The Deal

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “How’s Dad doing today? He seemed pretty grumpy when I told him I’d invited Lilli over for dinner.”

  “Oh, you know your father. He’s just stressed out about everything that’s going on with work. He will calm down when work calms down.”

  “Funny thing is I actually invited Jason Hartley to come to dinner too.” I laughed.

  My mom didn’t think it was funny at all. She stopped cutting the carrots and stared at me with a death stare that I was pretty sure could have caused actual harm. Her eyes zeroed in on me, and I thought she was even going to start yelling at me before she noticed I was smiling at her.

  “You didn’t?”

  “I actually did ask him, but he said he was busy. It just sort of came up in conversation. Luckily, he said no, though. Can you imagine how awkward that dinner would have been?”

  “Your father even looks outside to see if Jason’s car is in the driveway before he heads outside. Jason is a nice enough young man, but I think this whole deal is stressing your father out. You know how much he hates changes.”

  “Mom, why doesn’t Dad just retire? I mean you have plenty of money. I don’t get why he’s sticking around still. Jason’s company will make sure everything works out for Dad’s company. He really should stop stressing.”

  “Don’t tell your father that. He’s got it set in his mind how he wants the company to look before he leaves, and no one is going to talk him into retiring before that.”

  My mom was right about that. When my father put his mind to something, there was a very slim chance he was going to change it. He was pretty set in his ways. There was a knock on the door, and then I heard it open and knew it was Lilli.

  “Is anyone home? Homeless girl here who needs a good home-cooked meal,” she teased as she came into the house.

  My house was her house, and hers was mine. We always walked right in. It was surprising that Lilli had even knocked, but she’d been out of town for a while, so perhaps she wanted to be polite.

  “You look friggin amazing, Anna. Is this what you wore to work?” Lilli said as she hugged me and then pushed me away from her and demanded that I twirl around.

  “I’m trying to be grown up, yet stylish still. How am I doing?”

  “Girl, this is perfect. I bet you’re the hottest girl in that office. Those guys have to be drooling all over you,” she said and then covered her mouth as my mother looked shockingly at her. “Sorry, Mrs. Cook.” Lilli giggled.

  “It’s okay. Maybe you girls want to head upstairs so Anna can get changed out of her work clothes.”

  “You’re the coolest mom ever,” Lilli said as she hugged my mom. “It’s nice to see you again, Mary. I’ve missed you and Edward. You have been like my second parents for the last few years.”

  “I think your parents probably had their hands full with you,” my mom teased her.

  We all laughed at the idea. If anyone had their hands full, it had to be my parents with me. Lilli was one of the most responsible people I knew, and my mom probably wished she had raised her instead of me.

  “Okay, call us when Dad gets home,” I yelled as Lilli and I ran up to my room.

  It had been weeks since I’d been home, and I couldn’t deny that flopping down in my old bed was exactly what I needed. Spending time with Lilli was also what I needed. This growing up stuff was overrated even if it was a little bit fun.

  “So, tell me what’s going on?” Lilli asked as she plopped down on the bed next to me.

  “Okay, so you know how I love Jason and always tease him?”

  “Of course.”

  “So, he’s been basically ignoring me most of the month since our little incident at the club. He’s nice and all but he won’t look at me or really even acknowledge I am there.”

  “He’s probably just trying to do the right thing since you guys work together. How much longer are you working there?”

  “I’d planned on working three months, but I only wanted to work with him so he could be my first. I’m ready, Lilli. I can feel it, and my first time has to be with Jason. It can’t be anyone else.”

  “I understand.”

  Lilli was the only person who would understand. She’d heard me talking about Jason since I was barely old enough to drive. He was always this handsome stranger who I’d admired and tried my damnedest to flirt with.

  For years, Jason barely gave me the time of day. He would nod his head to say hello or sometimes let out a very unenthusiastic ‘hello’. But things had changed between us in the last few months and especially since the trampoline incident.

  “With him in that club… Lilli, it was amazing. He wants me; I can feel it. But something is holding him back. Could it really be all about me working with him?”

  “It might be your age, but guys don’t seem to care very much about that. Why don’t you just quit?”

  “My father wants me to keep an eye on Jason and relay what’s going on with the merger and stuff. I really don’t know anything, though. Jason mostly makes me busy with a spreadsheet from faxed invoices and stuff like that.”

  “Are you sure Jason really knows you want him? Like one hundred percent, no questions asked?”

  “Um, yeah. He knows.”

  “Okay, well then just wait until you leave the job. Didn’t you say three months? So, you only have two months left.”

  “Yeah,” I said. I’d actually thought about that a lot, and I’d even thought about the possibility that Jason wasn’t interested in me. But neither was the right thing for me. If Jason and I hooked up, it didn’t have to be some drawn out relationship thing. I’d fantasized about Jason for so long, and I just wanted him to be my first.

  “So, it’s settled, you’ll just wait for a few months?”

