Corporate A$$ (15 page)

Nathan

“I can’t believe you agreed to her stipulations,” Will spoke in irritation as we climbed inside the limo.

“I know what I’m doing. Do you really think she can triple profits in the first year?”

“No.”

“Neither do I. Anyway, she told me that our relationship needs to be strictly professional.”

“Why? And what relationship? You have sex with her like every other woman. There’s no relationship there.”

I didn’t say a word and stared out the passenger window.

“Are you upset she said that? I mean, you can still sleep with her and do business together. People do it all the time. Obviously, she thought there was a relationship thing there. Women are always thinking that. We fuck them and, bam, you’re suddenly in a relationship.”

I didn’t respond to his remark.

“That friend of hers, Lydia, she’s smoking hot and she seems nice. It’s weird. I felt really comfortable with her even though we only spoke for a few minutes.”

“She’s pregnant.” I looked over at him.

“Oh. So she’s married?”

“No. The baby daddy isn’t in the picture. Some Tinder guy that lied to her.”

“That sucks. I was going to ask her out, but now that I know she’s pregnant, forget it.”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t get involved with that if I were you.”

After returning to the office, I found myself extremely irritated. Irritated by what Fiona said about keeping a professional relationship. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted and it was probably best that I kept my distance from her for a while until I figured it out. I had become too wrapped up in her. Hell, I bought her flowers and I never bought the women I slept with flowers. I was confused and being in a Fiona-free zone for a few days was exactly what I needed. If she wanted a professional only type of thing, then that was what she’d get.

Fiona

A few days had passed and I hadn’t heard a word from Nathan. I spent my days at the office trying to smooth over the creditors and promising them they’d get their money. The contract between Winslow Wines and Carter Management Group was delivered by Nathan’s assistant Kylie and I took them over to our attorney.

“Everything looks to be in order, Fiona. All you have to do is sign and it’s a done deal,” my attorney, Lex spoke.

“Thanks, Lex. I’ll call an emergency board meeting and we’ll get this settled.”

I had Josh call the board members to meet tonight at seven o’clock.

“Do you want me to call Nathan?” he asked.

“No. I’ll call him myself.”

The truth was I missed hearing his voice. I had no clue why he hadn’t been in contact with me or why he had his assistant bring over the contract. I tried not to think about him, but it was hard. I missed him, but I felt used. There was a part of me that felt like he slept with me and tried to see me so much because he wanted me to agree to his terms about the company. Once he got his way, he disregarded me as if nothing between us ever happened. I knew what I said to him about keeping our relationship professional, but I didn’t mean for him to stop coming around. Was he mad? Or was his game over with?

After Josh went back to this desk, I took in a deep breath and dialed Nathan.

“Nathan Carter.”

“Hi, Nathan. It’s Fiona.”

“Yes, I know. What can I do for you?”

His tone sounded cold and I didn’t like it.

“I got the contract back from my attorney and there’s a board meeting at seven o’clock. If all goes well, we can sign tonight.”

“I’ll be there. Is there anything else?”

“No. How have you been?”

“Good. Listen, Fiona, I’m in the middle of something. I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

****

I was sitting in my office, doing some work and waiting until the board meeting when I heard a light knock on my office door.

“Come in.”

When I looked up, Nathan walked through the door. My belly flipped at the sight of him.

“Hi.” I smiled.

“Are you ready for the meeting?” he asked with a serious tone.

“Yeah.” I grabbed the contract and walked with him to the boardroom.

The board of directors welcomed Nathan with open arms and I was insulted. Picking up the pen that was lying on the table, Nathan signed first and then handed the pen to me. As soon as I signed my name on the dotted line, a tear formed in my eye. I didn’t expect it to be so hard, but it was. I felt like I handed him my soul. After signing, I threw the pen down, walked out of the boardroom, grabbed my purse from my office, and ran the hell out of the building as fast as I could without saying a word to anyone. Climbing into my car, I took off out of the parking lot and headed home, where I curled up on the couch and wrapped myself in a blanket.

About an hour had passed and there was a knock on the door.

“Fiona, it’s me. Open up.” He pounded.

“Go away, Nathan.”

“If you don’t open the door, I’m going to keep pounding until the neighbors come out.”

Taking in a deep breath, I got up from the couch and opened the door.

“What do you want?” I asked in anger.

“Why did you run out like that?”

“Because I was tired and I wanted to get home.” I walked back to the couch.

“I don’t believe you.” He stood in front of me.

“Nathan, why are you here? I haven’t heard from you in days. I signed the damn contract, come home, and now you want to know what’s wrong? Fuck you!” I shouted.

