“So, you convinced them to give you your own private night at the Fair for your son...” It started to make sense.
“Yes, he’s been seeing the commercials on television and he didn’t understand why it would be so bad with hordes of people around. I didn’t want it to be a terrible experience for him, so I made it happen.” He squeezed my hand and pointed at a woman who was holding a little boy’s hand. “That’s him.”
“Who is with him? Are you about to tell me you’re married too?” I cut my eyes towards him.
“No.” He laughed and the older woman waved as well, talking to the boy. “That is his teacher slash nanny slash everything, Ms. Ruth.”
Benjamin was smiling ear to ear when we started walking towards him. He looked like the spitting image of his father and was so cute I wanted to just squeeze his cheeks. Everything started to fall into place in my mind. The existence of Benjamin answered questions I didn’t even know to ask and finally made me realize why Max was the way he was. He had talked about his ex-wife once and how terrible the marriage had been. It was hard to imagine it being that terrible when such a beautiful boy came out of their union. When I got close, Benjamin extended his hand.
“I’m Benjamin Martin. You must be Daddy’s special friend.” He was extremely well-spoken for a child his age. I reached down and took his hand.
“Hi, Benjamin. My name is Abby Grant. Your father is very special to me too.” I squatted down in front of him. “So, this is your first trip to the fair, right? What do you want to do first?”
“Funnel Cake!” His eyes lit up.
“Really?” Ms. Ruth grumbled. “Hi, my name is Ruth Ayers. They both just call me Ms. Ruth.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.” I stood and shook her hand. “I have to agree with Benjamin though; I want Funnel Cake too.”
“Let’s go!” Benjamin pulled on Ms. Ruth’s hand and pointed at the Funnel Cake sign.
Benjamin was so excited. He reminded me of a simpler time when all I had to worry about was what was directly in front of me. I really couldn’t tell he was autistic based on our interaction. He seemed a little apprehensive when we approached the people at the stands or the ones operating the equipment, but his excitement definitely seemed to overwhelm whatever hesitations he had. By the time we had went on a few rides and eaten what felt like our weight in Fair food, Benjamin had let go of Ms. Ruth’s hand and taken mine. I looked at Max, who smiled and shrugged his shoulders. I let Benjamin lead me to each ride, explaining everything he knew about it before we climbed inside. There was no way we could do everything, but we kept going until Benjamin was exhausted and Max had to carry him.
“I’ll get a separate car tonight.” Ms. Ruth dug in her purse. “I’ll be by early tomorrow morning so you can get to work.”
“Thank you, Ms. Ruth.” Max leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
“Take care of them.” Ms. Ruth squeezed my hand. “They’re wonderful.”
“I know.” I smiled and watched her walk away.
“Ready to see where I live?” Max motioned for the driver.
“If it’s smaller than my place, I’ll be very disappointed.” I grinned at him as we walked towards the car.
Chapter 18: Max
Abby and I in the backseat of the car with Benjamin asleep between us felt right. I reached over and took her hand, squeezing it tight and she smiled at me. I had never introduced Benjamin to anyone I was seeing since the majority of the relationships never lasted longer than one night. Abby was an exception and although we had only been together a short time, she was the perfect exception to every rule I set that led me down the path of being known as Mr. Mistake. Perhaps I was always looking for someone like her—maybe it was why I looked for good girls instead of satisfying my lust with sluts that wouldn’t even care what my name was the next day.
“Let me give you the grand tour.” I walked out of Benjamin’s bedroom and pulled the door closed once he was asleep.
“I think you know what I want a tour of.” Abby walked towards down the hall and wrapped her arms around me.
The timid, apprehensive virgin had developed a fairly voracious appetite for sex in our brief time together. I kissed her lips, pushing my tongue between them as I squeezed her in my arms. I opened the door to my bedroom and pushed her inside of it, closing the door behind me. The house was big enough that sound wouldn’t travel, but I locked the door just to be on the safe side in case Benjamin happened to get up. Abby was going to be the first woman to ever sleep in my bed with me. I sent the mattress I shared with my ex-wife to an incinerator once we were divorced. I pulled Abby’s dress over her head and started removing her bra as she unbuttoned my shirt.
