“Is this for real?” I blurted out.
There was a pause on the other end of the line. The man cleared his throat. “I can assure you that this is a genuine offer. If you agree, I can send over some paperwork and a formal written offer today.”
Val was hopping around in her seat.
Lowering the phone, I leaned toward her. “They’re offering me an internship.”
“Take it!” She gasped. “Good-bye, Awful Alan!”
“Miss Williams?” the man on the line called.
Quickly pulling the phone close, I cleared my throat. “I’m here. I’m sorry, this is just unexpected. I didn’t even know my department sent my information.”
“As part of the internship, we are offering lodging located here in Miami, not far from our offices. In addition, we can offer a daily wage, though it’s not anything substantial.”
Housing, pay, and a chance to get away from Alan?
“I’ll take it!” I announced.
Across the table, Valerie clapped silently.
“Wonderful. If you could confirm your email, I will send all the information, as well as some HR forms we will need you to complete and send back as soon as possible.”
I confirmed my email, and he promised to send everything right away.
“If you have any questions or concerns, just call the number on the form.”
“Right.” I agreed. Then, because this was all happening so fast, I asked, “Is that everything?”
“That’s everything,” the man replied. “Welcome to Ansoft, Ms. Williams. We’ll see you next month.”
I stared at the screen on my phone long after it went black and didn’t look up until Valerie banged on the tabletop.
“I got another internship,” I said dumbly.
“I can’t wait to see Alan’s face when you tell him.”
Pulling my laptop close, my fingers flew over the keyboard as I pulled up my email, half expecting the papers confirming my new job not to be there.
They were.
Right there at the very top was the email from Ansoft Headquarters with everything they promised enclosed.
Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and a smile bloomed across my lips. It almost seemed too good to be true, but it was.
Carter
“Good you’re still here,” Bryan declared, walking right into my office without so much as a knock.
“Not for much longer,” I quipped and pointed up toward the ceiling. “The chopper is on its way.”
“You’re the only person I know who actually takes a helicopter to work.”
“Perks of being the boss.” Standing from behind the desk, I grabbed the navy-blue suit jacket off the back of my chair and pulled it on over the polo I was wearing.
The monitor on my desk was still on, still displaying the brand-new artwork just sent over for approval. It looked wicked cool.
“Hey, check out the new specs the art department sent over for Zero.” Still adjusting my jacket with one hand, I reached out with the other to spin the monitor around for Bryan to see. “The graphics upgrades are better than I expected.”
Bryan came closer, eyes roaming over the design of the main character of what was going to be the biggest game launch in Ansoft history. He whistled beneath his breath, tucking his arms over his chest as he looked it over. After a moment, he swiped a finger over the screen, bringing up an additional angle of the character design.
“Well?” I asked, waiting for his feedback.
His eyes swung up to me, then back to the monitor. After momentarily pursing his lips, a smile curved them. His fist appeared over the desk. “Bro.”
Laughing, I bumped my fist against his. Then we transitioned flawlessly into the handshake that was exclusively ours.
“Anyone else see this yet?” Bryan asked, pulling back.
I shook my head. “It came straight up from the art department.”
He blew out a breath. “That’s good.”
Swinging the monitor back around toward me, I began the process of shutting down the computer. “What’s going on?”
“Some info about Zero leaked.”
“Has the marketing department been notified so they can stay on top of it?”
“It wasn’t leaked to the media.”
Glancing up from my desk, I asked, “Then where?”
“Regal Tech.”
Straightening, both hands went to my hips, and I laughed under my breath. “Seriously? They just won’t get off my ass, will they?”
“They’re already threatening a lawsuit.”
Anger sparked inside me, and I ran my tongue over my teeth. “They want to waste their money on a lawsuit they won’t ever win, that’s not my problem.”
“You’re sure they won’t win?”
The anger in me flatlined, creating a quiet buzz in my skull. “You actually asking me that?”
Bryan swore. “I’m the president, Anders. I have to ask that.”
“Because you’re the president, you should know better.”
“Stop looking at me like that. It’s scary.” Bryan dropped into one of the club chairs across the room. “It’s business.”
“Exactly.” I agreed, going around the desk, leaning against the edge to regard my friend and business partner. “Regal Tech knows they’re about to lose a shit-ton of money.”
“How can you be so cool about this?” Bryan asked.
I shrugged. “They’ve been watching us from almost the beginning. It doesn’t surprise me they managed to get an informant inside this company, which is exactly why the team working on this project is small and all progress is sent directly to me.”
“You know he’s not going to let this go.” Bryan advised.
“He doesn’t have a choice.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.
“Why don’t you come to my place this weekend. You look like you need to de-stress,” I offered.
“Sold!” Bryan agreed. “Some drinks and a girl in a bikini are exactly what I need.”
“I’ll have a room at the resort blocked off for you,” I remarked, making a mental note out loud.
