by Leigh, Anne
“I’m a college student.” She simply responded.
“What school?” Carter intoned. He was of the same height as me, clocking in at about six-feet-four. With his almond eyes, tanned skin, and posh British accent, he undoubtedly gave his bachelor status a run for his own money. I was no stranger to the chase. Money and power were the strongest aphrodisiacs.
“Berkeley,” Ali replied before sipping the hot tea that she’d ordered. Her stomach had been acting funny today, hopefully the tea helped in calming it.
“Ah. California sunshine,” Carter said, his brown eyes focused on Ali. “How do you like the weather compared to Minnesota?”
I stilled the hand that was caressing Ali’s palm.
What the hell?
Neither Ali or I had said anything about Minnesota.
“Excuse me?” Ali said in disbelief. My girl didn’t beat around the bush. She was direct as a straight shooter could be. “How do you know I’m from Minnesota?”
“Your last name.” Carter leaned back comfortably against the wooden chair intricately made from Japanese cedar, cypress, and bamboo. The first time I’d dined here was during its opening, where I’d met with the architect and he’d given me a quick history of how he wanted to honor his family’s heritage. He was an acquaintance at Columbia and I was honored to be invited so even with my busy schedule, I attended the event. “Your father is Zander Zobowski, right? He was a quarterback for the Minnesota Fox.”
I gritted my teeth. Ali and I were still new. We had a rich history of friendship, but as far as anyone knowing that we were dating, no one would’ve known unless they were snooping around on me. I wasn’t a fodder for paparazzi. I gave interviews to the media when needed, but on my terms. I wasn’t a celebrity or an entertainer. And I was happy I wasn’t. I watched Kassius and Nic navigate through the hardships of fame and I’d hate my life if I lived that way.
Magazines featured me because of business and those types of magazine rarely talked about significant others, and I loved that about the business world.
I flagged down the server and this time, I ordered whisky. The Karuizawa Thousand Arrows single malt would help this meeting from going down the drain.
I felt my woman’s discomfort as she inhaled, “Yes, my dad’s Zander.”
Ali’s intuition was on the mark. She grew up in this world. She knew the underhanded things that men and women did to gain control of the situation.
“I’m sorry if I was being presumptuous,” Carter apologized, but I saw through the plasticity of his statement. I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the minute he showed his true colors, he wouldn’t be getting any more second chances with me.
I replied, “Alissa’s here at my invitation. She’s not a part of the negotiation.” My message was clear – stop talking about her. About us. When we haven’t given you any details about what we are to each other before tonight.
He raised both of his hands in contrition, but I didn’t believe him for a second. He was after all, the son of Wilson Chan, a ruthless businessman and Garrina Valdeamor, a runway model who didn’t care that Ted was married when she was flaunting her affair with him. Ted didn’t have children with his first wife and Elaine had mentioned that it was the biggest scandal at the time. The Sun, Enquirer, and all the tabloids splashed the sordid affair as their biggest scoop.
I believed that a man made his own path. That he was a separate entity from the family he was born into. I was lucky to have been born into a great one, but I’d been around the block and I knew of many people who’d succeeded because of their own merit. Those were the people who garnered my respect.
“Got it.” Carter suffused, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
The whisky burned through my throat and I welcomed the heat.
Ali nodded her head and I was feeling sorry that I even brought her here. I thought we were going to have a nice evening filled with business conversation. A decent one. But Carter had shown his cards and I wasn’t liking it one bit.
“Did you read the proposal?” I cut through his act, getting right to business. I wasn’t giving him another opportunity to make my woman feel uncomfortable.
“I did.” His reply was non-committal. “I don’t like the implication that T & T will be building the brand over our previously established brick and mortars.”
He had a point. “We’re not taking over; we’re proposing to realign T & T with what you already have so that the clients would recognize us when they’re staying at our hotels.”
“How does five percent pre-empt a name and brand change?”
“In theory it doesn’t, but T & T is willing to up our investment by ten additional percent if our logos are marketed with yours. We want to establish our identity, too. Our brand has many co-brands and partners whose insignias are all over our hotels.”
“It’s different in Asia.” Carter quipped, “It’s better if we stick with just our brand.”
Because you don’t want T & T to grow along with the Chan’s.
Because monopoly looked better on paper than in reality.
As always.
The food arrived and the talk about business was placed on the parking lot for a few minutes. I offered Ali to try some of my food and she sampled some. Carter’s eyes looked very interested when Ali said, “I’m getting stuffed, babe.”
The tender look I gave her wasn’t something that any of my business associates often got the chance to see.
“The dress you’re wearing; it’s lace overlay or all lace?”
Ali’s violet eyes were stupefied.
“Carter’s very interested in textiles.” It wasn’t a secret that Chan Inc. had their hands dipped in fashion, but Carter was using his grandfather’s last name, Shan, for his new endeavor. Chan and Shan were not interchangeable.
“It’s all lace,” Ali answered. “By Monique Lhuillier.”
“Lovely.”