“No wonder you don’t want to stay with me.” She teased as she looked over at the bed. “I wouldn’t want to sleep on my hard mattress either if I had that waiting for me.”
“There’s also no cat hair.” I kissed her neck with a slight laugh.
“Leave Sebastian out of this.” I pulled out of his embrace and crawled on the bed with my ass facing him. “So now that you have me in your bed, what are you going to do with me?”
“Well to start with.” I slapped her ass as she wiggled it at me. “I’m going to take your panties off.”
I pushed her panties down and I saw a wet spot in the middle of the crotch. She moved her legs to let me fully remove them and I finished undressing her. She clearly wanted me to take her from behind since she didn’t move from her knees. She looked back at me with a hungry grin on her face as I knelt behind her on the bed and pressed my cock to her wet pussy. It took me a moment to realize that I was pressing my cock against her pussy without a condom. I hadn’t been with a woman without one since I was married. The raw, wet feeling of her pussy started to make me throb with desire, but I had to resist the urge. I pulled away and she looked back at me with curiosity in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” She blinked a couple of times.
“I need to go to the car. I need a condom.” I growled angrily as I reached for my pants.
“You don’t have to leave.” She shook her head and wiggled her ass at me again. “You can cum inside me.”
“Fuck it...” I dropped my pants and crawled behind her again.
I knew she was clean because I was the only person she had ever fucked. I got tested regularly and had never had an issue. I started pushing my cock into her pussy and was amazed and how good she felt without the condom. Her pussy was so tight that it stretched the tight skin on my cock when it went inside. I never felt that with a condom. The idea of unloading my cum inside of her made me extremely hard and the feeling of her pussy on my unprotected dick enhanced the experience so much I wasn’t going to be able to last very long. I buried my cock to the hilt and wrapped my hands around her hips, moving my cock back and forth inside of her.
“That feels really good.” She let out a moan. “It feels so much better without the condom. I can feel every vein in your cock rubbing inside of me.”
“I guess we’re officially moving past the condom stage of our relationship then?” As I felt her tightness grip my cock, I knew I wanted that feeling every time I was inside of her.
“Yeah...” She groaned and started to pant. “Oh God, yes.”
I had to adjust my thrusts to keep from exploding inside of her after a half dozen hard ones. I settled into a slow rhythm, building up my cock’s resistance to the pleasure she was bringing me. After I got the throbbing to settle down some, I was able to pick up the pace and start fucking her the way I normally did—but damn if it wasn’t amazing to feel it on my exposed cock. I drove myself deep inside of her, stretching and stimulating her g-spot. I felt every spasm of her pussy, every slight reaction to the pressure. I could feel the orgasm building inside of her and I couldn’t wait to feel it released on my cock. My balls were already started to twitch and the sheer bliss of the moment was making me shake with anticipation of the release. I reached up and grabbed her hair, pulling her
head back and used it as leverage as I kept fucking her.
“I’m gonna cum...” She barely got the words out before I felt her pussy spasm.
When I felt her pussy squeeze against me, my cock started to throb and pulsate. Cum rushed through my shaft and exploded into her. When my semen mixed with her orgasm, it created so much lubrication I started slamming into her even harder as thick ropes of cum erupted into her pussy. The feeling of my cum made her start to orgasm again and the squeezing of her pussy on my cock started to milk every drop out of it. When she was finally done and her body relaxed, I slowly pulled myself free and lay back on the bed. She crawled over and I took her in my arms, pulling her in tight. There was no reason to worry about rushing home or making sure I was there for Benjamin the next morning. I felt calmer than I had felt in years with my beautiful Abby in my arms.
