The Billionaire & The Barfly (Coming Home)

by Adrianne James

  She thought she did a good job with the rules. The only one she thought stepped out of roommate boundaries was the curfew, but they were fifteen, after all, and she would be worried sick if they didn’t come home.

  “How are we supposed to get jobs?” Mackenna asked with an attitude. Aubrey looked at her with a tilted head and raised eyebrows. Mackenna didn’t back down though. “I mean it, look at us. We are just two kids, and I’m pregnant. No one is hiring, and they really won’t hire me knowing I will be leaving in eight months. And Ben hasn’t ever worked before. You have to have experience to work. You said you got the second bedroom to help us. Not trick us into paying your bills.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, little girl. I am helping you. Do you think that you can do nothing and take care of a baby? How do you know no one is hiring? Have you looked for a job? How do you think people get experience to begin with? They get crappy first jobs that pay little, but at least put some money in their pocket. You will not live here for free. I am not your mother. I will not pay for you. Ben, I suggest you check your girlfriend before I kindly tell her this was a bad idea and to get out.”

  Aubrey stood and left the living room. She had never heard Mackenna talk like that before. Where was the girl that was always so respectful to her, the sweet girl who cried on her shoulder?

  Her room was a disaster of boxes. The bedrooms were the only rooms that actually had anything in them, and boy was hers stuffed full. The attic in her parents’ house was much larger than the bedroom in the apartment. But it was hers. She had even given Ben and Mackenna the master bedroom because they would need the extra room for a crib and having access to a bathroom in the middle of the night would help when it came to pregnancy stuff. At least, that’s what she had heard.

  A soft knock came from behind her and when she turned, Ben was standing there. She didn’t say anything to him, and she just waited for him to speak. She knew if she waited, and stared at him, long enough he would break.

  And he did.

  “Please don’t kick her out. She just isn’t used to rules like those. You know, ones that were more than just be a good girl and do what I say ones. Her parents never made her work for anything, no chores, no nothing. They just bought what she wanted. I’ll talk to her and right after school tomorrow I will make sure we both go and get applications. I promise.”

  “I know, but she needs to grow up now. She isn’t in their house anymore, and pretty soon she will be the one buying a kid stuff. And remember, for a first job, you can’t be a job snob. Nothing is beneath you if they are willing to pay you to do it. Scratch that. Nothing legal is beneath you. Flip burgers, clean toilets, whatever. Just do it, do it well, and work hard. You will be fine. It’s not going to be easy, but I know you can do it, Ben.”

  Her little brother stepped into her room and wrapped his giant arms around her in a hug.

  “Thanks,” he said then left her room.

  Aubrey closed the door behind him and fell back on her bed. In her apartment. She just hoped that she could manage not to screw it up. She had more than herself to worry about, and her failure would mean her brother and her future niece or nephew would be on the street and that was not okay. She couldn’t fail this time. She wouldn’t.

  Chapter Eleven

  The line at the coffee shop near her apartment was long. So long that when she left that morning she was going to be early, but her craving for caffeine was going to make her late.

  Living just six blocks from her office, she decided to save on gas and the environment and walk to work. But walking led her by the amazing aroma of roasting coffee and baking goodies. Her nose gave her no choice but to investigate. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the damn noses in the city must have done the same thing. She should have driven.

  By the time she walked out with her steaming cup, she had exactly two minutes to walk the five blocks that remained. Aubrey walked as quickly as she could while carrying her shoulder bag and holding her coffee. When the crosswalk at the busiest intersection in the area turned red just before she got to it, she knew that she was in no way making it in on time.

  With as much time as she had taken off to find the apartment and move in that week, she knew she was on thin ice. Just as she was checking her watch to see exactly how late she was going to be, a stranger bumped right into her, causing hot coffee to spill down the front of her light pink blouse, both scalding her and ruining her clothing.

