by B. B. Hamel
“My little situation,” I correct, but I hesitate. I’m being a bitch needlessly and I know it. “I guess I can take lunch.”
“Come on, princess.” He stands up, that huge cocky grin back on his lips. “Come with me. I have something for you.”
I sigh and stand. I go to take his hand and he squeezes it before he drops it. I’m a little embarrassed as we walk back through the office, heading out toward the parking lot. I don’t know why my first instinct was to hold his hand, since he couldn’t exactly cling on to me like that as we walked through the office. That would be career suicide. A double career suicide between lovers, or whatever the heck we are. The best kind of career suicide, at least. We could be the Romeo and Juliet of the business world.
I take a breath to get rid of these stupid thoughts as we leave our office and head out into the sunshine. I hurry to match his stride and he glances at me. “My car,” he says.
“We have to drive somewhere?” I ask, a little annoyed. “I do want to have lunch at some point.”
“I’ll get you lunch, and this will be worth it. I promise.”
“Fine.” I don’t know why I’m going along with this, but frankly it’s better than sitting back in that office and hating myself. I needed to get out of there before I went a little insane.
We get into Aaron’s car, a black Audi sedan, and we head out. I don’t know where we’re going, and I realize that I don’t really care. As long as I’m not stuck back in that cubicle, I’m actually pretty happy.
“I met with someone yesterday,” Aaron says without looking away from the road. “A man I know named Steve Schneider.”
I shrug a little, watching the road signs tick past. “That’s good,” I say.
“Steve’s not exactly a good friend,” he continues, despite my lackluster reply. “He’s an impatient man with a deep, deep wallet.”
That catches my attention. “You met with an investor?”
He nods. “Had to call in some favors to get the meeting, but he seemed pretty receptive to my idea.”
“Wait a second,” I say, fully paying attention now. “You met with an investor on your own time, outside of work for Sunrise?”
He flashes me that grin of his. “That’s right.” He slows the car down and pulls into a small business park tucked away from the main road, less than ten minutes away from Sunrise’s office. He parks toward the front and gets out.
I follow him, buzzing with excitement and confusion. “Why are we here?” I ask him, hurrying to catch up.
“I want to show you something,” he says.
“I know, you keep telling me. But what’s really going on?”
He goes directly in through the front and I have to hurry to follow. He doesn’t hold the door, which is very rude, but whatever. I catch up inside as he turns right down a short corridor, passing office doors. We stop at the door at the very end, the company name missing from the plaque on the right. He glances at me, that maddening smirk back on his lips, as he opens the door and steps inside.
“It’s an empty office,” I point out as the door clicks shut behind us.
“Yep, it is.”
The space isn’t huge. There are two corner offices and enough room for maybe twenty or thirty cubes, plus a decent-sized conference room. There’s a break room toward the back, a supply closet, and two bathrooms, but not much else.
“It’s fully wired,” Aaron says, gesturing around, “and ready to go, assuming we can get furniture and shit at a reasonable price.”
“What?” I ask him, laughing a little bit. “Have you gone totally insane?”
“Come here,” he says, grabbing my hand and tugging me along behind him. “Look at this.” He steps in front of the biggest of the two corner offices, pushing open the door. It’s empty, like everything else, but it’s pretty big and has a nice window at the back. It’s way better than what I have now, that’s for sure.
“This can be yours,” he says. “It’s the bigger of the two. You’re welcome. I’ll be right down there.” He points at the other office. “Engineers will be in the middle, plus receptionists, and a little sales team off to the side, although we’ll want them on the road mostly for the first year.”
“Slow down,” I say, laughing and holding up my hands. “Are you starting a business?”
“I’m starting your business.” He turns to me, hands on my shoulders. “Sunrise is going to give you back control over your designs, basically no strings attached. They’re calling it a peace offering, and I’m calling it an opportunity.”
I blink at him, not sure what the hell to say. “How? Why?”
“I convinced Mitchell it would be easier, and I think he’s pretty desperate to avoid any problems right now.” He grins at me and I don’t know what to say. “The board’s pushing him to make money. But we’re going to fuck him, and fuck him hard.”
Aaron takes me by the hand again and pulls me away from the office. We walk right into the middle of the space and he stands behind me, taking me by the shoulders and slowly rotating me in circles.
“Imagine it, Riley. You’ll take control of the tech and the designs, and I’ll run the business and sales ends. Together, we can make something important.”
I look at the space. I mean, I really look at it. I’m so freaked out and overwhelmed and this is for sure the most insane thing anyone has ever said or done or offered, but I look at the space and I can see it. I can see it all. I can see my team, a bunch of nerdy engineers that really give a crap about solar technology. I can see Aaron lecturing the salesmen and the social media team, getting them fired up, pushing them to succeed. I can see the two of us together late at night in the conference room, working on some final project that’s tripping things up, and coming up with a solution.
I can see myself on my knees in Aaron’s office, his cock in my mouth. I can see Aaron’s mouth between my legs, my thighs pressing against his ears, my back on my desk as I moan his name over and over again.
I can see it all. And it’s fucking glorious.
