“I think she’s strong.”
“Good.”
“See you later, Charles.”
I head back to my office and motion for Macy to follow me.
“What’s up, Brayden?”
“I’m going to make an offer to Mackenzie Reed. Can you call down to HR and find out what the process is for that? I have no idea what to offer her as far as pay and all that.”
“Sure, okay. So the dinner went well? You haven’t said anything.”
“Yes. She’s a go-getter for sure. She’s the right balance of aggression and confidence. I think she’ll be a good addition to the team.”
“Whose team? Matt’s?”
“I think so, yes. It’s good timing with my promotion.”
“I’ll call downstairs and get all the details.”
“Great. I want to make the actual call to her, though.”
“Sure.”
A while later, Macy knocks on my door. “I have all the information you need for Mackenzie Reed. Brittney said if she accepts the position, you can give her Mackenzie’s number and she will call and handle all the personnel stuff, like salary and start date.”
“Perfect. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
I take a deep breath as I prepare to call Mackenzie. I dial her number and wait.
“Hello?”
I think my dick hardened at the sound of her voice.
“Mackenzie? This is Brayden James.”
“Well, hello there,” she replies, sweetly.
“Are you available to speak for a moment?”
“Yes, I am.”
In my mind, I will myself to sound like the professional I am before I speak.
“I enjoyed meeting you and I think you’d be a great addition to my team here at The Capella Group. I’d like to offer you a position if you still want to work for me.”
“I definitely want to work for you.”
“Great. I can have our Human Resources department call you to discuss the specifics in terms of salary and benefits and all that business.”
“I’m sure it will be competitive.”
“I have no doubt. We do well at attracting and keeping the best talent.”
“Obviously. They have you.”
Her voice kills me. It’s deep for a woman, but there is a sexy undertone that is soft, seductive, and fucking does it for me. Her voice turns me on just as much as her appearance.
“Thank you. If there is anything about the offer you find unacceptable, please let me know. I’m sure we can work something out.”
“I will.”
“Great. I’ll look forward to speaking with you again when you start.”
“Will I be training with you?”
“No, you’ll be with one of my top leaders. You’ll probably have a lot more interaction with me than you want, though. I’m a hands-on kind of guy.”
“I like the sound of that.”
I’m stunned silent for just a moment.
“What I mean is that I like to stay in touch with everything that is going on. I don’t like surprises.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you for this opportunity. I won’t let you down.”
“I believe that. We’ll make a formal announcement right before you start. I’m sure you’re bosses are going to lose it when they hear.”
“Most assuredly. I’ll be saving my contact list today before I tell them.”
“Good plan. I’m excited to see what you’ll bring to our agency.”
“So am I, Mr. James.” Fuck, even when she says my name like that, it drives me crazy.
“You can call me Brayden, even at work.”
“Thanks. You can call me Mac, but only you.”
I grin. “I get a special name already?”
“I only let people I really like call me that and I like you. Professionally speaking, of course.”
“Of course. I’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, you will.”
I hang up and release a heavy sigh. I hope I sounded like I was talking about business, but I don’t think I was. It’s true I’m a hands-on guy. At this point, I’d like to get my hands all over her. Something deep in my stomach shifts and I can’t quite name the feeling it causes. Was it a mistake hiring her? At this point, only time will tell.
A few hours later I get a call from Brittney to tell me that Mac accepted the position. I need to tell Matt and swear him to secrecy. I call him and ask him to come in.
“Hey, Brayden,” Matt says, appearing in my doorway.
“Hey, have a seat.”
He sits in the chair in front of my desk. “What’s going on?”
“I hired someone and I’m assigning her to your team. Her name is Mackenzie and she is starting on Monday. You can’t tell anyone, though, because she’s coming from our top competitor.”
“No way. You got someone from Christiansen?”
“I got one of their top executives,” I say, grinning. “It’s quite a coup for us.”
“Wow, that’s really awesome. I’m getting my first new associate?”
“Yes. I think you have the right dynamic to work well with her. She’s very ambitious and even a little aggressive. She knows her stuff and I think you two can do some good work together.”
“Cool. Okay, mum’s the word until she’s here.”
“Right. I’ll make a formal announcement Friday.”
“Great. I’m excited. We are unstoppable now.”
“We are. If this division outperforms the others, we’re in for some pretty bad ass bonuses.”
“Sweet. I can sit her next to my desk.”
“Well, Macy and I are moving upstairs Friday so you’ll move in here.”
“Friday?” he asks, excitement reflected in his tone. “That’s really cool.”
“Yes, you earned it. I know for me, I really felt like I made it once I had my own office and not just a cube.”
“Definitely. Now you’ll have an office on the top floor.”
I smile. I’ve definitely made it now. “I have nothing to complain about in my life.”
“Based on what I’ve seen, I doubt you ever do.”
“Nope. I’ve been lucky.”
“I’ll say.” Matt stands and walks towards the door. “Alright, well, I’ll start getting things set up for her, quietly of course. Her name is Mackenzie?”
