. Realizing in less than seven days, she’d be homeless, a single tear ran down her cheek. “I hope the two of you are…are…I don’t give a shit.” She stepped into the hallway and headed for the elevator without glancing over her shoulder once. Thankfully, the elevator doors swung open the second she hit the buzzer.
Less than a minute later, she found herself alone. The tears came freely, and she did nothing to stop them.
All her hopes and dreams for a future with John that included a house filled with children had been destroyed in an instant. He’d crushed them, and she didn’t believe she’d ever be able to give her heart again.
And not just to a man.
She wasn’t sure she’d ever be to trust another woman, except for her sisters, and that sucked.
As she made her way through the lobby, she swiped at her face.
Hawk Jefferson, her boss, would gladly give her the day off tomorrow. Actually, he’d probably let her work from home, and she should probably call him and call in sick.
But no. She wouldn’t be the topic of conversation around the water cooler without being able to hold her head high and show them she had some seriously tough skin. Tallulah and John might have made a fool of her, but she wouldn’t let them break her.
She couldn’t have that. No. She needed to find a way to suck it up and make the best of the worst situation possible.
Without killing anyone in the process.
What she really needed was a drink.
And fast.
As soon as she left the elevator, she raced through the lobby and out the main doors. She ran down the street and looked for a bar. Any bar. She didn’t care as long as it had booze.
A big sign with the word: Thirsty’s in neon lights caught her attention. It was a tacky sign and reminded her of a bad piano bar that you saw in the movies where only the loneliest of people went.
Well, that worked.
At least for now.
She’d have a couple of drinks, call an Uber, go home, cry herself to sleep, and figure it all out in the morning.
What a brilliant plan.
Color her smart.
Or stupid.
Or whatever.
Didn’t matter.
Her life as she knew it was over.
Hawk Jefferson tipped his head back and downed the last of his bourbon, letting the smooth liquid flow down the back of his throat. It had taken him years to enjoy the flavor, and the burn, but he could no longer imagine any other drink satisfying him as much as an expensive bourbon.
“Can I get you another one?” James, the bartender, asked.
“Sure, why not.” Hawk swiveled the stool and scanned the bar. For a Friday night in the outskirts of Long Beach, most places would be wall-to-wall people, but this old-fashioned piano bar had maybe thirty people drowning their sorrows while a Billy Joel wannabe sang The Piano Man.
“You’re not driving tonight, are you?” the bartender, James, asked.
“Nope. I Ubered.” Hawk had been frequenting this bar ever since he’d passed the bar and become an agent for Hollywood’s insanely rich and famous. It was the one place he could come and be completely anonymous. Not a single up-and-coming would be shoving their portfolio under his nose while grabbing his dick under the table. When he’d first gotten into the business, he hadn’t minded the hot female models and actresses that wanted a piece of him both in bed and in his office, but that scenario got old real fast.
That said, he didn’t want to get married and settle down either, and the women his parents sent to his front doorstep weren’t all that much better either. They might not want to be movie stars, but they wanted glam and glitz just the same.
They might have better manners and refrained from too many public displays of affection, but that didn’t stop them from pimping themselves out for a piece of the Jefferson money train.
“Shall I make it a double?”
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br /> “So, you do pay attention to social media after all,” Hawk said with a slight chuckle. His mind already feeling the wonderful mind-numbing effects of the alcohol filling his bloodstream. He didn’t get hammered often, simply because losing control wasn’t something he enjoyed, but every once in a while, when one of his clients, or his bed partners, went off the deep end, it required a couple shots of Crown to make the sting go away.
This might require a little more than usual.
“Not really, but the only time you come in here is when some woman says or does something that pisses you off. So, what happened this time?”
Hawk didn’t have friends. In his line of work, friends would stab you in the front while looking you in the eye and shaking your hand. He always kept people at a safe distance, knowing most people had their own agenda. There was nothing inherently wrong with that concept, but in his world, that meant one day your business partner or best friend would toss you under the bus without thinking twice.
