by Ivy Smoak
Probably Chastity. I had sent her the world’s longest text last night all about my date, so I assumed she was showing up to get the full scoop. But it could also be the cops coming to ask about Joe’s stolen credit card. Or how I had gotten thirty-grand worth of designer clothing in exchange for a few photos. Or how I had raped Dr. Lyons. Although that case seemed to be closed now that we had a date planned.
I looked through the peephole and found that both of my guesses were wrong. Instead it was a FedEx man. I opened the door.
“Raven Black?” he asked.
“That’s me.”
“Sign here.”
I gave him my signature, and he gave me a package. I started to close the door, but he blocked it with his foot.
“Hold on. There’s more.” He disappeared into the hall.
More? All my amazon clothes had already arrived. Maybe Joe was sending me more of my stuff. Whatever. I didn’t have time to deal with his crap right now. I tossed the package aside and went back to the bathroom to add a few finishing touches to my makeup. When I emerged a minute later…
Holy hell! Five FedEx guys were unloading carts of packages, and based on the floor-to-ceiling boxes that now occupied about 600 of the 800 square feet of my apartment, it must have been at least their third trip. Then it hit me. The FedEx guy had called me Raven Black. Not Ashley Cooper. Which meant this delivery was from the Society.
“Who sent this?” I asked.
The FedEx guy shrugged. “No idea. Have a great day.”
I grabbed one of the packages and checked the label. No name was listed. The address was in NYC, but beyond that it didn’t ring any bells. What the hell is all this? I used my keys to cut the tape on the closest box. Inside was a white leather box wrapped in blue crepe paper. Odegaard was scrawled on the side of the box.
Odegaards! Yes! They must be a gift from Ryder. Which meant he wasn’t mad at me or repulsed by me. I couldn’t contain the smile that spread across my face.
And then I remembered there were dozens more boxes. Were they all filled with Odegaards? No. They couldn’t be. That would be like… I tried to estimate how many boxes there were and then multiplied it by $3000.
I tore into a few more boxes before it was time to leave for work. Sure enough, they were all filled with Odegaards. Including the pair of weird elf-style heels Ryder had wanted me to wear last night. I considered wearing them to the office, but I wasn’t nearly confident enough to pull them off.
I can’t believe he sent me all these. I didn’t want to leave for work. I just wanted to keep opening box after box of Odegaards. You know how in first grade all your friends tell you Santa doesn’t exist? Well they’re full of shit. Because Santa does exist and his name is Ryder freaking Storm. I couldn’t wait to see him today for our big presentation. Another kiss was definitely in my future.
I allowed myself to open one more box before I left. It was the one that the FedEx guy had delivered first. And it had a little black envelope in it. Ah! My fingers were shaking with excitement as I opened it.
Raven,
I’m so sorry about last night.
-Ryder
I flipped it over. That’s all? Well, apology accepted. Really the note alone would have been sufficient, but the hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Odegaards was a nice addition. I hugged the note to my chest. Was this my first love letter? I think it was. The only time Joe had ever sent me a letter was when he served me with divorce papers. And some guy in middle school had passed me a letter that said, “Will you be my girlfriend? Circle YES or NO.” I had circled no because I was 100% sure he was gay, just like every other guy who had ever liked me in school. I was still trying to work out what that said about me.
Anyway…shoes. Tons of them. They were all mine. And so was Ryder. I bit back a squeal.
Before heading to work I triple-checked the lock on the door to make sure Homeless Rutherford wouldn’t break in and lick all my beautiful shoes.
Chastity practically pounced on me the moment I got out of the elevator at work. “Tell me everything,” she said. I had never seen her look so excited.
“Well, a limo picked me up, but only Frankie was in it.”
“I don’t care about that. Get to the good part. Did you find proof that Ryder and Tanner are different people?”
“They’re definitely not different. After seeing him up-close again…yeah, I’m sure it’s him.”
“Damn it! Are you sure?”