Chapter 19: Abby
It took me a moment to realize where I was when I woke up. I looked at the clock and realized I needed to get home soon so I could get ready for work. Max was still sleeping and when I pulled away from his embrace, I felt the chill from the room. We had collapsed on top of the bed and hadn’t even bothered with covers. We stayed warm when we were huddled together, but his air conditioning definitely worked better than mine because my nipples were hard as a rock when I started getting dressed. I got my underwear on and started tugging my dress over my head, stumbling around for a moment. I heard the bed squeak and by the time I got it past my eyes, he was sitting up.
“Do I get a show every morning?” He grinned.
“I think that Funnel Cake added five pounds overnight.” I smoothed out the wrinkles in the dress with my hand.
“You know that when you spend the night with someone, you’re supposed to give them morning sex as a thank you for cuddling all night.” He took his cock in his hand and started stroking it.
“Don’t you have a son to take care of?” I stared at his cock.
“Ms. Ruth gets him up if I oversleep.” He reached for me.
“I really can’t. I should go home and get ready for work. Not all of us are able to set our own schedule.” I picked up my purse and reached for my cell phone. My heart sank straight into my stomach when I turned it on. “Uh...something is wrong.”
“What do you mean?” He casually reached for his cell phone on the nightstand and then I saw his eyes bulge out of his head. “Shit!”
I had missed calls from almost every member of my team and several text messages to go along with them. I couldn’t even process the long paragraph Mr. Hawthorne had sent. Energy Enhanced was on the front page of CNN’s website and it wasn’t for a good reason. A child in Ohio had gotten really sick after drinking it. The parents were quoted as saying they thought it was vitamin water. The next paragraph in the article was an FDA report along with a report from a private lab that stated the chemicals in the drink destroyed any nutritional values the vitamins offered and it was basically just the equivalent of taking a giant drink of poisoned caffeine.
“Fuck me!” Max slammed his phone down. “How the fuck did they miss this?”
“I had a report...it was from the FDA. Adam said it was nothing.” I started thinking about the studies we had done.
“You knew about this?” Max looked at me in shock.
“No, I mean...” I stammered quickly. “I didn’t read the report. It was a bunch of complicated jargon. When Adam said it was just a formality, I skipped it.”
“Shit...” Max stormed towards the bathroom. “I have to shower and get to the office.”
I STRUGGLED TO HOLD myself together as I walked into the office. I didn’t even bother with a shower. I used the bathroom at the end of the hall to clean myself up, tied my hair in a ponytail with a rubber band, and walked into the office in the same dress I wore to the Fair. My makeup was the best job I could do in the car on the way to the office. I saw my team assembled in the conference room with Mr. Hawthorne and Adam. I pushed the door open and stepped inside, seeing all eyes turn towards me.
“I’m sorry, I came as soon as I looked at my phone.” I looked at the table and sighed. “This is really bad, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Mr. Hawthorne sat down and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t even bother to shave. “This is a nightmare. This is going to bankrupt Energy Enhanced and all of the money we’ve invested—damn it—I don’t know if we’ll survive.”
“I waited until you were here.” Adam stood up. “Because I wanted to tell you instead of having you hear it from someone else. I’m resigning, effective immediately. I can’t have my name associated with this campaign.”
“You’re leaving?” I stared at Adam and opened my mouth in shock. “You are the one who told me we didn’t have anything to worry about with the FDA report.”
“Wait a minute.” Mr. Hawthorne looked up. “You had a report that told you Energy Enhanced was garbage? You didn’t tell me that...”
“I didn’t understand the report.” I shook my head as everyone started to look at me, angry expressions forming on their face.
“You’re the Team Lead.” Mr. Hawthorne stood and I could see his face turning red. “You’re supposed to figure that shit out. If you don’t understand it, ask someone.”
“I asked Adam...” I pointed at him. “Adam, you agreed when I said anything that was in those reports was for Energy Enhanced to worry about.”
“Yes.” Adam nodded solemnly. “I obviously made a mistake. I didn’t read the report and I just assumed it was routine.”
