by Eva Luxe
“Yeah,” she said into the phone as she tried to push my head away. “No, she’s fine. No, I don’t need anything….Oh, that’s okay. She’s got extras—geez, Mom, it’s eleven at night, you don’t have to come over.” She was grasping my hair now, but her voice sounded impressively normal. “No, she has an extra toothbrush. Mom, I’m going to go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow… Love you too. Bye.”
“You idiot!” She was laughing out loud but gasping at my ministrations. “What if she’d figured it out?”
“Couldn’t happen.” I look up at her from between her thighs. “You’re too good an actress.”
“Right. Come here.” She raised me to her face and kissed me long and deep. We had so much fun. I was happy with her—not just sexually satisfied, although that couldn’t be discounted, but happy. Kissing was great—amazing—but I bent and resumed my attention to her pussy.
Maybe this needed to be a more permanent arrangement. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her. Then all introspection came to an abrupt halt as she came softly against my mouth.
Chapter 13 – Chrissy
Are we still on for dinner tonight?
I smiled as I read the text. Are you still cooking for me?
Didn’t I satisfy all your appetites already?
I snorted out a laugh, then was immediately relieved Adam wasn’t here to hear that sound. Some of them, I texted back.
You are insatiable, woman.
I rolled over in bed, where I had gone immediately after getting home from Adam’s this morning. Needless to say, I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. And poor Adam hadn’t slept much in two nights, not just one.
No I’m not! Just hungry!
I’ll feed you, baby. LoL.
I sighed. He was so cute. And my body was still sore and felt pleasantly, ecstatically used.
I knew he’d be too busy to talk much today, especially if he was going to avoid that bitch Bianca. A small amount of Facebook stalking had revealed that she was a lot more gorgeous than I was comfortable with. She had this crazy curly hair and looked like a gypsy or something exotic. I’ve been pretty confident in my looks since I was about fourteen, but looking at her pictures I felt…boring, I guess.
But I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Adam didn’t think I was boring. So even though it stung that she got to see him all day and I didn’t, I knew who Adam was focusing all that hot sexual energy on. Not her, that was for sure.
I was supposed to meet Adam at 6 at his condo, so at 5:30 I headed downstairs. I wore a cute pair of pink Capris and an off-the-shoulder white t-shirt. I wanted to look good, but we were going to be casual at his house, and I also wanted to be comfortable.
“Bye, Mom,” I shouted on my way out the door. “I might be late.”
“Keep me informed!” my mom shouted as I closed the door. My mom was so cute—I was 21 but she still worried about me.
Friday traffic was a bitch, but I got to the condo in pretty good time. I knocked on the door, and Adam met me, dressed in jeans and a tight fitting t-shirt. Damn, he had a fine upper body. He reached inside the door and pulled out a basket.
“I thought we could go on a picnic.”
I stood on my toes to kiss him. Could anything be more romantic? I sighed against his lips. “Sounds amazing.”
We got in his car and just chatted, about our days and our memories, as he drove out of town. I didn’t know where he was taking us, but it didn’t matter. It was so…nice. I was content, and low-key buzzing with anticipation. I hadn’t forgotten a moment of the night before.
He finally drove up an incline and stopped us at an overlook. LA was far in the distance, and in the other direction, desert as far as we could see. It was still light out, but the light had that end-of-the-day quality, and it wasn’t as brutally hot as it often gets in the city. In fact, there was a warm breeze blowing that kept things from being uncomfortable.
Adam spread out a blanket—which looked so new it still had creases in it from the package—and gestured me onto it. I sat down, and he sat next to me, but he didn’t immediately unpack the basket. He reached out and held my hand for a few minutes. I rested my head on his shoulder and we both looked out over the desert together for a little while.
“This is nice,” I said after a few minutes. “But I’m starving. What did you bring us?”
“You’ll love this,” he said, reaching for the basket. “We are extremely fancy this evening.”
