Distantly, I could feel my heart tightening up, like it was trying to figure out if it should keep beating or just go ahead and call it quits right now.
I frowned. “So you’re saying he broke up with you to ask me out?”
“No. I’m saying he was trying to get the best of both worlds and date you on the side, or turn me into the one he was dating on the side. Who knows which. I’m saying that Liam isn’t the guy he wants you to think he is. You can’t trust him, and I can prove it.”
My head was spinning a little and I felt lightheaded, but more than anything, a growing urge to punch Liam in the penis was rising up in me. No, a penis punch would be too good for him if what she was saying was true. I’d empty a soda can, fill it with milk—because there’s nothing more disturbing than taking a sip of a drink and being wrong about what you’re drinking—trick him into drinking it, and then punch him in the penis.
On the other hand, I’d only known Claire a few days. I had no real reason to trust her over Liam, who I admittedly also hadn’t known Liam for a long time-outside the fact that he has a small freckle on the base of his impressive penis, or that he is ticklish right under his butt cheek.
“You have proof?” I asked. My voice was strained as I tried to keep the emotion I felt inside from touching my words.
“He’s going on a date with someone else. Tonight. I’m guessing he wasn’t available to do anything with you this evening, am I right?”
My nostrils flared. “That’s right. But it doesn’t prove anything. He said he had something work related.”
“What about the fact that he’s still been seeing me this whole time? Does that prove anything?”
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. I couldn’t make sense of everything fast enough, and I had to keep fighting my natural instinct to trust Liam above all else. “According to you, maybe. That’s not proof. Besides, I’m supposed to believe you stayed with him even though you knew he was seeing me? Is that what I’m supposed to believe?” I hated how desperate I sounded to prove her wrong—how desperate I was to believe Liam was the man I thought he was and not the monster she was claiming.
“I never said I was a strong person, or smart,” Claire said. “So you can believe what you want, but I thought I owed it to you to tell you the truth. And if you decide you want to see for yourself, he’s going to be at Cochina La'Fleur tonight with his date. Seven-thirty reservation for two in the private patio seating in the back.”
“You can leave now,” I said tightly.
She gave me a sympathetic look. “I was pissed when I first found out, too. Sorry I lied to you, for whatever that’s worth.”
She walked away, and I buzzed William’s office. He burst out of his door with a crazed look in his eyes literally five seconds later.
“You buzzed?” he asked with a mad grin.
He’d given me the power to buzz his office nearly a year ago, and I still remember how excited he’d been about it. I think he imagined I’d be buzzing him all the time to trade jokes or whatever ridiculousness went through his head. I’d stubbornly refused to use it, opting to instead wait until he inevitably left his office to wander aimlessly around the building every few minutes.
“Do you still have all that spy gear?”
“Not only do I still have it. I’ve upgraded since last time.”
14
Liam
Price sat across from my desk with a serious look on his face. I was due to meet with the business contact in about an hour, and he had insisted on trying to coach me up for it.
“So,” he said. “What do you do if she shows doubts about the product?”
“I let the numbers do the talking. We out-perform every single financial advisor in the country over a six-month period by as much as twenty percent.”
“Wrong. You empathize with her. She already knows our numbers. She’s not meeting with you so you can spew out what she could read for herself. She wants to meet because she needs to feel like she trusts the people behind the numbers.”
“Empathize with her? What do you want me to do, laugh and say I have my doubts too? That I always wonder which month will be the one where we fall flat on our asses and lose our investors tens of millions?”
“Uh, no. You empathize without ever taking away from our product. You compliment her for being so careful. She’s a studious businesswoman. You respect that. You can’t believe some people call themselves businessmen and women when they don’t take the same precautions she does. Then you refer back to the numbers as if she has already looked at them and seen for herself that they are impressive.”
“Yeah, I get it. I still don’t think any of this is necessary. I mean, our product does speak for itself. We don’t just have an edge on the competition, we swallow it up. There’s literally no reason to say no.”
Price sighed. “Too confident. You sound like you’re trying too hard to convince her. When a salesman pushes too hard, the client gets defensive. They feel like prey and like you’re the predator. You’ve got to make her feel like you’re on her side, and you have no real stake in whether she chooses us or not. You’re just a friend who is presenting her options, and the option is so clear you don’t have to push her toward it.”
I sighed. “Okay. Are we done?”
He crossed his arms. “Well, one more thing. She’s a woman, and she’s pretty. I know you’ve got that thing going with your neighbor, but you might want to consider flirting. I’m obviously not saying you should actually try anything. Just a little nod here, a little slightly-too-lingering look at her cleavage, a hand on the small or her back, you know, that kind of thing.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
Price groaned. “Come on, man. Can you at least compliment what she’s wearing? It’s part of the game.”
“I’m already pissed enough that I had to pass up on a night with Lilith to do your job in the first place. I finally found a girl I like, and I’m not going to fuck it up over a few dollars.”