“Is that why you’re so upset? Because you haven’t heard from me in a few days? Why would that upset you? You’re the one who said you wanted to keep things between us professional.”

“Well, considering you were going to take over my company, I would have expected to at least hear from you. For god sakes, you even had your assistant bring the contract to me.”

“Because I was busy. You’re not the only company I’ve invested in,” he shouted.

“Don’t you shout at me!”

“You shouted at me first and said fuck you!”

I got up from the couch and attempted to walk away until he grabbed hold of my arm.

“Don’t walk away from me.”

I was ready to go psycho on him, to unleash the inner beast that was trying to claw its way out. But instead, I took in a long deep breath because it wasn’t worth it.

“I’m sorry for saying that to you. You need to understand how hard all of this is for me. I’ve lost my parents and now I’ve had to sign over the company that my father worked so hard to build. I know I didn’t have a choice because he’s the one who made the mess, but it’s still hard.”

His grip on my arm loosened and he pulled me into him, holding my head against his chest.

“I know it must be hard and I’m sorry. But you made the right decision.”

Being wrapped up in his arms made me feel better and I hated myself for feeling that way. Nathan Carter wasn’t good for me. He had just as many demons inside of him as I did.

“Do you feel better now?” he asked.

“A little bit.” I broke our embrace. “How about a vodka on the rocks?”

“I’d love one.”

I walked into the kitchen and took down two glasses.

“How’s Lydia doing? She looked really upset that day I was at your office.”

“That asshole, Bryce, let her go.”

“Why?”

“Because of cutbacks. Apparently, since I left, they lost some pretty major accounts.”

“Really?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” I asked with a small smile as I handed him a glass.

“No. Not at all. Does he know she’s pregnant?”

“Yes. And now she’s losing her insurance.”

“What an asshole. What is she going to do?”

“She wants to start her own graphic design business. She’s been doing some freelance work on the side for about a year.”

“Maybe I could help out. Some of the companies I own could probably use a good graphics designer. I’ll give them a call and see if I can throw some business her way.”

“Thanks, Nathan. I’m sure she’d appreciate it.”

He finished off his drink and set his glass down.

“I better get going. Are we good?” he asked.

“Yeah. We’re good.” I smiled.

“I handed a check over to Robbie and he’s going to deposit it tomorrow morning. The first thing we need to do is pay off the vineyard so they can start shipping the grapes to the winery and put the money back into the employee pension fund. Then we’ll work on the rest of the creditors.”

“I want to find a new vineyard. Start fresh, maybe make some changes. The same wine has been around for twenty-five years and times have changed; tastes have changed. Consumers have changed and I think it’s time for Winslow Wines to make a change.”

“That’s fine, but we need to start production back up as soon as possible so we’ll use who we have for now until we find someone new.”

“I agree.”

He gave me a small smile as he walked towards the door. Before stepping outside onto the porch, he turned and looked at me.

“I’m happy that you’re feeling better about things. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

“Thanks. You too, Nathan.”

As soon as he shut the door, I locked up and went upstairs to my bedroom. My feelings for him were growing stronger every day and I didn’t know how to stop them. He couldn’t commit himself to anyone, that much was obvious by his statements. My reaction to him having dinner with his assistant, before I even knew who she was, frightened me. Jealousy reared its ugly head and coursed through my veins. That was why a personal relationship with him had to stop. I couldn’t live like that, knowing how he was with women. All I wanted was to be a person’s someone special. But with my trust issues, I wasn’t sure that I could ever be.

Fiona

I was sitting in my office when Uncle Robbie walked in.

“Good news, Fiona. The money has been put back in the pension fund and I’ve spoken to Ken Raines. He was pleased that our debt was paid and he said he’d start shipping out the grapes to the winery as soon as tomorrow, but he wants payment up front from now on.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think he trusts us.”

“Well, that’s not how we do business. He ships, we pay later.”

“You need to understand where he’s coming from. We were in debt with him for over two million dollars for a long time. It’s going to take a while for him to trust this company again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some other creditors to pay off. You did the right thing, Fiona. I can already see this company starting to turn around.”

I gave him a small smile as he walked out of my office. My phone rang and when I looked at it, I saw that Lydia was calling.

“Hi there.”

“You are never going to believe who I just got off the phone with.”

“Who?”

“That friend of Nathan’s. Will.”

“What did he want?”

“He wants to have lunch to look over some of my designs. He may have some freelance work for me. Did you say something to Nathan?”