  “Maybe I should go full force on him? You know, like the trampoline day. I could just go over there and take him.”

  “Is that really how you want to have your first time?”

  “No...” I laughed. “Well, maybe.”

  “It might work. Or maybe if you went over there, he’d decide he wanted to give in to you. I don’t think that is how I’d do it, though.”

  “Lilli, you know I’m not you.”

  “That’s very true.”

  The two of us spent nearly thirty minutes talking about the guys in our lives and laughing about all the things that had changed in the last year. I felt our lives were pulling us apart as we both tried desperately to keep them together, even for just a little bit. Lilli was by far my best friend, yet she was the one that was always gone. As we lay there laughing and talking, I closed my eyes and took in the moment.

  The single teenager heartthrob poster sat above my bed. My walls were covered in pictures from the last five years of my life. This room was where I felt safest, yet I could already feel a separation forming. It wasn’t where I’d slept for the last few weeks, and it wasn’t my home any longer.

  “Girls, come and eat,” I heard my father yell from the bottom of the stairs.

  “Wow, that brings back memories,” Lilli said.

  “It’s good to have you over here again,” I said as we made our way down the stairs to the kitchen.

  My parents were sitting next to each other on one side of the table and had made up some seats for us on the other side. It was nice to be back home having dinner with my parents, and having Lilli there made it a little less boring.

  “So, Anna, how’s work going? Any news?”

  “Nothing much going on, Dad. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for.”

  “You know, anything that might make things difficult for our employees? Definitely, let me know if they are planning on letting anyone else go again. That was horrible.”

  “The only thing I’ve been working on is the spreadsheet and the invoices. Did Jason talk to you about those?”

  “Yeah, but just briefly. They are all worried that we weren’t making a profit on a few projects. But we hav
e made tons of money. Nothing to worry about there. It pisses me off that they think I really didn’t know what was going on with the finances. I’m the damn financial officer at the company. I know every little detail about every sale. If they had a question, they should have just asked me instead of having you put together that damned spreadsheet.”

  By the time my father was done with his rant, his face was bright red, and he looked like he was going to have a stroke. I just nodded my head in agreement and didn’t argue with him, though. He was clearly not in the mood to talk about what was going on at work.

  “So, Lilli, why don’t you tell us about this boyfriend of yours,” my mother said in her effort to change the subject.

  “Devin is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, and man is he a good dad. It’s been really exciting being with him. I feel like some sort of a movie star since we are always on his private jet.”

  “Oh, wow, he’s got serious money. I don’t think I knew that,” my mom said as she ate her salad. “Good for you darling—you deserve a nice rich guy.”

  I wasn’t exactly sure what my mom meant by that. Who deserves a rich guy? It seemed odd to say since Lilli’s family had plenty of money, and she’d grown up without a worry at all. But maybe my mom was just thinking about how Lilli’s ex-boyfriend had dumped her, and she had to move back home with her parents. My mom was notorious for remembering small pieces of information from a long time ago and then trying to make them relevant for the current moment.

  For the rest of dinner, I basically made small talk with my family while trying not to talk at all about work. Lilli was the best sidekick I could have asked for that night. She was great at reading the stress on my father’s face and always came up with some interesting question to distract him. By the time she was leaving, I was ready to go as well.

  “I’m going to head home too,” I said as I walked Lilli to the door and said a quick goodbye. “I’ll see you later. Call me and warn me when you are coming into town the next time.”

  “I will,” Lilli said. “It was nice seeing you, Mr. and Mrs. Cook. Thanks for a great meal. Goodnight.”

  My parents waved goodbye to Lilli, and my mom gave her a big hug before finally letting her leave. It really was like she was part of our family, and I could have used a sister around my house full of men. I think that was why my mom bonded so much with Lilli and even a few of my other friends—she was just as desperate as I was for more female energy in our house.

  “Honey, you can just stay here,” she told me. “It’s so late; you don’t want to be driving all the way back to your apartment.”

  “It’s okay, Mom. I can drive in the dark.” I laughed. “Plus, I’ve got to get up early for work, and I don’t have any work clothes here. They are all at my apartment.”

  I grabbed a small bag of things I’d packed up from my room that I wanted to bring back to my apartment, and I gave my parents a quick hug. As much as I loved visiting them, I did need to get home. I was a professional with a job, and I had to get to work on time the next morning.

  “You’re leaving with only that on?” my father grumbled as I stood in the doorway.

  “Dad, it’s a sun dress. Pretty normal attire for the summer,” I teased. “If it were up to you, I’d be wearing a turtleneck sweater and long pants every day of my life.”

  “Damn right you would,” he said as he gave me another hug. “You keep an eye on the business deals and don’t do any of the stupid busy work. Just call me if he needs something. Okay?”

  “Okay, Dad. Love you,” I said and started to make my way out before he went on another rant about the whole business stuff. “Love you too, Mom.”

  I was close to my car when I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see Jason standing in the window of his living room. He was on the phone and waved at me to come there, but then he disappeared from the window.

