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Maggie turned around and gave him a polite smile. Real smooth, mister. He knew full well that Maggie had never mentioned her, but by making Stacy feel special, she would welcome his presence. The guy knew what he was doing.
“The food was your doing,” Maggie said, making sure it didn’t sound like a question.
“You’re welcome,” he said, smiling at her.
“Well I thought it was great,” Stacy said, grinning sweetly at him.
Maggie had seen Stacy flirt with guys before, it was no surprise. She loved the attention, and she was a pretty, slender blonde, so most guys loved her attention, too. Bryan, though, didn’t even seem like he heard her speak.
“You enjoy the game?” he asked Maggie.
“It was okay,” Maggie said. “You were kind of sloppy tossing that 3-pointer under such pressure.”
Bryan chuckled and shrugged a shoulder. “Johns recovered it. No big loss.”
“It was a dumb move.”
“Sometimes you just gotta take the shot,” he said slyly.
“Yeah, and when you act without thinking, you’re lucky if it even bounces off the rim.” Maggie took Stacy by the hand. “Enjoy your evening.”
As Maggie turned to leave, dragging Stacy behind her, Bryan opened his arms wide. “What, you’re leaving?”
“You gave me tickets to the game. I watched the game.” She looked at him from over her shoulder. “I never agreed to do anything else with you.”
“I at least thought—“
“That was your fault, not mine.”
“Not even the rim,” Bryan called out, laughing.
Maggie had to turn her head away from an infuriated Stacy. No need to let her offended friend see her smile.
Bryan sat alone in his hotel room that night for the first time in a long time. That was not supposed to happen. She turned him down. She had actually turned him down. No one said no to him. Not women, not men, especially not people that worked for him! He gave her tickets to a game, gave her the extra step with the food and the flowers. It was like having dinner together without listening to her blather on about her life. Who needs that drama?
Yet, after, she couldn’t have been less interested in hanging out with him if she had tried. The thing that really confused him was that she wasn’t playing hard to get. She was genuinely disinterested in all of this stuff. This wasn’t the normal gold-diggers he was used to dealing with.
Now, her friend Stacy, she was an easy mark if he ever saw one. A part of him was tempted to just go after her since he knew he could have her, but it just didn’t strike him as something satisfying. The fact that he knew he could have her made her worthless to him. He really was losing his taste for all of this.
This Maggie chick, though, was something else. She was a challenge. He liked that. He wasn’t about to give this up without a fight. After that night, he put a plan into motion. He started by sending Maggie flowers at work with a card. He tried to call her after that, but she was busy and unable to answer. Not to be daunted, he sent out an assistant to buy her some earrings and see they were delivered. His assistant returned later that day with the earrings saying she refused them. Bryan couldn’t believe a woman would just refuse earrings, so he fired his assistant.
Knowing that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, he sent her gifts himself. Shoes, dresses from the latest trendy fashion designer, more jewelry. In a moment of frustration he even gave her some gift certificates to a local ice-cream shop. That one got him an email from her. All it said was, “Ice cream? Really?” When he replied asking if she’d have dinner with him, he didn’t receive a reply.
After a week of this, he knew he was running out of time. They were going to have to start traveling for games soon, and he wouldn’t be able to follow up on any of his advances if she were to accept. Desperate times required desperate measures and he wasn’t about to lose.
He finally called up his publicist and insisted that her assistant meet with him for lunch to discuss the details of their deal, or he’d fire her firm. The woman was at a complete loss and scrambled to do his bidding. As he knew she would. They arranged the lunch to take place the next day. When he hung up the phone, he knew he had this in the bag. He’d give her so many things she’d have to sleep with him.
Bryan walked over to the stereo and cranked up the music. He grinned at himself in the mirror, flexing and admiring his muscles. This was totally going to work. Serves her right for thinking she could refuse this!
The nerve! How dare that spoiled brat of a man stoop to such levels just to get her to go out to lunch with him. It was cute at first. She’d never admit this to him to his face since she was so mad at him she could barely see straight at the moment, but it was.
The flowers, the ice-cream seemed a bit desperate and almost like a fat joke, but she realized it was the desperate act of a man without any ideas left. Some of the presents had become a bit too lavish for her. The jewelry, the watches, the clothes. She found it odd and a bit creepy how he knew her size so well already. But now this. This was too much.
Her boss called her into the office and she was absolutely furious. “What did you say to him?” she immediately accused her, before Maggie could even get a word in. “What game are you playing? He’s one of our biggest clients. So big, in fact, that without him we don’t have a firm. If we lost him our reputation would plummet.”
What could Maggie say to that? Sorry? That wasn’t really something she should have to apologize for, and really, why should she? The guy was doting on her. She never asked for it, she never wanted this sort of treatment!
When she got to the restaurant he insisted on meeting at, she found him sitting at a table propped against the wall, his feet up on the seat next to his, chewing on a toothpick. He had the audacity to actually look proud of himself. Did he really think he won?
