Chapter 38 Giddy up-Yours, Pal
Giddy Up-Yours, Pal
Once we landed, the rest of the BuzzCorp crew elected to go to the hotel, explore the city, and rest up for the company dinner Clara had booked for us at “one of the hottest restaurants in Soho.”
I, on the other hand, had volunteered to check our team in, confirm that Terrence had transported the last of our equipment to our showcase room and successfully parked the rental truck in the Javits Center parking lot, and begin the process of sorting through our things and preparing for the expo.
The schedule was scrambled eggs, basically. All mixed up in a confusing hodgepodge of networking and interfacing and glad-handing and presenting. But we would make it work. For once, I had complete faith in my team.
Still, having Hudson tag along behind me to gawk at the opening booths and experiences wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I planned this all-day prep extravaganza.
If Hudson had been overwhelmed by that pissant convention we’d been to in Cleveland, then I was surprised he didn’t pass out the minute he walked through the doors of the Javits Center.
It was too distracting, watching his eyes widen at sex swings and fucking machines and the posters for the “Be Your Own Pornstar” experience—whatever that meant.
And speaking of distractions, about halfway through our expo floor walk…
Lloyd Exeter appeared from nowhere, chatting with some suits near a display of electro-stim taint massagers.
“Oh Jesus,” I muttered. “Here we go.”
Obviously I knew that he would be here this weekend. But in a crowd of thousands, I’d hoped to avoid him. Small parts of me even hoped that he might have some sense of shame and go out of his way to avoid me.
Nope!
Not only did he spot me, but he diverted straight toward me.
No sense in running. That would only make the humiliation worse. I stood my ground and waited as he approached, suits peeling off until only he and Jared Fucking Blotcher remained.
I tried to swallow my surprise.
“Well, look who we have here,” Jared crooned by way of greeting. “The competition.”
“Hi, Jared,” I said. Play nice. “I didn’t realize you’d gotten a new job. Congrats.”
“Some people in this industry appreciate my insights,” he replied, preening. “And my sense of humor. I’m sure it was a shock to you all when I left BuzzCorp, but I had to go where I would be valued.”
“Of course.”
A flicker of annoyance crossed Lloyd’s face. He shooed Jared away. “Leave us.”
Chastened, Jared frowned, but I wasn’t surprised.
Lloyd never knew how to be anything less than the center of attention.
I bit the inside of my mouth to keep from smiling at the cosmic justice of it all.
Jared got a job with Lloyd’s company to get one over on us at BuzzCorp…
and now he was reaping the consequences of that decision. Newton’s Third Law hard at work again.
Once Jared was gone, though, my own smugness melted away. Hudson might have been standing beside me, but I felt totally alone under Lloyd’s stare.
“Scout Porter,” he said, voice smooth and cold and artificially beautiful as carved butter. “What the hell’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
“Hi, Lloyd.”
“Funny, running into an old friend. Such an old, good friend.”
Fuck.
I’d talked such a big game to Leelah and Addie. Been so confident that Lloyd would not get under my skin again.
Reality was different. Seeing him was like getting knocked through space and time.
I was once again the sad, scared girl who’d been called to the CEO’s office to have her sexts read aloud in front of the all-male board who would determine her fate.
“Yeah,” I said, eyes tracing patterns across the carpeted floor. “Good to see you.”
When I added no follow-ups, he turned his attention to Hudson.
“Lloyd Exeter.”
“Hudson Bailey.”
Neither of them seemed particularly pleased to make the other’s acquaintance, but they shook hands anyway.
“Name sounds familiar,” Lloyd said. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
“I sincerely hope not.”
Not the response Lloyd was looking for, clearly.
“I hear you’re doing well for yourself, Scout. That’s great news. I was so worried about you when you left GalacticSolutions. You weren’t ready for the big time, but you had potential.”
Gee, they really put a lot of work into the carpet patterns of the Javits Center. By the time this conversation was over, I’d have the whole design memorized. “Thanks.”
“Loquacious as ever, huh? Hudson, I assure you, she used to be much better with her mouth.”
Vomit burned the back of my throat. I would not let it make an appearance. Don’t be rude. Just endure the interaction and get out of here unscathed. Do not let Fluorine Scout out of her containment unit. You have got to keep yourself under control—your career is at stake here.
He clucked his tongue at my nonresponse. “Anyway, I want you to know, I don’t hold a grudge.”
“About what?”
