AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just as quickly as that thought entered his mind, it disappeared with the reality of the morning. He glanced at his watch. It was almost eight o’clock already. He should be on his way to work by this point.
He gently swung his legs over the side of the bed and started picking up clothes as he made his way to the door. He wasn’t going to have time to go home and shower. He was going to have to use the shower in the executive bathroom just off his office. He hoped he had a change of clothes there. If not, he was going to have to have his secretary go out and get something for him for the day.
He was getting into his clothes and at the same time, moving towards the door. Luckily, he’d left his phone in his jacket. He would have hated to have to root around her tiny apartment for it. Everything had happened in such a blur, he never would have found it.
Richard stopped off in her bathroom as he got dressed, pausing at the sink to splash water on his face. He looked at himself in the mirror and the regret hit him hard. Five o’clock shadow on his chin, his eyes bloodshot and his hair sticking up all over his head. He cupped some water in his hand and used it to smooth it all down, quickly.
Still, he looked like a man who’d spent his entire night out drinking. It was very undignified for a man of his stature. He hoped no one would notice.
As he moved through her living room, he glanced around at her apartment. She didn’t have much at all. No wonder she agreed to this hair-brained scheme to pretend to be his fiancée. He’d call her later, just to make sure her head was still in the right place. He was still present of mind. It was just sex, after all. He needed to make sure she was on the same page. Whatever happened the night before, this was still business. It could never happen again.
He called his driver once he was outside of the apartment, then called his secretary as he rode to the building. The bright light of the morning was piercing, threatening to cut through his eyes and stab his brain. He wished that he had sunglasses
“No, no meetings this morning,” his secretary said to him when he asked her about his schedule. “You’ve got one with Orbit Central around three, but that’s it.”
Through his hangover-ridden brain, he started to remember the meeting that afternoon. It wasn’t a big one, but it was important. They were looking for investors for the new project the tech team was working on. He was going to have to find a hangover cure or something to that effect if he was going to get through the day. Aspirin or some awful concoction in a blender or something. This was not a good look for a CEO that was supposed to represent his father’s company.
“All right,” he said once he was in the car. “Would you do me a favor? I’ve got a spare suit somewhere in my office. Can you leave it out for me? Oh, and leave a glass of water and some aspirin on my desk, please?”
“No problem, sir.”
He leaned back in the seat as the driver drove him through the streets of the city and guilt started to seep into his mind. What had he been thinking sleeping with Stella? This had to be the bad move to end all bad moves.
It had to be the combination of too much alcohol and maybe a little sympathy for her situation. Sure, she was attractive, but plenty of women around him were attractive and he still managed to keep his pants on around them. He didn’t know why he jumped at the chance to sleep with her when she gave him the chance.
Maybe it was subconscious somehow. The way she looked in that dress, the way she smelled…the sound of her laughter. He didn’t want to admit it, but Stella was appealing. Maybe it was a no-brainer that he should sleep with her. Of course, he would.
He shouldn’t have done, it though and he knew that he was going to pay dearly for that indiscretion.
He arrived at the office about fifteen minutes later than he was supposed to. He walked into the building quickly, hoping not to run into anyone, looking the way he did in his wrinkled suit and tie and five o’clock shadow. He was certain he smelled like a liquor cabinet as well. His father would be so pissed if he saw him strolling in late and smelling of booze and sex.
When he got to his office, he nodded to his secretary and passed her by. She tried to stop him, but he wasn’t listening. He needed to get out of the spotlight and into the shower.
He opened the door to his office and found Rebecca sitting on the edge of his desk, his suit on a hanger in her hands. She was holding it out and looking at it with a discerning gaze. Richard cleared his throat and she looked up at him, her ruby-red lips smiling at him.
“Good morning, Richard,” she said. “It’s so good of you to join us.”
He closed the door and walked up to her, taking the suit out of her hands. “Thank you,” he said as he walked around her to get to his desk, setting the suit down on the chair. She scrunched up her nose as he passed her by.
“Whoo,” she said waving the air in front of her face. “The sun’s barely up. Did you have a keg for breakfast?”
“Not that it’s any of your business,” he said, “but I went out with an old friend for drinks last night.”
She looked him over, her green eyes sizing him up skeptically. “Drinking on a school night?” she said. “How mature of you. What would your father think?”
He sighed. The pain in his head was poking behind his eyes now. He glanced at his desk and noticed his secretary hadn’t left him any water or pills. He pressed the intercom button on his phone.
“Mary,” he said. “I believe I asked for water and aspirin. You know how I love to ask twice for things.”
“Sorry Mr. Hollis,” she said. “I’ll get you some right away.”
“Don’t be too angry with Mary,” Rebecca said, picking up a pen from his desk and twirling it around in her hand. “I think I derailed her train of thought when I asked if you were in the office. She’s not that bright that one. I’ll have to make sure to replace her once I’m CEO.”
“What do you want, Rebecca?” he said, snatching the pen from her. “I know you didn’t come here this early in the morning just to torment me.”
She slid off the corner of his desk and turned to him. “Well, I was thinking about how your father was always talking about the two of us getting along and how upset he would be to learn that you had a whole fiancée that he’d never even met. That I never even knew about.”
He rolled his eyes. “So, you’ve come here to grill me about my fiancée, then?”
