Executive Decision: A Romance Novel

by Mandy M. Roth

  I tossed my hand over his mouth. He continued talking for a minute and then stopped. “Seth, Dale and I are not a couple. We have told you all before that we are just friends. I’m still with....” I stopped a second before spitting Charles’ name out. Slowly, I released my hand from Seth’s mouth and could see the disappointment in his eyes.

  “Elizabeth, what are you thinking? He’s not the right man for you. How he can sleep with a woman that’s young enough to be his daughter is disturbing. I’m only ten years older than you and I would never dream of touching you.”

  Because I’m not your type. Really, really not your type.

  Not once breaking his stride, Seth continued onward. “What the hell is his name again? Jeffrey and I always called him Mr. Flash.”

  My heart went to my throat. I knew exactly who Mr. Flash was—Charles. We’d run into Seth and Jeffrey several times while out and neither of them had taken to Charles. Not many people did. He was certainly an acquired taste. That’s why I had sworn anyone who knew I was seeing him to secrecy. Dale was the last person I wanted to find out.

  “It’s a name, Elizabeth, you can either give it to me or I can stand here and tell you what I really want to call him. Trust me. It’s not pretty.”

  “Charles Baum?” Dale asked, his voice harsh.

  Seth pointed at him, clucking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “That’s right, Smarmy Charlie. That one was all Jeffrey’s. It did get a lot of use around here. When we saw him groping you in public and the way he didn’t care that everyone knew he was mentally undressing you, it took everything in Jeffrey and me not to drag the man outside and beat the living crap out of him. He only wants one thing. And that necklace he was trying get you to take, the one that could have caused you to fall forward with all those diamonds on it, was something rich men buy for their mistresses. Check the handbook. It’s rule number three. I was so proud of you when you refused to accept it.”

  You had to bring the necklace into it.

  “Oh, there’s nothing going on with Charles and me. You aren’t buying into Walters’ smear campaign are you? He doesn’t look at me like that,” Dale said mockingly.

  I froze as Dale tossed my words back at me, not only calling me out on lying but actually making me feel bad about it. I shot Seth a nasty look. He winked at me. Trust him not to care if he “outed” me. His dislike of Charles outweighed his concern for my feelings. He and Jeffrey were more protective of me than my own brothers.

  Funny, I moved away from home and still end up with men hovering over me, attempting to call the shots. I wondered if women everywhere suffered from this or if it was just me.

  Seth ran a hand over his velvet sports coat. “Have fun you two.” He turned to head back into his apartment. “Oh, and give her hell, Dale. He’s no good for her.”

  “Will do, Seth.”

  The minute Seth shut his door I assumed Dale would have at me. He didn’t. That was worse than getting one of his lectures. We walked silently down the hall. Each step made my stomach tighter and the tension in my shoulders worse.

  When I got to my door, I turned to him and slid my hand into his pocket. Pulling my keys out, I carefully avoided looking at Dale as I unlocked the door. Pushing my door open, the smell of cinnamon and spice hit me. I had a thing for scented bags of potpourri. I tucked them away in various places so no one could see them but they still let off a pleasant scent.

  As I dropped my keys into the tiny black wire basket on the antique table nearest the door, warm arms wrapped around me. Instinctively, I wanted to knock the person’s arms away, but I tended to react a bit differently than most women.

  Anger issues? Who me? Nah.

  “Dale, are you going to yell? You normally wouldn’t take news like that this well.”

  “I didn’t want to embarrass you. I thought I’d say this in private.”

  This was not going to be good.

  “I’m sorry I lied about Charles. I just don’t want everyone to know who I decide to share my bed with or his bed in this case.”

  “Funny, everyone else seemed to know. Why is it that I didn’t? I was kind of under the impression we were friends, best friends, Liz. Yet, you can’t even tell me that you’re sleeping with our boss. Guess we aren’t as close as I thought. You couldn’t find it....”

  “I didn’t want you to know.”

  “But it’s fine if everyone else does?”