“Yes, Mackenzie Reed.”
“Cool. See you later.”
“Yep.”
Okay that’s all taken care of. All I need to do now is focus on what she can do for the company and not what she could do for me. I have a feeling, though, if given the opportunity, she could rock my world in more ways than one.
Finally home after a busy day, I press the elevator button for my condo. As I wait, an ambulance pulls up in front of my building. I look around and everything looks fine, but two paramedics get out, bringing a gurney with them. I hold the elevator door open as they approach and notice they are going to my floor.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“We had a call from the building manager regarding a tenant.”
“Do you know who?”
One of them looks at some paperwork. “Unit 10B.”
“That’s my neighbor. Do you know what happened?”
“Not yet, sir.”
The elevators open and I move to the side to let them out. They hurry down the hall to Gretchen’s apartment, where the building manager stands along with several neighbors. I rush over to see what is happening.
“Hey, Bob,” I say to the manager, noticing his distressed expression. “What happened with Gretchen?”
“She died.”
“Died?! Oh my god, when?”
“I don’t know how long she’s been in there. I came to check on her because I haven’t seen her for several days and that’s not normal for her. She didn’t answer, but I could hear the television and what sounded like an alarm clock. I opened the door and found her on the couch.�
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“That’s awful. Does she have family?”
“Not that I know of. I know she moved here after her divorce, but I’ve never seen family visit. As far as I know, she doesn’t have kids. I had no emergency contacts listed.”
“So she was alone,” I say, feeling really sad at that moment.
“Seems that way.”
The paramedics roll out a few minutes later with Gretchen strapped to the gurney and covered by a white sheet. She didn’t seem that old to me so I really wonder how she died.
“How old was she?” I ask Bob.
“I’m not sure. Maybe late 60’s.”
“I thought she was younger. Sad.”
“Yeah. I know she had a massive drinking problem. Maybe that had something to do with her death.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I’m surprised, since you lived so close to her.”
“She was always asking me in for a drink, but I thought she was just joking, honestly. I never went in there.” I peek inside her apartment and see lots of bottles of empty alcohol. “Sad,” I repeat.
“Yeah, it is. She was a nice lady,” Bob says. “I have to go with them.” He shuts and locks Gretchen’s door while the other neighbors and I stand outside in the hall, stunned.
My other neighbors, Rebecca and Steve, approach me. “Crazy, isn’t it?” Steve asks.
“Yeah, it is,” I reply. “I see her almost every day, although, now that I think about it, I haven’t seen her in quite a few days. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well.”
“Yes, maybe,” Rebecca says. “She just always seemed sad to me, like she was desperate for company.”
“Yeah, definitely. It just sucks that you can be dead for several days and no one notices.”
“Agreed. I hope when I’m old I still have all the people I love around me,” Steve says and squeezes his wife’s arm.
“That’s what we all hope for,” I say. “See you guys later.”
Inside my apartment, I sit down on my couch reeling from Gretchen’s death. Not that we were close, but fuck, she was in there for days and no one knew. No one noticed. Not even me, who talks to her almost every day. I’m so wrapped up in my own world I couldn’t see that Gretchen needed someone to care.
I decide to do something I rarely do, but it just feels like the right thing to do at this moment. I dial my mom. The phone rings four times and just as I’m about to hang up, she answers.
“Brayden?” she slurs into the phone.
“Yeah, Mom. How are you?” I cringe at the sound of her voice. She is clearly drunk again, but then when isn’t she?
“Is everything okay?” she asks.
“Yeah, it’s good. What are you doing?”
“Watching TV.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“I don’t know,” she says, a hint of anger reflecting in her voice.
“Is he home?”
“I said I don’t know. I’m in my room.”
I sigh. These two are so dysfunctional it’s insane.
“Don’t you want to be happy, Mom?”
“Happy?”
“Yeah. It’s not too late. You and dad haven’t been happy in ages, if you ever were.”
“I don’t see the point. I’m an old lady,” she says bitterly.
“You’re not that old yet. You have lots of life left if you want it.” I take a deep breath. “I want you to stop drinking.”
“What is this about?”
“It’s obvious you have a drinking problem, Mom. I don’t want you to die before your time.”
“When you die, that is your time. Why are you talking to me like this?”
“Is it so awful that a son wants his mom to stick around for a while? Wouldn’t you like to see me and Ariel get married and have kids?”
She laughs. “You want me to stick around? Doesn’t seem like it. My kids never call or come see me.”
“Mom, you’re drunk all the time. Who wants to be around that? Not me, not Ariel, and not Dad.”
“So it’s my fault no one loves me?”
Fuck, here we go again. This is exactly why I don’t call. The guilt trip starts now. “I’m just saying that it would be nice if we could hang around with you, but the drinking needs to stop. Have you ever thought of getting help? Like AA or something?”
I hear my mom’s sobs come through the line. “No one understands me. It’s always my fault when something is wrong. If you knew my life you would know why I drink.”
