Four
Annalise
"You're done? But—but how?" I sputtered, shocked that he'd finished this monster project I'd given him in only a week. One measly week of peace when I'd expected at least a month or maybe two.
He shrugged like it was no big deal. "I'm just that good."
I narrowed my eyes at him because there was no way this was possible. Wandering over to a box, I lifted the lid, looking at the neatly placed files, all labeled and alphabetized by the authors' last names. I checked out another, then another, and one more, even peeking inside the files to make sure, and found every single thing flawless.
The boxes were placed in perfect rows on the metal shelves, organized in order by year, nothing missing, nothing out of place, with room at the end for more. The floor had been swept clean, the trash emptied, and even all the recycling gone. There was absolutely nothing left to do, not a single thing to nitpick him about.
Damn him. How on earth had he done it?
Studying his face, I tried to figure him out. I'd barely heard a peep from him all week, and it'd been blissful. And now? I'd have to find a new way to keep him busy.
It reminded me of playing chess with my dad growing up, all the times he'd beaten me, not holding back, and this time, Jared had outwitted me, finishing me off with a checkmate. I'd just have to figure out a way to win next time.
There was a noise at my back, and I turned to see Mona. "Hey, guys," she said, her eyes roaming the spotless room. "Wow. What the heck happened in here?"
"Me," Jared said, a cocky look on his face. "I'm what happened."
While I rolled my eyes, Mona seemed impressed. "I've never, ever seen it like this, and I've worked here forever."
Jared didn't say anything, his stupid smile growing on his stupid face.
"Really well done," Mona gushed, ignoring my eyes that pleaded with her to stop. "So anyway..." She bounced up and down on her toes. "I just wanted to let you know that we've decided to carry on with Marcella's birthday celebration and go to karaoke after work. Are you in?"
I saw the way her gaze darted between Jared and me, and she couldn't possibly be inviting him , could she?
"I'm in," Jared said.
Great. "I'm busy," I lied.
Mona stared me down. "How are you busy? We were going to happy hour anyway, so we'll just shift it over to karaoke now."
Why, Mona, why? We had a little glaring contest, until I finally decided to cave. Unless I invented some sort of emergency, which would be bad karma, there was really no way of getting out of this. "Okay. Fine."
Jared had the nerve to laugh, actually laugh. "Thanks for including me, Mona ."
My traitorous friend left, and I soon followed, ignoring the twinge of guilt at her text explaining herself. "It's the right thing to do," she'd written. "I feel bad leaving out the new person."
I wished I could say the last hour of work flew by, but it didn't, because Jared was back at the desk next to me, downing chips like he hadn't eaten in a week, loudly typing away at his keyboard like it was his worst enemy and had stolen his last pringle.
Between the crunching and the jackhammering, I couldn't take it anymore. I turned to him. "Do you have to be such a loud typer?"
He looked up at me, his eyes surprised behind his glasses. "Everything I do is loud and fast. That's just me, baby."
"Don't baby me," I growled.
"I take that back. Not everything ," he amended.
Oh, God. Was he implying what I thought he was implying? I could not go there with Jared. I absolutely refused, so I did the only thing I could think of doing—put in my earbuds and tried my best to ignore him.
After an eternity, it was time to go, and I escaped to the bathroom to get ready with the intention of letting Jared find his own way to the karaoke bar. And when I returned to my desk, he was gone. Maybe he'd even had a change of plans. One could hope.
And that hope built and built as the evening went on, a huge bunch of us meeting up at the bar with no sign of Jared, thank the universe. Someone had reserved a private room, and we all gathered there, making ourselves comfortable on the plush leather couches and bean bags scattered around the room, pink and blue neon lights pulsing with the house music.
Mona passed me the tablet, and the two of us ordered a bunch of food and drinks to be delivered to our room while the birthday girl hit the stage, starting us off with some '80s tunes. Before Mona could input her credit card info, I slyly used my own credit card, telling her Veronica had told me to expense it. Which she hadn't of course. But I knew Mona was on a tight budget, and it was hard to watch people like her pay when I literally had more money than I needed.
After we'd finished the ordering and getting everyone's requests, I headed for the bathroom again, regretting that large iced tea I'd had before I'd left work. Thankfully, it wasn't too crowded yet.
While I washed my hands, I checked out my reflection in the mirror, admiring the smoky eye makeup I'd done in the work restroom. My sisters Astrid and Aria had taught me well. I took a quick picture to send to them, wondering what they were doing tonight.