“How?” I ask him.
“The investor. He’ll give us the money to get started. This space is available, and I know some guys that can furnish the place on the cheap. We’ll recruit some engineers, hopefully poach some guys from Sunrise, and we’ll get started.”
I watch him without saying a word for a minute. I want to scream with joy and kiss him, but something stops me.
“How?” I ask again. “How will we actually build these things? Do you know people in manufacturing, anything like that?”
“I do know some,” he says, nodding. “But so does Steve. He’s going to be pretty hands-on, especially in the beginning. That’s just the kind of guy he is. But we need that, especially as we start to grow.”
“How?” I whisper one more time as he steps closer, arms pulling me against him.
“All we have to do is try,” he says softly. “I’m making this happen for you, Riley. I fucked up before, but I won’t fuck up again. Let me build this for you. Let me give it to you.”
“What do you want in return?” I ask softly.
“Only what you already want to give to me.”
I blink and stare at him. I know what he means. I’ve known all along.
I reach up, up onto my tiptoes, and I kiss him. He pulls me tight, returning the kiss, but it doesn’t last long. I break away, staring up at him, realization washing over me.
Aaron is going places. He’s too big for this world, this tiny little world, but he’s going to make it bigger. He’ll tear it apart and rebuild it all if he has to, but I know he’s going to do it. Maybe I can design panels, do some complicated and important engineering, but I need people like Aaron to make my ideas real. Without him, Sunrise would own my designs, and they’d never see the light of day.
It’s not just business with him. It can’t be. I’m pregnant with his baby, which is an absolute truth that I’ve been running from since the start. I’m pregnant and he wants to raise it as h
is own, while all I want to do is curl up in a ball and cry.
There’s my problem, right there. That’s the difference between the two of us. Aaron wants to act, and I want to hide away.
I can’t hide. I can’t run. No more.
“I have to take this place by the balls,” I say softly.
He blinks at me. “Uh, what?”
I grin and realize we’re very, very close, and he might just think I’m about to grab at his junk. “Not you,” I say, stepping away. “Sunrise. The sexiest assholes on our sales trip. All this.” I gesture around me. “I have to stop running away.”
“Meet with Steve,” he says.
“Okay.” I nod at him once. “I’ll do it.”
“I knew you would.” He grins, pulls me against him again, and kisses me deep.
24
Aaron
Steve looks up at me, one eyebrow raised, his glasses perched on his nose. I can tell from his expression that he has no fucking clue what he’s looking at.
“Explain,” he says simply.
I just turn to Riley. “You got this?”
She nods, taking a breath and giving Steve her best, most confident smile. She launches into her pitch, although she sticks to the technical abilities of her design instead of trying to sell it to him. I can tell she’s getting through from the look on his face as he glances between the drawings and her explanation.
It’s early Saturday morning, the first appointment I could get. Apparently Steve works every single day, only taking off Sunday afternoons to go home and see his family. He sounds like a really shit dad, but who am I to judge? I’m not a father, not yet at least.
I glance at Riley again. She’s so fucking sexy and confident when she does this. I wonder when she’ll show, and I feel strangely excited about the prospect. I never knew I was into pregnant chicks, or maybe it’s just one chick pregnant with my baby that I’m into. I’ll make sure I’m extra nice to Riley in bed when she gets into her third trimester, taking my time, making sure she gets what she wants.
Assuming we can even get that far.
Riley finishes her explanation and Steve mumbles to himself, nodding and looking over the diagrams again. They’re simplified, missing a few key details, but they’re enough to give him the gist of what Riley’s getting after. I watch him run his fingers over the blue paper, smoothing out a crease as he reaches for his mug of coffee.
“This is interesting,” he says finally. “Are you sure about these numbers, though?”
“I’m sure,” Riley says with a hint of pride. I want to caution her but Steve doesn’t seem to notice.
“You’re suggesting something like a thirty percent efficiency boost in the panels alone, plus more than doubling their storage capabilities. This is absolutely huge, you do realize that?”
“I know,” Riley says, smiling proudly. “It’s what I’ve been telling people.”
“But is it real?” He looks at her over his glasses, face tense. “Do you have a working prototype?”
Riley falters a bit. “Not yet,” she admits.
“This is all theory.” Steve looks at me. “You want me to invest in theory.”
“It’s more than theory,” I say. “Sunrise is taking some of these ideas right now and getting really great results.”
“Why aren’t they taking it all then?”
“They don’t want to retool their factories in order to accommodate these unusual design characteristics.”
Steve hesitates. “They’re going fucking broke, huh?”
I shrug. “Pretty much. The board wants a cash flow and they want it now, so Mitchell decided to go with an incremental upgrade over a huge leap.”
“Huh,” Steve grunts. Riley looks at me, clearly stressing about this, but I’m not worried. Not even a little bit. I know Steve’s going to bite, it’s just a matter of when and how fucking much.
He looks back up at me finally and narrows his eyes. “What else can you bring to the table?”
“I thought you just needed to see the tech,” Riley says.
