by A. J. Wynter
Cassidy’s face was scarlet from the alcohol, the embarrassment of catching us in the act, or maybe both. “So, you guys are…”
Kirk nodded quickly. “Hey, Cass, if you could um, keep this to yourself, I would um, we would really…”
Cassidy let out a chuckle that didn’t quite know how to slow down, and then finished with a long sigh. He was still completely drunk. “You guys!” he said. “You guys!” and just kept laughing.
“Sorry,” I said. “Obviously this isn’t at all professional, and—”
Cassidy kept laughing. “Please,” he slurred. “It’s nothing I haven’t done before.” He kept laughing and left to go down the hall. “POUR THE TEQUILA!” we heard him shout, and I fell back into Kirk’s chest with relief.
“You think he’ll remember this in the morning?” I asked.
“Knowing how competitive he is with drinking games,” Kirk said. “Probably not.”
Chapter 18-Kirk
Marissa and I have not spoken since that afternoon sophomore year…those warm days before it all went wrong. We pass each other in the halls, hear our names spoken across rooms, but we pretend it never happened in the first place. It’s faded into our history, and it’s gone.
Our class president is speaking. He’s just handed me the valedictorian medal and congratulated me on getting into Columbia, and I sit on stage next to him. The room breaks into polite applause, and we sit to listen to his speech.
It was pretty awful…the same trite garbage about reaching for your dreams that can be heard at every graduation ceremony across the country. But then he goes into the whole “memories that will last a lifetime” bit and the room collectively groans. Without thinking, my mind plays back the entirety of high school on a loop, the studying, the late nights out with friends, more studying, but my mind keeps skipping like a broken record, pausing on the same place again and again…
The lab table in fifth period biology.
I’m still mad at her. I might always be mad at her. But no matter how much rage I had over what happened, it couldn’t stop me from smiling when I heard her name. I could never really hate her.
As valedictorian, I have to shake the hand of every graduate as they make their way across the stage, where they then go on to shake hands with our class president and the principal. We’re only on the G’s, and I’m already exhausted and would probably sell my soul for some Purell. And then I remember she’s coming.
“Marissa Hayes!” the announcer says, and the room breaks out into applause. She is beautiful. She walks across stage in a tall pair of beige heels decorated with bows, and her dark brown hair is falling in curls over her red graduation gown. She moves her tassel with a wink at the crowd, and they explode into cheers.
Marissa walks towards me and we shake hands, meet eyes in a moment that makes the rest of the room fade away. We’re frozen in that moment—the last moment, possibly, and a thousand unspoken words travel between our eyes.
I’m still mad at her, and she knows it. But it doesn’t matter.
What matters is…and this is something neither of us would ever talk about, or would ever admit to…is that we knew we were different. We both knew, always had, always will, and looking into her green eyes for possibly the last time, I knew she knew it too. We knew that whatever had happened between us had a kind of unexplainable magic to it that was out of the ordinary, and that we wouldn’t find it again…
I let go of Marissa’s hand and watch her walk off the stage.
And if that feeling was real, maybe one day, somehow or somewhere, I’d find myself sitting next to her again.
“Ughhhhh…” Marissa says, waking me up. “I think someone’s drained all of the fluid out of my brain. Or put too much in. I’m not really sure.”
“Or,” I say, wrapping her up in my arms. “Someone,” I poke her nose. “May have put too much alcohol in.”
“Oh yes,” Marissa says, and giggles. She’s wearing the new lingerie I bought her, a light blue silk babydoll with navy lace, and she looks sexy as all hell—despite being a bit of a hungover mess.
“Remember last night you said you wanted to climb Mount Rainier today?” I said laughing. “I should hold you to that.”
Marissa slaps me playfully on my chest. “I’ll pass, thank you.”
“I’m good with that,” I say, pulling her against me. “We can stay in bed all day.”
“I like this plan,” Marissa says, and starts to drift back to sleep.
I look down at her and smile. She’s beautiful, this girl I met so many years ago, when I was young and didn’t quite understand what love was yet. And for many years I never really did. I lived through a series of failed dates and relationships, periods of giving up and being alone, times of anger and frustration…to end up here, right back where I had started.
What was love? What did it feel like? I had spent time looking for the answer, and it was there all along.
Love is sitting next to someone in silence, and hearing the poetry of it anyway.
Marissa woke up for a minute and smiled at me, crinkling her nose the way she used to when she examined test tubes in Biology, all those years ago, and my heart nearly burst at the sight of her.
With her, I hear everything.
And I don’t even need a single word to tell her.
THE BOARDROOM 3: CASSIDY
COMING MARCH 2018
Let me send you updates!
Sign up here
Her Christmas Bonus
Bonus CEO Romance Book
HER CHRISTMAS BONUS
A Billionaire
Stepbrother Romance
By: A.J. Wynter
Chapter 1
Jonathan Wise was grumpy; like Scrooge grumpy. The end of the year was fast arriving, and along with the snow piling up outside of his office, so was his debt.
For years, he had put his love of women and the female form above his company. In his younger days, he had thought that it was a genius idea to exclusively hire beautiful women; not just pretty girls, drop dead gorgeous model type girls.