“Or you could babe hunt with me, and we could take the festivities back to your place.”
“You know I don’t bring random sand dollars back to my island.”
Sand dollars = random women we hooked up with at the resort I owned.
“Bro, if I were you, I’d be using that island as a mecca for the ladies.”
“That’s why you aren’t me.” A mental image of a blue-eyed good girl smiling over her shoulder flashed in my mind.
“Oh,” I said, stopping midway on the way to the door. “I hired a summer intern. She starts next month.”
Bryan’s face screwed up in surprise. “You did what?”
“Her paperwork should be in HR by now. Put her with the design team.”
“What in the hell possessed you to hire an intern?”
Stopping in the open door of my office, I didn’t turn around. “She’s special,” I said, not offering anything more.
“So’s my mom, but I didn’t hire her,” Bryan quipped.
I turned back, smirking. “Your mom doesn’t know how to work a computer.”
Bryan laughed.
“I’ll send the chopper back for you later.”
“I need details!” he yelled after me as I went down the hall.
I waved and kept walking.
Nora
The sound of someone beating on our apartment door was not a pleasant alarm.
Okay, there was no pleasant-sounding morning alarm, but this one was especially annoying.
Still drunk on sleep, I half fell out of bed, tripping on the blankets as I went. Bleary-eyed and stumbling through the living room, I grunted at the continued banging as it took me two tries to unlatch the locks before I was able to pull it open.
“Is there some kind of emergency?” I grumped, a burst of air brushing against my bare legs when the door swung
inward.
“What the hell is this?” Alan demanded, slapping a hand in the center of the door and forcefully shoving it wider.
Unprepared for the sudden force, I stumbled backward, nearly falling onto my butt.
“Alan?” I said stupidly. Hey, my brain was still trying to wake up, okay?
“I want an explanation!” he demanded.
The anger he was projecting chased away the drowsiness clinging to me, and adrenaline started to pump through my limbs. Alan stalked close, putting his hands on his hips while staring at me with flared nostrils.
He kinda looked like an angry bull.
I decided not to say that out loud.
“What are you talking about?” I asked instead.
His upper lip curling, my ex reached into the inside pocket of his jacket to pull out his cell. Holding up the screen, he showed me the text I’d sent him the night before.
Oh. Right.
Glancing between him and the phone screen, I pointed at the text. “I think my text was clear. What exactly do you want me to explain?”
The fingers gripping the phone turned white, and his eyes flared. Alan hated to be challenged. He liked to be the one in control. He liked to feel superior.
It made me feel really stupid that I never noticed just how bad he was until after I broke up with him. How had I stayed with him so long? What did that say about me as a woman?
Swallowing, Alan turned the phone toward him and read the message I’d sent. “Alan, I’m not going to Boston after all. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
After reading it, he gazed back at me, accusatory. “I need an explanation for this.”
“What’s to explain?” I asked. “I’m not going to Boston.”
His phone vaulted across the room and hit the couch with a thud. Quickly, he launched forward, grabbing my upper arm and yanking me toward him. My feet skittered over the floor, my bare toe stubbing the hard ground. I made a sound, rubbing my toe against my bare calf for some kind of relief.
My heart was pounding, and I didn’t like the look in his eye.
“Let go,” I intoned, trying not to show I was any kind of intimidated.
When his fingers tightened around my arm, I lifted my chin and practically dared him to continue. With a huff, he released me.
Moving around him, I shut the front door because it was still wide open from him barging in.
Turning back around, I noted some movement in the hallway where Valerie hovered, peeking around the corner. Giving a slight shake of my head, I told her to stay where she was. Seeing her would probably just piss off Alan more. Hell, he’d probably blame her for me not going to Boston. It wasn’t her fault. This was my choice. It was time I faced Alan and put a stop to all his nosy, controlling ways.
When I looked back at him, he was glaring at me, waiting.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I regarded him coolly. “I got offered another internship. A better one. I took it.”
His laugh sounded like a bark. “Another internship? When?”
“Just the other day.”
“Where?”
“It doesn’t matter where. I’m not going to Boston.”
Alan’s blue eyes narrowed, and his square jaw hardened. “Do you have any idea what I gave up to come to that second-rate company with you?”
“I never asked you to do that.”
Tossing his hands in the air, he roared, “Are you kidding? You didn’t shut up about Boston for months!”
“That was last fall. When we were still together. We aren’t together anymore.”
Putting both hands on his hips, he heaved a sigh and stared at the floor, acting like he really had to rein in his temper just to deal with me. Maybe before, I’d would have seen that as passion, as how much he really cared.
Now it was exhausting. I wanted him to leave.
I really wanted to put on pants.
“How much longer are you going to punish me? I know I hurt you, but this is ridiculous. Get over it already.”
I bristled. Back in the hallway, Val stepped into view, brandishing a giant hairbrush as if she were about to come out and brain him.