“If this woman is who she says she is, it’s more than a few dollars. A few hundred million dollars, maybe.”
“What do you mean if she’s who she says she is?”
Price winced. “I mean, it’s not completely unheard of for a liaison to be unlisted anywhere online in connection to the company, or for her to not offer to send any kind of credentials.”
“What?”
“I’m just saying I kind of have her word to go on, but I didn’t want to insult her or them by digging and questioning whether she was legit. But why would someone lie? It’s not like we’re giving them money. We’re trying to get them to link up thousands of accounts to use our system. There’s nothing in this for a scammer, so…”
“You didn’t ask for credentials?”
"I've never had to ask before. Like I said though, it's not anything you should worry about. The worst case scenario is she's some kind of psycho who gets off on pretending to be a liaison for a high-powered super corporation. I've heard about people being afraid of pickles, but I've never heard of that particular psychological disorder. I think we’re safe.”
“If this backfires somehow, I’m holding you responsible. You know that, right?”
“Backfires? What’s the worst that can happen? You get to eat a fancy-ass dinner and you spend two hours talking to a psycho? Big deal. The flip side is huge. Just think about the money we could make.”
“Yeah, because we need more of that.”
Price pulled his head back and frowned. “Woah. Where’s that coming from? What happened to the guy I knew? The one who started all of this? The one who always pushed for more and for better, even if there was no reason to?”
“When I need to use you as a therapist, I’ll let you know. How does that sound?”
He gave me a tight smile. “Shit, man. I don’t care if it’s me. But you should at least have someone to talk to. Just saying I’m here if you need me. No homo.”
I shook my head and grinned. “Re
ally? No homo? What is this, middle school? Besides, I’m pretty sure you can’t say something like that anymore. People will think you’re anti-gay.”
“You don’t have to be gay to be pro-gay rights, dude. Do you think before you talk?”
I sighed. “You know what I mean.”
“I just thought I saw a little twinkle in your eye. I didn’t want it to get weird.”
“You didn’t see a twinkle in my eye. Maybe you just saw how badly I wished you came with a mute button.”
“That was rude.”
“I do appreciate it though. If I ever thought I needed someone to talk to, I guess I’d talk to you. No homo,” I added with a grin.
“No homo,” he agreed. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that?”
I grinned. “So you’re saying some homo, then?”
Price chuckled. “Stop trying to distract me. I was trying to figure out if I could count on you to nail this liaison business?”
“I’ll assume your poor choice of words was accidental. But yes, I’ll get it done, assuming this woman is even who she says she is.”
The restaurant was busy, but we were ushered through the quietly buzzing dining room, through a section of the kitchens, and out to a third-floor patio. A single, candle-lit table and two chairs, and a heating lamp were the only pieces of furniture on the patio. I inwardly groaned in frustration at having let Price make the reservations. He had insisted, and now I knew why.
I let the woman sit down before I took my seat across from her, and it was only then that I took my first real look at her. She had platinum-blonde hair, lips so suspiciously full that I wondered if she’d had surgical assistance, and an upturned nose. She looked like some of the women I’d wasted my time with years ago—the type who showed up when enough zeroes appeared in your bank account. It was as mysterious to me as the appearance of flies around a trash can in an otherwise clean house. I could only figure it was the same mystery of science at play.
I nodded to her and gave a tight smile as the waiter filled our waters and described the featured wine selections for the night. I started to wave him off, but she touched his arm and ordered a bottle for the table. She had a European accent I couldn’t place. It was somewhere between French and Italian, I thought.
The heating lamp wasn’t doing much to fight against the chill in the air, so I didn’t remove my coat. The woman across from me apparently felt otherwise, and when she pulled off her jacket, I felt like I had to look a few feet over her head to avoid the excessive amounts of cleavage she was displaying.
“I’m Liam, by the way,” I said to the skyscraper above her head.
“Floria,” she purred. “I’m not sure how much your partner told you, but I’m very interested in you and your business.”
“Yes, I was told you specifically wanted to meet with me. I can assure you, though, Price is much better suited to explain our product and what it can do for you. I’m essentially just the one who has my nose buried in the stock market.”
“It looks like you also find time to exercise as well. Quite vigorously, I imagine.”
I clenched my teeth. Warning alarms were already sounding in my head. I may not have had Price’s job, but I knew enough about schmoozing potential clients to know where the line was supposed to be drawn between professional and casual. She was already testing the boundaries.
“So what exactly do you do for your company?”
“Merrick was my great-grandfather’s company.” Her tone was dismissive, and she was speaking quickly, like she was building toward changing the subject as quickly as she could. “I’ll be honest with you, Mr. Hightower. They mostly send me for face-to-face meetings because we’ve found potential business partners are more generous once they’ve met me. Face-to-face,” she added as she rested her chin on the back of her hand.
I had to fight the urge to sigh with exasperation. Whatever this was. Whoever she was. I wasn’t buying it. I had to at least get some kind of confirmation before I called this charade off, because I knew Price would never let it go if I didn’t give him some conclusive reason I’d told this woman to get lost.