He got around the blatant discrimination by dually registering his tech company in conjunction with a modeling agency. This strategy worked for pleasing his eyes and his cock, but it had definitely caught up with the efficaciousness of his books. These gorgeous vacuous women constantly shredded the wrong files and misplaced memos on a regular basis. Heck, ninety percent of them spent half the day taking selfies behind the executive’s desks.
And lord help the poor IT guys in the basement whose job it was to interpret the memos after they’d been transcribed into 'valley girl'. Unfortunately, they also seemed to lose the ability to speak after being approached by any of the top floor assistants.
But, they had perky hard breasts and legs for days. He smiled and felt his cock stiffen against his pants as he pictured having the new blonde’s legs wrapped around his head while he ate ‘lunch’. He sighed and adjusted himself. He knew that he needed to get rid of them; but his ego and needs dictated that he couldn’t get rid of all of them. All he needed was just one good assistant who could whip things into shape around here.
He sat back in his leather chair, steepled his fingers in front of his lips and smiled; he could still smell Jessica’s perfume on his sleeve from this morning. She had draped her arms around his neck from behind to go over his agenda for the day. Looking out the window at the snow gently falling to the street, he resigned himself to the fact that after the holidays, a lot of the girls at the office would be unemployed. And he would have an assistant that probably wore flats.
He owned an IT business that he'd built from the ground up at college, and a twenty-story building that he'd bought outright after three years of working from his dorm room. His last name, WISE, was on every side of the tower. The marquee was currently adorned in red and white Christmas lights and oversized decorations. The money had come easily to him. His timing with the market was exceptional, and he had found himself a billionaire at twenty-two.
After years of being ignored by the fairer sex, the tables had turned. He wasn’t a total geek, but if it weren’t for his money and status, he knew none of these women would’ve given him a second glance. So, he had created a work environment that made him want to come to work every day. He paid his staff well, and so they ignored the shenanigans that happened on the 20th floor. Mixing sex with business was the ideal way to keep a man happy; or so he'd convinced himself.
These days Jonathan dealt with investors who wanted a virtual IT service available around the clock. He had three shifts of techs and at least two admin manning the phones at all times. During the daytime, there were about a dozen women handling the phones, when in reality four or five competent people could’ve handled the job quite easily. He'd had to fire the last girl he had in the personal assistant position. She'd sent out an email, on his behalf, with a closing signature and an “LOL”. That's when it had really sunk in that he needed capable employees, not just eye candy.
Gazing into the sea of twinkling white Christmas lights on his personal office Christmas tree, Jonathan decided he'd hire a personal assistant who was intelligent, beautiful to look at, and could handle the job.
He jotted a quick note down and planned to speak to the head of HR personally about the urgency of the new hire. He reviewed his note, and scratched out the requirement for the new hire to qualify under his ‘modeling’ agency as well. It was time to get things under control, and if that meant he had to hire an average looking smart girl, then so be it.
Cecil, the head of HR looked at Jonathan dubiously over his glasses as he reviewed the hiring requirements.
“Seriously boss?”
“Yes, Cecil. I’d like you to have the interviews lined up for Monday of next week. And the more I think about it, the more unattractive my new assistant, the better.”
“So, flat chested, mousey hair, glasses, and brains are ok?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying Cec. I can’t believe that I’m saying it, but yes, the flatter and mousier the better”.
He turned and headed for the elevator. It was Friday night and he had a trio of D-cup blondes to take out on the town for some Christmas cheer.
"Girls, are you ready?" He grinned as he walked into the marble lobby throwing his arms around two of them.
The tallest of the blondes, Jessica, grabbed the santa hat from the lobby display and placed it on Jonathan’s head, ensuring that her cleavage brushed against his lips as she did so.
Jonathan pinched her ass and smiled at her.
"Well, Merry Christmas to you too. Your chariot awaits!" he shouted gesturing to the limo outside.
The blondes giggled in unison and the doorman rolled his eyes.
“So tell me ladies, are all three of you on Santa’s naughty list?” Johnathan continued.
This was too much for the girls and they all broke out in raunchy fake laughter. The trio were totally oblivious to the elderly doorman as he shook his head and opened the door as they teetered on past and out into the snow in their 6 inch heels.
Chapter 2
Feeling nervous about her job interview, Sienna Smythe tucked the strand of brown hair behind her ear that had slipped out of her bun. She'd tried on most of her wardrobe and had selected a gray pencil skirt, a white silk blouse and her nicest sensible heels. She had wriggled into some extra strength spanx that had allowed her to do up her skirt. She turned to look at her reflection in the mirror and sighed. Curves were en vogue right now, but not on a five-foot three-inch girl who still needed to lose the twenty pounds she put on in college.
She needed this job. Her Father was ill and she needed to help pay for his medical bills. His insurance only covered a portion of his medical costs, leaving him with thousands of dollars that he was responsible for. His smoking had finally caught up to him and he'd developed lung cancer. They'd caught it early, and she hoped they'd cure it. She wasn't ready to lose her Dad. Especially since she'd already lost her Mom to cancer as well. She still missed her Mom, every day.