  I threw my bag into my car and then went over to see what he needed. Nothing about the way he had motioned to me seemed like he wanted me there for something sexy or erotic. And as I approached his house, he appeared in the front doorway while he was still on the phone.

  “No, I understand, Rosie, sorry for calling you. See you tomorrow,” Jason said and hung up his cell phone. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

  “Well, I was visiting my parents.” I smiled and pointed to my house.

  Jason seemed really distracted as Clyde was screaming in the background and ran up to him banging on a play drum he had been carrying around. Clyde was covered in some sort of mess that was probably his dinner and looked like he was in a desperate need of a bath. It was the first time I’d seen Jason looking so frantic.

  “What’s going on here?” I teased as I knelt down to Clyde’s level. “Are you giving Daddy a hard time tonight?”

  “We were playing rock band,” Clyde said as he proceeded to bang on his drum. “Come back and play with me.”

  “Okay, just a second,” Jason said as he looked at his phone like he was waiting for some sort of message. “Are you busy right now?”

  “I was just heading home. Why?”

  “I’ve got to fax over these papers, and I forgot them at the office. Zelda tried looking for them and couldn’t find them. I just need to go in and grab them really quick and get them sent off. I totally spaced it today. Could you stay with Clyde for just an hour or so?”

  “I’m not really good with kids,” I said but then saw the desperation on Jason’s face. “But I suppose I could manage to give him a bath and read him a book for bed.”

  “Oh, you are a lifesaver! I’ll come back in an hour. Maybe two at the most, depending on the traffic,” Jason said as he grabbed his keys and kissed Clyde quickly. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, buddy. Anna is going to stay with you, okay. Take a bath and get ready for bed.”

  “Okay, Dad,” Clyde said as he didn’t look up at all from the drums.

  “Thank you so much,” Jason said and kissed me on the cheek as he ran to his car.

  I shut the door behind me as I stepped into Jason’s house and quickly sent an excited text off to Lilli and Patrick.

  ANNA: I’m in Jason’s house! Basically, I’m just his babysitter, but this has to be a first step, right?

  PATRICK: LMAO the naughty babysitter.

  LILLI: Get Clyde to bed before Jason comes home!

  “Clyde, let’s go get you cleaned up,” I said with excitement as I grabbed his little hand and led him to the bathroom.

  Chapter 9

  Jason

  Anna was like an angel in her tiny floral dress as I’d desperately been trying to find someone to watch Clyde for me. She looked so disappointed when I asked her over and then asked her to help out with Clyde, and I felt awful as I pulled away from the house. The problem was I also felt awful for dropping the ball on the faxes I was supposed to get sent out for Kevin. I’d absentmindedly filled them out and then totally forgot about them.

  As much as I would have loved to spend some time talking with Anna, work had to come first. I’d done perfectly at prioritizing and staying away from Anna over the last few weeks. But if I talked to her once, I simply couldn’t stop, and before I knew it, I was distracted for the whole day.

  While speeding down the freeway, I heard sirens from behind me and instantly knew I was the one getting pulled over. I hadn’t been paying attention to the speed limit at all and was going over 80 mph as I let my foot off the gas and moved over to the side of the road.

  My day was just getting worse and worse, so of course, I was about to get a speeding ticket. The officer was rather pleasant with me as I put my window down and accommodated his request for the proper documentation.

  “License, insurance, and registration please,” he said as he looked around my vehicle.

  “Sorry officer,” I said as I handed him the documents.

  “Where are you going in such a hurry on a Monday night?”

  “Just h
ad to run into the office, and I grabbed my neighbor to babysit. No excuses, though, I noticed when your lights came on that I was speeding.”

  “It will be just one minute,” the officer said and took my paperwork with him back to his vehicle.

  It took all the willpower I had not to pull my phone out and text Zelda and inform her that I was still on my way. She had been at the office for well over an hour and was probably getting pretty agitated with me by that point. It was after ten o’clock at night, and I was exhausted.

  Five minutes later, the officer returned to my car and handed me all my paperwork back. He didn’t have a ticket in his hand though and instead started writing on his pad of paper there in front of me.

  “I’m giving you an official warning ticket. I appreciate you being honest and admitting to speeding. Let’s take your time, though. You’ll be really late if you end up in a car accident.”

  “Thank you, Officer,” I said as calmly as I could. “I appreciate it.”

  “Have a good evening.”

  It wasn’t like a speeding ticket would have been financially straining on me or anything like that, but it was still nice not to get a ticket. I pulled back into the traffic slowly and made sure to use my blinker as I finished the drive to work and hurried into the building.

  “I’m so sorry Zelda, thank you for staying.”

  “I’ve looked all over your office. I can’t fathom how you could have lost the papers between five o’clock and when I showed up to look?”

  “Hmm, I thought I left them on my desk,” I said as I rummaged through everything. “Sorry, I was a bit distracted today. Nothing seemed to be going the way I wanted it to.”