Billionaire's Game

by Summer Cooper

  I didn’t know what to say, so I just grunted in reply. My lack of words didn’t dissuade her. She gestured for me to sit down at a table and promptly opened her snack.

  “Want one?”

  “Sure,” I said, reaching for the bag.

  As soon as I took the bag she leaned in and said, “So what’s your story?”

  I shrugged. “Just your typical college graduate.”

  “Bull crap. Aren’t you a genius or child prodigy or something? That’s what Jude told everyone.”

  I sighed. “No to all of the above. I’m just average intelligence.”

  “Didn’t you finish high school at like age fourteen?”

  “So, do you have any idea what the big announcement is?” I asked, changing the subject.

  She smiled secretly at me as she tossed a mini cookie in her mouth. “I know exactly what the big announcement is.” She pulled out her phone and tapped a few buttons.

  “This my dear is the big announcement...” A picture of a game show appeared.

  I arched my brows. “Brain Pain”? What’s that?”

  “It’s a game show that has all these fun challenges. Some challenges require braininess and the other challenges require physical prowess.”

  I stared blankly.

  “You’ve never heard of Brain Pain?”

  I shrugged apologetically, “No... I don’t watch much TV. And why are we involved? Like what does Brain Pain have to do with Ophelia’s Angels?”

  “Well, I’m not too sure but I heard they’re doing some sort of charity edition—”

  “Oh, that makes sense, so I guess—”

  “Ophelia’s Angels will be one of the charities!”

  “That’s so exciting! So, the proceeds from the show are going to go to us or something?”

  “No clue.”

  “So... umm... Is that why that guy is here for that secret meeting?”

  “Secret meeting?”

  “Yeah, I ran into this guy... tall... good-looking,” I said, blushing.

  She frowned. “I have no clue who you’re talking about. Show me. Now.”

  We got up and made our way to the meeting room. The blinds were closed so Maya pressed her ear against the door.

  “I can’t hear anything,” she said, disappointed. Another coworker came up and asked what we were doing.

  “Trying to figure out who’s inside there.”

  “Maybe it’s a producer?”

  Another employee popped up. “Who’s in there? Is it someone famous?”

  Suddenly a crowd had formed, and they were all excitedly whispering to each other. Everyone had their own theory and it was fun listening to them all, when finally someone said, “I think it’s Magnus Deacon. I heard from a friend of a friend who’s his cousin’s butler, that he’s a friend of Jude’s dad.”

  “Magnus Deacon!” gasped one of the girls.

  “Yes!”

  “Oh my God! What’s he doing here? Do you think it has something to do with Brain Pain?”

  “Brain Pain?” asked another “So the rumors are true? Magnus Deacon and Brain Pain! Oh my gosh! Could this day get any better?”

  “Who’s Magnus Deacon?” I asked innocently.

  They stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “He’s only one of the most ridiculously handsome billionaires in the world that no one is talking about.”

  “Well, that explains why I’ve never heard of him,” I joked.

  Apparently, I wasn’t funny because no one laughed.

  “Show her. She doesn’t understand how sexy this man is.”

  Maya pulled out her phone and pulled up a celebrity gossip page. We all formed a tight cluster around her and stared.

  “That’s Magnus Deacon?” I asked, reaching for the phone. I couldn’t believe it. “I saw him earlier.”

  “You saw Magnus Deacon here earlier! This Magnus Deacon!” Maya looked ready to swoon.

  I nodded and stared again at his photo. In the photo, he was walking down the street in an exotic locale without a shirt on. I couldn’t believe it was the same guy who had kicked me out of the office earlier. His chest was wide and expansive, and his hips were narrow. He was wearing plain white pants in the picture. He looked like a mythological deity because no one in real life had abs like that, right? His hair in the picture was a bit longer than it was when I’d met him. But he had that same look on his face. Not arrogant, just sure of himself. He was a man on a mission. A very hot man on a mission.

  “God, he’s hot,” I said, still looking at the picture.

  “I don’t know, I’ve seen better,” said a male voice near me.

