by Nicole Casey
And some of those strangers are ignoring her even. God, is this the life I have to look forward to?
I seemed to be headed in that direction.
“Are you sure?” Sue asked suspiciously. “I don’t remember you getting me a garbage can. Are you sure?”
“Yes ma’am. Let me show you.”
Reluctantly, she allowed me to lead her toward the front of the store and I pointed at the register where I’d left her can. Her eyes narrowed.
“I don’t like that one,” she told me decisively. “I want another one.”
I heard a chuckle behind me but I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Belle.
“Of course,” I told her. “Let’s find you one you prefer.”
We made our way back to the aisle and I glanced covertly at my watch. Something told me that I was not going to have a chance to go home between shifts. I’d have to go right from the store to the bar that night.
Nothing new there, I thought grimly. Just another day in the life of the bottom 99%.
* * *
It was almost three a.m. when I stumbled into my three storey walk-up downtown. My legs felt like rubber and when I finally unlocked both deadbolts and fell inside the apartment, I collapsed onto the worn futon I used as a couch in a heap.
The night had been unusually busy and Belle had stopped by as promised but she had caused me more grief than companionship, thanks to the pre-drinks she’d had at karaoke.
In between me running out drink orders and tending bar, I was forced to listen to Belle gripe about everything from her parents to our work. She even managed to throw some shade on her current boyfriend and by last call, I was sure that my exhaustion was more emotional than it was physical.
I didn’t have a lot in common with Belle after all. She still lived at home, worked at the store for extra cash but her parents paid for everything. She had a boyfriend. She had everything I could probably have ever wanted in the world and yet she still complained. It made my head hurt.
Note to self: next time Belle offers to come by, make up an excuse to keep her away.
I closed my eyes without effort, the lids magnetized to one another in my fatigue. Blissfully, I didn’t work until noon the following day so at least I’d be permitted some sleep to recoup some of my energy.
But instead of the warm cloak of slumber encasing me, the man from Vegas popped into my mind with blinding clarity.
From behind my closed lids, I could make out every feature of his devastatingly handsome face, the glimmer of his sea-colored eyes, the upturn of his nose. There was something hauntingly familiar about that fine jaw and broad forehead but nothing I could glean in my exhausted state.
He’s probably a movie star or musician, I realized and humiliation crept through me at the realization that I was having some childish fantasy that I had mixed into reality. But even with the embarrassment, I couldn’t deny the surge of heat which pulsated through me and I shifted slightly, my eyes still closed but so I lay on my back. I hadn’t even bothered to kick off my shoes but that seemed decidedly less important than addressing the warmth between my legs.
Flashes danced through my mind. The taste of champagne on moist lips intertwined with the scent of musky aftershave flooded me and my fingers rubbed on the outside of my panties. A tooth found my lower lip, my forearm tensing as more memories sifted through the holes of that trip.
Me on my knees inside a gorgeous hotel suite, surrounded by marble and modern furniture. His hands entwined in my hair, rocking me slowly against him as I took him fully into the back of my throat. He was bigger than any man I’d ever been with and I was thinking about how he’d feel inside me.
The thought drenched me both in the reality of my apartment and the fantasy of that hotel suite I must have concocted in my mind.
I moaned softly, feeling the slickness of my center. Two digits moved evenly against my opening and I begged myself to recall more about him but I was too caught up in my current pleasure to search for details too deeply.
Harder my fingertips worked, slipping and sliding over my throbbing nub and when I plunged myself inside myself, I was ready to release.
With a shuddering sigh, I spilled over my own hand but even as I lay quivering in the aftermath of my orgasm, I did not open my eyes. How could I? I could still see his gorgeous face staring back at me. Reality or not, it was the one good thing I’d experienced all day and I wasn’t letting it go for anything.
3
Julian
To say I was bored was perhaps the biggest understatement to ever leave my lips. For over a week, Eloise’s words about the rumors circulating about me had been weighing on my mind and I began to investigate the truth behind them.
As it turned out, my evil step-sister had been telling the truth about them. Nothing had gotten out of hand so far but there was enough floating around on the world wide web to cause me some concern and I called a meeting with Jessica Lynch and Harvey Mathis from PR and Marketing.
“Oh yeah,” Jessica commented lightly on the phone. “I heard about that too.”
“You heard about that and didn’t think you should mention it to me?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief.
“Julian, darling, do you have any idea how many unfounded rumors float around about you and your family day-to-day? If I came to you with every single thing that crossed my ears, you’d never be able to conduct business.”
I wonder what she’s heard about Eloise. I’ll have to pick her brain one day and find out.
“Jessica, this is something that could cost us tenants,” I told her grimly. “And it needs to be nipped in the bud.”
“All right,” she replied agreeably and I wondered if she hadn’t already decided to come to me before I beat her to the punch. “What would you like to do?”
“That’s your damned job!” I growled, pounding a fist against the desk in frustration. Sometimes I felt like I was the only one who earned their check at the end of the day.
“Let’s have a sit-down,” she said in her maternal, soothing tone. “It’s not that bad.”