  “It’s not like that.” I shook my head and tried to relax. “I don’t really care what they think about me, Dale. I care about what you think. More than I should.”

  That shut him up for a minute anyway.

  “Does Charles know we’re friends, outside of work?”

  You had to go there, didn’t you?

  I thought about lying, but that would only add to the problem at this point. “He ... umm ... well yes, sort of.”

  “He doesn’t. Does he?” Dale’s voice was a mixture of hurt, shock, and a whole lot of anger. “If we are really just friends, Elizabeth, why keep that a secret from him? And why keep him a secret from me? That’s something someone holds back from their significant other, not their best friend.”

  Does everyone have significant other on the mind today?

  The answering machine on the birch pedestal desk I picked up at a flea market for next to nothing blinked rapidly. I didn’t really care who called but it seemed like the perfect excuse to put distance between Dale and I.

  “I should probably check my--”

  “No. You should turn your stubborn butt around and face me.”

  Twisting around, I faced him. I’d never seen Dale look so serious, so determined before. “Charles has never been married and has never kept a woman more than a few months. Even then, he’s dragging who knows how many other women around town at the same time. He spends endless amounts of money on them, parades them around his high society friends as a showpiece, then finds new models when he tires of the old ones. Is that what you are, Elizabeth? Are you one of Charlie’s showpieces? Are you a new or an old model?”

  Folding my arms over my chest, I glared at Dale. Did he even need to ask? “Do you honestly think I’d allow him to do that to me?”

  “I never thought you’d sleep with him to begin with. Shows what I know.” He narrowed his gaze on me. “How long has this been going on?”

  Captain, she can’t take much more. She’ll rip apart. Pull back on the thrusters and lie to the boy if you have to.

  Shaking the bad television parodies out of my head, I focused on Dale. There was no way I was about to offer up the exact amount of time I’d been seeing Charles. “For a while now.”

  “Let me guess, every night you had to stay ‘extra late’ at work, you were there with him. And each dinner date you’ve had lately has been with him too. Was he the one who was going to your reunion with you? He was, wasn’t he? You were going to spend your vacation with him, and take him home to meet your family when I haven’t even gotten to meet them yet?” His gaze darted to the side table and stopped on a picture of the two of us in Italy. Dale had his arms wrapped around me and I was looking up at him. He’d had it converted to black and white and framed in an antique iron frame for me. “God, were you two together while we were in Italy on business? Is that why you seemed to have a rather selective flu bug? Fine one minute, too tired to leave your room or have company the next. Aww, I was in the room next door, Liz!”

  “Tell me how this is any of your business.”

  “It’s my business because you are one of my closest friends. No. You are my closest friend. And before you start on that spiel you feed Paige whenever my name comes up, we are more than two people who get along like family and you damn well know it. I practically live with you and at no point have I ever considered you to be like a sister!”

  I grunted. Trust Dale to suck the joy out of my denial. “I like the bubble I live in. Leave me be. In fact, the view’s damn nice from this side. You should try it sometime. We could make popcorn
and laugh at all the outsiders.” I stuck my bottom lip out and pouted, just enough to ease his mood. He was a sucker for that.

  He smiled. He might be an expert at pushing my buttons, but I was just as much of an expert when it came to him. “Promise you’ll at least tread lightly if you’re not going to break it off with him.”

  “Deal. And to make you feel better, I already told him that we need draw it to a close soon. It’s getting to be a bit more than I want. I’m beginning to the get the feeling that he’s looking for more from me than I’m willing to give.” I winked and flashed him a tiny smile. “Now, what are you wearing tonight?”

  That a girl. Get him talking clothes. He’ll forget all about Charles.

  “Not sure. What do you suggest? I’m not thinking we’re going anywhere fancy so I’m guessing I can get away with jeans. Plus, I know I have a few pairs over at Paige’s.”

  “You’ve got some here too. You really should get the apartment next door to me. You practically live in this building anyways. We could put a door between them so you wouldn’t even have to brave the hallway.”

