Chapter 7
Snapping her laptop closed, Court leaned back in her chair and spun it to look out the window over the city.
She had already been working for hours and was finally feeling exhausted.
Mostly because she had gotten almost no sleep the night before with Stephanie and a little because she was having trouble balancing the spreadsheet she was working on.
Tiny mistakes made by others always made her tired and cranky.
And right now, she was very, very cranky.
It was Saturday, and after ten in the morning, but the office was still completely empty.
Which she was grateful for on two levels.
First, because she liked to see that her employees make time for their families and personal lives.
Lady Killers Financial wasn’t all about profit at the expense of their employees.
Happy workers stayed working for you longer.
And second, because she knew she looked like shit and preferred nobody see her like this.
Since she hadn’t been home since the day before, she was still in the same shirt and slacks from Friday, with far more wrinkles from spending time on Stephanie’s floor.
Her bra was probably still somewhere tangled in the blue sheets.
When she had been unable to find it, she’d had to leave it behind.
If she were a smart woman, she’d go home and crash like a normal person, but she was wired. The hours spent last night with Stephanie were playing on repeat in her mind. There was something different about this woman than anyone else she had slept with. And that was scaring her with its intensity.
Turning back to her computer, she pushed herself to actually get some work done while she was there.
It was how she usually got herself out of her own head.
It had always worked in the past, and she was damn sure going to make it work today.
Every woman before this one had been easy to forget once she got to work.
Work was her one true love, and she was devoted to it.
But today, Stephanie was nagging in the back of her mind. Never completely out of her mind.
One moment she was correcting a transposed number, and the next she was thinking back on how flexible and toned Stephanie was.
How her muscles were hard under that soft, smooth skin.
How that skin tasted as she licked and kissed every inch of it in their hours together.
How much she wanted just one more taste.
To have stayed until she woke from her beauty sleep, her glorious dark hair messed from their time together.
Shaking her head to get her errant thoughts back, she spun around to the window again, but she wasn’t seeing the city.
Instead, she was seeing a certain brunette face as she came over and over again the night before.
Court couldn’t get enough of the woman. Usually, she left at around two in order to get a few hours of sleep, but not with Stephanie.
Instead, she had stayed until nearly five.
As the sun came up, she could finally regain control of herself and get going.
The only positive of being so hung up on a woman was it had taken her mind completely off Calvin and the weekend to come. A weekend she was finding hard to just skip on. Which should be the easiest decision, but her gut was telling her she needed to do this.
“Thinking about the hot woman you stole from me last night?” Rebel’s voice came from behind her, bringing her instantly back to the present.
Spinning her chair around, she hated Rebel had found her way home the night before, or possibly morning, and was showered, put on a full face of makeup and dressed.
Not in business attire, but leggings and a tunic, all in white.
Court had always envied the Ellis girls and their ability to wear white from head to toe, as a pasty white woman, she had never been able to pull it off.
“There was no stealing involved, Reb. She was anyone’s for the taking.” Court grinned, even if she hated the thought of anyone else taking her. Anyone else doing what they had done in the early hours of the morning with her? Especially not Rebel Ellis.
“I’d already called dibs, Court.” Rebel pouted as she walked into the office with her usual grace.
“There are no dibs, Rebel. She liked me more than you.” Court stated it was true, though they rarely trod on each other’s toes, even if they were attracted to the same type of woman.
Usually, the woman in question was either attracted to Court or Rebel, who was as fem as they came.
Few went both ways, and none that they had run into.
“Except you went after her on purpose because I was interested in her. I know you did,” Rebel accused.
“I did.” Court admitted with a smile, not regretting it today. Missing out on spending time with Stephanie would have been regrettable, “Though I was sure I was going to lose. She seemed very into you before I got there. But I think she was more interested in me than you in the end.”
It was a lie. Stephanie wasn’t ready for the force that was Rebel Ellis. Women either got caught up in it or were pushed away by it. Those who succumbed were flattered by the intense attention. But it’s what made Rebel, well, Rebel.
Passing the chair she usually sat in, Rebel instead went to look out the window herself. “She was until you showed up.”
“Sorry. Not sorry.” Court wasn’t actually going to apologize. She had done nothing wrong. Stephanie hadn’t been into Rebel for a moment.
“Fine,” Rebel waved her apology off. It would probably be brought up again. Many, many times, because that’s how she was. But for now at least, the subject was closed. “What are you working on this morning? Or not working on since you're looking out the window more than doing anything else.”
“Guille file, I’m not getting it to balance. I started it on Friday right at the end of the day. It’s full of errors, and I can’t get them under control without going deeper into their finances than I like to.” She admitted, because if anyone was better at numbers than Court herself, it was Rebel.
Leaning over her shoulder, Rebel stared at the screen. “Probably because the son has no idea what is happening, and the dad thinks the kids’ shit doesn’t stink. Or the kids taking money off the top, as I’ve assumed since meeting him. Sketchy didn’t begin to describe him.”