“Not yet,” I retorted. “Let’s make sure it doesn’t get any worse.”
But as I sat staring at the new marketing strategy Harvey had laid out, focusing on families and therefore subliminally indicating that I was of traditional values, I wanted to go to sleep.
Still, I knew that both of the people sitting before me were highly capable and knew how to perform damage control.
“It wouldn’t hurt if you found yourself a steady girlfriend,” Jessica offered, perhaps sensing me zoning out of the meeting. The words shocked me back into the present.
“Do people even say ‘steady’ anymore?” I jibed back although I felt a hot flush of embarrassment creep up my neck.
What is wrong with you? I demanded of myself. Since when does the mention of a girlfriend make you blush?
Over the years there had been models and actresses, bankers, lawyers and debutantes. I had never had a shortage of female admirers or accessible dates but suddenly, the task seemed a huge burden for some reason I couldn’t fathom.
Fleetingly, a shot of silken black hair crossed my vision before it was gone again.
Am I holding out for a mystery girl?
The idea seemed laughable. There was still no concrete proof that she had existed and even though I had been very tempted to call the hotel and ask for footage of that night, if only to put my mind to rest, I did not.
If she did exist, whatever fun we had stayed in Vegas just like everyone else. Anyway, you were so high on E, you have no idea if you picked up a troll from under a bridge. It’s probably best to leave well enough alone.
Still, I couldn’t deny that my curiosity was piqued over the matter.
“Why are you deflecting?” Jessica asked pointedly, drawing me back to the matter at hand. “You’ve never struck me as the type to have a problem finding a girlfriend, Julian. Unless…”
She trailed off and for the first
time in my life, I saw her look uncomfortable.
“Are you gay?”
I grunted in exasperation. If one more person asked me that question, I was going to lose my mind. I still couldn’t reconcile how such a rumor had started.
“I assure you, if I was, I would not hide it from my shareholders or tenants. But I am not. In fact, I have a date this weekend. With a woman, in case you were wondering.”
I didn’t but I could quickly see things were about to implode among my own people. One of the worst things about being the boss was having to give the peasants what they wanted or public opinion was going to turn and once that happened, there would be a very slim hope of recovery. I had to keep everyone united and confident that the rumors were unfounded—starting with my team.
Jessica’s face relaxed in relief.
“You know if you were, Julian, we would—”
“I’m not!”
I heard the defensiveness in my voice and I wondered what it would sound like to her.
This is absurd. All over a stupid rumor. I’m annoyed that this is annoying me. It’s like someone telling you you’re an apple and you’re trying to explain to them you’re human but their minds are made up.
“All right. Let’s hope the girl this weekend is ‘the one’, “Jessica chuckled and turned back to Harvey. “Let’s focus on the campaign, all right?”
They continued to drone on around me and I sat back in my chair, my shoulders sinking. I hadn’t even realized I’d had my back up. The boredom ensued from there, the campaign making me bleary eyed. I tried to move my thoughts elsewhere.
I had to find a date for the weekend.
Instantly, I considered going back to Vegas and I was again filled with shame. What the hell was wrong with me? I couldn’t get this ghost of a woman out of my mind. For all I knew, I was stuck on a hallucination.
My cell rang and of course it was Eloise.
“I’m in a meeting,” I told her. “I’ll call you later.”
“No you won’t,” she replied sweetly and I was almost impressed with how well she knew me. “Why don’t we just talk while I have you on the line.”
“What do you want, Ellie?” I knew my nickname for her gave her anxiety but for once, she didn’t take the bait.
“Mom told me to ask you over for dinner tonight.”
I ground my teeth together. The only thing I could think of that was worse than seeing Eloise was seeing Eloise and Madeline in one spot.
“I’m sorry, I—”
“We already called your secretary and we know you have nothing scheduled tonight,” my step-sister told me crisply. “Seven o’clock. Bring a Chianti.”
She disconnected the call before I could respond and I stared at the phone hatefully. It had been months since I’d been forced through a dinner at the Sinclair’s house.
It really is the Sinclair house now, isn’t it?
I hadn’t given it much thought but Madeline had insisted on keeping her ex-husband’s last name when she married my father. Now with him gone, the house no longer belonged to the Bryants. I got the company and Moochy Maddy got everything else. I wondered if she had wiped all trace of my father from the mansion in Miami Beach. It was reason enough to attend that night, I figured. See if there were any old pictures of my dad still kicking around or had the two witches had a massive bonfire and sacrificed a goat?
Madeline was just like her daughter—insistent, petulant and would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. If I refused dinner that night, she would just hound me until I came. But if I went, it would buy me a few more months of peace thereafter. Anyway, there was probably an ulterior motive to the invite and finding out what those were was always fun.
“Girlfriend?” Jessica teased and I smiled tightly, dropping the phone on the table before me.
“Eloise.”
“Ah.”
Jessica immediately turned back to Harvey and it gave me a feeling of comfort to know I wasn’t the only one who despised my step-sister.
