Stalker Problems - Chapter 28 - Special Delivery
I was ready for work an hour early, which still didn’t feel early enough after my close encounter with lateness a few days ago. I had set my alarm for…
Okay, fine, I’m lying. I hadn’t set an alarm. Because I hadn’t slept a wink. I had just stayed up all night replaying my kiss with Ryder. And the way he’d left so suddenly. What the hell had gone wrong?
In the moment, I’d thought he just changed his mind. That he no longer thought I was sexy. But that didn’t make any sense. How can you go from kissing someone one minute to being repulsed the next? I didn’t want to believe it was true. So it had to be something else.
Had I freaked him out by grabbing his junk? If we had been in middle school maybe that would have been a possibility. But he was a grown-ass man.
Or maybe he was worried I was going to #MeToo him and sue him for billions. He was, after all, kind of my boss. Or at least, I thought he was. I still wasn’t 100% sure that Ryder and Tanner were the same person. Maybe he ran from me because he realized I knew his true identity…
Gah! Thinking about all this made my brain hurt.
I needed to see him again so I could get some answers.
So it was a good thing we were giving him our marketing presentation for his wine company today at 3 o’clock.
I still needed to concoct a plan to get him alone afterward.
I’d think of something. Worst case scenario I could always run into the wall and knock myself out.
I had just finished straightening my hair when a knock sounded on the door.
Who would be here this early?
Probably Chastity. I had sent her the world’s longest text last night all about my date, so I assumed she was showing up to get the full scoop.
But it could also be the cops coming to ask about Joe’s stolen credit card.
Or how I had gotten thirty-grand worth of designer clothing in exchange for a few photos.
Or how I had raped Dr. Lyons. Although that case seemed to be closed now that we had a date planned.
I looked through the peephole and found that both of my guesses were wrong. Instead it was a FedEx man. I opened the door.
“Raven Black?” he asked.
“That’s me.”
“Sign here.”
I gave him my signature, and he gave me a package. I started to close the door, but he blocked it with his foot.
“Hold on. There’s more.” He disappeared into the hall.
More? All my amazon clothes had already arrived. Maybe Joe was sending me more of my stuff. Whatever. I didn’t have time to deal with his crap right now. I tossed the package aside and went back to the bathroom to add a few finishing touches to my makeup. When I emerged a minute later…
Holy hell! Five FedEx guys were unloading carts of packages, and based on the floor-to-ceiling boxes that now occupied about 600 of the 800 square feet of my apartment, it must have been at least their third trip.
Then it hit me. The FedEx guy had called me Raven Black.
Not Ashley Cooper. Which meant this delivery was from the Society.
“Who sent this?” I asked.
The FedEx guy shrugged. “No idea. Have a great day.”
I grabbed one of the packages and checked the label.
No name was listed. The address was in NYC, but beyond that it didn’t ring any bells.
What the hell is all this? I used my keys to cut the tape on the closest box.
Inside was a white leather box wrapped in blue crepe paper.
Odegaard was scrawled on the side of the box.
Odegaards! Yes! They must be a gift from Ryder. Which meant he wasn’t mad at me or repulsed by me. I couldn’t contain the smile that spread across my face.
And then I remembered there were dozens more boxes. Were they all filled with Odegaards? No. They couldn’t be. That would be like… I tried to estimate how many boxes there were and then multiplied it by $3000.
I tore into a few more boxes before it was time to leave for work. Sure enough, they were all filled with Odegaards. Including the pair of weird elf-style heels Ryder had wanted me to wear last night. I considered wearing them to the office, but I wasn’t nearly confident enough to pull them off.
I can’t believe he sent me all these. I didn’t want to leave for work.
I just wanted to keep opening box after box of Odegaards.
You know how in first grade all your friends tell you Santa doesn’t exist?
Well they’re full of shit. Because Santa does exist and his name is Ryder freaking Storm.
I couldn’t wait to see him today for our big presentation.
Another kiss was definitely in my future.
