7. Lucian
7
LUCIAN
I f things kept up the way they were, I’d have to send a company-wide memo. Yes, we knew there was a retreat on the horizon, but work still needed to be done. After hearing about nothing else for the past week since we made the announcement, I was ready to fire the next motherfucker I overheard talking about the lodge or who they hoped their room would be close to. Like this was summer camp and we were all a bunch of kids. Did these people have nothing better to think about? Were their lives that empty?
I passed the break room, where a cluster of women went on and on about what they wanted to bring and whether it would be enough for a weekend. Did they never go away on trips?
“It would’ve been nice to get a little more warning,” one of the women added. Obviously, none of them noticed me lingering near the doorway. “I had to scramble to find a sitter for the kids.”
That was something she hadn’t considered when she came up with this idea. The thought made me smile to myself as I continued to my office, ignoring the excited chatter. Her desk was empty—no doubt she was checking in with Cynthia, making sure she’d considered every factor. Cynthia had been planning pointless wastes of time like this retreat for years and had it down to a science.
I had done most of my communicating with Ivy via email in the five days since our meeting, and that was much more her doing than mine. The coward could hardly face me. Funny how she started this wanting to play nice and be professional, then turned around and cc’d my father on an email that had nothing to do with him so she could kiss his ass.
It was almost enough to make me double back and tell those harpies in the break room if they had trouble getting childcare lined up, they could thank Ivy for it. She would find out what happened to people who went over my head to make me look like shit.
You started it. Like I needed my inner voice’s reminder. When I’d looked back over the timeline of events—the wedding, Dad’s job offer that was more of a demand, the press release and buyout finalization—it was perfectly believable that she hadn’t known we’d be working together. Would she have fucked me in hopes of getting close to the CEO? When I checked in with myself and looked at the situation honestly, I couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t made any effort to stay in touch, for one thing. What good would one isolated night have done for her career?
Had all of this been for nothing? A waste of time getting back at her for something that was only in my head?
It was a relief to close my office door and shut out the incessant chatter. We were scheduled to get on chartered buses outside at three, meaning I had a few hours to go until the fun truly started.
This retreat was going to go well in the end. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Ivy would be incredible at organizing everything, which would earn her even greater approval from Dad.
And make me less likely to keep this goddamn job once he decided she was better suited than me. She already had me looking like an asshole with the presentation she hadn’t bothered bringing to me before announcing it to the entire team. There had to be something I could do to pay her back for that little email trick, but what? Short of canceling our reservations at the lodge.
Our reservations.
An idea played out in my mind’s eye, so sharp and clear it was like I was watching a movie. One more time, just once, to teach her a lesson. Then we’d be even.
I crossed the room before I could talk myself out of it while pulling out my cell. It took no time to find a number for the lodge, where a chipper young woman was on front desk duty. “Hello,” I replied after she answered. “I’m part of the Diamond Media retreat you’re hosting this weekend.”
“Of course,” she chirped. “We’re looking forward to your group’s arrival later today. I trust everything is going according to schedule?”
“It’s funny you should put it that way because we do have a slight problem. Nothing serious,” I assured her while gazing out beyond my office walls to the buzzing hive of activity. “But a handful of our people weren’t able to secure childcare this weekend and won’t be able to join us. Since I know it already had to put you guys out, shuffling things around to make room for us, I thought I should let you know we won’t need as many rooms as we originally imagined.”
“That is helpful,” she agreed. “We currently have sixty rooms booked. How many can we release?”
“Ten,” I ventured. “Thank you so much for being willing to work with us on this.”
“It’s our pleasure. We’ll see you all in a matter of hours.”
I assured her she would before ending the call and was barely able to stop laughing once I did. No, it wouldn’t be enough to shut the entire event down, but it would mean scrambling to make things work. “Let’s see how calm you can be under pressure,” I murmured, my smile widening when I imagined how flustered she would be.
All of a sudden, I was starting to look forward to this retreat.
