Naughty and Nice

by Sarah J. Brooks

  I swallowed dryly, unable to tell him that it wasn’t true. So I just gave him a soft smile. “Well, if it’s wrong, then you can fire us both.”

  “Oh, I plan to.” He blew out a deep breath. “How could you go and do this behind my back?”

  “What did you expect?” I snapped. “You weren’t listening to us, and we both had a bad feeling.” I pointed to the papers. “Our bad feeling was right.”

  If anything, I at least knew she’d tried to sleep with him. I knew that for sure because of how he’d reacted when I brought it up.

  Of course, it didn’t take the smartest person to know that something was going on with her; I mean, come on, she just popped up out of nowhere and wanted to work late nights and spend all her time with him? I mean, come on.

  I sat silently as he looked through the papers.

  “Do you want to contact some of the men she’s already scammed?” I raised an eyebrow. “Or do you think I’m making that up or something?”

  “I don’t think that, no.” He eyed me as he lifted some of the papers. “These bank statements would be hard to forge. Anyways, I think it would cost you way too much to make this all up.”

  Oh, thank God, he thought I was too cheap to make it up. You know, it wasn’t like he actually believed me or anything.

  I sat there waiting. It was the longest fucking hour of my life, but I didn’t annoy him, I just sat there quietly. About half an hour into it, Melina texted me to let me know that she made it home and see how it was going. I told her the truth—that I had no fucking clue, but he was, at least, looking at the papers we had in the folder.

  Finally, he put the folder down and looked at me.

  My heart did a backflip. Was he about to break up with me? I swallowed dryly.

  “So …?” I asked after thirty seconds of silence.

  “So … it looks like there is a lot of evidence in here. I’d like to look it over some more before I confront her about everything in this folder.”

  “Don’t tell me you still don’t believe me?” I groaned. Anger boiled inside me, but honestly, I was too tired and felt way too defeated to get mad. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach as disappointment settled in instead of anger. I didn’t want to be disappointed—I wanted to be mad. I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, and that if he didn’t fire her, he should fire me.

  “I didn’t say that.” He reached out and touched my thigh. It took everything I had not to push him away. “I just need to process everything before I confront her about it. I don’t want to go in angry and let her get the upper hand.”

  “Oh.”

  Okay, I guess that was rational. That made sense, and I couldn’t dispute it. I stood. “Alright, so do you want to … stay here tonight?”

  “No.”

  I thought my heart couldn’t sink any lower. I was wrong.

  “Okay.” I swallowed, trying to ignore the fact that I could feel the tears coming on.

  “I—I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

  “Yup.”

  “Good; I’d like it if you were at work early so we can discuss what to do about … this situation.”

  Oh, that was a nice way of putting it. It was just a ‘situation’ now? Cute, but I didn’t say anything. I just nodded and crossed my arms over my chest as Dean stepped towards me. I stared at him and wanted to ask if he’d been tempted to sleep with her, but I didn’t dare. It wasn’t that I was being nice to him, it was a case of being too scared to know the answer for myself.

  He stepped towards me then paused, a smile spread over his face, but it looked forced. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He grabbed the folder. “Do you mind if I take this?” I shook my head.

  What was he going to do, shred it? I didn’t care what he wanted to do with it, all that mattered to me was that he knew what kind of woman he was letting into his world. I watched him as he headed for the door and left without another word. It was the first time in a week that we left each other without saying ‘I love you,’ but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Not because I didn’t love him, but because I wanted to know if he would say it first.

  I swallowed dryly as a tear slid down my cheek. Fuck it. I could have stayed up a little longer and cleaned, or even gotten some side project work done, but what was the point?

  Right now, I couldn’t answer that, so I just headed for the bedroom and dropped into bed doing a face plant. A deep breath passed through my lips as I pulled the blanket over myself and closed my eyes. It wasn’t the most productive way to spend the night, but every now and then, a girl just had to wallow in self-pity—right?

  Chapter Two

  I noted Dean’s car as I drove into the parking lot the next morning. The sun was just beginning to come up, and I was beyond tired. I didn’t really want to get up and come over here, but I figured on owing him that much. And if it meant getting rid of Nichole, then I was all for it.

  I’d like to say it wasn’t Nichol herself that I had an issue with, but honestly, it was. When she showed up at Dean’s and called me his maid, that rubbed me the wrong way, and now she had a contract for two weeks here to see how things went, and since she’d started here she hadn’t done anything to change my feelings for her. Sure, she seemed nice, on the outside, but I knew there was something off with her and had known it all along. No one wants to work as much as she does without another reason for it. Apparently that reason is to sleep with my boyfriend and then steal all his money before forcing him into bankruptcy.

  I bit my lower lip as I entered the lobby of the casino. Melina and Dean turned to face me.

  “What’s up?” I asked, unable to look at Dean; instead, I focused on Melina.

  A grin spread over her face. “Ding dong, the witch is dead.”

  For a split second, I actually thought she meant that she went out and killed Nicole.

  “What do you mean?” I was sure she hadn’t actually killed her, but I mean, come on, Melina seemed like she had it in her to kill someone.