I allowed myself to open one more box before I left. It was the one that the FedEx guy had delivered first. And it had a little black envelope in it. Ah! My fingers were shaking with excitement as I opened it.
Raven,
I’m so sorry about last night.
-Ryder
I flipped it over. That’s all? Well, apology accepted.
Really the note alone would have been sufficient, but the hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Odegaards was a nice addition.
I hugged the note to my chest. Was this my first love letter?
I think it was. The only time Joe had ever sent me a letter was when he served me with divorce papers.
And some guy in middle school had passed me a letter that said, “Will you be my girlfriend? Circle YES or NO.” I had circled no because I was 100% sure he was gay, just like every other guy who had ever liked me in school.
I was still trying to work out what that said about me.
Anyway…shoes. Tons of them. They were all mine. And so was Ryder. I bit back a squeal.
Before heading to work I triple-checked the lock on the door to make sure Homeless Rutherford wouldn’t break in and lick all my beautiful shoes.
Chastity practically pounced on me the moment I got out of the elevator at work. “Tell me everything,” she said. I had never seen her look so excited.
“Well, a limo picked me up, but only Frankie was in it.”
“I don’t care about that. Get to the good part. Did you find proof that Ryder and Tanner are different people?”
“They’re definitely not different. After seeing him up-close again…yeah, I’m sure it’s him.”
“Damn it! Are you sure ?”
“Who else besides a billionaire could afford to give me 74 pairs of Odegaards?”
“Say what now? Your text didn’t mention those.”
“That’s because they arrived two seconds before I left for work. They came with a note.” I took it out of my purse and showed it to her.
“Damn,” said Chastity. “Even one pair of Odegaards would be an extravagant apology, but 74? That really makes it seem like he did something truly awful to you.”
“Well he did leave immediately after I grabbed his penis. Which was rather rude of him.” Thinking about it again made doubt start to creep back into my mind. But Ryder definitely liked me. Or else why would he have sent me so many shoes? Or kissed me. Or started stalking me to begin with?
Chastity snapped her fingers. “Oh my God, that’s it.”
“What?”
“He came in his pants.”
I laughed. “No way.”
“Think about it. You were making out with him. You touched him. He came. And then he panicked and fled in shame.”
“That’s definitely what happened,” added Madison from behind me. “He sounds like a real loser to me. I say you ditch him and never speak to him again.”
“Guys, I really don’t think that’s what happened.” But maybe it is? Could I really blame him? All that bumping and grinding and kissing had practically made me orgasm. Not that I knew what that felt like.
“So for the presentation…” started Madison but Chastity cut her off.
“Was he big?”
Of course she would ask that. “I think so?”
“How big?”
“I don’t know.” But maybe I’ll find out after the meeting!
“I bet he’s huge,” said Chastity.
“Why?” asked Madison. “He’s a billionaire, right? He’s definitely compensating for something.”
“So what’s the plan for this afternoon?” asked Chastity.
I tried to process the change of topic. Which was super weird for Chastity since we had already been on her favorite subject. “Uh…let’s start by mentioning the rebranding. If he’s cool with it, then we’ll show him all the logo mockups. And if he hates them I guess we better be ready to pivot…”
Chastity brushed my ideas aside. “No. Who cares about all that? You already sealed the deal on this contract last night when you made him cum in his pants. We could tell him that we were going to put swastikas all over his Facebook ads and he wouldn’t care.”
“We really shouldn’t do that,” added Madison.
“We’re not going to. But we could. Anyway, I was asking what the plan was for after the meeting. As in, how we’re going to get Ash alone with him.”
“So you concede that Ryder and Tanner are the same person?” I asked. Yes! I win!
“For now. But if you find out that they’re not…”
“Yeah, yeah. Tanner will be yours.”
“Shhh,” said Madison. She pointed to the elevator.
Bee had just walked off. Even though she was probably the nicest boss in the world, it still wouldn’t have been ideal for her to hear us discussing which of us would get to sleep with our new client.
And Mason probably wouldn’t like it either.
