Chapter 8
Troy
A fter my frigid shower, that was more uncomfortable than relieving, I stepped out of the water and wrapped myself in a towel. Thankfully, it had helped my growing feelings subside after my short time with Monica. I walked to the black marble sink of my bathroom and placed my hands on the counter, studying myself in the mirror.
“How could you be so stupid?” I muttered.
I should have asked Monica more questions last night. She had brought up the new job and I hadn’t even asked what it was or what she would be doing. It would have probably given me some clue that she would be walking into my office this afternoon as my new personal assistant. All I knew was that she had gone on a shitty date and was in the mood to make out at a bar, and there was no way I was passing that up.
Plus, it wasn’t like I really spent time getting to know the women I met. All of it was small talk. No substance. We rushed through our words just trying to get to the end result, which ended up in my bed or theirs. I didn’t want anything else from them. Words complicated things. But apparently lack of words complicated things, too.
I groaned as I ran my hands down my stubbly cheeks.
I needed a shave. There hadn’t been time this morning after waking up late. And alone. For some reason that still seemed like a thread of disappointment that ran through me.
I grabbed my electric razor and began carefully shaving. When I was done, I cleaned up the sink and walked over to my bedroom and into the large master closet. I did a slow turn as I debated whether to put on sweats and stay in, or put on another suit and go out for my usual nightcap. As tired as I had felt all day, the cold water had woken me up some.
This was usually the time I went out for a solo dinner and then headed to the bar for a few drinks to numb my body and brain so I could sleep. It wasn’t the best habit, but one I had grown used to over the past two years since I had opened up my own firm.
It was highly unlikely I would run into Monica again. Fate couldn’t be that tricky. The idea of seeing her slink up to the bar the way she did last night was an attractive possibility, but one I wouldn’t bet on. In the zero to none chance she did. What happened last night couldn’t happen again. No, it was best to just see her in the office.
Not that the office setting had stopped me before with previous personal assistants, but it had gotten me in hot water. If I truly believed my father’s threats, then pursuing Monica would mean kissing my firm goodbye.
My phone buzzed just then from the nightstand in my room. I walked past the bed, still unmade with tangled sheets, and picked up my phone. I sighed as I looked at the caller ID. It was my father. Did I really want to do this right now? I had better just get whatever he wanted over with. I slid the green answer bar.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Troy.” His usual cool greeting.
“Hey, Dad. What’s up?”
“Well, I just got off the phone with Kathy…”
I rolled my eyes. Of course he did.
“Yeah? And?”
“Well, she gave me a bit of interesting news…”
I sighed quietly as I let whatever he was trying to say drag out like a movie that didn’t need to be three hours long.
“Oh? What’s that?” I sat on the bed, still wrapped in a towel. The scent of sweet jasmine still lingered, and I tried my best to ignore it and memorize it at the same time. I needed to wash these immediately. Or get rid of them all together. There was no way I could sleep in them knowing they were wrapped around her naked body at one point.
I got up and walked back into my closet, taking a seat on the plush loveseat that sat in the center of the room next to my drawers of watches and ties. I fiddled with my newest Rolex that sat on the glass surface of the small dresser as I waited for my father to get his point across.
“She told me you hired a new personal assistant.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What happened to the old one again?” he asked, even though he already knew.
“Serena moved back to Seattle to be closer to family,” I said.
It was the truth, with a little bit of complicated history left out.
“Mmm. Right. That’s right.”
I could tell he was unconvinced, even though he nor Kathy had any proof of Serena and my late-night rendezvous. Despite having the opportunity of possibly destroying my life when I couldn’t give her the relationship she wanted, Serena admitted she was in love with me. She didn’t want to hurt me, which was why she left quietly.
“And your new assistant?”
“Monica,” I said, her name reverberating through me.
“Where did you find her?”
“She was highly recommended by Daniel Jacobs.”
That shut my father up for a few moments.
“Wow,” he finally said with surprise.
I knew he had admiration for Daniel. He made sure to say so any time his name came up.