  “Are you kidding me?” I said, turning to argue with the person who I realized was Jude. And standing right next to Jude was Magnus. I immediately shoved Maya’s phone back into her hand as if I were a kid caught by adults eating too much candy. I knew I turned a shade of red that would probably be the talk of the office tomorrow.

  The worst part was that Magnus just stood there looking mildly amused. Either he was used to women fawning over him or he just didn’t get frazzled easily.

  “What do you think, Magnus?” asked Jude like the troublemaker he was. He gave me a wide grin and I had to stop myself from punching him in the stomach. He was like an obnoxious kid brother, which was ridiculous since he was at least six years older than me.

  Magnus looked down at the photo of himself and then back up at me and gave me a little smile. “Photoshopped for sure, but thanks for the compliment.”

  I wanted to disappear into a hole. It was then I noticed the other girls looked ready to swoon.

  Magnus sauntered off and Jude tossed an arm around my shoulder and said, “Real smooth, Lesli. You’re doing great. Keep up the good work.”

  I shook my fist at him and he laughed before running up to catch up to Magnus. They exchanged words and Jude laughed at something Magnus said.

  And then to my surprise, Magnus turned and looked back at me. Our gazes caught, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking as he turned away and began speaking again to Jude as they disappeared through the door.

  “Oh my God, he’s so hot and he talked to you. I’m so jealous,” Maya said as we headed back to the office and the other ladies dispersed.

  “I think he likes you.”

  “Certainly not.”

  “Of course, he does, crazy woman. Did you not see how he flirted with you?”

  “He wasn’t flirting with me. He was just pointing out the whole photoshop thing,” I said unconvincingly. Maybe he had been flirting with me! I didn’t have much experience, so what did I know about flirting etiquette?

  Maya giggled. “I love how we were so busy staring at his photo that we didn’t even hear him leave the office behind us.”

  I shook my head. “Epic fail on our part.”

  I could hear my other coworkers laughing and a few were looking in my direction, and I couldn’t help but feel a little unsettled by all the attention I was getting lately. Life was becoming an adventure, but I wasn’t entirely sure that I was ready for it.

  Chapter Three

  “So, what do you think so far? How do you like it?” Lacey asked me as I set my glasses down to rub my eyes. I rolled my shoulders a few times as I considered my reply. My shoulders had become tense from leaning over the desk. I had a bad habit of sitting with my spine curled over as if I were the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I really needed to work on my posture.

  “It’s been an interesting few hours, that’s for sure,” I said, recalling the phone incident that involved a certain billionaire.

  “Things are never boring here. Come on, I’ll buy you lunch. Normally, we take new people out to lunch together as a big group, but things are so crazy today that we can’t really take the entire department.”

  “It’s ok, I get it.”

  “Well, that sucks for the rest of them, but count me in,” Maya said immediately as she removed her earbuds. I had thought she couldn’t hear us with the noise canceling earbuds
on, but I had been wrong. I seemed to be wrong about a lot in Florida. She then paused and said to Lacey, “Lunch is on you, right?”

  “Yes, you moocher.”

  “I’m not a moocher, I’m an opportunist,” she said proudly. “And the opportunity to not have to pay for my own lunch sounds amazing.”

  “She has a point,” I conceded.

  Lacey shook her head. “Never agree with Maya, it’ll get you in a ton of trouble.”

  “Trouble? Me?” Maya said.

  From the little I’d learned about Maya, she was definitely trouble. She was a free-spirit with an opinion about everything that she shared with anyone who would listen.

  Since there were only the three of us, we piled into Lacey’s Range Rover. We ended up going to a small, family-owned Thai restaurant that all the locals loved. From what Lacey told me, what it was missing in décor, it made up for in taste. I certainly hoped so since I’d never had Thai food before. Maya assured me everything would be delicious and, most importantly, cheap.

  “So, what’s Magnus Deacon doing here?” was Maya’s first question as soon as we were done with ordering.