Every time I saw him, all I could think about was Matt screaming as his pants caught fire.
Chastity had assured me that Mason’s little brother never came to the offices, but if he did show up, I was fully prepared to jump out the window.
Actually, maybe it was time to activate my window-escape now, because Mason looked absolutely pissed about something.
Oh my God, what if he’d just found out that they accidentally hired the girl that set his brother’s dick on fire! He was about to fire me for sure.
Chastity and Madison both immediately started shuffling papers and pretending to work.
“What the fuck did you three do?” asked Mason. Smoke was practically coming out of his ears.
My answer would have been, “Landed you your biggest client ever,” but something told me that it was better to stay silent.
“Tanner shredded the contract. He’s out.”
“Out?” asked Chastity. “But we have a meeting with him at three about his winery.”
“Not anymore. I’ve been trying to get him to come in for months. And he finally did. It was a sure thing. How the hell did you three mess this up? I knew I should have put Garrett on this instead.”
“But…” started Chastity.
“But nothing. If he’s not our client on Monday morning, then all three of you are fired.” He turned and stormed off. Bee mouthed, “I’m sorry,” and then followed Mason to the elevator.
“What were you saying about having this contract locked up?” asked Madison.
Chastity stared daggers at me. “What the hell, Ash?”
“Don’t look at me. I did my best. Our first presentation was dynamite.”
“Not the presentation. I mean what did you do last night? To Tanner. It sure seems like you did something awful. When you say you touched his penis…do you really mean that you kicked him square in the nuts?”
“I won’t blame you if you did,” added Madison. “He surely had it coming.”
“No! We were having a super-hot kiss. We even broke a shelf in the heat of the moment.” I paused and squeezed my legs together.
Best first kiss ever? Yes. Although my only frame of reference was my first kiss with Joe.
His Natty-Ice-scented breath and the stench of dirty laundry from his frat house still haunted my dreams.
“What exactly did he say when he stopped kissing you?” asked Chastity.
“He just uh…apologized I think. I don’t know.
It all happened so fast. But he’s definitely not mad at me.
Otherwise he wouldn’t have sent me all those Odegaards this morning.
And given me this note.” I reached in my purse to grab the note.
That was when I noticed the alert on my phone.
From the Society app. Well, technically it was labeled Tax Codes , but that was just the disguise for the Society app. I pulled out my phone.
“That’s not a note,” said Chastity.
“I know. But I got something from the Society. Maybe it’s about him.”
“It’s probably your post-date evaluation.”
“Right.” It still freaked me out that Chastity knew all the Society rules and procedures so well. I clicked on the notification and the screen turned black. The Society logo was at the top and then, in plain white text, it read:
Raven Black,
Your membership in the Society has been terminated for a violation of clause 49c.
Sincerely,
The Society
“What the hell?” I muttered. What’s clause 49c?
“What?” asked Chastity and Madison.
I handed them my phone.
“Rape?!” yelled Chastity.
“Shhh,” I hissed. Other people in the office were starting to look at us. Scratch that. They were full-on staring.
“Who raped someone?” asked Madison. “If Tanner raped you, I’ll kill him.”
“She raped him ,” said Chastity. “That’s what clause 49c is. Immediate termination for rape.”
I shook my head. “It was consensual. And it was just a kiss.” I swallowed hard. Or was it? I’d tried to rape before. Oh God, what had I done?!
“Did you explicitly ask for consent?” asked Madison. “Or better yet, use a consent app? I’ll send you a link to mine if you want.”
“A what? No. We were two grown adults kissing each other.” I was on the verge of tears. Why did I keep trying to rape people?!
“Well whatever you did must have really pissed him off. Because he definitely never wants to see your face again.”
And then something snapped in me. Blood rushed to my fists.
My whole body felt like it was on fire. My rage was usually contained in my fiery red hair, but sometimes it got out and spread to the rest of my body.
This was one of those times. “If he never wants to see me again, then I hope he has good security. Because I’m going to his office.
I’m not going to let this asshole get us fired for no reason. ”