by Nikki Bella
According to the Manhattan Food Review, the Grill House was the Gramercy Tavern of SoHo, where anyone who wanted to feel what it is like to eat at a fancy restaurant dressed in jeans and t shirt went.
“Yeah I will think about it.”
“Anyway I promised Ash that she could come over, I haven’t seen in her almost a week”
“Do you want me to get out of my own apartment?” I asked point blankly
“No I want you to stop moping around”, she says rolling up her yoga blanket.
“UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”, I say as I shove my face into the couches pillow.
Chapter 7
Nathaniel
“Why am I here again?” I ask Sam over the loud music that was playing at the club.
Sam was my best friend. I had known him since our days together at Fordham.
“To find me the one”, Sam said taking a look around the room.
“And how do you suppose I am going to help you out in this area”, I say surveying the rooms many options.
“You are my wingman and my best friend. And as my wingman and my best friend it is your scared duty to make sure I get laid tonight”, he says as a matter-of-factly.
“Yeah you don’t need me to be your wingman, you bring out the money and the ladies will start coming out from left and right”, I say and drain the last of my drink.
Sam, like I said was one of my best friends. We met at one of the freshmen year college parties and hit it right off.
He was a hit with the ladies and so was I. And with the deep pockets we had, neither of us ever had the problem of landing girls.
Sadly none of the girls that we landed ever had any long term potential, it was always Benjamin Franklin that attracted him and once the appeal of it apparently faded away or we got bored of them, the ladies went away and we moved on the next one.
However, lately Sam had been increasingly after the idea that it was time to settle down.
At 31 he believed he had achieved everything. Well almost everything.
His inheritance which came about at 29, after an unfortunate incident with his father, along with his empire was Sam’s start of the quest for a perfect.
Unfortunately for the both of us, we had no idea what a perfect woman was, since whatever we wanted we always got.
Money, they say can do anything they want, which is exactly what it did for us.
“So is the next Mrs. Wilson drinking a vodka martini or a dry sherry as we speak?’ Sam said while pointing towards the waitress to refill our glasses.
“I don’t know man. Maybe a club isn’t exactly the place the find “the one”, I say it while quoting the air.
“Well they aren’t exactly going to fall into my lap either.”
“Hey boys, you drinking alone?” a voice interrupts our discussion.
I look up to see two dark haired women with smiling down at us.
“Maybe they just did”, I reply as the two women settled themselves between us in the VIP section.
Chapter 8
Alexis
Despite my numerous protests, Jess had talked me into going out to the hip new club in town, where apparently anybody who was anyone, was going to be there.
Going to a club on a Monday night just felt out of place. This was funny, because if someone had ever asked me to go to a club on a Monday night three years ago, I would have happily agreed.
But at 25, with a job that demanded me to get up at six in the morning, this was not something I was looking forward to.
However, according to Jess, missing out on the opening night of the only club, which might make get an appearance by Kanye West, was devastating for her social standing.
Her social standing which included her thousands of Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat followers.
Jess was a bartender six nights a week at a bar down the road and when she was not behind the bar she was travel guide, not like the ones who wore uniforms and made sure the tourists enjoyed the city but on social media.
Apparently her day to day shenanigans had gathered her a following and now she spent much of her time that she was not bartending, sleeping or doing laundry, visiting clubs and restaurants around town and dragging me along with her.
Leave no friend behind was her motto and she followed it religiously.
“Come on, we are getting late”, Jess shouts from the living room.
“Can’t I just skip tonight? I have to be in early, Jeremey will have my ass for showing up late,” I say hoping, I would get a pass.
“It’s just one night and besides it’s not like you’re going to be working in that filing cabinet of an excuse for a cubicle anymore”.
“You never know. It’s not like Dunlow is dying to hire me,” I say remembering my awkward walk of shame to the interview with my skirt riding up, every opportunity it got.
I might just have given them enough reason to never hire me with my wardrobe malfunction.
“Don’t be a party pooper”, Jess sticks her head into my room. “Put on your shoes, we are leaving in two”.
I sign as I put on my heels, take a last look at my face and head out of the room.
Chapter 9
Nathaniel
I woke up the sound of a television blasting with the morning news.
It took me a while to realize where I was.
Of course it had been another night and another drunken escapade with another woman.
Or was it?
The last thing I remember happening was getting into a car with really hot women who had been very eager to get into my pants.
All I remember after that was hitting either a couch or a bed with one person on top of me while someone else, possibly the second candidate trying to get my pants off.
Now, as I looked around neither one of the women could be found on the bed around me.
High pitched laughter from the kitchen cut me from my thoughts as I made my way out of the unfamiliar bedroom.
Standing in the kitchen were two women who deeply resembled my last night companion except now instead of dressed in short evening dressed, stood before me two women dressed in business suits.