  “What makes you think I know?” Lacey quipped, staring lustfully at a neighboring table at what appeared to be miso soup. She reached for her napkin and spread it across her lap before lining up her utensils. Clearly, she was stalling.

  “Umm... you’re the boss’s wife. I’m pretty sure he tells you everything,” Maya said with a shrug.

  Lacey made a noncommittal sound and Maya stared her down. Finally, Lacey stopped evading the question and held up her hands as if she were surrendering.

  “Ok, ok. Maybe I know a little something.”

  “Spill it,” Maya said, leaning in. I found myself doing the same. I didn’t know when I had become so nosey.

  “I’ll tell you guys, but you have to act surprised at the meeting, ok? I don’t want Jude to think I’m completely untrustworthy when it comes to juicy secrets.”

  “Hold on, you mean, he doesn’t already know that?” I joked.

  She laughed and said, “Fine. Here’s the story in a nutshell. Brain Pain is having a celebrity edition. They’re asking pretty much B-list celebrities to select their favorite charity and partner with an employee from that charity to compete together on the show.”

  “So? Are you saying that we’re Magnus Deacon’s favorite charity?”

  She shrugged. “I guess so.”

  “Did he go to school with Jude or something?” I asked.

  She shrugged again. “I don’t think so. If anything, Oliver knows Magnus. Oliver knows everyone. I’m pretty sure he’s just doing a favor for Oliver. And that’s why he was here today. Jude wanted to give him a briefing on what we do here and other stuff.”

  We all had questions and unfortunately tried to ask them at the same time.

  “Ladies! Ladies! That’s all I know. I swear.”

  Maya narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “I pinkie-promise. I know nothing else.”

  “Fine,” she said huffily, then her eyes lit up. “But tell me the truth. Do you or do you not know who his partner will be?”

  “I honestly have no clue. I think he’s hoping someone will volunteer.”

  “Someone?” Maya said, giving Lacey a look of disbelief. “Trust me, Lacey, every woman in the world—on this entire spinning globe we call Earth, and maybe even some aliens from another planet—would volunteer to work with Magnus Deacon. He’s hot. Hotter than hot. I burn with lust just looking at him.”

  “TMI,” Lacey said, rolling her eyes.

  Maya ignored her and fanned herself. “I’m getting hot just thinking about being in his presence.”

  “So am I,” I blurted and then was immediately embarrassed. My words were met with laughter, but I knew I was turning red. I reached for a glass and took a big sip of water. Where had that come from? I’d only spent a few hours with Maya, but clearly her bluntness was rubbing off on me.

  “Girl, I don’t blame you. I was just talking about it with Lydia, our accountant, we were both saying how if we could find a way to spend some alone time with Magnus Deacon, we would definitely take it.”

  “Lydia?” Lacey said dryly. “She’s very married.”

  “So? A girl can dream,” Maya said, quickly coming to her friend’s defense.

  “Lydia has five kids and is married to her high school sweetheart,” Lacey said for good measure.

  “Hence why she needs this dream to become a reality. Her husband and kids are probably driving her crazy. I swear she arrives early at work just so she can have some peace and quiet.”

  “I only have one, but I know what you mean. I barely remember my own name since I’m so sleep deprived. I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night. Sometimes I daydream about sleep. I used to daydream about having a better butt and now I daydream about just sitting on my butt doing nothing.” She quietened as she stared off at something we couldn’t see.

  Maya snapped her fingers. “Earth to Lacey. Come in, Lacey. Wake up!”

  Lacey shook her head as if to wake herself up. “I think I’m going to go take a nap in my car.”

  She took the company credit card out her purse, tossed it on the table and said, “Lunch is on the company today. Don’t tell Jude that sometimes I sleep in my car or he’ll try to join me and his snoring is way too much for me to bear lately...”

  “Your secret is safe with us,” Maya said. “Lydia has spent many days hiding from her kids in her minivan.”

  “Maybe I should get a minivan,” Lacey said to herself.

  “You don’t need a minivan. You only have one kid!” Maya laughed.

  “Yeah, but if I had a minivan, I could just fold the seats down and sleep on them.”