Now, Kennedy, his assistant, was a trustworthy kind of woman. She was honest, kind, and always did more than he expected. He never once had to ask her to redo something, and she rarely made a mistake.
She was also beautiful, and he’d be lying if he hadn’t thought about asking her out once or twice. If only she’d dump that cheating asshole of a boyfriend.
If only she’d open her eyes to the fact her lover was fucking her best friend. Her blind loyalty was going to get her a broken heart, and soon.
But he couldn’t take her out because that would lead to him dumping her eventually, and that would make things very awkward around the office because she wasn’t one of the starlets he represented that would move on to some hot Hollywood hunk.
No. Kennedy had depth, and he could tell she wanted more than he would ever be able to give her, so he’d keep his damn distance. Besides, he’d hate to have to find a new assistant.
Hawk curled his fingers around the glass James pushed in front of him and sipped the dark liquid. It went down like sweet dark chocolate.
“Do you really want the sordid details?” Hawk asked. While James wasn’t a close friend, he was kind of like a therapist. Hawk knew he could trust him with his darkest of secrets if he wanted to, and tonight seemed like a good night to spill.
“If you want to give them, I’m all ears.”
Hawk took another slow draw of his drink. He let the whiskey sit in his mouth for a moment before swallowing. “Lorna, the woman in question, thought it would be fun, after I called things off, to accuse me of being abusive with her.”
“Holy shit, man. That sucks.”
“It won’t stick. I mean, she’s got no proof of anything, but because of one past incident, it’s going to blow up, and once the story hits the airwaves, my mother is going to see it, and it’s going to break her heart, and I can’t stand it when that happens.”
“She won’t believe it, will she?”
Hawk shook his head. “She knows me. The good and the bad. But she’ll hate the whispers and the way people will look at her funny at the country club, and then there will be that one person who will say something, forcing my mom to defend me, and that will just make her push me harder to settle down.”
“Now that’s a dirty word.”
Hawk raised his glass. “That we can agree on.”
“Cheers.” James poured himself a small shot before clanking his glass. “For the record, the world kind of hates Lorna. She comes off as a total bitch, so maybe no one will believe her.”
“She’s a fantastic actress, so she can lay it on thick.” Hawk knew talent when he saw it, and Lorna oozed talent.
And she was a master manipulator, and he should have stayed clear of her, and he knew it.
“I’m sure you’ll come out on top. You always do,” James said.
Hawk had to agree. In all honestly, he wasn’t worried about any fallout about Lorna’s accusations. They would blow over soon enough. It was his parents and their constant pushing him to give them a grandchild that had his stomach turned into knots. He didn’t need his parents’ money. While he’d borrowed from them to start his business, he’d paid them back with interest.
That said, he was an only child, and both his mom and dad wanted to leave this earth knowing their name would carry on. Every once in a while, Hawk would meet a woman that he thought maybe, but then she’d either already be married or in a bad relationship or turned out to be a gold digger.
“Kennedy?” he whispered.
“Excuse me?” James asked.
Hawk rubbed his eyes. They weren’t bloodshot, yet. He wasn’t drunk, yet. So, how could his vision be playing tricks on him? “I think the woman who just stepped into the bar is my assistant.”
“She’s soaked to the bone.” James reached under the bar and pulled out a couple of rags.
“I’ll take those.” Hawk didn’t give James the opportunity to stop him as he snagged the towels and made a beeline for the front door. “Hey, Kennedy.”
“Mr. Jefferson?” She brushed her long, dark, wet hair from her face. Her thick lashes blinked wildly over her exotic chocolate eyes.
“I think out of the office you can call me Hawk.”
“Okay, Mr. Jefferson.”