“Yeah. He saw you were upset that day you were here and he asked about it. I told him how you got laid off and he said maybe he could help.”

“Wow. Thank you, Fiona. I love you so much.”

“I love you too and you’re welcome. I know everything’s going to work out.”

“I hope so. I’ll let you get back to work. I have to go find something cute to wear.” She laughed.

“Have a good lunch and let me know how it went.”

“I will.”

After ending the call, two men walked into my office and grabbed the couch that was sitting in the corner.

“Excuse me.” I got up from my chair. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Moving this out of here. We have a desk that needs to be brought in.”

Ugh. Nathan.

“You knew I was moving a desk in here,” Nathan spoke as he walked in.

“I didn’t think it would be today or this week, or even this month.” I smirked.

“The sooner the better.” He smiled. “How are you today, Miss Winslow?”

“So are we moving this out or what?” the big burly man with the stained t-shirt asked.

“Yes. Move it out of here,” Nathan spoke.

Taking a seat behind my desk, I spoke, “I’m fine, Mr. Carter, and you?”

“I’m great.”

The two men moved out the couch and brought in a glass-topped desk to put in its place.

“Move it out more,” Nathan spoke. “The chair will be going against the wall.”

“Your chair can go on the other side,” I spoke.

“It could, but the view is much better with the chair against the wall.” He smirked.

Damn him! I tightened my legs.

As soon as the men moved the desk forward and brought in a high back, dark brown leather executive chair, Nathan took a seat and smiled as he looked at me.

“Yes, the view is much better.”

“Don’t you have work to do?” I asked.

“Yes, but I wanted to make sure my desk was put in place first.” He got up from his chair. “Anyway, I have to go out of town for a few days on business.”

“Where are you going?”

“Does it matter? It doesn’t have anything to do with Winslow Wines.”

“No. It doesn’t matter.”

“Good. I have to go. My plane will be leaving soon. Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone.” He winked.

“I will, and I suggest you do the same.”

“I can’t make any promises.” He smirked as he walked out of the office.

I clenched my fists, and after letting out the deep breath I took in, I grabbed my phone.

“Fiona, darling. It’s been forever,” Carlos answered.

“Hello, Carlos. I need a huge favor. Like huge.”

“Anything for you, darling.”

“How soon can you come to my office at Winslow Wines?”

“I can be there in a flash. What do you need?”

“We’ll discuss it when you get here.” I smiled.

“I’ll see you soon.”

****

I had just returned from the bathroom when I saw Carlos standing inside my office.

“Good to see you again, Carlos.” I hugged him.

“Good to see you, Fiona. Now what’s going on?”

“Look around. What do you see?” I waved my hand.

“Drab. Boring. Uninviting. But I do see potential.”

“Excellent.” I smiled. “I need to be inspired to do my best every time I sit behind my desk. I want people to feel welcomed, relaxed, and at home when they enter my office. I want it to scream California style.”

“We can draw inspiration from the ocean.” He held his hands out to his sides. “I see velvety saturated colored walls in dark teal, a wavy print floor-to-ceiling drapery on each of the windows, area rugs to match under each of the desks. Oh!” he exclaimed. “And cascading crystal strands hanging on the wall. Perhaps a couple of crystal lamps to match and teal-colored wingback chairs for your visitors.”

“Perfect.” I smiled. “I need it done and completely finished within a few days. I’m on a strict time schedule.”

“Hmm.” He looked down. “This carpeting needs to go. I’m thinking teal and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern.”

“Sounds nice. Can you get it done within a few days?”

“Yes. Not a problem. We aren’t starting a new job until the beginning of next week. I’ll call my team now and have them come paint tonight. I hate to say this, Fiona, but you need a new desk. This one won’t match the décor.”

“Do what you have to do, Carlos. Out with the old and in with the new.”

“I’ll be in touch, darling.” He kissed my cheek.

I went down to the storage area and collected some boxes so I could empty out the contents from my father’s desk.

“Are you moving out?” Josh asked as I walked past his desk.

“I’m revamping my office.”

“Nice. Is that what that guy was doing here?”

“Yes. My office will be under construction for the next few days, so I’m going to be using the desk next to yours. We can be desk buddies.” I smirked.

“Lovely.” Josh rolled his eyes.

“I need you to call the movers and have them move all the furniture out of the office within the next couple of hours. Have them put everything in storage.”

“Does Nathan know about this little revamp of your shared office?”

“No. He’ll be so surprised when he gets back from his business trip. I can’t wait to see the expression on his face.”

Josh narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you up to, Fiona?”