I had a bad feeling it was going to be a long, frustrating night, and I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering to Lilith—to wishing I was sitting across from her instead of wasting my time with this joke of a business deal.
15
Lilith
The night vision goggles had a few toggle switches that let me adjust how sensitive to heat they were. William had rented me a hotel room with a perfect view of the patio behind Cochina La'Fleur. Unfortunately, the windows didn’t open, but I had the goggles pressed against the glass as I frowned down at the patio a few floors below me. From this distance, Liam and the woman were about the size of my thumb, but I could at least kind of see what was going on.
Liam looked like an orange and red blob, with his face being the darkest red. The woman across from him was a lighter shade of yellow, probably because the idiot had taken her jacket off to reveal a giant, hot pair of boobs—and I meant hot in the objective sense, because they were dark red orbs on her otherwise yellow-tinged body through the goggles. It was like she had some kind of super-hoe power of directing her blood flow to her boobs to engorge them for maximum steal-yo-man effect.
“Seeing anything cool?” William asked. He was crouched beside me. A few feet behind him, Hailey waited with her arms crossed and a look on her face that said she was still trying to figure out why she had married a man-child. At the same time, she couldn’t seem to look at him without a glint of adoration, like she was also trying to figure out why she also couldn’t help being so deeply in love with said man-child.
“I see my sort-of-boyfriend sitting across from two giant boobs attached to a woman. So, no, it doesn’t seem cool to me.”
“You’re saying she’s stacked?”
“William,” groaned Hailey. “Can you refrain from talking about another woman’s breasts while I’m in the room, at least?”
“It’s not for my own benefit, Hailey. It’s because I’m trying to put together a mental case on this whole situation. We’ve got the boyfriend and the mysterious date. The mysterious ex who claims to also be a girlfriend. The way this mysterious date of his looks is critical. We need to know if she’s the crafty type, or just someone who is as clueless as Lilith was.”
“I wasn’t clueless. I’m still not even sure I believe any of this, for the record.”
“Right,” William said. “You didn’t believe it so hard you practically begged me to set up this sting operation.”
I set down the goggles to glare at him. “Begged you? I just asked for the goggles. You were the one who was bursting out of your boots with how bad you wanted to know what was going on.”
Hailey groaned. “You said you only agreed to do all this because you’d never seen Lilith cry before. You said it was moving, and if I’d been there, I definitely would’ve cried.”
William made an ehh kind of noise and hopped up to his feet. “Let’s not get bogged down by details, people. We’ve got something more important to focus on here. Lilith’s boyfriend has a case of wandering penis, and we need to find if the snake is going to find a new hole tonight.”
“William,” Hailey hissed. “That’s her sort-of-boyfriend you’re talking about. Also, you lied to drag me into this. That means I get to pick where we’re having dinner tonight. That was the deal.”
He sighed. “Come on. It was a white lie. I know what you’re going to pick, and I can’t do sushi again. Haven’t you seen those statistics about how likely you are to get worms? Or have you seen the videos of tuna coming in off the dock just teeming with worms under their skin.”
“Then you’d better chew thoroughly,” Hailey said. “Because it’s going to be sushi.”
The two of them began arguing about where they were going to get dinner, and I re-focused on the balcony while trying to ignore them.
The waiter brought a bottle of wine to the table and pour
ed both of them a glass. Some business meeting. The woman pressed her hand to her chest and tossed her head back to laugh loudly at something, and I couldn’t quite make out Liam’s face to see if he was smiling too.
I was gritting my teeth. Night-vision goggles weren't really helping me, here. The listening device would have been good, but the windows made it so the only thing I could hear was a hundred echoes of sound bouncing off windows throughout the building I was in.
I felt guilty for doing this, but I also thought any sane woman would at least have considered trying to investigate everything Claire said. Admittedly, most sane women probably would’ve settled for finding a spot on the street outside the restaurant to wait instead of the elaborate operation I’d been sucked into.
I was about to get up and go down when I saw the woman deliberately tug her dress down, revealing even more of those ridiculous boobs. Liam seemed to stiffen in his seat, and then he set his napkin down, stood, and started walking back inside the restaurant. The woman stood up, too, and followed him inside.
My stomach sank. Was that all it took? A little bonus boob and dinner was abandoned because he just couldn’t wait to screw her?
“Mission’s off,” I said. My voice sounded dry and dead.
“What?” asked William, who had moved on from arguing about tuna worms to how sushi was technically like throwing rice in a salad, if you really thought about it. “What happened?”
“She practically flashed him, he got up, and they both went into the restaurant. I’m just wondering if they’ll make it back to a bed or if they’re going to go at it in the bathroom.”
“Wait,” Hailey said. “Who got up first? Him?”
“Yeah, why?”
“What if he got pissed off. Maybe it was a business meeting and she crossed the line. He could’ve been walking out on her. She might have gone after him to change his mind.”
His Package Page 13