Averting my gaze from my BFF, I looked directly at Alan and took a step forward. “I am over it. I got over it the minute we broke up.” Okay, that was a lie, but he didn’t need to know that. “It’s you who can’t seem to let it go. I dumped you. I don’t want anything to do with you. Stop acting like I’m just throwing a fit for attention, because I’m not. If you’re that hard up for a girlfriend to look good on your arm, go find another one.”
His mouth dropped open, and a small sound forced its way out. Closing his lips, Alan scratched his temple and chuckled. “You want me to find another girlfriend?”
“Please. Take her to Boston if you want to go that bad.”
“Be careful what you ask for, Nora,” Alan said quietly.
Walking over to the sofa and picking up his cellphone, I held it out over the coffee table between us. “Please leave.”
He reached for the phone, but instead of taking it, he latched onto my wrist instead. Pulling me forward, I fell onto the coffee table. Scrambling up onto my knees, my heart pounding, I twisted my arm, trying to get it out of his hold.
“Get out!” I yelled.
“You’re going to regret this,” he said, dragging me farther over the table. The books we had piled there all tumbled onto the floor.
“I’m calling the cops!” Val said, bursting into the living room with her phone out.
Alan ignored her, continuing to drill holes into me with his blue-fire stare. “This is the only chance a girl like you is ever going to get at a better life. No one else is going to be willing to put up with you. Think hard. Think real hard, because when I walk out that door, everything I could offer you goes with me.”
Using all the force I had, I pulled my wrist free of his grasp. His phone clattered onto the floor near his feet. Tucking my burning, sore arm against my chest, still on my knees on the table, I rose to my full height and met his gaze.
“Don’t ever show your face to me again.”
Shock flickered in his eyes, and then his tongue ran over his teeth. He laughed. The dimple everyone thought was so charming appeared vile to me. Bending down to scoop up his phone, he went to the door. Before pulling it open, he glanced over his shoulder. “You’re a stupid girl, Nora.”
“You’re right,” I replied. “I am. Stupid for wasting an entire year of my life with you.”
Leaving the door, he rushed forward again.
Valerie leapt between us, holding up her phone. “Out.”
Alan divided his stare between us, then slammed out of the apartment.
I wilted on the tabletop while Valerie ran forward and threw the locks. Turning around, her back against the door, she pressed a hand to her chest. “Nora,” she said after a moment of us just breathing.
I avoided her eyes.
“Nora,” she said again.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I said, climbing off the table to stand on wobbly legs.
“Did he ever hit you?”
I stopped but didn’t turn around.
“Did that son of a bitch ever manhandle you like that before?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Val. It’s over,” I replied, soft, then hurried out of sight.
Sure, maybe it seemed a little too good to be true that I got offered a last-minute internship at Ansoft. But I didn’t care. That internship felt like a savior and an escape all in one. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of here for a few months and go to a city where none of this could follow.
Carter
The helicopter landed on the roof. My office was on the top floor of our building, but I took the elevator all the way down to the ground floor.
Ansoft’s lobby was shiny and clean, with a wall of glass doors for employees to enter through and a wide, white tile floor to walk across on their way to security.
Large posters of all the games a
nd apps we produced hung everywhere, providing all the color the space needed. There was a single “lounge” type area near the doors with modern-style couches and oversized green plants.
Strolling through the lobby, I went to the couch and took a seat. My security team cleared their throats and gazed around, then at me, in confusion.
Amused at their flustered faces, I waved a hand toward them. “Have a seat.”
They didn’t. Instead, they planted themselves in front of me, barricading anyone else from attempting to sit down alongside me.
I rolled my eyes at their backs.
Aaron glanced over his shoulder with a sour expression. “I saw that.”
“Stop acting like the secret service. I make video games.”
“Sir?” another of my security asked, not sure what to do.
“Ignore him,” Aaron ordered.
“Who’s the boss here?” I wondered out loud, taking out my phone to gaze down at the screen.
“A boss belongs in his office.”
I’d get there eventually. I had something else to do first.
About ten minutes went by, and I continued to sit there. People stared when they realized it was me, and my security stood around, shuffling from foot to foot occasionally because they had no clue what the hell I was doing.
This was kinda fun.
Why had I never thought to mess around with them before?
The sound of heels clipping over the tile made me glance up. She was dressed in a light-pink dress that hugged her body but flared out at her hips. Long, tan legs stretched down to the nude-colored heels elevating her feet.
A small bag on a gold chain hung from one shoulder, and her blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck.
I watched her walk for a few moments, smothering a smile when she teetered a bit on the heels before righting herself to go through security.
An air of nervousness wafted around her as she nervously dug into her bag to find her ID and show to the guard. Bypassing the checkpoint, I went around, then leaned a shoulder against a wall, watching as she shoved her ID away and walked toward the elevators.
After pushing the button, she waited quietly until the doors opened with a chime.
Mr. Fantasy: (A standalone romance) Page 6