“Then do something to change it. Leave Dad, go out and make new friends. Do something besides drown your sorrows in a bottle of Jack.”
“I’ve lost my youth. I used to be pretty, you know. Just like Ariel, but your dad chases young women and won’t even look at me.”
“Jesus, Mom. I said leave him.”
“Don’t say the Lord’s name in vain, son. You’ll go to hell for that.”
I roll my eyes. Oh, now we’re being religious. “Are you listening to anything I’m saying?”
“Yes, son, I am. I’ll pray about it.”
“Yeah, okay. Whatever, Mom. I gotta go.”
“Thanks for calling,” she says in this weird fake happy voice.
“Yeah.” I hang up and wish I hadn’t called. That only made it worse. I don’t want my mom to end up like Gretchen, alone in an apartment drinking herself to death, but she’s had the bottle in her hand as long as I can remember.
I’ll never forget how I overheard my mom and my aunt talking about how my mom hoped having the two kids would save her marriage. We were nothing but pawns to get my dad’s attention. It never worked. He was banging a nurse in a janitor’s closet while my mom was in labor with Ariel. Oh yeah, can’t erase that tidbit overheard in one of their many arguments.
It makes me sick thinking about their life together. I don’t think he ever cared about my mom or us. How many beatings did I witness? How many times did I hold a shaking Ariel in my arms while they fought? Why they stay together I will never know. All I know is I would rather be alone forever than spend one day in a marriage like my parents’.
I finish dressing quickly before I head out the door to work. As I pass by Gretchen’s place, I pause and peek in since the door is open. Bob is there, along with two police officers. Bob sees me and steps into the foyer.
“Hi, Brayden. The police are just gathering a few things. They tried looking for a next of kin, but didn’t find anyone.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah. It looks like suicide. They found a note and an empty pill bottle.”
“Suicide?”
“Yes,” Bob says looking back at the apartment. “She left a note along with her will. The police are taking the will, but at a glance there was no family mentioned, just a bunch of charities.”
“So no friends and no family?”
Bob shrugs. “I know she was really lonely. I had to stop going in there for maintenance. Every time she called me to come up she would be wearing hardly anything and tried to seduce me. I kept telling her I was a happily married man and she would say all men cheat.”
“I just didn’t pay that much attention to her. She was often in the hall as I came and went, but we never really talked. I didn’t know much about her.”
“No one did. The police say she was dead for at least four days. If it was warmer outside, we probably would have noticed sooner. You know, from the smell.” Bob crinkles his nose.
“God, that’s awful.”
“It is.”
I think of Gretchen alone in that apartment deciding to end it all, and then shake my head to clear my morbid thoughts. “Thanks for the update. I have to get to work now.”
“Have a good day. Place should be cleaned up by the time you get home from work.”
“Cool.”
I walk down to the parking garage. It’s even worse knowing Gretchen took her own life. She must have been really sad or lonely to do that. Now I wonder what happened in her life. Where did it all go wrong? In my car
, I dial Ariel’s number.
“Hello?” Her voice is still groggy with sleep.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, I’m up just not quite awake yet. What’s going on?”
“My neighbor committed suicide.”
“Gosh! Really?”
“Yeah. You remember that blond lady, Gretchen?”
“Oh, the one I said reminds me of Mom?”
“Yeah, that’s her. She was in there for days before anyone noticed.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah. I tried talking to Mom last night, but it was the same old shit.”
“No surprise. She’s killing herself, too. She’s just doing it slowly.”
“I know. It bugs the shit out of me sometimes.”
“Me, too, Brayden, but what can we do?”
“I don’t know.” I pull out onto the street and start my drive to work.
“Hey, I talked to my friend Stacey last night. She got hired and will be out here soon. She asked about you.”
“Did she?”
“Yep, I think she likes you. That must have been some ride home.”
“I don’t know how she could like me. We didn’t talk much and I kept my distance.”
“I think it’s pretty easy to like you. Anyway, maybe you can help us move in her things when she gets here.”
“Of course. Just call when you need me.”
“Why didn’t you like her? She’s pretty.”
“Yeah, she is, but there didn’t seem to be any kind of spark there. She seems like a nice girl, though.”
“She is, but she’s so sweet. Too sweet.”
“I noticed.”
“I think she wants to see you again.”
“Outside of friendship, I really don’t see anything happening between us.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t worry. Your friend is safe from me.”
Ariel laughs. “Good to know.”
“What about your love life? I haven’t heard anything from you in a while.”
“I’m not dating anyone. Just hanging out here and there. I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, sis. Have a good day.”
“You, too. Bye.”
“Bye.” I hang up just as I pull into the parking garage for my work.
Walking inside the building, I push the button for my floor. Shaking off the sadness of my morning, a big shit eating grin crosses my lips as I realize how everything in my life is coming together. I have everything I’ve always wanted and it’s only up from here.
Chasing Desire Page 9