“Who else besides a billionaire could afford to give me 74 pairs of Odegaards?”
“Say what now? Your text didn’t mention those.”
“That’s because they arrived two seconds before I left for work. They came with a note.” I took it out of my purse and showed it to her.
“Damn,” said Chastity. “Even one pair of Odegaards would be an extravagant apology, but 74? That really makes it seem like he did something truly awful to you.”
“Well he did leave immediately after I grabbed his penis. Which was rather rude of him.” Thinking about it again made doubt to creep back into my mind. But Ryder definitely liked me. Or else why would he have sent me so many shoes? Or kissed me. Or started stalking me to begin with?
Chastity snapped her fingers. “Oh my God, that’s it.”
“What?”
“He came in his pants.”
I laughed. “No way.”
“Think about it. You were making out with him. You touched him. He came. And then he panicked and fled in shame.”
“That’s definitely what happened,” added Madison from behind me. “He sounds like a real loser to me. I say you ditch him and never speak to him again.”
“Guys, I really don’t think that’s what happened.” But maybe it is? Could I really blame him? All that bumping and grinding and kissing had practically made me orgasm. Not that I knew what that felt like.
“So for the presentation…” started Madison but Chastity cut her off.
“Was he big?”
Of course she would ask that. “I think so?”
“How big?”
“I don’t know.” But maybe I’ll find out after the meeting!
“I bet he’s huge,” said Chastity.
“Why?” asked Madison. “He’s a billionaire, right? He’s definitely compensating for something.”
“So what’s the plan for this afternoon?” asked Chastity.
I tried to process the change of topic. Which was super weird for Chastity since we had already been on her favorite subject. “Uh…let’s start by mentioning the rebranding. If he’s cool with it, then we’ll show him all the logo mockups. And if he hates them I guess we better be ready to pivot…”
Chastity brushed my ideas aside. “No. Who cares about all that? You already sealed the deal on this contract last night when you made him cum in his pants. We could tell him that we were going to put swastikas all over his Facebook ads and he wouldn’t care.”
“We really shouldn’t do that,” added Madison.
“We’re not going to. But we could. Anyway, I was asking what the plan was for after the meeting. As in, how we’re going to get Ash alone with him.”
“So you concede that Ryder and Tanner are the same person?” I asked. Yes! I win!
“For now. But if you find out that they’re not…”
“Yeah, yeah. Tanner will be yours.”
“Shhh,” said Madison. She pointed to the elevator. Bee had just walked off. Even though she was probably the nicest boss in the world, it still wouldn’t have been ideal for her to hear us discussing which of us would get to sleep with our new client. And Mason probably wouldn’t like it either. Every time I saw him, all I could think about was Matt screaming as his pants caught fire. Chastity had assured me that Mason’s little brother never came to the offices, but if he did show up, I was fully prepared to jump out the window. Actually, maybe it was time to activate my window-escape now, because Mason looked absolutely pissed about something. Oh my God, what if he’d just found out that
they accidentally hired the girl that set his brother’s dick on fire! He was about to fire me for sure.
Chastity and Madison both immediately started shuffling papers and pretending to work.
“What the fuck did you three do?” asked Mason. Smoke was practically coming out of his ears.
My answer would have been, “Landed you your biggest client ever,” but something told me that it was better to stay silent.
“Tanner shredded the contract. He’s out.”
“Out?” asked Chastity. “But we have a meeting with him at three about his winery.”
“Not anymore. I’ve been trying to get him to come in for months. And he finally did. It was a sure thing. How the hell did you three mess this up? I knew I should have put Garrett on this instead.”
“But…” started Chastity.
“But nothing. If he’s not our client on Monday morning, then all three of you are fired.” He turned and stormed off. Bee mouthed, “I’m sorry,” and then followed Mason to the elevator.
“What were you saying about having this contract locked up?” asked Madison.
Chastity stared daggers at me. “What the hell, Ash?”