  “I’ve asked Nichole to arrive a little early. I told her I would be here around 8:00 to open up.” Dean cleared his throat, and I turned to look at him but didn’t dare make eye contact. “When she arrives, I will confront her about the things you found, pretending that it was I who hired the investigator, to keep both you and Melina out of it, which is only fair to you both.” I swallowed dryly. “I will tell her that I am releasing her from her contract, and that she is free to leave the business, and that I will be giving her information to a couple friends of mine and encouraging them to pass it along to their own friends.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Well, what else am I supposed to do?”

  “I don’t know, can’t she be arrested?”

  “No, not really,” Melina spoke up. “I mean, not for what she was trying to do to Dean, and unless the other men do something … I’m not even sure if that would help,” she admitted. “What matters is that we get her name out there to people, so they know what she is.”

  I sighed. It wasn’t good enough. I wanted more; I wanted her to pay for what she was doing, but that didn’t seem like it was going to happen. “Alright, fine.” I bit my lip. It just sucked that all we could do was tell her to leave. But at least, Dean knows what she is.

  That was what mattered. That I didn’t lose him to someone like her, and that I kept him safe from someone like her. I glanced at the clock. If he was going to talk to her at 8:00, why were we here so early?

  “Melina, do you think you could grab us all a coffee? Oh, and Becca likes hot chocolate.”

  Melina nodded. “Alrighty, I’ll get the drinks, just don’t start telling her off until I’m here to listen.”

  He didn’t say anything until Melina was gone, and then Dean turned his attention to me but still refused to meet my gaze.

  “I um, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.” He paused. “I should have believed you and should have at least given you a chance; I should have looked into her but didn’t �
�� and then I took it out on you because you and Melina knew there was something wrong.”

  “You should have listened to us.” I crossed my arms over my chest. He was right. If he had listened to us and run his own background check, none of this would have happened. She wouldn’t have tried to sleep with him; he would have realized that she was just trying to get his money, but most of all, nothing would have changed between Dean and I. “You know, I tried really hard. I did. And you just sat there and acted like I was some crazy jealous girlfriend who was being paranoid about some girl trying to make a move on her boyfriend.” He should have known that I wasn’t that girl.

  “I know, and I’m sorry. I just … I liked the idea of having someone who wanted to stay late and work with me—”

  “I always offer to stay late!” I protested.

  “I know … but you …” He let out a deep breath. “I just liked the idea, alright?” No, it wasn’t, but I didn’t say it because I was trying to be nice. I didn’t want to break up with him over this, and didn’t want him to think that’s what I was getting at. “I love you, Becca, I really do. I just fucked up, and I can’t ask you to stay with me; I can’t expect you to either. But I can ask. So please, will you give me another chance? Will you let me prove to you that I will never let this happen again, that I’ll never make you feel like I’m picking someone over you ever again?”

  I swallowed dryly, biting my lip and stepped towards him. “I love you too, Dean,” I said, reaching out and touching his arm. “I do, but I’m really hurt. You picked her over me, even if you didn’t have sex with her.” Which I still wasn’t sure about. “You picked her over me. You defended her and acted like I was crazy, and you put spending time with her above spending time with me, even if it was because she liked to work with you. That hurts.” I stepped closer to him. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to give you another chance,” I admitted.

  Our eyes locked, and he stared at me; for a second, I thought he was going to cry. My hand traced over the muscles in his arms.

  “So … you’ll give me another shot?”

  Of course, I was going to give him another shot. I didn’t give up that easily. I stepped closer.

  “Of course.”

  He reached out; his fingers brushed my cheek as he closed any distance there was between us. His lips moved towards mine, and then he froze. His eyes locked on mine as if he was trying to figure out if he was allowed to kiss me or not, and I swallowed dryly, waiting to see if he would. I wouldn’t turn him away if he did.

  “Really?” He raised an eyebrow. “After I was such an ass?”

  “I’m not saying I’m going to forget about everything, but yea really. I’ll book a therapy appointment for us for tomorrow if she can fit us in. Er—” I hadn’t really been thinking about what I was saying there. “I mean, you said you wanted to come with me, right? That didn’t come out right.” I blew out a deep breath.

  Way to make it more tense, I thought.

  “No. I get what you mean, and maybe it will be a good idea for us to go after everything that happened. I can’t pressure you into going and then say it’s a bad idea for us to.” His eyes sparkled, never leaving mine as he reached out and brushed hair out of my face.

  His lips lowered themselves to mine.

  The kiss was soft and more gentle than I ever would have thought. I barely felt it, honestly and inhaled deeply as he pulled away from me. I didn’t want him to but knew the kiss would have to end, eventually. He cleared his throat, looking over my shoulder.

  Hint taken. Melina was back.

  “You don’t have to hide!” he called, a smile touching his lips.

  “Shit,” she muttered loud enough that we heard her. “If you two need me to be gone for a little longer…”

  “Don’t worry about it.” I cleared my throat. How long had she been there? She came into the room carrying a tray of hot mugs. “We’re getting along; we can sort the rest out later.” It was meant to lighten the mood, and thankfully it got a smile from both of them. Melina handed me one of the mugs and then took one for herself.

