Once Upon A Grump, page 11
I found her in the penthouse with a tub of ice cream and a movie playing.
“I texted,” I said.
“Yeah? I figured if you could just disappear without letting me know, then I could ignore your annoying texts for a few hours.”
“I didn’t mean to disappear,” I said.
Max paused her movie and turned to face me. “Wait, are you about to apologize? I was expecting you to somehow yell at me for this and make it my fault.”
“Lola is sick and I went to check on her. I accidentally fell asleep while I was waiting for her to wake so she could take more medicine.”
“You like… never sleep, though.”
“I’m aware. But this time I slept straight through the night.”
Max set down her ice cream. I really had her attention now. “Is that why you look a little less scary than usual? You even sound a little less… I don’t know, like a time bomb that could explode at any moment.”
I rummaged through the fridge for a bottle of water and took a long sip. I’d been so caught up in keeping an eye on Lola that I was just realizing I hadn’t eaten or drank anything since I showed up at her apartment yesterday. I was thirsty as hell and my stomach was rumbling. “I do feel much better,” I admitted. “It has been a long time since I slept like that.”
“So are you going to try to claim you’re only such an asshole because you were sleep deprived? Because that feels like a cop out.”
“No,” I said. “I’m still an asshole, don’t worry.”
Max looked horrified when I grinned at her. “Are you grinning?” she asked.
I self-consciously wiped the amusement from my face.
“Uncle Stones, please don’t tell me I’m going to have to start actually liking you again. Because I’ve already got pretty comfortable with the idea that you’re the devil.”
“I’ll try to make sure you don’t need to resort to liking me. But I should really get back to Lola’s place. She might be waking soon.”
“And you think she’s going to worry if her boss isn’t in her bedroom when she wakes up?”
I paused with the bottle still in my hands. When I heard it aloud, I was painfully aware of how unprofessional my behavior was. “She just moved here, Max,” I said, unable to stop from sounding defensive. “She doesn’t have anyone to keep an eye on her. She didn’t even have medicine in her house.”
“Is she alone right now?” Max asked.
“No. I had two of her co-workers come to keep an eye on her while I came here to check on you.”
“Then she’s fine, Uncle Stones. If you go back there, it’s going to look like you have a thing for her. Do you?” she added in a suspicious voice.
“No,” I snapped. “I’ve got the board of directors breathing down my neck, waiting for any excuse to remove me. The last thing I need is for anyone to believe I’ve entered into a relationship with an employee–my executive assistant, no less.”
“Entered into a relationship,” Max repeated, followed by a laugh. “You seriously need to loosen up. You realize it’s okay to be human, right? Can they really remove you because you have feelings for a woman?”
“If Lola was just any woman, maybe. But she’s my employee, Max. There’s a reason almost every business in the country has policies against employees dating.”
“What’s the big deal?”
“I’m her boss, for starters. Imagine if she wanted to break things off. How would she do that without fearing for the security of her job? And what sort of relationship can function healthily when one person holds the other’s job security in their hands?”
“You could just promise not to be weird. If things don’t work out, she can keep her job.”
“And she’d have to take orders from her ex-boyfriend every day?”
“Just to clarify, you’re not denying that you have feelings for her. You’re only worried about dating an employee. Am I getting this right?”
I slammed the bottle down on the counter, fingers tightening. “This conversation is finished.”
21
LOLA
I was finally starting to feel like myself again, even if my symptoms hadn’t completely passed. My clearing thoughts let me see just how bizarre the situation in my apartment was. Cassie and Paisley were arguing over the best way to make a can of chicken noodle soup for me–Cassie insisted the microwave would inject harmful “gamma particles” into the soup and Paisley said the stovetop was too slow.
There was a completely new set of kitchen cabinets installed to replace the yellowing ones I’d moved in with. The new cabinets were a sleek coal gray with cute little gold pulls. Mr. Stone’s designer had already brought in a new couch, paintings, and all sorts of cute little plants and rugs to liven up the space. The walls were still bare drywall with some sort of goop smeared between the creases and over the screw holes, but a painter was currently opening one of several buckets of paint and prepping his equipment.
“Is it safe to paint that much while she’s in here?” Cassie asked. She’d won the battle of the chicken soup and was stirring the contents of the can slowly over the stovetop. I noticed the pan she was using appeared shiny and new. Had Mr. Stone even replaced my crummy cookware?
The painter pointed to two men who were dragging in a big fan. “We have enough air movers to keep it fresh in here. She’ll just need to keep the door open. Will the dog run?”
“Termite isn’t going to leave my side at the moment,” I said. I was cozy on the new couch with a new blanket wrapped around me. Termite was in my lap, snoring softly. I knew if I’d been in my right mind, I would’ve put my foot down and told Mr. Stone to send all his goons packing. I didn’t want to feel like I owed him or like I was his charity case.
But it was too late for that. In less than twenty-four hours, his people had managed to take the apartment from a frighteningly old and gross health hazard to feeling like some swanky new construction place in a good part of Manhattan. It was still small, but all the little touches and new things made it feel high-end. I decided I could always pay him back from my twenty-thousand-dollar bonus in a few days, but even that didn’t feel much better. His huge bonus was just another form of charity, wasn’t it?