“About everything that happened back then. I mean, I’m sure you know that I don’t hold a grudge, considering how well we set you up for success when you left GalacticSolutions, right?”
Finally, the anger broke through. Not enough to say anything, but enough that my stomach roiled with unspent adrenaline.
Hudson, on the other hand, didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.
“How well you set her up? I’ve never heard such horseshit.”
“Some friend you’ve got here, Scout. Sorry, buddy, we weren’t talking to you.”
“You didn’t do anything for her. You ruined—”
Lloyd breezed past Hudson’s rage, like it was nothing more than a troublesome fly he’d batted away. “And in return, I hope you don’t take me starting this new company of mine personally. It’s just business.”
Finally, the carpet ceased to hold my interest. The blank cheerfulness in his eyes cut me to my core. He wasn’t checking in on me. He was bragging. This was his victory lap.
“Just business, like when you fired her and blamed her for damages that weren’t her fault? You’re a real piece of work.”
Lloyd finally snapped; his calculated persona cracked down the middle. “Hey, buddy, I don’t think what I do is any of your concern.”
Hudson’s gaze was devastating steel. His lips curled up tauntingly. “You’re right. You’re no concern of mine.”
The words dripped with unspoken meaning. It was as close to I don’t give a shit about you because you’re fucking beneath me, you insufferable cretin as anything I’d ever heard Hudson say before.
Lloyd picked up on the subtext. He answered by taking a threatening step forward.
Flipping on survival mode, I forced a cheerful, can-do vibe. “Well! We’ve got to run. Lots to set up. So much to do. It was good to see you, Lloyd. Give Jared my best.”
“Who?”
“Jared? The guy who was just standing with you?”
“Oh, him. I’m not sure how long he’ll last, to be frank. I needed his particular…insights…into the current sex toy industry landscape. Now that I have them, I’m afraid he’s outlasting his usefulness. You can have him back, if you want.”
What a fucking asshole. I didn’t like Jared, but I wouldn’t wish working for or being fired by Lloyd Exeter on my worst enemy. As far as he was concerned, people were disposable.
Especially once they’d given everything they had to give. Now that Lloyd had Jared’s “insights” into BuzzCorp, he was going to be thrown away like a used napkin.
I knew the feeling.
“I can’t wait to see your presentation. I’m sure it’ll be very…” His eyes traveled up and down my body. Undressing me without lifting a finger. “Stimulating.”
Without another word, he pivoted and returned to his waiting gaggle of fawning hangers-on. But before he completely left my earshot, I overheard a strand of conversation with his lackeys. Jared included.
“Oh yeah. She still wants me.”
If I hadn’t forced myself to go numb, I would have cried on the spot.
That was all I would ever be to Lloyd Exeter. A piece of ass to taunt.
Hudson turned on me, fire paling in comparison to the heat of his rage.
I distracted myself by starting for Conference Room 58, which was our designated home away from home during the convention.
There was so much to do. I didn’t have time for this—not for Lloyd’s prancing smugness, and not for Hudson’s righteous fury.
“What the hell was that?”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t want to butt in like I did with your parents, but Scout…you’re shaking. Why didn’t you stand up to that asshole?”
Was I shaking? I glanced down at my hands.
Shit. Yeah. I was. I’d fought so hard to stay numb that I hadn’t even realized.
“We’re at work,” I reminded him. “I can’t get in fights at work, especially not with our competition.
I’m a representative of BuzzCorp. Anything I do would reflect badly on the company.
I’m better at being myself, but I can’t be myself at the expense of our launch.
Entropy, remember? No chaos. Not this week, at least.”
“Right. Entropy. No chaos. I’ll remember that.”
His eyes darkened and flickered away from me. Something I’d just said had soured his mood, but I couldn’t figure out what.
I searched for an activity to pick up both of us. I found it across the convention floor, where a team was setting up a series of enclosed pods along the north wall of the hall. I recognized them from photographs Clara had shown me a few months ago from a C-suite retreat she’d gone to in Bali.
They were sex pods.
No two ways about it, no cutesy names to obfuscate their true purpose.
Taking after that one show in the UK where people would straight-up have sex in an enclosed box on TV and then come out to tell thousands of strangers back home how the experience went, these sex pods were commonplace at higher-level sexpos like this one.
They allowed people to check out their newly acquired merchandise without having to schlep all the way back to the privacy of their hotel rooms.
Perfect.
“You know what? Forget Lloyd. I want to have some fun.”
“I like the sound of that.”