  “Fuck!” she yelled, dropping her bag to pull her shirt away from her skin. Aubrey turned, venom in her eyes, ready to pounce on whoever it was.

  “Chill lady, it’s just a shirt,” the stupid kid said.

  “Just a shirt? What about the skin that has been burnt off under it?” she seethed. Just before she could go off on a rather curse-filled tirade, a black town car stopped beside the road. The window rolled down and Henry looked out at them.

  “Need a ride?” he asked, looking back and forth between her and the stranger who was two seconds away from having his head bit off.

  “Yeah,” she said, never taking her icy glare off the man in front of her. “Fuck you,” she said then opened the car door and slid in beside Henry.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know. It burns like a bitch. I just got that damn coffee, too. I didn’t even get to taste it. I guess that’s what I get for waiting in line for twenty minutes to spend five bucks on a coffee when I make just enough to get by.”

  “Buying yourself something nice once in a while isn’t going to kill your budget. Let me see.” Henry reached forward toward her shirt, taking her completely off guard.

  “What are you doing?” she asked backing up quickly.

  “I wanted to see your stomach, see how bad the burn is.”

  “Oh, right.” Aubrey lifted her shirt just enough to show the red welts that were covering her stomach. The searing pain went all the way to her bra line. Thank god she wore a formed cup bra. That kind of burn would be hell on nipples. “Mind if we go to my place before you take me to work? I need to get a different shirt.”

  “Do you have burn cream? This looks pretty bad,” he said, ghosting his fingers over one welt. Aubrey winced and jerked away. “Sorry! Oh, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “I don’t have any kind of first aid stuff at the apartment. We just moved in and all. The only rooms that have much are the bedrooms. Ben and I are going shopping this weekend to get other stuff we might need.”

  “Okay, then first we stop at the pharmacy, then I take you home, then to work.”

  “Won’t that make you late?” The amount of care he was putting into helping her was sweet. And she did need the cream.

  “That’s the good part about being the boss, I’m allowed.” The grin he gave her set her heart on fire, beating a million times a minute, causing her to smile right back.

  Henry pushed the little intercom button to tell the driver where to go, and Aubrey watched him with affection. He definitely was someone special. If only she could make sure she was good enough for him.

  ~*~

  By the time Aubrey had gone to the pharmacy, gotten home, changed, and gotten back to work, she was more than a half hour late. There was a note at the front desk asking her to go straight to Mike’s office.

  Dread sat heavy in her stomach. This was it. She signed a year lease, and she was about to lose her job. At least, if she could keep herself from pouncing on Henry’s dick for three months, she could collect a cool million. She had no interest in anyone else’s appendages, which scared her like crazy. She laughed to herself as she entered the elevator. Who had ever heard of such a crazy challenge? Not having sex was the easy part.

  As long as she stayed away from anywhere private with Henry.

  The office had its usual busy atmosphere about it with assistants running around, phones ringing, copiers working. But something felt different. Perhaps it was her impending unemployed status.

  Aubrey looked over to her desk by Jenna’s office to see t
he temp packing her things in tears. Jenna looked up at just the right moment and locked eyes with her through the glass wall and glared. She didn’t know what she had done to get on Jenna’s bad side, but she didn’t like it.

  Mike’s door was shut and Bridgette was nowhere to be seen, so she walked up and knocked on his door. Mike opened it quickly with a quizzical look. If Bridgette were anything like her, she would never let anyone knock if it could be helped. She would always buzz Jenna to tell her about a guest. Mike got no buzz.

  “Aubrey, I expected you a while ago.”

  “Sorry, there was a coffee incident that left me with a pretty nasty stain on my shirt and matching one on my stomach. I had to take care of that, but I came in as fast as I could. What did you need to see me about?”

  Mike looked around at the people behind her then opened his door further. “In here.”