Paisley sat down on the other end of the couch and gave me a look. “What’s got you so gloomy?”
I sighed. “It’s nothing.”
Cassie arrived with a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup. Honestly, I didn’t feel like eating anything quite yet, but I didn’t want to be rude. I smiled, thanked her, and took a cautious sip, nodding. “It’s good, thank you.”
Cassie sat on the loveseat across from my new live-edge coffee table. The wood looked shiny and expensive with colors like chocolate and coffee with cream swirling through. It made me want to keep running my fingers across the silky surface.
“Yeah,” Cassie said, face suddenly serious. “You’re absolutely going to tell us what’s going on. There’s no way you aren’t sleeping with him if he’s doing all this.”
“I hate to say it,” Paisley added. “But I agree with Cassie. There’s something you’re not telling us.”
“Okay,” I said. I didn’t have the willpower to deny it to their faces right now. “The full truth is I don’t really know what the hell is going on with Mr. Stone. But I do know he gets pissed if I talk to Chase at the office. He’s constantly keeping tabs on me at work through the cameras. And he has called me up several times to yell at me for doing various normal things around the office. It’s like he wants me on my knees and on a leash. His leash. And then I got sick and he showed up and randomly wasn’t as much of an asshole. But he even managed to make giving me all this stuff seem like an asshole move.”
They both stared. “And then you fucked?” Cassie asked.
I laughed. “No! We’ve barely touched each other. I mean, yeah, I kind of touched his nipple this morning. But other than that–”
Paisley leaned in, eyebrows shooting up. “You touched Mr. Stone’s nipple? What? Details, girl. Now.”
I grinned as I recounted the story and they were both smiling by the time I finished.
“I don’t know,” Cassie said finally. “It sounded like the way he reacted was flirtatious. And all this?” she said, gesturing to the apartment. “If this isn’t a guy trying to get in your pants, I don’t know what is.”
“It’s stroking his own ego,” I said, even though I only halfway believed it. “With all his money, something like this is nothing to him. He was literally outside for like two minutes at most to set this up. I think he just pawned it off on one of his assistants.”
“But…” Paisley said, sensing there was more I wasn’t saying.
“But he also spent his own time here looking after me. If it was just the contractors and remodeling, I’d say it was all ego. Except he was honestly really sweet with how he looked after me. I just wish I could understand it.”
“I can,” Cassie said. “He wants to put that big, fat, bossy cock of his inside you.”
One of the painters sputtered with sudden laughter, then cleared his throat and pretended he hadn’t heard anything.
I rolled my eyes. “If that’s his goal, he has a very, very weird way of showing it.”
“Well, what if he’s conflicted about it?” Paisley asked. “I mean, you heard what happened with his brother, Hector, right?”
“Max–” I stopped myself and made a strangled sound in my throat. Shit. I wasn’t supposed to talk about Max. I was about to say Max had mentioned something about him and an inappropriate office relationship.
“Max?” Cassie asked. “Who’s Max?”
“Sorry. He was this guy I ran into at the gym in Stone Tower,” I blurted. I immediately felt like shit for lying to my friends, but I had signed an NDA. I couldn’t afford to see what Mr. Stone’s real wrath would look like if I violated our agreement. “He mentioned something about Mr. Stone’s brother and an office relationship, yeah.”
“Oh,” Paisley said. She looked convinced, but Cassie was still watching me with uncomfortable focus. “Anyway, I was just thinking he is probably really aware of how bad an office relationship can go. His brother seemed like he had everything going for him. Then all of the sudden he was on the street and disgraced. I guess the lady he hooked up with was actually trying to use him to get access to secret company files or something. It was a huge mess.”
“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t know that last part. Like she was a spy?”
“Apparently she worked for a rival company. They were trying to poach some of Stone Financial’s biggest clients. She swiped the list and they leaked client details to the public, which lost Stone Financial several of their top contracts. It cost Hector his job, too.”
“So you’re saying Mr. Stone wants to sleep with me, but he’s worried I’m a spy?”
Paisley laughed. “I don’t know. I just mean it has to be on his mind. So even if he does have feelings for you, he’s probably pretty acutely aware of how badly it could go for him if he acted on them. It could explain the Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde situation he’s got going on.”
I sat back, crossing my arms. “Huh,” I said quietly. “Well, he’s still an asshole.”
“Definitely,” Cassie agreed. She’d pulled some kind of nut bar from her bag and was chewing each bite roughly a thousand times before swallowing. “A hot, sexy asshole. And bonus points because he wants to bone you so badly he’s going to fix the mold in my apartment.”
“And my car,” Paisley said with a laugh. “I have to admit, I’ve never seen a guy want to sleep with a woman so badly that he even spoils her friends. I could get used to this. You should hold out as long as you can.”
I grinned. “You two are terrible. I don’t want his bribes.”