I lean toward Steve, not looking at Riley. She doesn’t know how this works, so she thinks that’s a bad question. But I know he just needs a little nudge, and I can give it to him.
“More engineers,” I say. “I’m guessing I can bring at least six guys from Sunrise with me, maybe more, if Riley here can go on a charm offensive.”
Steve glances at her. “Six then.”
I laugh at that and Riley looks indignant. “I can be charming,” she says.
Steve grins at her. “Of course you can, but I’m not banking on it.” He looks back at me and crosses his arms. “You have a workforce skeleton crew, you have office space, and you even say you have a furniture hookup. What the fuck do you need with me then?”
“Money,” I say. “You know that.”
“I don’t just do money,” he answers. “You know that.”
“Thirty percent.”
Riley gapes at me. I shift in the uncomfortable pod of a seat Steve calls a fucking chair and I watch him closely. His whole office is a mid-century modern shrine to the good old days, but it’s all just uncomfortable matchstick garbage as far as I’m concerned.
Steve purses his lips for a second. “Thirty percent, huh,” he says.
“Wait just a second,” Riley cuts in. “We didn’t discuss this.”
Steve raises an eyebrow at me. “You didn’t discuss this with your partner?”
I wince a little bit. “Things are moving fast,” I admit.
“Thirty percent is a lot,” Riley says.
“You don’t think I’m worth it?” Steve responds quickly.
“I’m sure you are,” she says, turning to him. “Aaron tells me you’ll be very hands-on, and I bet that’ll be helpful. And excuse me if this is rude, but I don’t know you from anyone else and I don’t want to give you thirty percent of my company.”
Steve listens to that with a straight face and I want to die inside. It’s typical Riley, shoot first and ask questions later.
“You don’t have a company,” Steve finally points out. “Without me, you have absolutely dick all.” He stares at her for another second. “Now I want thirty-five percent plus a fancy title.”
“What the shit,” Riley says.
“And I’m offering eight million, half up front, half in four months if things looks promising.” Steve nods at her, relaxing into his seat. “We have a deal?”
Riley stares at him wordlessly for a minute. I think she’s trying to say something, express some thought, but she’s having trouble.
“I think you broke her,” I say softly. “But I’m pretty sure she’s trying to say yes.”
“Yes,” she grunts out. “Eight million? Holy shit, yes.”
Steve laughs and claps his hands. “Fuck, yes. Great. Now, what are you calling this shit heap?”
I look at Riley and shrug. “I have some ideas, but I think you should do the honors.”
“It’s called Solarhenge.”
My fingers scrape against the scratchy cloth over the arms of my chair as my body tenses. Steve makes a grunting noise and sips his coffee.
“A little weird, but I like it,” he says. “Solarhenge. I can already see the logo. Half of Stonehenge, but instead of stones, we’ll use solar panels.”
“Exactly,” Riley says, her eyes locked on mine.
“Sounds good,” I manage to say, although on the inside I’m a mess of emotions, not sure which one is more important than the next.
I know why she chose that name. It’s not subtle, not fucking subtle at all, at least not to me. I want to grab her right here and kiss her, tell her how I feel about her, make her understand that it isn’t just this baby or this business. She’s carrying my miracle inside of her, I know that, but that’s not the important thing.
The important thing is her. She’s what I’ve wanted from the start, from the very first moment I saw her again after all those years. I knew she was special, even back when sh
e was just a dorky little girl. I knew she was smart and pretty and that she belonged above everything else, and that became so clear when I finally met her again, like it was meant to be. I don’t believe in fate, but fuck, maybe I do. Maybe I do believe in fate.
“I’ll have my assistant draw up the papers,” Steve is saying, although I can barely listen. “You’ll have them by this afternoon. Sign them and I’ll send over the first cash installment. It’ll be enough to rent that space and start buying furniture. And you guys better get those engineers.”
“We will,” Riley says. “Aaron will make sure of it,”
I nod along, finally coming back to myself. “Definitely,” I say.
“Good.” Steve grins and raises his mug. “To making a lot of money.”
“And to changing the world,” Riley says softly.
Steve laughs and drinks his coffee. I can’t tear my eyes from Riley, and I know she’s thinking the same thing. We’re really doing this, we’re really building a company together.
And maybe, just maybe, I think we could build something else together as well, something just as important, if not more so.
25
Riley
For some reason, my cubicle doesn’t feel like a prison anymore.
Probably because I know I have a corner office waiting for me not ten minutes away. Aaron did some amazing work over this last week getting the place in order, and it actually looks like a real business.
I have to keep reminding myself that it is a real business. Even if I have to keep pretending like I work at this place.
I finger the card in my pocket. I risk taking it out for the hundredth time today. Riley Hollins, Chief Technology Officer. The Solarhenge logo just below it. It’s a really nice card, an absolutely beautiful card. Aaron had them made almost immediately, right after hiring a graphic designer to put together our company’s look.
I hear footsteps on the carpet behind me and I glance over my shoulder. It’s Taylor, one of the engineers. He gives me a little nod and a wink, and I smile back at him as he continues on his way. He doesn’t need to say anything to me, not really.