“I admire that boy,” said my dad. “Building his business from the ground up from his very dorm room. All on his own, too.”
I looked up at the ceiling and tried to keep my annoyance at bay.
“Smart guy,” I said in a curt agreement.
“Yes. I heard that you didn’t even interview this girl, though. Kathy didn’t get so much as a résumé or any notice before she started this morning.”
“Well, Dad. It is my firm and my personal assistant works very closely to me, and only me. I felt like I should have the decision to choose who that was.”
“All of the personal assistants Kathy has chosen seemed to be to your liking,” said my dad somewhat pointedly.
I knew what he was implying. Even though he had never directly accused me of anything happening with my assistants, the implication was there. I had always been discreet about my personal affairs in the office. None of it had ever been on page six. The Victoria’s Secret models were a different story, but I kept my work life under wraps in that regard. Still, he had his little spy, Kathy, tattling in his ear nearly every day.
With my first personal assistant, there was an afternoon coming back to the office after lunch and too much champagne. We both were so desperate that we didn’t make it out of the elevator. She was the one who initiated that when she hit the emergency stop button and went down on me right then and there. I made sure to return the favor back in my office.
I was still surprised we were never caught or that the NYFD didn’t come to save us, only to find my pants down and her mouth around my dick. That would have ended up on page xix.
“They have been, but I owed Daniel Jacobs a favor and I trust his judgment,” I said.
“Well, if Daniel had anything to do with it then it’s fine by me,” he said.
“Great,” I muttered.
“Just remember…” he started. “If anything gets out, you lose the firm. I can’t have you tarnishing the pristine reputation of my company. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“Right. Well, I better go. Your mother is waiting downstairs for dinner.”
“Tell her I said hello.”
“Mhmm. Bye, son.”
I hung up the phone and tossed it on the plush carpet of my closet floor in frustration. I was nearly forty years old and still had to answer to my father. Not only that, I had a babysitter named Kathy who, for some reason, had it out for me.
I wasn’t going out tonight. I wasn’t in the mood. I threw open my closet drawers and pulled out a pair of black sweats and slid them on, along with a baggy Mets shirt.
Then I strode out to my bedroom and looked at the bed with all the reminders of Monica that were wrapped up in the sheets and began ripping them off in a manic state. I threw everything into a pile on the hardwood floor and looked at it breathlessly. I was pissed off. At my father. At Kathy. At myself for not being able to control myself around a beautiful woman.
I knew it was going to take everything in me to keep things professional with Monica. She was the most beautiful woman I had set eyes on and knew how to move her body in a sync with mine that I had never experienced. I almost wished I had never gone to that bar last night because I never would have met her to experience sex that made me hard even when I was losing my shit right now. It was like biting into a sweet apple and never being able to again. It was almost better not to have tasted it in the first place.
Hurriedly, I kicked the pile of sheets toward the wall, intending to send them down the garbage chute later. I needed to get rid of any trace of our night together.
I walked down the hallway and to the living room. The sun had already set, leaving the sky a pink and purple watercolor painting casting its colors over the room. I looked out the large windows and wished I could cover them up because all I saw was her against them, her legs around me as she threw her head back and moaned.
I could still hear her. Feel her.
I wondered if she could, too. I wondered if when she walked into my office this morning, if everything came rushing back to her. If I affected her the way she did me. To know I was her first one-night stand made her all the more appealing. Knowing I could have her in that way without knowing anything about each other. That was a true act of passion. One I hoped she would never forget. One I hoped she would think about when she touched herself in a way I had to will myself not to again.
Lost in thought, I walked to the corner bar of the room and pulled down a bottle of bourbon. I pried the top off and took a generous swig before sliding a glass tumbler from the shelf to top off. I set the bottle down with every intention of coming back to it soon, as I carried my glass over and plopped down on the couch, turning my back to the windows.
I took another generous sip. Just because I wasn’t going out tonight didn’t mean I had the intention of staying sober. Not when I had to see her again tomorrow and the day after that. And so forth. I could let her go. Quit before we started. I had just told my dad to trust me with my decision. I couldn’t prove him right.