  “Okay?” she said as more of a question than a statement. Aubrey walked into his office. Mike usually kept his space as clean as a whistle. Not a paper out of place, not a pen lying randomly on the desk. But right then, it looked like a tornado had hit it. “What the hell happened in here?”

  “I’ve been pouring over contract after contract. Apparently, when Buffet, Hodges, and Keith signed with us ten years ago, there was a clause in there. They can take their games and their business elsewhere after eight years. Somehow, the other companies found out and are all trying to steal them away. I’ve been making sure the other contracts don’t have the same clause. I wish Peterson still worked here, so I could slap him silly for putting it in there!”

  The enormity of what was going on wasn’t lost on her. Those three clients alone made up fifty percent of their business. They produced at least thirty games a year each. And they all sold and sold well. If Viola lost them, it was only a matter of time before Viola itself was lost.

  “What can I do?” Aubrey looked around, itching to start cleaning up for him. She knew that the disarray of his office was adding to his stress level, even if he didn’t realize it. She wasn’t a neat freak, but it was starting to bug her, too.

  “I need you to take this file,” Mike thrust a large manila envelope at least two inches thick at her, “and go through it. Find a new way to market the old games. I think that is going to be our saving grace. While every other company is going to focus on the present and the future, we are going to promise them the same devotion to new games they have always gotten, but we want to start a back log campaign, too. I just need to find a way to make ten year old games interesting again. You come up with out-of-the-box stuff. I need you to do that for me now. Can you?”

  “On games that work on consoles that are outdated and not sold anymore?”

  “I know, sounds crazy, but just try to come up with something.”

  “I will do my best. I promise.”

  “I don’t think I need to tell you how badly we need to keep these contracts, do I?”

  “No, you don’t. I’ll get started right away. I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

  Mike nodded his head and went back to the pile of papers on the little table in front of his couch. Aubrey left Mike’s office and headed straight for the elevator. Upstairs was a dusty old office that no one used any longer. It had become her quiet area, and only Mike and Jenna knew about it. No one would bother her, and she could concentrate completely. It helped her get in the zone.

  After three hours, she had nothing. And she was starving. Aubrey grabbed her purse, the file, and headed out for lunch. Perhaps food would help her think better.

  The sandwich shop down the street was usually pretty quiet. She was able to order her turkey and Swiss on rye and take over the table in the back corner with ease.

  A bell jingled, and a commotion broke Aubrey’s attention away from her work. Henry had come in followed by a horde of young boys holding game cases in their hands, waving them at Henry. They were begging for autographs.

  Aubrey couldn’t help but laugh. Henry had groupies. Just not the ones most men would want. But Henry wasn’t most men, and he smiled and signed, and then asked the kids if he could eat his lunch in peace. They all left with big smiles of their own and hugging their new treasures tightly to their chest.

  Henry slumped into the chair about halfway from the front of the shop and sort of hid behind a potted plant. She watched as he took a breath or two then studied the menu that she had memorized. When he stood to order, she listened carefully. She felt that a person could learn a lot from what another ordered, and how they ordered, when they weren’t trying to impress anyone.

  To her surprise, he ordered a turkey and Swiss on rye. But he said hold the mustard. She shook her head in disappointment. Mustard was key to the sandwich. What was he thinking?

  “You ordered it wrong,” she said loudly, making him jump and spin in her direction. The stress from his face melted away and was replaced by a smile.

  “Oh, I did, did I? And what did I do wrong?”

  “Turkey and Swiss on rye has to have mustard. It’s just the way it was meant to be. Like PB&J or bologna and cheese. Anything else is just wrong.”

  “What if I don’t like mustard?”

  “Then I’d say you’ve never had it on turkey and Swiss on rye. I don’t like mustard on anything else, either, but on this sandwich? It’s a must.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yup.”

  “Excuse me, Could you add mustard to that, after all?” Henry said to the man behind the counter making his sandwich. Then he turned back to Aubrey. “Happy?”

  “Yes, and so will you when you taste it.”