“Good morning handsome”, said one of them who was brewing coffee with a wink.
“So did you enjoy last night?” asked the other one who in the middle of looking her face in the mirror that hung next to the fridge.
“It would have been a whole lot better if I could actually remember what happened last night”, I say as I look around for a glass of water.
The sooner I get out of here the better, I think to myself. Cannot have another late start again.
Arthur’s face from yesterday was still swimming at the back of my head.
“Want to go for round two”, the woman fixing her face in the mirror finally turned around to ask me.
“Yeah, no I don’t think so, I don’t think last night was that memorable”, I say as the two exchange rather astounded looks.
“I mean I usually stay awake for all of my memorable ones. Guess even two of you could not do a good enough job to keep me awake”, I say as I pick up my shoes and made my way out of the door.
Chapter 10
Alexis
I wake up to the sound of my phone buzzing; groggily I put out my hands towards my side table, knocking my EarPods off the side table in the process.
With one eye closed I look at number that was flashing on the screen, trying to decipher who was calling so early in the morning.
But before I could answer it, the call ended and I took a look at the time on the clock, it was 10 in the morning.
Fuck, I thought to myself, there is going to be hell to pay with Jeremy today.
My thoughts turn away from Jeremy to my phone buzzing again.
I pick it up.
“Is this Miss. Strope?” a curt voice on the other end asked.
“Yes it is”, I said trying to untangle myself from the mess of my blankets.
“Miss Strope, we would like to inform you, that
you been offered a position here at Dunlow as an associate”, she says as I pull myself more upright.
“Would you be able to join us from the following Thursday?” she continues.
“I, uhhhhhhhh, yeah”, I stutter still trying to wrap my head around her words.
“Great then we will see you at sharp 8 on Thursday”, she said and cut the call.
Still trying to make a sense of what had just happened as my phone starts vibrating again.
I look down to see Jeremey’s name flashing down on the screen.
I ignore Jeremy and make my way out of the room which had started to resemble a hoarders place day by day.
Outside there seemed to be no sign of life, so I make way to Jess’s room.
I open the partially closed room door to see Ashley and Jess sprawled on the bed, still dressed in last night’s clothes.
I walk up to her and shake Jess awake.
“Wutttttt”, Jess says half asleep.
“I have news for you”, I say and attempt to remove her blanket.
“Go away I am sleepy”, she says and pushes me down the bed.
“No this is very important”
“Fine, what is so important that you could not wait for me to get up?” Jess’s says finally throwing off the blanket off that she had been trying to get me off from.
“Dunlow, it happened. I GOT INNNNNNN!,” I scream the last part out.
“What, what happened? Is everything okay,” a bewildered, wide eyed Ashley asked, jumping out of the bed.
“It won’t be if she doesn’t get out of my room”, Jess’s says practically pushing me out of the room.
“But I got into Dunlow,” I say with the same enthusiasm as before, as Jess still pushed me out of the room.
“Yes I am very happy for you, but if you don’t get out of my room right now, you won’t have much to be happy for”, Jess says as she kicks me out of the room.
Looks like I need an early drink today, I think to myself as I make myself to the kitchen to find a drink to pour myself.
Chapter 11
Nathaniel
I make my way into my office hoping to avoid Arthur who had taken it upon himself to personally welcome me every time I stepped off the elevator.
Thankfully this time around he was not here to do so.
With a huge sigh of relief I made my way to my office only to be stopped by the very strict and the very unpopular Mrs. Stroman from Human Resource.
Despite being the CEO of the company and having everyone on my pay roll, Mrs. Stroman was one person I did not want to get on the bad side of.
After all she made sure all my inner affairs remained confined to my office’s glass walls alongside legal.
The morning look that she wore this morning, made me go back to the days of my school where I was a regular guest at the after school detention party, who’s in charge was a similar Mrs. Stroman who has made my life a personal living hell.
“Dunlow, a word”, she barked.
I stopped in my tracks. If Mrs. Stroman wanted to have a word with me then she will have a word with me.
Even I did not want to get on the bad side of her, especially when she was in one of her moods.
“What can I do for you this morning, Mrs. Stroman?” I asked hoping there was nothing too serious.
“Tomorrow the new batch of recruits will be coming in”, she says to my obviously confused face.
“And how exactly are the new associates any of my issue. They don’t work with me,” I say still thinking why she was telling me about this.
“Don’t try to be smart with me”, she says in her school like voice.
“This is just a gentle reminder about what happens every time new associates come,” she says as a matter-of-factly.
“A few days in, everyone gets the general idea of who the “boss” is,” she continued. “And once everyone gets to know who the boss is, everyone wants to get in the pants of the boss”.
“Well it’s not my fault everyone wants to be with me”
“Well then it shouldn’t be HR’s problem either after your numerous one night stands”, she says with a look that was enough for me to stop arguing with her.