He pulled out a bottle of wine and a few plastic wine glasses. “That is fancy!” I laughed at his serious expression. “Did you do all this yourself?”
“Um…” He looked at me sheepishly from under his lashes. “I know I said I’d cook for you—and I will, I swear—but I got done at the worksite a lot later than I’d hoped, so I stopped and got this stuff. Are you mad?”
“Mad?” I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yes, furious. Enraged. Don’t I look it?” I kissed him on the cheek. “So what did you get?”
He pulled out some gourmet sandwiches and fancy chips—much fancier than anything I could afford on a college student’s budget. There was some kind of veggie salad and these layered pink pastries for dessert. There was way too much food here for just two people, though.
“I didn’t know what you liked,” he said apologetically. “I didn’t think you were a vegetarian, but this is LA, so if you are, here’s some of the salad and—” He had to stop talking while I kissed him on the mouth. “What was that for?”
“You got all this extra food just in case I might be a vegetarian? You seriously have to be the best boyfriend in the world.” I gasped and clapped a hand over my mouth. “Not that you’re….I mean…I’m not assuming—”
“Hush.” He kissed me. “It’s okay. It’s more than okay. I want to be your boyfriend, Chrissy. I don’t want to be with anyone else, okay?”
I looked up into those gorgeous eyes. He held my gaze steadily, letting me read whatever I needed to there.
“Really?” I whispered. “I’m not very good at this. I usually get tired of people after a few dates, but I’m not tired of you. I really like being with you.”
“Really.” He laughed softly. “I’m not tired of you, either. So, let’s eat.”
I ignored the tears that came to my eyes. I didn’t know why “I’m not tired of you” shouldn’t make me so emotional, but it did. “I’m not a vegetarian,” I said, grabbing a sandwich that obviously had meat hanging out of it. “But I do like grass-fed and organic food when I can get it. So, you get the sprouts, Gardner.”
“Not me,” he said, pulling out another sandwich. “I held this one back. Chicken bacon ranch, baby. Chicken. Bacon. Ranch.”
“Ooh, that sounds good!” I said. “Get me that next time.”
“No problem.” He pulled half of his chicken bacon ranch sandwich off and put it on my plate, then took half of my sandwich onto his. I was so touched I got weepy again.
We ate in silence, enjoying the view of the desert in the approaching twilight. After he’d downed half his sandwich, Adam asked, “So, if you’re my girlfriend, what about your parents?”
“What about them?”
“Shouldn’t they know about us?”
I hesitated. “For the most part, I keep my private life away from my parents. They like to pretend that I’m still the innocent little girl that I was ten years ago. But I don’t think that’s our biggest problem. Do you?”
“No, I guess not.” He sighed and tossed down his sandwich. “What do you think your dad would do if he found out I’m dating you?”
“Well…he’ll try yelling at me first,” I said. “When that doesn’t work, he’ll threaten you, but he’s all bluster. I mean, can he really fire you? Don’t you have a contract or something?”
He thought about it for a second, “Yeah, but he can still make it hard for me. I don’t want to end my career before it’s even begun.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“I want to take out a billboard
on Hollywood Boulevard saying that Chrissy Monroe agreed to be my girlfriend.” He laughed and kissed me. “But maybe we should wait a little while so I can figure it out.”
I shrugged. “I’m okay with that. I don’t want you to lose your job. I mean, who would buy me gourmet sandwiches?”
But while I was touched by his billboard comment, I was a little hurt that he wasn’t willing to brave my father’s wrath and let him know I was dating him. I mean, it had been a long time since I had asked my father’s permission to date anyone. And I wasn’t sure I believed that my dad could really run him out for such a personal reason. Besides, what could my dad have against Adam, anyway? He was basically my dad’s heir apparent, since Jack and I weren’t interested in the business. Really, what could be better than him dating me?
On the bright side, he brought me wine and pastries, so there was that.