He let out a chuckle as he handed her one of the towels. He guessed Kennedy to be about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, so about a ten-year age difference, which wasn’t horrible. He’d dated younger. He could go look at her employment records, but did her age really matter? He wasn’t going to take her to bed, much less date her. “What are you doing here?” He looked around the bar for her boyfriend, but the loser was nowhere to be found. He wished he could find a reason to fire him, and his bitchy side piece of ass, but both did good work in their departments. That said, their first fuckup and they were gone.
“I was walking home, and it just started pouring so I ducked into the first place that I saw.”
“Well, why don’t you let me buy you a drink while you wait for it to calm down out there?”
She glanced up like a doe in headlights.
“I know I’m kind of a bear at work, and I don’t socialize at the office, but I don’t bite.”
The corners of Kennedy’s lips turned upward, and her dark eyes twinkled under the dim lights. She made the hard days in the office go by quickly just by being there. And she had amazing organizational and management skills. He’d be lost without her.
“Come on. You’re shivering. My sport coat is over at the bar. We’ll wrap that around you and get you a glass of smooth bourbon. That will warm you right up.”
“It’s not cold outside,” she said as her smile faded, and he noticed her bloodshot eyes and the clumps of mascara that ran down her cheeks.
“But the AC is pumping in here.” He looped his arm around her waist and guided her across the room. A few of the men sitting at a table in the corner glanced up over their whiskey to check out one of the few women that dared to enter the men’s club.
Not that it was really one of those big old boys’ club bars, but it was one of those places that men came to drink away their troubles without the distractions of women, and ladies knew it.
Well, most of them did.
“Not sure I’ve ever had bourbon before.”
“If you don’t like it, we’ll get you something else.” He draped his coat over her shoulders and handed her his drink. He half expected her face to scrunch and her lips to pucker as she downed half his drink.
But she didn’t even flinch.
“That’s good shit.”
“James. A refill and a glass for the lady.”
“Sure thing,” James said with smirk.
Hawk ignored the sideways glance. “Is everything okay?”
Kennedy slammed down half another glass like it was water. “That’s a loaded question and even though you’re going to find out soon enough, I’d rather not spill my guts to my boss.”
“Right now, we’re just two people having a drink,” he said.
“That doesn’t change the fact that you sign my paycheck every two weeks,” she said, raising her glass and smashing it against his. “And I’m sure everyone will be talking about it around the watercooler at the office anyway.”
“Did you and John break up?”
She snapped her gaze back to Hawk’s. “Why would you think that?”
“Do you want me to be honest?”
“Sure?”
“Because he’s a dick, and I think you can do better.”
“Well, he’s fucking your receptionist.” She lifted the glass of bourbon and polished off the dark liquid in one gulp. She waved to James, who filled her glass to the rim.
“You mean your best friend that you recommended I hire.” Shit, he shouldn’t have said that, much less with the dose of sarcasm that he piled on the words, but it was too late to take it back, and she was better off without both of them in her life.
“Tomorrow could be real interesting.” Kennedy slumped into the barstool and swiveled back and forth as if to take in her surroundings.
Hawk liked coming here because the bar reminded him of a 1950’s movie with its dark cherry wood tabletops and maroon leather-covered seats. A faint smell of old cigars lingered in the air from the days you could smoke inside. Large bookshelves filled with thick old books that reminded him of a law library lined the walls. It was a bar people came to when they wanted to be depressed.
Only it made him feel better in a weird way.
“I’d tell you to take a couple of days off, only I dumped Lorna.”
“No offense, Mr. Jefferson, but you break up with women left and right. It was just a matter of time.”
He laughed. “Fair statement. Only Lorna went to the press with a false accusation.”
“Shit. What did she accuse you of? And if you say abuse, my decision to come to work is even stronger.”
“Then you’re coming to work,” he said flatly. “I’m going to need you to do some damage control, and only you can do it. No one else in that office is capable. I suppose you can do it from home, if you want. I’m really okay with that, but I do need your help.”