“Listen Dunlow, I don’t want anything happening this time around, I have been a part of this company longer than you have and I am tired of Dunlow men not being to keep it in their pants”.
“So tomorrow, when they walk in and you happen to meet any of them, leave them,” she says with an air of finality.
With that Mrs. Stroman turns on her heel and marches towards the end of the hall to have another talk with young man who was very obviously trying to charm one of the younger associates.
Stacy walks up to me and hands me a bunch of yellow post its and gives me the you-just-got-schooled looks.
“Arthur is waiting for you”, she says
“Has he given himself an aneurysm yet?” I asked breaking into a stride with her.
“Ha ha, no. You have missed out on every single meeting since yesterday,” she says settling down herself in her chair. ‘He will have one if you skip out on anymore”.
She says as I make myself to Arthur’s office.
Chapter 12
Alexis
Still reeling from the news that I had officially been asked to be a part of Dunlow, I spent the entire day dreaming of how my first day at the office was going to turn out.
I had officially annoyed Jess to a point where she was even considering going to the bar early just to avoid me.
What Jess did not understand was that this was an opportunity of a lifetime and if you made it through the rigorous three month probation period then that was it.
Even having the name Dunlow on your resume was a huge thing.
People were known to go to great lengths to work at the offices of Dunlow.
But of course that was not the only reason why anyone wanted to be there.
Dunlow or rather Nate Dunlow was known to throw some of the biggest parties in town where only the town’s best were a part of.
Dunlow’s employees were frequently known to be there and were often photographed and appeared in the social pages, which did wonders for their social standing.
And then of course there was Nate Dunlow, the CEO of the company, young billionaire, CEO by day, billionaire bad boy by night who was known for his flings with all the hottest A list celebs, that the city of New York had to offer.
“So still dreaming about your dream job?” Jess asks putting down the bag of groceries in her hand.
“What else?” I get up to help her put the things away.
“I don’t get all the hype about Dunlow, sure it’s a big company but it’s not the only one, I’m pretty sure if you went to Chicago or California, they would have their very own version of Dunlow’s running about”, she says opening the fridge to put in a carton of milk.
“Dunlow is a stepping stone for the next big thing, you have an experience with them and you become one of the most sought after person in the financial district”, I said trying to make Jess understand.
Jess rolls up her eyes and continues to put things in cabinets.
“I got to go and get ready for work”, Jess says heading for her room.
“I will see you in the morning; maybe”, she adds leaving me to go back to dreaming about Dunlow.
Not knowing what to do with the rest of the day, since I had not even bothered to go into work today and inform Jeremey that I won’t be coming in anymore, I decided to give him and a call and put him out of his misery.
“Look who decided to finally call”, Jeremey familiar drawl on the other end send me into one of my moods where all I wanted to do was punch him.
“Hey Jeremey, you free to talk for a few minutes?” I asked hoping the entire conversation would actually last a few minutes.
“Depends, what you want to talk about”, he said in a tone which made me uneasy and mad at the same time.
Stopping myself from uttering curses at
the man whose life’s biggest goal was to hook up with every girl in the office I, told him that I would not be coming in from tomorrow.
“So what happened? Did you suddenly land yourself a sugar daddy?” he asked sarcastically.
“Christ Jeremey, can you not?” I say almost losing my patience with the man.
“All I wanted to do was to inform you, that I will not be coming in from tomorrow. I have got another job, that is all,” I say hoping this would be the end of the conversation.
“Well you can forget about getting paid then, you have to service a notice period like any other employee, After all, you did sign a contract here,” he says
“Jeremey at this point I only care about getting off the phone with you and enjoying the rest of my day. So if you don’t mind, fuck off and thank you for one an entire year full of misery”, I scream at him and end the call.
“Did you just tell your boss to fuck off?, “Jess asks, with half her makeup on her face.
“Ex-boss,” I say with a sign.
Jess gives me an approving smile before going back to finish doing her face.
Of course this was not the first time I had butted heads with Jeremey.
More than once he had tried to ask her out. After the third time, I tried telling him off, but things took a rather nasty turn, where I almost would have lost my job had it not been for the fact that the rent for apartment was coming up and there was nothing left in the fridge to eat except for vegetable patties.
This new job better work out because in all honestly I cannot live on vegetable patties for the rest of my life, I think to myself before picking up my phone to order myself a pizza.
Chapter 13
Nathaniel
“Nate my man, thank you for coming in”, Arthur said in a voice that sounded more annoyed than usual.
“Hey Art,” I say hoping that whatever he had planned to tell me was of not much importance.
“Halifax is not happy,” he says without any change in his tone.
I look at Arthur as if he had completely lost his mind.
“What are you talking about Arthur? I just had Stephen Halifax drown my entire liquor cabinet and you’re telling me that he is not happy?” I nearly scream at him.