Chapter 14 – Adam
I told you that I wasn’t engaged to Bianca, right? She’s a crazy bitch and needs to stay away from everyone, especially me.
It took Jack almost a day to answer my message. I tried to be patient; I mean, he was out in the Pacific with nothing but intermittent satellite access, so I couldn’t expect him to answer right away. But it was hard to wait. I had a lot I had to deal with, and I really felt like I had to have this conversation with Jack first.
Yeah, you told me.
I glanced up, making sure neither Gary nor Bianca were standing in my office doorway. I had just been feeling bad vibes all around—Bianca had been walking around looking smug for days, and Gary had been “forgetting” to tell me important things, like when meetings were changed. Things were just weird, but if Gary knew about me and Chrissy, he hadn’t said anything about it to me, or to Chrissy. And I was positive that he would.
So, are we cool then, bro? I mean, you know I wasn’t fucking around on anyone, right? You said you thought I was a good guy—is that still true? I need to know, because I have more shit to dump on you!
I knew it might be a minute, or it might be a day or more, before he got back to me, so I pulled out my files for a project I was just beginning. The Monroe bid, which I had pulled together, had been accepted, and since it was a government contract, it actually helped us that Bianca was considered an executive. One of the other execs was Hispanic, so we had a pretty good women and minority ratio.
Still, if it were up to me, we would scope out the grad schools and hire more young execs, or at least managers, with diverse backgrounds. I could think of a few from grad school who would do great work and shake things up around here—which was the opposite of what Gary wanted. Gary was a strong leader, but he was old school, and wasn’t thinking about trends, globalization, or the impact of technology.
Oh well, it was his company.
Yeah, we’re cool. Sorry. I had some residual anger over what I thought you’d done, but I’m over it. So, have at it, bro. Dump the shit.
I laughed. It felt good to be back on even ground with Jack. I was crazy about Chrissy, but Jack had been my best friend since we were kids.
I would just have to wait to figure out what I meant by crazy about. I just knew that our current situation was becoming less and less workable. I wanted something more. I didn’t know what, but something.
I’m dating Chrissy, and your parents don’t know.
The pause before he answered was so long that I figured they must be out of satellite range. I sighed and gathered my paperwork together. I had to file copies of the bid and contract with legal and HR, and bring the list of approved subcontractors with me to the meeting with the project manager from the county, plus hard copies of the tax documents I’d already faxed to prove we were an honest company, not shafting shareholders, not selling our secrets to the Russians, etc.
I checked in with Elaine on the way out the door. “Tell the boss I’m headed over to the county to turn in all the paperwork on the new justice center. I don’t know how long it will take, but it’s the government, so probably a lot longer than it needs to.”
She laughed and promised to pass on the message.
An hour later, nobody was laughing.
“Look.” I shoved a hand through my hair. “I had the same paperwork from Accounting that you do, and I didn’t see any discrepancies.”
“I know what you’re saying.” The county project guy, Hanson, was trying as hard as I was to be patient. “Maybe it’s nothing, but what could it hurt to get an audit? Just tell them it’s one more hoop the government wants you to jump through. The fact is, some of these numbers don’t add up, and the way things were moved around, you could make the case that it’s deliberate.”
“Am I going to lose this bid?”
“Not necessarily. Bring us an all-clear from an independent auditor within thirty days, and we’ll move it forward. It’s pretty standard stuff.”
“Standard.”
“Yeah, totally standard. But, Gardner? Arrange for the audit yourself, okay? As an executive and a shareholder, you have that right.”
“Shit, you think someone is embezzling or something.”
“Obviously, I have no idea. That’s just one of a hundred possible explanations, the most likely one being stupid human error. But it is one. I don’t know, man, but I do know it has to be done within thirty days if you want this contract.”
“Okay, I get it. Thanks.”
