Chapter 52
I froze in the middle of New York City, my booty call for the night two feet in front of me, my business booty call about two long blocks away. I could not have picked a worse scenario for where I was, and it wasn’t going to make anyone happy no matter which decision I made.
If I went with Layla, I was violating my investor duty to do what was best for the business. It just so happened that I was fucking the owner of that business, which meant Layla couldn’t just call it a word call. She could also call it choosing one girl over her.
Someone was going to be bitterly disappointed in me.
But only one letdown would have rippling effects outside of tonight.
“Give me ten, and I’ll be there.”
I hung up the phone and looked at Layla. The disappointment on her face was profound.
“You chose her over me,” she said.
I shook my head.
“You want the truth, here’s the truth,” I said.
“I’m a fucking idiot. I told myself after you that I would never have sex with anyone in a business setting ever again.
Things just got too complicated and life would just get too difficult.
But with Claire, I… did. She started it, but I let it progress and eventually brought it back to her place.
I’m the one who chose to have sex with her, it’s not like she raped me. And for that reason… here I am.”
“You still haven’t said why you’re choosing her over me.”
“She said her business is falling apart, Layla,” I said. “Morgan and I invested in her business.”
To say I was a fucking idiot was an understatement.
My life since that fateful day she and Craig had walked in had felt like a series of comedic errors that weren’t particularly funny to me.
First, I slept with the “daughter” of the CEO of the company I was dealing with—so funny!
Then, when that fell apart, I swore not to fall for anyone in business, except then I slept with the actual CEO of a company—hilarious!
And then, when I began to feel like “daughter” of the first CEO was someone who was forced into a situation but still not a great romantic fit, I let stress get to me and I almost fucked her—hahaha!
Oh, God, what the fuck was wrong with me? I was Chance Givens, not so hormonally crazed teenager.
Maybe you are. Maybe that’s the honest truth. You gotta get your shit together, Chance.
“That was dumb,” Layla said.
“To fuck her? I know,” I said. “But I really can’t miss this, OK? I’m sorry. I’ll be in touch.”
Feeling rushed and pulled between two opposing forces, I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek which she lightly responded with.
I thought of saying something but decided against it, quickly hurrying in the other direction.
I was an idiot, but I had work to do now. I couldn’t spend time dwelling on it.
So, of course, on that long walk over, I did nothing but think about what I had done.
If I was Chance Given, awesome, mysterious, badass businessman at just twenty two years old, I had to start acting the part.
I couldn’t let my emotions controlled me—a man controlled his emotions, or at least kept them in check.
He didn’t cross business and blood. He certainly didn’t cross business and sex.
I had to start making some hard choices.
And the first one, I decided, was that when the time was right—in other words, when Claire wasn’t a hot mess over her current business situation—I would let her know I had to end our dalliance.
As much fun as it provided me and as good as the sex felt, I could not let myself get entangled in that.
I had a feeling she wouldn’t mind too much, given that she had probed me in our previous encounter.
The second was I had to press Morgan to pick a side sooner rather than later.
As long as he fluctuated between the sides, I would feel in limbo.
I could handle Edwin chasing me like a rabid dog, but he was a barking dog without teeth.
I had no fear of him. But I did have fear of Morgan giving the dog that teeth he needed.
If I could handle those, I would let everything fall into place.
Well, I still had to figure out Layla. I had a sickening feeling, though, that what I had just done had encouraged Layla to take care of it herself—to not call me, to delete me, to never see me again.
It was a funny turn, how she had tried to get back with me, almost as an apology for what she had done to me, and then I had put her in a position where she had to reject me again. At least I hadn’t done anything nearly as severe as what she had done.
I came up to Claire’s place with my thoughts more or less settled, though I knew that didn’t mean they wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
The only promise I made to myself when I knocked on the door was I would not have sex with Claire, I would not kiss her, and I would try and do what was best for business.
Claire answered the door almost immediately. I couldn’t lie, she looked like shit. Her hair hung over her face, unkempt, she wore pajamas, and her eyes were watery with streaks down her cheeks.
“Jesus, Claire,” I said, moving immediately to embrace her. If that was a violation of what I had just said, I didn’t care. The hug was more about protecting her and making her feel safe, not about making sexual moves on her. “What the hell happened?”
“I just had everyone quit on me today.”
No. No fucking way. Only…
“Why?” I said, anger in me beginning to rise.
“They felt they were underpaid. They all said they got hired elsewhere.”
“Did they say where else?” I asked, even as I knew where they had gone—either directly to Hunt Industries or some subsidiaries of Hunt Industries.
“No,” she said. “Other than it wasn’t to the same place. But I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do, Chance. I don’t have a team. I have hundreds of thousands of dollars and no one to move it forward. I’m done for.”
Claire’s tears flowed freely again. I let her bury her head in my shoulder as I stewed in silence.
This was fucking evil on Edwin’s part. Edwin was hurting me by hurting Claire. He knew I was fucking her… so he decided to drag Claire into the picture? What kind of fucking bastard did that?