“Don’t look at me. I did my best. Our first presentation was dynamite.”
“Not the presentation. I mean what did you do last night? To Tanner. It sure seems like you did something awful. When you say you touched his penis…do you really mean that you kicked him square in the nuts?”
“I won’t blame you if you did,” added Madison. “He surely had it coming.”
“No! We were having a super-hot kiss. We even broke a shelf in the heat of the moment.” I paused and squeezed my legs together. Best first kiss ever? Yes. Although my only frame of reference was my first kiss with Joe. His Natty-Ice-scented breath and the stench of dirty laundry from his frat house still haunted my dreams.
“What exactly did he say when he stopped kissing you?” asked Chastity.
“He just uh…apologized I think. I don’t know. It all happened so fast. But he’s definitely not mad at me. Otherwise he wouldn’t have sent me all those Odegaards this morning. And given me this note.” I reached in my purse to grab the note. That was when I noticed the alert on my phone. From the Society app. Well, technically it was labeled Tax Codes, but that was just the disguise for the Society app. I pulled out my phone.
“That’s not a note,” said Chastity.
“I know. But I got something from the Society. Maybe it’s about him.”
“It’s probably your post-date evaluation.”
“Right.” It still freaked me out that Chastity knew all the Society rules and procedures so well. I clicked on the notification and the screen turned black. The Society logo was at the top and then, in plain white text, it read:
Raven Black,
Your membership in the Society has been terminated for a violation of clause 49c.
Sincerely,
The Society
“What the hell?” I muttered. What’s clause 49c?
“What?” asked Chastity and Madison.
I handed them my phone.
“Rape?!” yelled Chastity.
“Shhh,” I hissed. Other people in the office were starting to look at us. Scratch that. They were full-on staring.
“Who raped someone?” asked Madison. “If Tanner raped you, I’ll kill him.”
“She raped him,” said Chastity. “That’s what clause 49c is. Immediate termination for rape.”
I shook my head. “It was consensual. And it was just a kiss.” I swallowed hard. Or was it? I’d tried to rape before. Oh God, what had I done?!
“Did you explicitly ask for consent?” asked Madison. “Or better yet, use a consent app? I’ll send you a link to mine if you want.”
“A what? No. We were two grown adults kissing each other.” I was on the verge of tears. Why did I keep trying to rape people?!
“Well whatever you did must have really pissed him off. Because he definitely never wants to see your face again.”
And then something snapped in me. Blood rushed to my fists. My whole body felt like it was on fire. My rage was usually contained in my fiery red hair, but sometimes it got out and spread to the rest of my body. This was one of those times. “If he never wants to see me again, then I hope he has good security. Because I’m going to his office. I’m not going to let this asshole get us fired for no reason.”
Chapter 29 - Jerkface
Friday
Tanner’s office was just a few blocks away from BIMG. I didn’t even bother to get an Uber over. I thought walking might give me more time to compose myself. To think of a nice, calm way to approach him. It had the opposite effect. Walking in heels through the unseasonably warm weather coupled with the stench of trash day in the city just made my blood boil even more. All I managed to do was come up with curse words that I hadn’t even known existed. All of them described Tanner perfectly.
The elevator dinged and I got off on Floor 18. I had thought that the BIMG offices were extravagant, but Tanner’s office was on a different level. I don’t even know the names of the rare stones the ultra-modern furniture was carved from, but it looked like some sort of bright blue granite veined with pure white. Was that even possible? Maybe the receptionist desk was just carved from the world’s largest sapphire. And the woman behind it was effortlessly sophisticated. I could imagine her growing up in some Italian villa, splitting her time between tanning her perfect olive skin under the Tuscan sun and learning the minutia of fancy people etiquette.
Was Tanner banging her? That would explain why he had fled so quickly last night. I had probably broken some unwritten rule of the billionaires’ make-out handbook. Was that a thing? If it was, I bet Steve Forbes didn’t have a copy. #SickBurn. I was on fire with these hashtags recently.