  “Good point,” Maya said sagely.

  Lacey wished us a sleepy goodbye and headed out.

  “So... who do you think will be paired with Magnus?” Maya asked.

  I shook my head. “No clue. I just started today, so I’m not even sure who his choices are.”

  “Good point. I think it’ll probably just be Magnus and Jude. I mean that makes the most sense. He’s the CEO.”

  “Or maybe it will be Magnus and Aidan.”

  Maya laughed. “Are you kidding me? Aidan would never agree to that. Anything that could possibly mean getting dirty is not Aidan’s style.”

  Aidan was the chief of operations. He was very obsessively neat and professional. He was also no-nonsense. I’d only met him briefly, but from what I knew about him, I couldn’t picture him being up for a game show.

  Our food arrived shortly after and I wasn’t disappointed.

  “I think Pad Thai might be my new favorite dish.”

  “I told you, everything here is delicious.”

  I looked toward the parking lot and saw Lacey sleeping in her car. “Wow, she really did fall asleep. I guess we’ll need to take her order to go.”

  We finished eating, gathered Lacey’s meal and left, talking about who would be the best pick for the game show.

  Maya offered to drive, so Lacey moved to the backseat to catch a few more minutes of sleep which was apparently a hot commodity in her household now.

  When we arrived, we were greeted by Jude who had a huge smile on his face. I swear, he smiled more than anyone I knew. Apparently, fatherhood and marriage suited him very well.

  “Ladies, can you join us in the conference room in about ten minutes?”

  “Sure,” we answered. We exchanged furtive looks with each other.

  And then Jude looked confused. “Didn’t Lacey go with you all?”

  “Yeah, she’s sleeping in her car.”

  “Maya—”

  “Damn. I can’t keep a secret either.”

  Jude shrugged. “I took a nap in the car earlier. Her snoring is keeping me up at night. Don’t tell her I told you that.”

  Maya and I looked at each other and snickered.

  “Anyway, ten minutes?”
/>   We nodded and headed in the direction of our shared office.

  I wrapped up what I had been doing earlier and headed to the conference room with Maya. I was late apparently. Lacey was even already there, sitting next to Aidan whilst showing him pictures of Sebastian. Aidan smiled politely, but I could tell he wasn’t very impressed.

  “Well, I’m sure by now that you’ve all heard the rumors,” Jude started without preamble.

  “What rumors?” Maya asked innocently.

  “Ha ha,” Jude said dryly. “You were probably the person responsible for starting them...”

  “You have no proof!”

  I giggled and Jude shook his head. “I’m pretty sure our rumor mill, also known as Maya, has filled you guys in on what’s going on. Most of it was probably made up in her mind, because we all know Maya has an active imagination—”

  “Hey!” she protested.

  Jude continued, ignoring her, “So first things first, we’ve been selected for Brain Pain’s charity episode.”

  “Woo woop!” Lydia said making the rest of us laugh. She blushed. “Sorry. My eight-year-old does that whenever she knows we’re having hot dogs for dinner. She loves hot dogs.”

  “Who doesn’t love a good hot dog?” Maya said.

  Jude held up his hands. “Let’s try to stay focused people. Anyway, as part of the charity show, they’re going to pair one of you with a celebrity interested in our cause.”

  “Magnus Deacon,” Maya purred.

  “Yes,” Jude said with a long-suffering sigh. “Thanks, Maya, for messing up my big surprise.”

  “What? Everyone saw him! It was pretty easy to put everything together.”

  “She’s right, Jude,” said Lacey. “And you’ve been dropping hints and talking about it every day...”

  “Whose side are you on?” Jude said.

  “Sorry, honey... you’re terrible at surprises.”

  “That’s not true. Remember your anniversary gift was a surprise.”

  “Well—”

  “Jude, let’s try to stay on task, shall we?” Aidan remarked dryly.

  I wanted to laugh, but I bit my cheek to hold it back. Maya wasn’t so lucky, and Aidan shot her an annoyed look.