As Claire leaned into me, I pulled my phone out and texted Morgan.
“Your dad just decimated Rising Sun. Hired all of Claire’s employees. Whose side are you going to be on?”
I saw that Morgan read the message moments later, but I didn’t wait to see what he said. I was too fucking enraged at what had happened.
“I’m sorry, Claire,” I said. “I’m so sorry. I’m…”
I couldn’t fucking take it anymore.
“I’m going to fucking kill that bastard.”
“What?” Claire said, pulling back. “Who?”
“Who else?” I said. “My adoptive father.”
Claire took a couple of steps back. I could see something I’d never before seen in her eyes—fear.
I’m not sure what mine looked like. I’m sure they conveyed some degree of unbelievable rage and frustration. I’m sure that they expressed a vengeful desire to avenge someone whose business was now all but done under.
But I had never expected to see Claire look like she feared for her life.
I had never expected that in the heat of the moment, she would look like I had threatened her childhood cat with murder.
And yet, my anger for Edwin Hunt was so great that it didn’t stop me from saying anything. It was all on the table.
“Do you have any idea what Edwin wants to do to us?” I said. “He wants to ruin me and he wants to ruin Morgan. And he’s going to affect anyone he can and fuck over those closest to me. He found out that we were together, Claire. And now you’re in his line of sight.”
“What are you talking about?” Claire said, her eyes fearful but also some suspicion in her voice.
“I mean Edwin Hunt is the one who hired all of your employees away from you. All at once? That’s too rare for it to be coincidence.
It didn’t just happen that everyone woke up and decided to quit.
He knew he could get you, and he has. He’s doing whatever he can to fuck you over because you are with me. ”
“Chance!”
I was taken aback by her shout.
“Get it together, please. They all got hired to different places.”
“Different subsidies of Hunt Industries, I’m sure.”
“No, Chance, don’t,” Claire said. “This isn’t the Chance Hunt I know—”
“It’s not Chance Hunt,” I growled, causing Claire to step back even more. Realizing that my words probably sounded like a threat, I put my hand to my head, turned, took a deep breath, and turned back. “Sorry. I’m just… just call me by my birth name. Chance Givens.”
“OK,” Claire said, almost pleadingly, as if negotiating with someone about to hurt her. “Just… Chance, there’s no way—”
“You’re—”
I paused, realizing I was still interrupting Claire.
“Chance, please,” she said. “Listen to me. Even if Edwin Hunt did this, even if some evil CEO guy swooped in to take all of the jobs out of some vengeful spite for you… he couldn’t have hired away someone who truly enjoyed working for me.
I need to take ownership of what happened.
I didn’t value my employees enough. I didn’t… I didn’t keep you at arm’s length.”
She sighed.
The truth was out. We had both reached the same conclusion. We couldn’t be together anymore. We shouldn’t have in the first place, really, but everything that had transpired today had confirmed it.
“We should never have slept together,” I said. “We were both hurt and confused in the aftermath of breakups and heartbreaks and just went for the closest person we could get.”
“And now it’s cost me my business,” Claire said.
That stung worse than if Claire had called me a delusional asshole. If I was such a person, I would have kept the fallout from my idiocy relatively confined.
But me ruining her business? That was on me. I had ruined her life. Where would she go now? MCH? What was I going to do, hire all of my former lovers? That sure seemed to set a good precedent for future operations. I’m sure my future girlfriends and wife would love that.
“I’m sorry,” I said, but it felt incomplete. Then again, I’m pretty sure anything I said would have felt incomplete. What magic words could make up for a business that Claire had started and elevated to millions of dollars. “I’m sorry, Claire. It’s my—”
“No, Chance, it’s OK,” Claire said. If ever anyone could have looked sincere with those words in this moment, it was her; but even then, it didn’t feel right. “I just… I had hoped you coming here would help me right the ship.”
The implication was obvious. I’m not good enough to do so.
“But I think for what we’ve gotten ourselves into, we shouldn’t be together like this. Best case scenario we have some ideas, worst case scenario we have sex and it devolves from there…”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I said. “I want to make it up to you however I can, though. Investments, advice, I—”
“Chance,” she said with a sad smile that was followed by a long hug. When she pulled me, she kissed me on the cheek.
Nothing had felt more intimate from her than that, but nothing could have also been more telling than that. Nothing said “we’re done” more than a kiss on the cheek after regularly having sex with someone.
“I’ll take your advice from afar. But we need some distance separating us. OK?”
I felt defeated.
Edwin Hunt had won.
He hadn’t won so much in the breaking apart of me and Claire. That was bound to happen sooner or later. But he had won in destroying a part of MCH.
He had won in ruining the life of someone I cared about.
And for all that I had planned, for all that I had had Morgan do, for all of the ideas I had generated, none of it had come to fruition.
“OK,” I said glumly.
She led me back to the door. I took one step out, turned around, and looked in her eyes.
I’m not sure what the saddest part was—that I knew Claire and I had changed permanently, or that she looked OK with it without any sort of hesitation.
“Goodbye, Chance.”