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“Sorry, what were you saying?”
She laughs, “Nothing, I should get back to my friend.” She nods over to her table and walks away like nothing happened. Like she couldn’t have been more unbothered but I’m no fool, she was definitely bothered.
Meanwhile, my mind is already spiraling from this sixty second interaction. She’s nine years younger than me. And she’s my employee. Talk about abuse of power. Or a fucking temptation for that matter. I leave the bar knowing that thoughts of Sterling will not be left behind. But if I don’t stop this now, it’s not going to end well for either of us.
I go through my nightly routine before bed. I shower, brush my teeth, wash my face, and change into sweatpants. I head to the sink for a glass of water when my phone rings. It’s my dad.
“Hey, dad.” I try to sound calm, still reeling from the anger I felt towards him last week. Things have been so weird with everything going on, and I never know the right way to act.
“Callan, your mom is getting worried. You haven’t called in a few days. Everything okay?” He speaks without even greeting me first.
“Everything’s fine,” I start, “Just been super busy.”
“Well, your mother is insisting on a family dinner next week. Can you make time?” He coughs after he forces out the last words to form his question. I hate hearing him like this, no one deserves the wrath of cancer. Even an old prick like him.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good, bring that new assistant of yours. I’d like to meet her,” he insists.
“I’m not fucking dating her. Why would you need to meet her?” The words fly out of my mouth in defense. But I realize how stupid it sounds considering there’s no way he’d think I’m dating her.
“She’s helping you run the company your grandfather and I built. I think an introduction would be nice,” he snaps sarcastically.
I get where he comes from, though. He still cares about what happens at the dealership, and I do respect that. They’ve spent decades building this car business to be as grand and flourishing as it’s become and have trusted billions and billions of business funds to me to keep it running. But I hate how he feels the need to know every little detail about the business, even after passing it on to me. I hate feeling like he doesn’t trust me with this responsibility. Like he still has control over my life.
“I’ll have her check her schedule.” Before any other words can be exchanged, he hangs up.
I stare at my phone; the time reads eleven-fifteen p.m. Surely, Sterling is already asleep on a Monday night, but something urges me to text her about this sooner than later. I feel like I owe her the courtesy of having plenty of time to prepare for a David family dinner.
You awake?
I wait a few minutes for her response – knowing how casual the text will sound when she reads it – but fifteen minutes later and nothing comes through. She’s probably just sleeping. I should probably catch some shut eye myself. I can talk to her about it in the morning.
nine
Sterling
Walkingintomysecondday of work, I have no idea what to expect. Yesterday, after Dakota was sweet enough to buy me an outfit for her party, we ran into Callan at the bar. And it was like an out of body experience. Like, for some reason, I didn’t expect for him to be a regular guy who might enjoy a drink at a bar every so often, and I definitely didn’t expect to see him outside of work in general.
Dakota teased me about how hot he is and how lucky I am to get to spend every day in his gorgeous and chiseled presence. Her words, not mine. I’d shut her thoughts down and quickly tried to deny any attraction I might have towards him. But she called my bluff - like she always does.
I make my way to his office, giving a light knock before pushing the door open, surprised it’s not locked, but he’s not here. I do notice, after turning on the lights, that he’s got a pile of paperwork sitting in a tray labeledfile. I walk over to the pile and see that it just a few invoices that need to be uploaded to the financial database and a couple of inventory papers that need uploaded into their digital files. I remember a little bit of the direction on this yesterday as Callan showed me the ropes after the Jax incident - if you can even call it that. So, while I wait for Callan to make it into the office, I decide to log in to his computer and get to work.
After about an hour of work and still no Callan, I finish up filing the paperwork I scanned in, and log out. I head out to the lobby to look around, but he’s still nowhere to be found.
I realize I have two options: I can ask Cora, who is sitting at the receptionist desk scrolling through her phone, or I can ask Jax who is finishing up with a client over at his desk. I think I’ll go with the latter. After finding out how Cora feels about me, knowing she thinks I stole her job, I really don’t think she’d be willing to entertain me right now.
I approach Jax at his lobby desk just as he finishes closing out a deal with his client.
“Hey there.” I wave at him, and he looks up and smiles at me.
“Sterling,” he greets me warmly, his blue eyes twinkle in the harsh white lights of the dealership lobby.
“How much?” I ask him in curiosity, tilting my head toward the client that had just walked away.
“He picked up the Rolls-Royce Phantom. He talked me down to four hundred grand for it, but then I talked him back up to four-forty.” He smirks in a way that shows that he’s proud as he gathers the signed papers.How does one talk someone up the price they tried to bargain down?
I never realized how expensive these kinds of cars could be. If I didn’t feel out of place before…