As soon as I got out of his office, I pulled out my phone. “I need to speak to Chad, please. Or Steve. This is Aaron Gardner. You know what, forget it. Tell them I’m coming by and I need to see them. It’s an emergency.”
****
It took me all day to deal with this and seriously important projects got put on the back burner. It was irritating and frustrating. Chad told me that his firm could run the audit if I had a majority of stockholders consent to it.
“It really is business as usual,” he told me. “I mean, not always, but a lot of institutions need to make sure their contractors and subcontractors are legit and there’s nothing that can bite them in the ass later. I don’t think anyone will give it a second thought if you tell them the county is asking for it.”
“Hanson seemed to think there might be some malfeasance involved.”
“I doubt it, but since it’s always a possibility, they have to check. Just get those consents and call me when it’s time to get started. I can have a team—and by team I mean me and Steve—there first thing in the morning.”
When I got back, I locked myself in my office and started calling board members to get their consent for the audit. I had no idea whether this was proper procedure, but if Gary called me out on it, I would plead ignorance—which was true. I would tell him I didn’t know how else to do it, especially since we were in a time crunch. I called Chad back and told them to come on out in the morning.
So now the question was, did I tell Gary? If there was something illegal going on, Gary should know. Unless Gary was doing it, but why would he sabotage his own company that way? He was hugely successful without having to falsify anything.
I didn’t know, but I was getting damn sick of keeping secrets from Gary.
By six I had a splitting headache, and all I wanted to do was see Chrissy. Not to have sex—and we wouldn’t be having sex for a few days anyway—but just to find some peace.
****
I called in and told Elaine I’d be in late because I had to check in with the county. Which was abstractly true, because I really stopped by Chad and Steve’s office to drop off the consents that had been faxed in to me. I knew that once they showed up, there’d be no keeping the audit under the table, and that was fine. I’d deal with it. I could just play dumb, because hey, this was just business as usual, right? Everybody said so.
I let the guys leave for my office, and I took the long way back, stopping at Starbuck’s on the way. That would give them a good 45 minutes head start. I’d get there just as the Accounting department was pulling all the docs and records that the auditors would need. It would all
be good.
I strolled in ready to walk right into my office, and I almost made it. Gary’s door opened and Bianca walked out, smoothing her hair. Her clothes were a little messed up, but before I could give that any thought, I heard Gary’s voice yell from inside the office.
“Get me Gardner!”
Uh oh. He sounded pissed.
“Right now, God dammit!”
I smiled at his Elaine. “No need,” I said casually, although my heart was racing. “I’m right here.”
I strolled past looking like I didn’t have a care in the world, but I knew I was about to get reamed. The audit had already started—I could see Chad and Steve set up in the conference room.
“Hey, Gary,” I said, sauntering into his office. “What’s up?”
It’s normal procedure, I reminded myself. Business as usual.
“What’s up, you asshole, is that you are fucking my daughter behind my back!”
Chapter 15 – Chrissy
I only went to the beach house because I was bored. Adam was working, Raina was working, Mom was working, I’d done my volunteering at the Human Society, and I was restless and irritable. Probably because it was the second day of my period and I still felt achy and out of sorts. And I didn’t like the thought of having no sex with Adam for three more days.
I was becoming an addict, and withdrawals were a bitch.
I unlocked the house just as the phone buzzed to tell me I’d gotten a text.
Adam told me you two are dating.
I closed the door behind me and dropped my purse on the table.
Okay…
I already told you I’m okay with that. But I haven’t answered him back yet. I just wanted to know your thoughts on it.
I breathed in the ocean smell that remained in this house even when it was shut up. But there was something else here too…perfume, or air freshener? I looked around and realized it wasn’t as dusty as it usually was when nobody had been here.
I sat down at the small kitchen table where a bunch of folders were spread out. I had no idea why there would be folders here—nobody came here to do work.
I really like him, I texted. He asked me to be his girlfriend. But he’s afraid that Dad will freak out if we go public.