There was nothing like the month of July when it came to sudden, violent storms. The sky had threatened all day to open up and drench us. By the time we reached the on-ramp for Route 28, that threat turned into reality. Suddenly, we slowed to a crawl as rain lashed the windows and reduced visibility. As if I wanted to be on a fucking bus any longer than I needed to.
A two-hour drive turned into a four-hour ordeal thanks to an accident on the road ahead, which left us sitting still for much too long. Thank God for AirPods , I thought while turning up the volume on the music coming from my phone to block out my surroundings.
Ivy wanted to be a leader? She could lead us out of this.
At least a lot of the noise quieted once the lodge came into view and stunned most of the group into silence. I could admit it was impressive, sprawling upward and outward with multiple peaked roofs, which, from a distance, seemed to compete with the peaks behind them. Like a rustic cabin on steroids.
The lingering rain made me glad of the awning which spanned the entire walkway leading up to the lodge’s heavy doors. “Welcome, welcome,” the staff murmured like a bunch of robots, standing in a line stretching almost from the front door to the front desk. Clearly, our arrival meant something. I could tell from the awkward stares and soft giggles from more than one of our employees that they weren’t used to this level of attention. That didn’t come as any surprise.
It also didn’t come as a surprise when I found icy blonde hair shining at the front desk as we filtered into the lobby. I crept closer, listening hard but pretending to be clueless. “I don’t understand,” I heard Ivy say in a tight, slightly panicked voice. “I confirmed the number of rooms with you on Wednesday. I have the email confirming this.”
“Yes, but someone called and told us to reduce the number of rooms because there were a number of your group who were unable to make it.”
“Someone… called you?” she asked the clerk in a softer voice.
“Yes. Earlier today.”
I watched from behind as her shoulders rolled back and her spine stiffened. “I see. There’s a ten-room difference, yes?”
“That’s right. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. Really.” Ivy certainly sounded worried, though. I hesitated a few moments, letting her stew, always intending to save the day by offering to speak to Mr. Schwartz myself. He would be more than happy to help iron out any issues we had. Maybe I had taken this too far. I’d always planned to fix things, no harm done, but she had the same worry on her pretty face I’d seen before. I now remembered her sick mother Ivy told me about and wondered how much adversity the girl could handle.
“You know, Mr. Schwartz is a personal friend of my family,” I offered, coming to a stop at her side. “I could talk with him, arrange for a few of our people to stay at a neighboring lodge. We could shuttle them over here during the day and back at night.”
“Unfortunately, we are fully booked in our other lodges,” the girl behind the desk told me. “It’s our busy season. Plus, we just got word the storm knocked out power in town, so any of the smaller places down there will probably be scrambling around, trying to make do until the lines are repaired.”
Fuck me. I didn’t count on that. In all honesty, I hadn’t given my plan much thought beyond fixing things at the last moment just to prove I could. I hadn’t considered violent storms and power outages.
“Do you have cots?” Ivy asked. I craned my neck, hoping to catch her eye, but she pointedly refused to look my way. “I’m sure there have to be a few people who would be glad to double up.”
“Yes, we can provide cots to anyone who would be willing to share a room.” The look of relief on the girl’s face was matched by the sound of it in Ivy’s voice when she offered her thanks.
When the clerk hurried off to locate the cots, I opened my mouth, prepared to offer insincere congratulations on saving the day yet again. Her stony stare told me that would not be a wise course of action, putting it mildly. “Don’t even start with me,” she warned in a whisper. “And don’t pretend it wasn’t you who did this.”
She wasn’t an idiot, so her accusation came as no surprise. Not that it made a difference. “I was about to offer my appreciation for coming up with a solution.”
“Bullshit.” Just as suddenly as her face had twisted into a snarl, it shifted into an easy-going smile. She waved her arm over her head, and she turned to the group. “Hi, everybody. We’re going to need to work together on this.”