  “I know but do you know how long it took me to find a place I liked?”

  “Yeah, I do. But why are you spending close to four-thousand dollars a month when you spend at least five nights a week here with me? Hell, if it’s about a doorman, I can take you back down to the front door and teach you how to open it yourself.”

  “I can open a door just fine.”

  “Then let’s just pack and we’ll move into your apartment. It’s bigger.”

  Dale stared at me and tipped his head slightly. “You would move in with me? You’d leave everyone here?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I was going to make a joke about weaning you off us but I guess if you really wanted that, then yes. Besides, I’m not sure I can wean myself off you and I love being around everyone here. They kind of feel like our family, don’t you think?”

  “Our family?”

  “I get that Paige is actually your sister but no one here is a blood relative to me, yet I can’t picture my life without them.”

  He ran his hand over his pants and nodded slowly. “It’s good that they feel like your family.”

  It hit me that he thought I was excluding him from the group. In a way I was. “I can’t picture you out of my life either but it’s different with you. I guess I was speaking for us, not me when I said family.”

  “Different how?”

  I shrugged and tried to think of how best to explain how I felt about him. “Okay, don’t take this the wrong way but do you ever feel like we’ve been playing house for eight years?”

  Dale laughed softly but didn’t sound quite so happy. “Interesting way to look at it. Seems to trivialize it a bit, don’t you think?”

  “Well, my first version was that you feel like a husband I can’t remember marrying and never have sex with. Which one sounded better and which one would freak you out less? Hell, the play house one freaks me out less too. So, see, you’re a bit hard to lump in with everyone else. Now, if you’re feeling the onslaught of another case of German Measles coming on please tell me now so I don’t get cleaned up for nothing.”

  “Ha, ha, you’re not funny.”

  “Great, now that we’ve gotten past that, let’s get back to the topic at hand—what are we wearing tonight?”

  “In so many ways you’re the woman every man wants. Mention clothing and you go all vampiric on me, just like any other woman would. It’s a shame really.”

  Giving him a droll look, I kicked my pumps off and untied my blouse. I dropped it onto the floor and heard Dale grumbling behind me. “I’m not your maid. Damn, Liz. I’ve already told you to stop stripping in front of me. You’re sadistic.”

  “Thanks.”

  I unzipped my skirt and let it fall to the floor next. Dale gasped and I was fairly sure he’d just caught sight of my newest thong.

  “Umpf.”

  A little concerned about the bang I’d just heard and the rather odd sound that had come from Dale, I peeked behind me to see him holding his shin and glaring at my dark walnut coffee table.

  “Get a little distracted there?”

  Dale gave me a “well duh” look and went back to glaring at the coffee table. “You know, if I hadn’t lugged this damn thing up four flights of stairs I would chop it up and use it for firewood.”

  “That’s great, but your fireplace is a gas one.”

  “Be quiet. I’m not talking to you until you stop running around naked in front of me. You do know that I have to look at you at work. The entire time we’re in a meeting I’m wondering what the hell you’re wearing under your outfit instead of listening to what’s going on. That’s wrong in ways I don’t want to think about.”

  “At least you know you’ve got a shot at finding out come the end of the day.”

  “That’s not really special anymore, is it? Charles knows too. He more than knows and more than finds out.”

  He shoots and scores.

  I did my best to pretend the comment didn’t bother me as I opened the door from my bedroom to my bathroom. I really wished the bathroom was accessible from the main room but the place was great so I didn’t complain. The fifties inspired metal white cabinets and white tiled walls with red grout shocked everyone who visited. I loved it. It was certainly me.

  I took my Gucci watch off and laid it carefully in a small open black leather case that held what little jewelry I liked to wear. It was my favorite and only watch. Its small, bracelet-like band, with silver clasps and its changeable colored bezels matched anything I paired it with.