“What do you want?” Cassie asked. “Because if it was me, I’d at least give him a shot to send me to orgasmic bliss once or twice. What’s the harm?”
“The last thing I want is another relationship right now.”
They exchanged a silent look. I could tell Paisley and Cassie had come to some kind of silent agreement not to press me about my past in New York. My comment probably made them feel like I was cracking the door to that conversation open.
“Did your last one end badly?” Paisley asked carefully.
I snorted. “You could say that.” I pulled out my phone and showed them the number of unread texts, missed calls, and unheard voicemails I had.
“Daamn,” Cassie said. “What did you do?”
I shook my head. “I promise I’ll tell you guys soon. I’m just… I don’t know. I’ve felt close to normal since I got here. Part of me worries if I explain everything it’ll feel like what happened in New York will have followed me here.”
Paisley put her hand on mine and smiled. “No pressure, Lola. We don’t need to know anything you’re not ready to tell us.”
Cassie pulled a face but sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Whenever you’re ready. But the sooner the better,” she added with a wink.
The door swung open and Mr. Stone came striding into my apartment fully decked out in a new suit and tie. He looked like he’d showered and probably smelled amazing.
“You two can go,” he said, hooking his thumb to the door like Paisley and Cassie were obedient dogs who would jump at his command.
To my shock, both of them got up, gave me quick hugs, and rushed out the door.
I was left relatively alone with the man who seemed too big for the small apartment–too big for the small, uncomplicated new life I was trying to build for myself here in Fairhope.
22
CHRISTIAN
Lola had put on a pair of gray sweatpants and a big blue t-shirt. She had showered at some point and her freshly cleaned blonde hair was pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. She was sitting in front of a relatively untouched bowl of soup and glaring at me after her friends left.
Why did she look so suspicious?
“What?” I demanded.
“You just barged into my apartment and told my friends to leave. Oh, and you pretty much decided to remodel my entire apartment while I was too delirious to stop you.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” I said. I was, too. But an immediate and sharp realization set in: if Lola was better, my excuse to keep showing up here was about to be gone. We’d go back to our usual dynamic at work where the only time I ever managed to speak with her was when I was calling her into my office to yell at her for something.
“I’m going to pay you back for all of this. What do I owe you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “You don’t owe me anything.”
“Tell me how much I owe you. I don’t want to be in your debt.”
I clenched my fists, biting out the words. “You owe me nothing, Lola. This was all my choice.”
She got up and grabbed the bowl of soup, carrying it to the sink and setting it down. “Then at least tell me what this is all really about. If you have feelings for me, act like an adult and just say so. I’m tired of the games.”
My throat felt tight. I fucking wanted to tell her. I wanted to say she’d hardly left my mind since we met in the lobby nearly a month ago. I wanted to say I’d taken care of her because I was worried about her and that I hadn’t enjoyed being around someone in a very long time, even if she’d only been halfway herself for most of it. But I knew I couldn’t. I knew I needed to put a stop to this now before it got any worse, because just behind her irritated expression, I could see the glimmer of hope.
She felt something too, didn’t she? She wanted to hear me admit I had feelings for her because she was ready to tell me the same.
“What this was really about?” I asked, forcing the words through clenched teeth. “This was about making sure my employee didn’t die or become chronically ill from mold exposure. After I saw your living conditions, I would’ve been legally liable if something happened to you. It was covering my ass. Nothing more.”
Her palms were on the counter and her fingers were tapping anxiously as she stared back at me. “I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you believe. You’re my employee. That’s all you’ll ever be, and if you have any illusions to the contrary, I suggest you work through them before you come back to the office. Am I clear?”
Lola’s eyes brimmed with tears, but her face was a stony mask of anger. “Yeah,” She whispered. “Super clear. If you don’t mind, I was about to take a nap.”
It felt like I could barely breathe. I fucking hated myself for what I was doing, but I had to believe it was necessary. I didn’t trust myself to say anything else because I might take it all back and tell her I was full of shit. I clamped my mouth shut, turned, and left her apartment. Once I was in my car, I punched the dash and swore until my knuckles throbbed.
Was I doing the right thing, or had I just made a colossal mistake? Somehow, I felt like the answer to both questions was “yes.”
* * *
I expected the next few days at work to be lonely. After my conversation with Lola, there was almost no way we’d be chatting in the fitness center, my office, or even the penthouse. I knew she’d avoid me at best and try to find a way to poison my coffee at worst.
The part I didn’t expect was how pissed Max was with me, too. She barely spoke to me now, even by her usual standards. She wasn’t even going to the trouble of fucking with me day in and day out. My toothbrush hadn’t been accidentally knocked into the toilet a single time. My socks weren’t mysteriously soaked with water in the morning. She hadn’t even done her old favorite of tying quadruple knots in all my ties.
Maybe worst of all, I was back to not sleeping. I almost wished I hadn’t had a momentary taste of what it felt like to be normal again when I passed out in Lola’s room a few days ago. Now I was back to tossing and turning for a few minutes before getting out of bed to squeeze in more work in the late hours of the night.