  “So, she should be here soon.”

  “Good.”

  “You still don’t want us around?” I asked.

  “No, I’m interested in seeing how she reacts if it’s just the two of us.”

  Chapter Three

  She arrived just before 8:00, which I knew she would.

  “Hey!” She smiled widely as she made her way into my office. “Is everything okay? How did things go with your girlfriend?”

  “Uh, they didn’t go that great actually … I learnt some stuff.”

  “Oh, no,” she pouted. “Don’t tell me she broke up with you, did she?” Her eyes widened. “She’s not cheating on you, is she?”

  I laughed softly, for some reason it was funny that she would jump to that, like now that I knew what her deal was, I realized she was trying to start drama between us. I looked past her shoulder and saw Melina and Becca standing in the doorway. Becca had her phone out and was pointing it at us.

  “No, it actually had nothing to do with her.” I turned and grabbed the folder off the desk. “It had to do with you.”

  Nichole’s eyes widened. “Um, what?”

  “Well, see I thought it might be a good idea to hire someone to look into you—you know, since you were going to be involved in my company and all … I had Becca meet with him to get everything he found out.” So that was a lie, but I wasn’t going to totally throw Becca and Melina under the bus. “I was meeting up with her to get the file.” Opening it, I flipped through the pages, waiting to see if she would say anything. She didn’t.

  She just stared at me with wide eyes, so I said something.

  “It’s filled with some pretty interesting stuff. Have you been in contact with Harry Blanze recently?” I looked up to see the color drain from her face.

  “H-Harry what?” She cleared her throat? “What about Harry? We were friends before, so?”

  “Well, it just seems like you stopped talking to Harry right before he lost all his money. Same with John Parker, Adam Stills, and Josh Patt.” I closed the folder and tilted my head as I looked at her. “Did I forget one on there? I think I did, didn’t I?” She didn’t say anything. “But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I was going to be next, wasn’t I?”

  “I …” She trailed off without really saying anything. It might have been mean of me, but I kind of wanted to laugh. I dropped the file on the desk and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yes?”

  “Okay, fine.” She let out a huff of frustration. “You caught me; I like to make money off lame men who are more than eager to give it away.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you can do anything about it. It’s not illegal for men to give me some stuff.”

  “You’re right.”

  “So what’s the harm?” She shook her head, and for a split second, I realized why Becca had never liked her. “You want in on it?” She raised an eyebrow. “I mean, come on, that little girlfriend of yours has nothing on me. She’s broke; I can pay for anything either of us wants. You want to make more than you ever will with this crap job? Play along, let me take you for everything you have and then file for bankruptcy and then we’ll split everything. We’ll go away together, somewhere no one knows about us. It’s the perfect life. You should try it, with me. We should do it together; we’d make a damn good team.” She paused, letting it sink in. “So, what do you say? Partners?”

  A woman cleared her throat behind Nichole.

  Nichole spun to face Melina, who did not look pleased. She stalked over here with a look that told me it was about to get bloody.

  “While I’m sure he appreciates your deadbeat lie of an offer, he already has a partner. Melina pointed to herself. “It’s me, honey. And if you think for a second you are half as good as me, or Becca for that matter, you are sooo wrong.” Melina paused to see Nichole take a step away from her.

  I watched Melina’s fingers curl int
o a fist. I swallowed dryly.

  Becca stepped forward. She was no longer holding the camera.

  *

  “What I don’t get,” I stepped towards her, my eyes locking on hers. “Why were you seen with Keith?” I crossed my arms over my chest but had to step in before Melina knocked her out, that much I knew, and I needed an answer to one very important question.

  Nichole turned to face me, and a frown crossed her face. “Who?”

  “You know, the one who held a gun to my head.”

  “Ohhh, him.” She laughed softly. “Just a little extra drama.” She shrugged. “Everyone is so much easier to control after going through something.” She studied me carefully. “Although I wasn’t expecting you to actually stick around. It would have been so much easier if he actually shot you.” My jaw dropped as I stared at the woman in front of me.

  “Don’t,” I heard Dean say behind me and turned to see him holding onto Melina. “I think it’s time you leave.” Dean stared at Nichole.

  She laughed loudly. “What, you’re scared I’m going to hurt your partner.”

  “No, I don’t want to give you a reason to file a police report.” Dean turned on his heel; dragging Melina with him, he grabbed a paper from the desk. “Here is your notice of contract termination.” He pulled Melina back over to where Nichole and I stood and handed it to her.

  I wanted nothing more than to knock the bitch out, but after what Dean just said, I knew I couldn’t. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. One. Two. Three. My eyes opened just in time to see the look of defeat on her face, and oh, my God, it made me feel so good. I smiled widely.

  “What’s wrong?” I gave her a fake pout. “You didn’t actually think I was going to let you take advantage of my boyfriend, did you?” I laughed. “Are you that fucking stupid?”

  She stared at me with wide eyes, and for a second, I thought she was going to cry. She spun on her heel and, without another word, she stormed out of the casino.