“She makes beautiful dresses.” Ali liked to wear dresses that were simple yet elegant. Her shoulders looked delicate and delectable in her outfit. Delicate was far from what she was. She could kick me as hard as an accomplished MMA fighter. I knew because the few times we’d sparred on the mat; I’d been on the receiving end of her brutal kicks. What she was wearing right now was a mirage to how strong and athletic she was. But the delectable part? Ali was that and more. The taste of her skin was addictive, and I couldn’t wait to get her back to our suite.
“Any dress can be beautiful.” Carter’s eyes swept over my woman’s face before adding, “But it’s the woman who makes the dress.”
Was he making a play for Ali?
No.
My back tensed, “Agreed.”
Ali blushed and said, “Thank you.”
“Your eyes? Have they always been like that? I’ve never seen that color – I’ve been around the world, but that shade of purple. “
“They’re actually not purple,” Ali replied, her explanation was something I’d heard throughout the years. When we were kids, I used to shine a pen light that I’d sneaked from my mom’s nursing kit, to admire the color. “They’re actually blue. Violet is my typical pigmentation because of the melanin in me. But it’s really just a mix of blue and grey.”
“Well whatever shade it is, I think it’s amazing. You’re beautiful, Alissa.” Carter gave Ali another appreciative once-over.
He was making a play for Ali.
Right here.
In front of me.
Ass. Hole.
I took ahold of Ali’s hand and pressed her wrist on my lips.
“She is,” I said, my voice flexing authority. “And she’s mine.”
Ali met my declaration with a soft smile. God, the way she looked at me – it made me want to howl on top of a mountain and scream, “Fuck yeah!”
“Hmm…” Carter.
This dinner was becoming insufferably tedious and long. I just wanted it to be over. I didn’t need another man looking over Ali and I. Threesomes were
great in porn, but in real life, they were messy. Not that I had any experience, but I had no compulsion to get involved in that type of stuff.
I had to wrap this up.
Turning my head back to Carter, I kept my left hand on Ali’s hand. She wrapped her fingers around mine and I felt a jolt of energy in me.
“If you’re not going to accept our offer, my team and I will go back to the drawing board and see if we could come up with another one that will be amenable to you and your father.” There was no doubt his father had given him enough ammunition not to accept T & T’s offer. This was a waste of time.
“Actually,” Carter’s eyes were now regarding me shrewdly, “I could be convinced to put T & T’s brand along with your investment of two-fifty.”
“I’m listening.” Never show your opponents that they had the upper hand.
My grandfather, Maxwell Troudeau, wasn’t a nice guy. I was nine years old when I met him for the first time. And it was only because Reece and I had been asking for our grandparents and my grandfather had been calling my parents asking for all the bad stuff he did when my parents were younger. After our initial meeting in his chateau in France, Mom and Dad allowed us to visit him for a weekend every year.
I could tell he wasn’t a nice man because his staff talked bad about him. But to Reece and I, he tried his best.
He was heartbroken when my sister died, and her funeral was the only time he set his feet back on U.S. soil.
He was the king of poker and I’d played with him countless times.
He won even when he had the losing hand.
The trick was to always make your opponent think that you had all the cards they wanted, even if you only had a pair.
“I’ll give you twelve percent instead of fifteen and you can incorporate T & T’s logos in Thailand, Singapore, and I’ll even add in Indonesia.” Carter was speaking my language before he lifted the sake to his mouth.
“The catch?”
“T & T would put its brand on the fashion line I want to start with my associate. Her stock is rising in the fashion world. She’s now an in-demand model, and would like to be involved in this new venture.”
Easy enough.
“Why T & T? I can understand if it’s buildings or entertainment venues. But why fashion?” Ali just voiced what was at the tip of my mouth.
My mom loved buying clothes. Shopping was her middle name. But she never invested in any fashion lines, not even the luxury handbag companies that were making millions in the fashion industry.
“Excuse me.” He pulled out his phone and typed a text. “Hold that thought.”
“I like fashion and I want to make a statement here in the US. I have designers who are working for me and I want to expand Chan Inc. in that area. I believe there’s a lot to be improved on.” Carter stated without preamble. “T & T’s buy-in would be a lift for us, but I don’t really know if you, Matteo,” his eyes were glimmering with menace, “would be someone who could put your past behind you.”
What the fuck was he talking about?
Ali was just as confused, “What?”
“Hi Matteo.” A woman who I’d rather not see in this lifetime or the next appeared beside Carter.
This wasn’t a negotiation.
Gone were the blue and red streaks on her light brown hair. Gone were the lip rings that she liked to tease me with.
In its place was someone who looked as calculating and as malicious as the man whose hands were openly caressing her ass that was barely covered in a tight white dress.
White, they said, was the color of purity. This woman’s soul was as dark as the hounds of hell.
Her platinum blond hair was a product of whatever bottle her hairdresser was peddling, and the lashes of her green eyes were as fake as the smile that she was sporting.
No, this wasn’t a negotiation.
This was a massacre.
Of me.
Of my past.
I’d dealt with many types of businessmen – entrepreneurs whose hopes rode high on their products. Men who were willing to compromise their personal lives just to get ahead. Majority were smart, cunning, and sometimes full of shit.