  The watch had been a gift from Dale for my birthday several years back. A few weeks prior to my birthday, Dale had taken me out to help him look for a present for his then girlfriend. We’d spent hours out on the town before we agreed that a watch would be the perfect gift. Each one he suggested was too big and too expensive. I tried to bail out by admitting that my taste in watches was probably far different than a woman he’d date but he wouldn’t hear of letting me off the hook. When I’d finally selected one he laughed and told me to pick something else. He thought it wasn’t expensive enough and lacked a certain something. I kept coming back to the one I’d picked. When my birthday arrived, Dale spent the day with me and at the end of the night he gave me the watch I’d picked and a painting he’d had done for me.

  I pulled the silver rings from my fingers and deposited them into the box as well. I reached into the shower and turned the nozzles on full blast. Wrapping my hair into a loose bun, I grabbed a clip out of one of the tiny shelves under each cabinet and secured it.

  “Getting naked!” I shouted, warning Dale.

  Dale had once walked in on me completely nude and left immediately. My guess was he went to rub one out. He claimed he was embarrassed to face me. The sated look he’d worn on his face the next day lent validity to my theory. Though if I was right then that was just a bit more than I wanted to think about. After getting to feel his abs earlier, there was a better than average chance I’d be thinking of his body sinking into mine when I next masturbated.

  I stepped into the shower and pulled the red and white striped curtain closed. The hot water went to work on my tense shoulders, and I went to work on scrubbing myself. The smell of the honey soap Paige had picked up for me a week ago filled the area. I made a mental note to remember to ask her where exactly she got it from. I wanted more. Most things left my skin dry. This didn’t.

  “Coming in. I need to do a quick shave,” he called back to me.

  “Oh, please. Stop pretending you have facial hair. I’ve known you for years and have yet to see any.”

  He chuckled. The cabinet squeaked as he pulled his shaving supplies out. “I don’t have any facial hair because I shave my face twice a day.”

  “Umm, men don’t expect women to shave their legs twice a day do they?” The very idea of having to stand and shave everything twice made me tired just thinking about it. If I wasn’t sleeping with
Charles, I’d have given up bothering with shaving at all.

  Not really but if felt liberating to think it.

  I could get my legs waxed, but why? Lauren had spent years attempting to convince me waxing was the only to go. I spent equally as many years convincing her that it was a form of self-torture. She didn’t agree with me. Every time we got our bikini lines done, I spent the day in pain. Thinking of that covering my legs too made me shudder.

  “Even I wouldn’t wish that on you, Liz-B. With as long as your legs are, you’d spend three hours a day in there.”

  Liz-B. I hadn’t heard that from him in a while. Every now and then Dale would call me that. Especially when he was in a good mood or trying to get out of trouble with me. I preferred Liz, but people in New York seemed to prefer Elizabeth. Regardless how many times I corrected them, they still said it. I gave up long ago with the entire thing.

  Turning the knobs, I shut the water off and poked my head out. Dale stood in front of the oval mirror, lathering his face with shaving cream. His tawny muscles rippled as he moved. The white tank-like undershirt he now wore only helped emphasize how good a shape he was in.

  “Do you plan to stare at me all night or you going to get out and get dressed?” he asked as he tipped his head back and began to pull the razor down his neck.

  “I can if you really want me too but I forgot to grab a towel.”

  He laughed as he ran water over his Elsa Peretti’s sterling-silver razor. Why the man insisted on spending over three-hundred dollars on a razor was a mystery to me. If that wasn’t bad enough, he owned more than one. My generic pink plastic ones came in packs of ten for around three dollars and did their job.

  Men. No--strike that-- rich men.

  Chapter Five

  “Okay, pampered boy, give me a towel or I’m coming out naked.”

  Dale snatched a red terry-cloth towel off the shelf to his right and handed it to me. “I think you forget to grab towels just so you can watch me fetch things for you.”

  “You found me out, Fido.” I wrapped the towel around me and pinned it between my breasts. Stepping out of the shower, I looked at Dale and smiled. “Can I help you with that?”