Since Aria had found Ethan, I hadn't seen her as much. I vowed to never let that happen with me. So far I hadn't met a single man that made me want to spend that much time with them. As far as I was concerned, they were good for one thing and one thing only.
With dick on my brain, I headed down the hallway and back to our private room, spotting a group of tall, hot guys standing in a small alcove to one side, deep in conversation. Speaking of dicks.
Straining my ears, I tried to hear what they were talking about, picking up one interesting tidbit.
"Why don't you fire her?" someone asked.
One of them turned right then, and to my shock, it was fucking Jared.
"Dee!" he said, his face lighting up with a grin.
My heart started to pound for some strange reason. In this dim lighting, he looked different somehow. And tall. So damn tall.
"Hey," I said, trying to glide past without stopping.
And I was almost there when someone said, "Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?"
"Right," Jared said, stopping me in my tracks. "This is Cordelia, or as I like to call her, Dee."
It was weird because even his voice sounded different, deeper, more resonant. Maybe it was because of the music pumping through the place. That had to be it.
His friends took turns sticking out their hands and introducing themselves to me in all my five-foot-two-and-a-half-inch glory doing my best not to seem like such a shrimp, shaking their hands with all my strength.
Looking up at them, I realized I knew them, especially once they said their names—Xavier, Landon, and Gabriel. Three uber wealthy men in their thirties who ran a media empire and practically ran the city as well, ridiculously attractive, eternal bachelor types, models hanging off their arms at pretty much every event I'd ever been to as my real self, Annalise Stratton, society girl, rich girl, nepo baby, daughter of Alexander and Catherine Stratton, whatever you wanted to call me.
How the hell did Jared know these guys? I glanced back and forth between them all, trying to figure out the connection.
"So where's the big party?" Jared asked after an awkward beat, leading me away, his large hand on the small of my back practically burning a hole through my top.
We entered the room, Jared's hand falling away. Marcella was on the stage, now with Mona, still on an '80s binge apparently. Trying not to cringe at the off-tune squawking, I sat down on the couch, hoping Jared would find someplace else to sit.
But of course, he didn't. He plopped down right beside me, making me tilt a bit toward him with his weight. When had he gotten so big? I'd never really noticed it before. I looked at his thigh beside me, nearly double the size of mine.
The song ended, and after a raucous round of applause, the room quieted while the next person prepared themselves.
I turned to Jared. "So how do you know those three billionaires anyway?"
"Those guys?" His brows came together in thought. "Just from back in the day. College."
"Hmmph," I grunted, watching as he swallowed hard.
Something was off about him. I just had no idea what. And you know what? I didn't really care.
The food and drinks soon arrived, and everyone went nuts, especially when Mona announced loudly to the entire room that Veronica said to expense everything to Insight Ink.
Anxiety snaked through me. Not because of the money. But what if this got back to Veronica? What if someone thanked her and she had no clue what they were talking about?
Fuck.
This is what happened when I tried to be nice. It might just bite me in the ass.
I tried to take a few more bites of my lobster slider, but I'd suddenly lost my appetite. Pushing my plate away, I leaned back and took a long drink of my cocktail.
Jared's elbow nudged me. "You good?"
"Yep. All good," I lied.
"Come on, Dee. What's wrong?"
How did Jared, of all people, pick up that something was wrong? Maybe it was the alcohol in me, maybe it was temporary insanity, but I leaned in closer to him and whispered in his ear. "I kind of lied to Mona about the expensing it thing."
Pulling back, I searched his face for his reaction to see his brows shoot up. "What do you mean?"
Leaning in again, I told him how I'd actually paid for everything, that I, uh, had a lot of room on my credit card and wanted to treat my co-workers for once. "And now, I'm worried Veronica will find out and it'll become this whole big kerfuffle."
Jared laughed. "Kerfuffle, huh? That's not good. Well, I happen to know from my billionaire friends that you just met that Echelon Enterprises has taken over this whole place tonight, and they're picking up the tab for everyone in the entire building."
I gasped so loudly that all my co-workers swiveled to look at me. And to my shock, Jared saved me from having to answer their questioning gazes. "Dee just found out that the big bad boss Max Sterling is picking up the tab, so we should order every damn thing on the menu."
There were gasps and exclamations all around, a few people play fighting over the tablet to order more. The volume was turned up on everything, the music, the conversation, the room about ready to burst with excitement.
I didn't know what to think, a huge part of me relieved that my little problem had been so easily solved... solved by Jared. The last thing on earth I wanted was to be beholden to Jared. It made me feel weird, almost guilty for how I'd been treating him. And I hated it.
He nudged me again. "Relax, Dee. Problem solved. And now you don't have to max out your credit card either."