She reviewed her notes about the job description and also her research about the executive officers of the company as she slammed back a coffee and toasted a bagel. From all the information that she found online, this Johnathan Wise sounded like a first-class asshole.
She shoved the folders into her leather messenger bag, grabbed her transit pass and headed out the door only to return seconds later shivering. Her nicest coat was not going to cut it today. The roads were icy, the wind was whipping and there was no way she could make it downtown wearing heels and a dress coat. She kicked off her shoes, and put them in a plastic bag to take with her. She crammed her feet into her thick warm boots and grabbed her down bomber jacket out of the closet.
"My breakfast!"
She shuffled into the kitchen and grabbed the bagel out of the toaster, catching a glimpse of herself in the hallway mirror. Her reflection looked back at her and she looked only slightly better than homeless, but she’d be warm and not starving.
On time, Sienna trudged into the lobby of the building, kicking off the snow from her boots and shaking off her hat. The doorman smiled at her, she smiled back and walked very carefully across the slippery floor to the elevator.
The doors opened up into a gorgeous office that looked like Christmas had thrown up all over it. She stepped out into the twentieth floor and saw the most beautiful women she'd ever seen in her life. Her mouth gaped open. Jingle bell rock was playing and the receptionist was wearing a red crop top and a fur skirt – it was like a scene from a cheesy-as-hell porno. They all looked like they had just walked off the cover of Vogue, or whatever the trashier version of Vogue is these days.
The flirting, giggling, and general chaos around the room startled her. It was the most unprofessional setting she'd ever seen in her life. Wondering if she was in the right building, Sienna stared at them blankly until one of them finally noticed her and waved her over.
"You must be here for the interviews. Mr. Wise is waiting for you in his office." The girl pointed to a large glass door at the end of the hallway, without even looking up from her phone.
"Thank you." Sienna told her.
“May I take your puffy?” another blonde asked.
“Sorry, my what?”
“Your coat,” the girl smirked.
Sienna slid out of her coat and handed the damp lump over to the girl who pranced away holding it between her fingers like it was a stinky rag. Sienna sighed and sat down to change out of her winter boots.
“Shit, shit, double shit” she muttered to herself. She realized that while she was busy grabbing her bagel from the toaster she had forgotten to bring the bag she'd put her heels in. She stood up and smoothed her skirt and decided just to try to make the best of this interview. She proceeded to walk down the hallway to Mr. Wise’s office trying to avoiding the judgmental eyes that were following her every move.
“Oh my god, someone certainly loves carbs and mukluks” she overheard one of the girls titter once they thought she was out of earshot.
“Bitch,” Sienna muttered to herself, trying not to let the catty comment get to her as she reminded herself of her Father's debt. Standing tall and walking with her head held high, she knocked on the glass door of the office.
"Just a moment." Jonathan called. His high back chair was turned away from the door.
Sienna heard the chair scrape along with giggling. A few moments later a girl popped up from in front of the chair with smeared red lipstick, buttoning a low-cut blouse, which really served no point as you could see her perfect pink nipples as clear as day through her shirt. Sienna felt revolted and started to turn away in disgust.
"Come in Miss Smythe." Jonathan called. "You are my morning interview, right?"
She paused, holding her hand on the door and felt the skin on her neck prickle and her face flush. That voice. She would never forget that voice. She didn’t want to turn around to face him, but she knew that she had to. Slowly, she shuffled her heavy boots a
round and raised her gaze to look into the ice blue eyes of her step-brother, Johnny.
Chapter 3
It was September 2003, and Sienna and her Mom, Janice, were sitting in Carlstown traffic in their car. It was stuffed to the roof with all of their belongings. Sienna had Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’ CD on repeat and she and her Mom had already belted out the lyrics to the song six times. Sienna was used to moving around. Her Mom and Dad had split up when she was young. Her Mom was a landscaper and had to follow the weather in order to keep working year-round.
“Are you excited to have a brother?” her Mom asked.
Sienna just shrugged her shoulders and stared at her reflection in the window. She hummed along with Christina’s words, but she certainly didn’t feel beautiful. All that she could see in the window were her braces and the line of persistent acne that ran along her jawbone.
She fidgeted with her fingers in her lap. She didn’t want to tell her Mom that she was nervous about meeting her new brother. Well, new step-brother that is. He was away at college for computer science and she had heard from her friends at school that knew him, that he was a giant nerd.
Their lights shone on the small bungalow as they pulled into the driveway. Peter, Janice’s new boyfriend, ran out of the house and grabbed her into a giant hug. He then turned and pulled Sienna into the bear hug as well. Maybe this won’t be so bad, Sienna thought. She had met Peter a few times and he always asked her questions about her school and seemed genuinely interested in getting to know her.
They wheeled the first few suitcases into the house and Peter put the kettle on to make them some tea. He had insisted that they sit down and relax before unloading the rest of the car. Sienna glanced around the living room. It was clean, but hadn’t really been updated since the 80s. She sat down on the green leather recliner and eased in, trying to relax. Her Mom had gone into the kitchen and she could hear Janice and Peter canoodling over the whistle of the teapot.