Either way, it didn’t matter if Tanner was banging Miss Roman Villa. Because I was freaking done with Tanner and his bullshit. I no longer took shit from any man. Ever. He was just playing some sick game that I wanted no part of. Stupid dirty stalker. I was just here to get him to sign that contract so that my friends didn’t get fired.
“How may I help you?” asked the receptionist.
“I’m here to see Tanner.”
“Is Mr. Rhodes expecting you?”
“He should be.” Biotch.
She cocked her head to the side in a look of confusion. “Does that mean you have an appointment, or…?”
“Yup. I’ll show myself back.” I walked around the giant granite desk.
“You can’t go back there without an appointment!” she called after me.
A few of his employees looked up at me as I snaked through the maze of cubicles. I had never been here before, but I knew that he’d be in the corner office. All fancy executives have fancy corner offices. Cookie-cutter lameazoids. Evie Martin - the blonde from all his pictures - tried to stop me at his door, but I ignored her and stormed into Tanner’s office. “What the hell is your problem?” I demanded.
He was pacing by the window. He looked up when I came in. Surprise, or maybe fear, crossed his face for a second. He kicked off his shoes, which appeared to be elf-like Crocs, and then casually leaned on his desk as if he hadn’t just done anything weird.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said Evie. “I couldn’t stop her. Should I call security?”
He waved her off. “That won’t be necessary. Right…Amanda?”
“Amanda?” He was really pretending to not know my name now? Was he fucking kidding me? All those curse words I had crafted on the way over here leapt to the tip of my tongue. But I had more restraint than I realized, because I swallowed them back down. “So that’s how you’re going to play this? Like you don’t know who I am?” You asshattery!
He snapped his fingers. “Oh, right. You’re from BIMG. The one who bumped her head on the table.”
“Ash. Not Amanda.”
“Ah, my apologies Ash. Evie, please give us a few minutes.”
She ducked out of his
office.
“I know you’re Ryder,” I said the second the door was closed.
“Ryder?” he asked.
“Yes. Ryder Storm.” I narrowed my eyes at him, hoping it would scare him into a confession. It did not.
“I don’t know who that is, but it’s not me.”
I decided to take a different approach. “Why’d you kill the deal with BIMG?”
“Another firm gave us a more attractive offer,” he said matter-of-factly.
“And why’d you send me all those shoes if you were just going to have me thrown out of the Society for rape?” I lowered my voice when I said “rape,” but it still hung in the air awkwardly between us.
“Shoes? Society? Rape? Ashley, have you been drinking?”
“No I haven’t been drinking!” You stupid waffle stomper! God, he was infuriating. I needed some way to prove that he was Ryder. The first thought that came to mind was to tear his glasses off, pull his hair into a bun, and force him to change into a colorful suit.
Or what if I was wrong? Oh my God. I had done it again. What was up with me thinking that every hot guy I met was part of the Society? First I’d raped Dr. Lyons, now I’d torpedoed my career. No, not just my career. Chastity’s career. And Madison’s.
“I’m so sorry,” I muttered. “I must have you confused with someone else.”
“Who is he? Is he part of this sex club you mentioned?”
“Yeah, he…wait a second! I never said the Society was a sex club.”
For a second - the briefest of moments - his eyes grew wide with guilt. It was hardly noticeable. But I saw it. I was sure of it. I had caught him. “Sure you did,” he said, glancing down at his phone to avoid looking me in the eye.
“No. I said that you had me thrown out of the Society for rape.”
“Right. And everyone knows that the Society is a super exclusive sex club.”
“Then why would rape get me thrown out? You sound like an idiot, you know.” Was that too harsh? I cringed. At least I hadn’t called him a shiteatery.
“Uh…you still aren’t allowed to rape someone at a sex club. It all has to be consensual.” He cleared his throat and set his phone back down. “So I’ve heard.”