But I’d never met a man who played as dirty as Carter.
His attack was deliberate.
And the damage wouldn’t have been as catastrophic if I hadn’t brought Ali.
But the reality was, my woman was here.
My chest vibrated in rage and my insides burned into a molten lava but the best poker players still maintained the show of decorum.
Never let the opponent see the loss before the last cards were dealt.
“Tabitha.” Her name burned like acid in my mouth.
Corrosive.
Detrimental.
Poison.
She sat in the empty chair beside Carter. He really was his father’s son. I’d heard rumors on the dirty Chan dealings. Maybe that was why Mom never entered a deal with them. I should have listened to her. But now was not the time for regrets.
“Who is this lovely girl?” Tabitha’s voice was laced with venom. “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Matteo?”
Ali, my angel in purple lace, said in a dismissive tone. “Alissa. Matteo’s girlfriend.”
Tabitha’s eyebrows rose to her forehead. “Rawr. She bites, Matteo. But then again, you like women who bite…”
Ali’s grip tightened on my hand. I heard the soft sounds of her black heels fidgeting against the floor. She wanted to kick the woman across from her. And I’d gladly let her after I kicked her myself.
See. The thing is – Tabitha was not the single cause of my foray into my dark days in college. No, I took that responsibility head-on. I made my choices and I wasn’t going to blame them all on her.
What I hated – yes take that word and multiply it by ten thousand – about her was that she sold my hideous past to the tabloids, after she stole my credit cards and charged them up to the max. Once I unwrapped myself from her evilness, my friends helped delete all the images and stories online, mom and dad had helped too because they loved me and they knew how damaging a reputation could be especially in business. Eight hundred and twenty-eight thousand was chump change to my net worth, but I worked every bit of that money back before my parents could trust my decisions again.
I wanted to reach across the table and break Carter’s jaw which was presently moving in tandem with Tabitha’s smile.
My grandfather taught me poker and how to win.
But I was also my father’s son.
My father who held integrity as his most prized virtue.
“I think we should go,” Ali said in a defeated voice. She was smart, she could tell that there was bad blood between Tabitha and I.
I lowered my head to her ear, inhaling her flowery scent, grounding me to the present. Tethering me to the moral values that ruled over my temper and my anger. “Just a few minutes, babe.”
“How sweet,” Tabitha said and there was nothing I wanted to do but shove her face into the raw fish that Carter had on his plate. Maybe that was why Carter waited to bring her in, not until the last minute. Because Tabitha hated raw fish. Well, raw fish had a better smell than her rotten core.
“How much do you need as capital?” I asked, my voice void of any emotion.
Hook.
“Starting – about twenty million,” Carter said, his expression filled with astonishment. He tried to hide it, but he wasn’t prepared for this side of me.
No one was.
He thought he could bait me, splash his dirty handling of business in front of my face, and I’d just cower.
He never wanted a partnership with T & T in the first place.
I got that when he made passes at Ali.
It didn’t matter how much of a hard-on a woman gave you. You didn’t make her a deterrent to common courtesy. You didn’t make advances if she was another man’s woman. Ali was my girl, and the fact that Carter kept ignoring it made me want to throw him against the wall.
<
br /> Line.
“Is Chan Inc. not willing to pony up the money?” I paused, my jaw clicking as I said the words, “If I had to take a hard guess, your father doesn’t even know about your visit here. Does he, Carter?” My punching bag was going to be named Carter from now on. “It’s interesting that Chan Inc. is that high on Nikkei and Shanghai when we both know that its earnings aren’t exactly what’s been reported for ah, let’s say, five months.”
Nikkei and Shanghai were the major stock exchanges in Japan and China.
I seldom held the royal flush.
But I knew how to win without it.
“What are you talking about?” Carter’s face slightly paled, the pallor buzzing me with the amount of energy that could rival any Monster drink.
“I have friends everywhere.” Good friends. Decent businessmen. Even better as partners. “With a few phone calls, Chan Inc’s stocks could come crashing down worse than the stripper pole that Tabitha’s accustomed to.” I liked strippers, a majority of them were good women trying to make a living. This one was an exception.
Tabitha sneered and I put my finger up, a century would be too soon if I ever heard her voice again. My eyes glaring at Carter. “You’ve disrespected Ali at every turn which makes me want to do unspeakable things to you. You’ve snaked into my personal life without my consent. You’ve dangled the past I’d chosen to forget in front of my face, hoping that I’d do whatever you wanted me to do. You and Tabitha deserve each other.”
I signaled the server and handed over my card. I wasn’t going to short the restaurant just because Carter and Tabitha originated from the gutters.
“T & T and Chan Inc. would have made an incredible partnership. I was willing to give you the two point five billion that your father had personally asked from Bao Banh.” Carter might have looked into my past indiscretions, but a grime like him never bothered to check into who I was acquainted with. Bao was also a Columbia graduate and I helped fund the Vietnamese-Chinese start-up coffee chain he’d presented during a business class. Banh’s Drinks were now a commodity in all Asian markets; its stock values surging into the stratosphere like Amazon and Apple.