  “And if I don’t like it?”

  “Then I’ll buy you another one without the mustard.”

  “Deal.”

  Henry took his sandwich from the counter guy and came to sit at the table with her. Aubrey quickly put her work away, not sure how she should handle the competing company thing between them. Henry watched her but said nothing. Once the table was clear, he opened the wrap around his sandwich and eyed it, almost as if it might turn into a monster and eat him instead.

  “Just try it. It’s not going to kill you.” Aubrey took a bite of her own sandwich to prove her point.

  “Here goes,” Henry said before picking his sandwich up and taking a great big bite out of it. Aubrey watched as his contorted face slowly relaxed as he chewed and swallowed. He sat his sandwich back down and stared at her. For three whole minutes. Aubrey counted each agonizing second. Finally, he spoke. “Okay, maybe mustard does belong on this.”

  “YES!” she cheered, punching the air. Henry laughed and took another bite.

  “So is this where you come for lunch every day?” he asked as soon as his mouth was empty. Hot and manners—she was doomed.

  “Not every day. Planning on stalking me?”

  “I wouldn’t call it stalking, just looking for good places to eat. I haven’t lived around here since the end of senior year.”

  “No? Where have you been?”

  “Up until a little bit ago, I lived in New York. Seemed like a good time to come back for good. I had to check in on the branch here in the city and see the parents, and I kind of found what I’ve been missing in New York. It never really felt like home. So many people but not one you could honestly say who the hell they were. I mean, the way we grew up? Mrs. Janner down the street knew everyone, and knew exactly what they were up to. Annoying at times, sure. But at least you knew you were never really alone.”

  The weight of his words hit Aubrey. It was true, and it was one of the reasons she wanted out. The city kept her anonymous. She didn’t have to worry about the looks she got when she went out and about. Poor Aubrey couldn’t cut it at college. Poor Aubrey can’t keep a man. Or what was worse, when she heard them pitying her parents for having such a screw-up as a kid. And there was Henry, longing to go back.

  “Must be nice to not have anything to run from. I’m sure everyone is so proud of you. I’ve got the opposite.”

  “Actual
ly, it’s not like that at all. I wasn’t a favorite, remember? I was the geeky kid with the parents who cleaned the school at night. They knew who I was, but no one really cared much about what we did. Now they try to act as if they’ve always been there. But, the few who really did care back then? They are worth it. My parents. You.”

  “Me?” she asked, completely taken off guard. She knew he was interested, and that they had a connection, but to move on the off chance that she may come around seemed a bit extreme. She knew first hand that moving for someone else was just dumb.

  “Yes, Aubrey, you. I don’t know why that surprises you. I’ve told you that I want you. How can I ever expect this to work if I’m living someplace so far we have to take a plane to see each other? If this never happens, I can always go back if I want to. I didn’t sell the apartment.”

  What could she say to that? She didn’t want to encourage him, but at the same time, as much as she tried to fight it, she didn’t want to send him away either. Not that he would go. He’s proven that a time or two.

  “Well, it was really nice having lunch, but I have to get back to the office. I have a lot of work to do.”

  “Did you get the promotion even after what happened with Mrs. Stine? I really didn’t want to mess your chances up, and I realized after the fact that talking to you right after presenting was probably a stupid move.”

  “I don’t know yet, but it’s probably best if we don’t talk about work. Rival companies and all. I’ll see you around I’m sure. Bye, Henry.” Aubrey picked her things up and walked out the door. She could feel his eyes on her all the way out the door and down the street until she turned at the first street. It wasn’t the way to the office, but she knew if she looked back over her shoulder, Henry’s eyes would be fixed on her.

  Aubrey walked back to her building, thoughts of moving boxes and Henry dancing around in her head. He really believed in them. He believed she could let him in and that she would fall for him. Falling was the easy part, letting him in and opening up to yet another mistake, another heartbreak, wasn’t so easy.