When a low roar of concerned voices drowned her out, I put two fingers in my mouth and blew out a sharp whistle that silenced the group. Ivy offered no acknowledgment, clearing her throat. “We’ve hit a little bit of a snag, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Through some sort of scheduling mishap, we’re ten rooms short this weekend. But they do have cots available for us to use, or maybe those of us willing to share a bigger bed with a friend could help too.” Right away, her friend Laney stood up straighter and nodded. She was cute in an offbeat kind of way, but not my type.
“I can stay with Laney!” An older woman—Barbara something—linked arms with the girl in question. “That is if you don’t mind. I can always use a cot,” she offered. Laney’s strained smile and Ivy’s disappointed sigh told me what they thought of the arrangement, but neither of them wanted to be rude and tell the woman her help was not helpful at all.
“Thank you, Barbara,” Ivy called out. She was masterful when it came to being two-faced, lying to these people to make them feel better. Was that what I had to look forward to for the rest of my corporate life? Playing nice? I couldn’t think of many things I would like less.
Eventually, those who were able to pair off did so, collecting their key cards at the front desk before taking a map of the lodge that would direct them to their rooms. The place was so huge I thought it was a castle when Mom and Dad first brought me here. I wasn’t tall enough to see over the front counter then.
Finally, there was no one left but Ivy and me. I wasn’t about to let her take charge without at least showing my face and reminding people who I was. Since Dad didn’t see fit to join us—not that I could blame him—I had to represent the family. How would he have reacted at the sight of only one room key left waiting on the desk?
“Has there been a mistake?” I asked as evenly as I could, eyeing the card. “There are two of us left, but only one key card.”
“That’s because there’s only one room left, genius,” Ivy muttered, snatching the card. “Congratulations. You’ve given us no choice but to share a goddamn room all weekend.”
“That’s not happening, Poison,” I replied with a laugh. “And save your accusations.”
“Sure. This is all a big coincidence. The fact that we lost ten rooms and the fact that you hate me for working at your company are completely unrelated.” She rolled her eyes, blowing out an exasperated sigh. “I guess I could stay with Laney and Barbara…” Her voice was flat, almost weak. Obviously, the idea didn’t make her happy.
But did staying with me? I couldn’t imagine it. Yet there she was, hustling quickly across the rustic lobby, holding my room key hostage as she did. “You’re sure there are no other rooms available?” I asked the clerk. What was I supposed to do otherwise? Stay with some random employee? Yeah, right.
“I’m afraid not. Sorry.” She grimaced like she was sympathetic but did nothing to help.
I had fucked myself royally. What was worse, Ivy knew it. I had no choice but to catch up to her.
“Can I at least get the duplicate key?” I asked, falling in step with her. “Or are you going to keep that from me?”
“As far as I’m concerned, you can go outside, look up at the sky, and open your mouth wide. Maybe you’ll drown.” She wouldn’t look at me on the elevator, staring at her phone instead, typing something frantically.
“What did your phone ever do to deserve that kind of punishment?” I asked, staring straight ahead.
“It’s either type like this or wrap my hands around your throat.”
“Be careful, Poison. For all you know, I might enjoy it.” Why? Why did stupid shit like that come out of my mouth when I was around her?
She barely stopped short of shoving me aside to exit the elevator before I could, then almost ran down a pair of teenagers on their way down the hall.
“I still need the key,” I called out behind her. Was I enjoying her little fit? More than I should. This was the first pleasure she’d given me since the night of Colton’s wedding. I deserved it after the indignity of being babysat for two weeks.
The pleasure of watching her hips sway wasn’t bad, either.
Fuck. We’d be sharing a room, and the woman wanted to kill me. I doubted that was hyperbole. There was no room for thoughts about her ass unless I was in the mood for a miserable hard-on all night.
A gasp rang out as soon as she pushed the door open while I was still a few rooms down the hall. “You’re kidding me,” she groaned out.
Once I rounded the doorframe, I understood. The chances of a painful hard-on were improving by the minute. “There’s only one bed in the room,” I observed in disbelief. If my dick didn’t thicken at the idea of sharing a bed with her, I might have laughed at the absurdity.
She didn’t see the humor. “Congratulations.” Ivy dropped onto the foot of the bed, arms folded. “You can count to one.”