"Thank you," I said, only a little begrudgingly.
"Hey, we should do some karaoke."
"What? No. No way. Never."
"I'll make you a deal."
"What do you mean?"
"I'll do it if you do it."
"Only if you go first," I said, the vodka clearly having an effect on me.
"I'll go first. But you have to promise you'll do it after me."
"Um..."
"Shake on it. You have to promise."
What the hell? Why not? "Okay. Fine."
He held out a hand, and I reluctantly grasped it, expecting his palm to be cold and clammy and annoying, just like the rest of him. But instead, I was shocked by the jolt of warmth that surged through me at his touch, which was both firm and gentle at the same time. The way his hand enveloped mine, the sheer size of him, the strength he seemed to hold back.
My breath caught, and I looked up into his eyes, suddenly aware of the electricity crackling between us. No, no, no. It was purely my imagination. I could never in this lifetime have chemistry with fucking Jared.
The music stopped, and I jerked my hand away. "Your turn," I said quickly.
He smiled at me before he stood up, Mona swooping in to take his empty spot, bouncing up and down on the couch like an excited little kid as Jared took the stage.
A familiar riff rang out, and I groaned. God, no. Jared was about to sing his favorite INXS song, "Need You Tonight." The music kicked in, and Jared strutted to the mic with the swagger of someone who had clearly practiced this in the mirror far too many times, making me groan again.
This was torture. Jared just lived to torture me.
He started to sing, his voice surprisingly smooth and sultry, drawing the attention of every single person in the room. It was impossible to look away as he struck just the right balance between playful goofiness and genuine intensity.
I glanced at Mona beside me who was mesmerized. But she managed to tear her eyes away from Jared—Jared!—for a second to whisper in my ear. "You have to admit he's kind of cute."
"No, he's not."
"Take away the mustache, the bad haircut, the bad glasses and bad clothes, and he'd actually be pretty hot."
"Nope. Not seeing it."
"I mean, look at that jawline. You could cut glass with that."
Sighing, I had to admit she was right. "It's the only decent thing about him."
"He's a fixer-upper, that's all."
"Aren't you tired of fixer-uppers? They're all fixer-uppers. Every last one of them. And I'm sick of it," I huffed. "Aren't there any guys out there who are already whole? I want a man who isn't broken, who gets along great with his family, has a fantastic job, dresses well, eats well, has his entire life together, someone I don't have to fix, someone who can actually fix me ."
"Good luck with that," Mona said with a giggle. "Oh, here comes Jared Jawline now."
He strutted toward me, handing me the mic. "You're up."
Oh, shit. And I had no idea what to sing. I tucked my hair behind my ear, wondering if there was a way to get out of it.
"We shook on it, baby," he said.
I stood up, toe to toe with him, annoyed as hell that I had to glance so far up into his smug face. "Don't call me baby."
"Okay, Dee ."
Resisting the urge to stomp on his foot, I skirted around his big stupid body and grabbed the tablet from atop one of the side tables, flicking through the song titles, finally settling on the perfect one.
Sober me would never have chosen this song, never even had the nerve to get up on the little platform. But drunk me? Bring it on.
And bring it on I did, rocking out to Ugly Kid Joe's '90s hit, 'Everything About You.' It was maybe a little overkill because I didn't exactly hate Jared. And midway through the song, I kind of started to feel bad about it, not sure I could even finish it. My vocals had died down to practically a whisper when Jared surprised me by jumping up with me and grabbing the other mic.
What the hell?
He sang the lyrics with a silly snarl, hyping me up. "Don't leave me hanging, Dee," he urged.
Oh, God.
So together, we ended up singing the rest of the song. And then another. And then an INXS song. Again.
And it was actually pretty fun. Or I was just wasted.
When we finally sat back down, I was an odd mixture of exhilarated and exhausted, a little sweaty and a whole lot thirsty. Jared, who was once again sitting next to me, handed me a bottle of ice cold water.
"Thanks."
"Sure thing," he said, guzzling some himself. "By the way, you're a really good singer."
"Me? Not really. But thank you."
"I mean it. You have a great voice."
I felt my cheeks flush as Jared's phone made a noise. Thank goodness for the interruption. The last thing I needed was for him to notice me blushing. Blushing from something Jared had said.
He glanced up at me, distracted. "Hey, so I have to get going. But make sure you get a ride home."
"Oh, sure. No problem. Everything all right?"
"Yeah. All good. See you Monday," he said, standing up.
And then he was gone. And it kind of sucked. And I kind of hated that.