“Both of you—out.” Mr. Hawthorne pointed towards the door. “I don’t want either of you here while we try to clean up this fucking mess.”
“What?” I felt tears welling up in my eyes.
“Yeah, Abby.” Mr. Hawthorne pointed at the door again. “You’re fired.”
My hands shook as I started putting my personal items in a cardboard box. I couldn’t believe my dream was over, ended in an instant because I didn’t read one stupid report. If I had, I would have known Energy Enhanced was dangerous and avoided the inevitable. I felt the weight of the child’s sickness on my chest and my head started to spin. I picked up a picture of Sebastian and cried when I put it in the box. The two of us were going to be homeless and starving if I didn’t find another job quickly. I walked out onto the sidewalk with my box in hand and hailed a taxi. My car was still parked at my house. Once it dropped me off at home, I collapsed on the couch and started sobbing.
Chapter 20: Max
“How bad is this?” I walked into the room with my legal team already surrounding the table.
“You’re the principal investor, so it isn’t good. You don’t technically own the company—that is probably the only good part of this.” The lead attorney for the firm, Carmen King, opened a folder and pushed it towards me. “This is the FDA report. It was recently sent to Energy Enhanced and West End Marketing.
“Why are they doing an FDA report now? This product has been on the market for years...” I sat down at the table and read it.
“It’s the new advertising campaign.” Carmen replied with a sigh. “Energy Enhanced was previously marketed as an energy drink infused with vitamins, so the testing standards were different. Once they started trying to switch the marketing to a vitamin drink, there were more in-depth tests done.”
“I thought the marketing hadn’t really started yet...” I flipped the FDA report to the second page.
“It hasn’t, but they already changed their logo and the wording on the can to match the new campaign. They’re using the name Vitamins Enhanced now. They were hoping to have it all in place by the time the campaign launched. Some soccer mom in Ohio bought it for her son and he collapsed after drinking—three cans.” She sighed again.
“Three cans?” I felt my blood boiling. “Three fucking cans? Who the fuck does that!?”
“Well nobody would do that with an energy drink—well, if they did they would expect the consequences I suppose. It’s a different story with a vitamin dri
nk, but the damage is done.” She closed the folder. “The family has lawyered up so a lawsuit is coming.”
“Does Energy Enhanced have insurance to cover that?” I looked up from the report.
“Not this kind.” One of the other lawyers spoke. “They have product liability insurance, but there’s a clause in the contract that requires them to pull the product if they get a report like this. Failure to do so voids that policy.”
“So why didn’t they do it? They should have read the report!” My anger started to flare again.
“The company is fucked no matter what and they won’t recover from this, but I’m sure the official answer will be to put the blame on someone. That’s what West End Marketing is doing.” Carmen picked up her cell phone.
“Wait.” I held up my hand. “What do you mean West End Marketing is putting the blame on someone?”
“The team leader.” She scrolled. “Yeah, CNN just updated the article with an official statement from West End Marketing. Someone named Abby Grant. They’re saying she was responsible for reviewing the report and failed to do so.”
“Fuck. I have to go.” I ran towards the door as quickly as I could.
I had been short and rude with Abby that morning when I should have been understanding. Energy Enhanced was a small part of my portfolio and I was going to lose some money, but that would be about it. My name might make it into an article somewhere as an investor, but I had little say in the day to day operations. The account was Abby’s whole life. It was the first time she had been trusted to be a leader and the first time she had landed a major account on her own. I was sure they had fired her or sent her home, so I went there first. I found the door barely closed and Abby on the couch with her cat curled up beside her.
“Let’s go.” I reached out for her hand.
“I don’t want to go anywhere...” She pulled away.
“You can’t stay here.” I knelt beside her. “Your name is in the news. Reporters are going to be showing up soon. We need to get you out of here. Trust me, I’ve been through this sort of thing before. You don’t want to be the hottest story in town.”
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