Chapter 2
Koen~
Even though I was only twenty-seven, I felt ninety whenever my head hit the pillow at night. As my parents’ only son, I’d been raised to take over Wilder Technologies one day, and that one day felt like it had started the day of my high school graduation.
Seriously, I was too young to feel this damn old.
Now, while it might sound like I was bemoaning my life, I wasn’t.
My father, Ashford Wilder, had built Wilder Technologies from the ground up, and I’d never known a more hardworking man.
My mother, Patricia Wilder, was a pediatrician, and she’d also been a great example of doing whatever she’d needed to in order to get things done.
Together, they’d given me and my sister, Nixi, a childhood worth bragging about, and I liked to believe that they hadn’t raised two spoiled children.
I liked to believe that we’d gotten the best of both worlds, meaning that we’d had more than enough growing up, but had also been raised to take note of how much work it took to provide those things for your family.
At any rate, there’d never been a question on whether or not I’d be taking over Wilder Technologies one day.
Though Nixi had also gone to college and had gotten her degree in business management, two years after graduating with that degree, she ended up meeting her husband, Curt Hamilton, and since he was a criminal attorney, Nixi got to stay home to raise their daughter, Francis.
Her plan was to go back to work one day, but I could see her choosing motherhood for the next few years.
Nixi had a way with children, and Curt wanted four kids total.
As for me, Wilder Technologies had begun taking over my life my freshman year of college, and the company was still making me its bitch.
Yeah, I went on dates if I had the time, and I’d even had my fair share of one-night stands, but when I was lucky enough to carve out five hours of sleep on a good day, my life didn’t have much time for a serious relationship.
I knew that things would get easier later down the line, but as long as my father still ran the ship like a man that needed no sleep, I was expected to keep the same pace.
At this stage in the game, I could run WT if something unfortunate were to happen to my father, and I supposed that I should be proud of that.
Still, I was tired.
Really fucking tired.
However, even if I was dead on my feet, there was no way that I was going to back out tonight.
My best friend, Ivan Kepler, was celebrating his one-year anniversary, and I’d be an asshole not to show.
Ivan worked for WT as one of our top three app developers, and his wife, Netti, was an ER nurse, so with their schedules just as busy, it wasn’t often that they both had the same nights off where they didn’t have to work the next morning.
So, they had arranged for a small celebration at Liquid IV, and it really was just going to be a few friends having drinks, and I knew how lucky I was that I was part of their close circle of friends.
Ivan and Netti were good people, and they were worth losing a few hours of sleep for.
There was also the selfish reason for going, and that was the fact that I couldn’t remember the last time that I’d gotten laid.
If my memory served me correctly, then I’d have to say that the last time had been almost two months ago.
The company’s new fiscal year started in two weeks, so all the top executives had spent these past few weeks getting ready for the end of another successful year.
Now, while my mother brought in her own paycheck, and while Curt took care of Nixi comfortably, my father was a family man, meaning that my mother and sister owned equal shares of WT.
So, in my father’s eyes, a successful year meant that he was taking care of his family in the way a man was supposed to, so it was kind of hard to criticize his work pace when his intent came from a good place.
Needless to say, because my sister and I owned equal shares of the company, we were already millionaires, and even though I felt ninety-years-old most days, no twenty-something needed millions of dollars.
Still, it was what it was, and I understood how very blessed I was.
I was also lucky to be able to say that my looks were enough to help me score more often than not.
Though lots of females knew that my last name came with some pretty hefty dollar signs, I was six-foot-one, had black hair, grey eyes, and WT had a gym on the first floor that was open to employees.
My sister and I had both taken after our father in looks, and Nixi really was just a five-foot-three petite version of me and our father.
So, with a fat wallet and decent enough looks, one-night stands weren’t that hard to snag.
In fact, there were a lot of women that were up for one night only as long as you paid the tab and showed them a good time.
Contrary to what people believed, not all women were looking for husbands or life partners.
Some women were perfectly happy being single and just enjoying life.
“You still gonna make it tonight?”
I looked up to see Ivan poking his head into my office. “Of course.”
The man grinned from the doorway, and Ivan looked like an Ivan.
He was six-foot-one, had light blonde hair, green eyes, worked out regularly, and while we were the same age, he claimed that his Russian heritage was what made him seem older than he actually was.
Now, while I wasn’t so sure about that, he did look older when standing next to his wife, but that was probably because she was a dainty little thing that he swallowed up whenever she was near him.
Walking further into my office, he said, “You look like shit.”
“Thanks,” I smirked.
“You need a day off, Koen,” he said, and it wasn’t anything that he didn’t say to me at least once a week. “A full day off, no phone, no anything.”
I shot him a look from my desk. “You know just as well as I do that days off aren’t a real thing in my world.”
“Then you need to get laid,” he stated, his idea of a compromise.
“I don’t disagree,” I replied dryly.
“Well, Casey will be-”
“No,” I said, cutting him off. “I don’t care how highly Netti thinks of her, I’m not going there.”
“Dude, why not?” he asked as he dropped in one of the chairs positioned in front of my desk. “She’s hot, has her own money, and isn’t saving anything for marriage.”
“She doesn’t like animals,” I announced unreasonably. “People can say what they want, but for me, not liking animals is a red flag, and I don’t need any extra drama in my life.”
“You’re not marrying her, Koen,” he drawled out. “It’s just some good times, nothing more.”
I shook my head. “Not happening,” I repeated. “I see her as the type to agree to a one-night stand, then slash your car tires when you don’t return her calls. Yeah, no thanks.”
Ivan laughed. “I think that’s most women.”
I eyed him. “That’s why prostitution is a billion-dollar-a-year enterprise. Sex without the complications is a lot more enticing than sex with a stage-five clinger.”
“Well, even if Casey isn’t on the menu, I’m sure there’ll be other women at the bar tonight,” he said in support of my sex life. “I’m sure you can meet one or two.”
“I haven’t had a threesome since college,” I remarked absently. “And the idea of trying to satisfy two women at once sounds exhausting enough to give me a headache from just thinking about it.”
Ivan shook his head sadly. “If you’re like this at twenty-seven, I can only imagine how tragic your life is going to be at forty.”
That made me grin. “I’ll be yelling at kids to get off my lawn at that age.”
“You’re definitely not going to be the cool dad,” he agreed.
“You say that as if I have time to get married and have kids,” I snorted, half-ass serious.
“Like I said, you need a full day off.”
I let out a deep breath. “And I’m not disagreeing with you. We just both know that it’s not going to happen. At least, not right now. Maybe after the start of the new fiscal year, but that’s just me trying to placate you.”
“Well, since a day of relaxation is off the table, just know that you won’t hurt my feelings if you meet someone tonight, then decide to leave early with her,” he said, and that’s why we were friends. Even though he liked to joke a lot, Ivan was always serious when it counted.
“Duly noted.”
“Okay, I need to get back to work,” he said as he stood from the chair. “If I want to get out of here at a decent hour, then I better start tidying up my shit.”
“If you need anything from me, let me know,” I offered.
“I need you to take a damn day off,” he retorted.
“If you need anything else from me, let me know,” I amended.
Ivan just smirked at me as he left my office, and even though he meant well, making sure that WT succeeded was about more than just my family living comfortably.
Thousands of people depended on this company to feed their families, so if we ever went under, lack of sleep would be the least of my worries.
After all, who could sleep if they sent thousands of people to the unemployment line?
Yeah, I might be working myself to the bone, but at least I was doing it while I was still young enough to keep up the pace. Plus, there were worst things in the world than working your dream job.