Eloise just had that effect on people.
* * *
I don’t know why I took the Porche to the mansion. It was the fastest car I owned and the ride seemed to take three minutes. I should have walked.
Yet at five to seven, I was setting off the intercom sensor and waiting for the butler to respond to my arrival. I hadn’t bothered with the wine. If they had cleaned out my dad’s prized wine cellar already, they didn’t deserve another bottle.
I have to announce myself at my father’s house. What a fucking joke.
“Please come in, Mr. Bryant,” Jeffery intoned without preamble. He recognized me through the camera. The butler had been with my family since my mom was alive and I had always liked him. I had invited the old man to come and work on my island after my dad died but he refused. I had no idea if he did it out of some old world British loyalty thing or because he genuinely liked working for Madeline although I found that impossible to believe. She was insufferable.
I pulled the burgundy car up the half-mile entrance, the sun splaying its rays over the delicately landscaped lawns on either side and to the south of the property, I could see the sparkle of the water beyond the plantation style-house.
There were three cars already in the drive and I felt my back tense slightly. They hadn’t mentioned company.
Not that I expected anything but the unexpected from the Sinclairs.
They are full of surprises…among other things.
Jeffery appeared at the door even before I exited my car and he hurried toward me. For a shocking second, I thought he looked terrified, his green eyes encircled in dark shadows and lines etched into his weathered face which hadn’t been there before. As I was going to ask if he was all right, his eyes brightened and there was suddenly no trace of the scared man I’d seen before.
“Welcome, Mr. Bryant.”
“You know, Jeffery, you used to change my diapers,” I commented dryly. “I’m still good if you call me Julian.”
It was a conversation we’d had at least one hundred thousand times in the past but the man was far too cultured to do any such thing. The elderly man opened his mouth to respond but his words were swallowed by another.
“Jeffery knows his place, Julian,” a cold voice said before emerging from the dark shadows of foyer. “He would never cross the line, would you, Jeffery.”
“If only we could all claim the same, Maddy,” I replied tightly. “How are you?”
I stared at her with mild disgust, wondering if she ever truly looked at herself in the mirror before showing her face to the world. She was the poster child for cosmetic surgery gone wrong. A set of duck lips emanated from a chin much too small to sustain her and her fair cheeks were rouged bright pink, presumably to hide the scars of the numerous lifts she’d undergone over the years.
She flowed toward me in a dressing gown that some starlet from the fifties would wear but I casually stepped out of her impending embrace. The idea of touching her repelled me in ways I couldn’t explain. Ever since I was a child, being near Maddy and her overpowering perfume made me gag.
It’s funny what you pick up as a child, like your sixth sense has been unblemished by bias and manipulation. You just know when someone isn’t right.
Maddy was that someone to me.
My dad thought it was because I was worried she was trying to replace my mom but there was no competition there. They were two very different people.
It wasn’t just that Maddy was physically unappealing. It was the blackness of her heart which struck me the most.
“Oh,” Madeline sighed in answer to my question. “I’ve been much better but you would know that if you came around more often. You don’t even answer your emails, Julian. It’s like you don’t care.”
I had prepared myself for her pseudo guilt-trip. After twenty years, it was the same thing every time he was forced to see her.
“Well you know, Maddy, the company isn’t going to run itself. Or do you know that?”
/>
I stared at her inquisitively. Maybe she really thought the company ran itself like a machine. Who knew if anything at all was happening behind those sooty eyes, so akin to her daughter’s.
Her eyes narrowed and her mouth puckered into a pout which was truly a hideous expression given the duck lips. I had to look away.
“Of course you’re busy,” she spat back. “We all are.”
I bit back the pressing question of what it was exactly that she did. As far as I knew, she invested in plastic surgery and personal trainers. Hell, even her wretched daughter ran charity events on behalf of Bryant Land Holdings but I suspected that Eloise did that solely so she could keep a pinky toe in the door of the company.
“Your sister and friends wait for you in the parlor.”
The parlor. She really does want people to believe that she’s from another century.
“Sounds swell,” I couldn’t resist saying. I followed her inside, Jeffery on my heels and I turned back to cast him another look. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was trying to communicate something to me but what it was, I couldn’t decipher.
Inside the main floor living room, Eloise stood by the bar, caught up in some long-winded story and two others stood nearby, hanging on her every word. When her eyes fell on him, she abruptly stopped talking and grinned warmly, her sooty eyes glowing in a way which made me uncomfortable.
“Ah, here’s the man of the hour,” she cooed. “Come in, Julian.”
“Gee, thanks,” I offered sarcastically, trying to swallow my annoyance at being invited into my own father’s house. “I’ll see if I can find my way around.”
Eloise skillfully sidestepped my caustic comment and turned to her friends.
“Genevieve Brulle, this is my brother, Julian Bryant. Julian, Genevieve.”
I should have known.
Of course.
I had been so consumed with everything going on, I had forgotten about Genevieve. I don’t know why I didn’t clue in sooner. There was ulterior motive number one.
It was going to be a short dinner.