“You can’t keep calling him the kid. He’s older than you are,” Court said as Rebel scooted closer to her as her eyes scanned the screen. “Stealing? From themselves?”
“I would bet a lot of money on it. You can’t mess up your books so badly without there being an underlying cause.” Rebel took the mouse from Court’s hand, and she backed away from the desk, letting Rebel do her thing as she deftly scrolled through the documents.
“Why did we take them on as clients, then?” She asked with interest. It wasn’t what she had said when they had discussed taking them on. Looking back now, she could see that Rebel had been tight-lipped about the company back then.
“You like these little companies you can turn around. Tada!” Rebel waved at the computer as if that was a good enough reason to take on companies.
Court liked small companies that were honest, which wasn’t all of them.
That was a lesson she learned before leaving the conglomerate she had worked for when she started her career. They didn’t care, and it showed.
“Now what?” Getting up, she offered her chair to Rebel as she turned her attention to the city below them. Letting her look through the documents that Court felt she had memorized.
Scooting closer to the computer, Rebel clicked a few times. “Talk to daddy, it needs to be his decision. If he won’t fire the kid, then you have to drop them as clients. The books will never line up if Junior stays.”
“What if it’s Daddy?”
“Then they wouldn’t be looking for help with their finances, would they?”
“You’re right.” Court conceded. Now she just had to talk to the family and see if she needed to do anything else. Probably not, since she had seen the family dynamic already. The son’s poop didn’t stink, so the dad was never going to believe the son was why their finances were so messed up.
Turning to her friend, she asked curiously, “What are you doing here this morning?”
“Not burying myself in work to get over a woman I stole from my best friend, that’s for sure.” Rebel snapped at her and pushed herself away from the computer.
“Me neither.” Not meeting the woman’s eyes, she turned to look out the window again. Despite Rebel’s attitude, the night before had been worth this conversation.
“That outfit tells a completely different story.” She waved her hand up and down at her.
“You’re not one to talk, Reb, it’s usually you slinking in here with the same outfit you wore the day before.” She grinned. It was the truth, and mostly during the week.
Rebel just giggled at the accusation. “Same outfit, my left foot. I’m smart enough to keep extra clothes in my office. I plan ahead. And most of the time I just go home and come in late. You of course, don’t have to be here on a Saturday at all. Which means that this woman is playing on your mind.”
“She isn’t. I just couldn’t go home until this problem had been solved.
” She looked out at the city sadly she was facing the direction of Stephanie’s apartment and she could see it.
Not well, but she could point it out in the distance as if it were a beacon.
Since Rebel’s office view was the opposite direction, she wondered they could trade offices without too many questions, but she was sure there would be far too many. And most she didn’t want to answer.
“Or is it because it’s lonely there?” Rebel said, as if she knew the answer.
“I had work that I wanted to get done before Monday. This morning was the perfect time to get it done.” She pointed at the computer.
Getting up from the chair, Rebel laughed at her again. “Okay, Court, who isn’t lonely?”
“Not lonely. I’m here because of this spreadsheet. But you haven’t answered why you’re here. Why are you here, Rebel?” She asked because Rebel almost never came in on the weekend. Since Court worked almost all of them, she knew that for a fact.
Rebel shrugged, “I told Eomma I had to work this morning.”
Suppressing a smile, Court loved when the Ellis’s spoke Korean. There were only a few phrases that they used regularly. Calling their mom Eomma was one. The others were swear words that had slipped from their mom’s lips over the years.
“And you're here because? She doesn’t know whether or not you are here.”
“Yes, Court she does. She always knows when her kids are lying to her. It’s her superpower.” Rebel said the words as if they were not a joke. Because they weren’t Ji Ellis knew what her kids were up to at all times. Even when they worked hard to hide it.
“It is, but she’s the greatest mom ever created.”
Her words were the absolute truth, because the woman was amazing.
Ji and James Ellis were the best parents a kid could ask for, and when she had asked, they had taken her under their wing and never looked back.
Theirs was her home, even if she hadn’t grown up there.
Or looked anything like their other kids.
They have four daughters and treated Court as if she was the fifth since the day they had found out she wasn’t in contact with her parents.
They were there at every event. From graduation to helping her move and everything in between.
“Unless, of course, she’s your mom, then she gets tiring real fast.” Rebel grumbled, still pacing.
“Why even lie to her? You don’t live with her. She shouldn’t have to keep tabs on you.” Court reclaimed her chair and kicked her other chair away from the desk.
“Family lunch. I can’t take a family lunch today.” Rebel rubbed her forehead. She was most definitely hung over and Ji would point it out and have some crazy, disgusting cure she’d force her to drink.
Sitting up, she asked, “Why wasn’t I invited?”
“Probably because Mom forgot to tell you and will call when you don’t show up.
Guilting you into coming, even if you had no idea it was happening.
Like always. If only she could get the hang of group texts, she wouldn’t have to make so many calls like that.
You just never know when you’re missing something. ” Rebel grumbled.
“She hates them and don’t even get her started on what wrongs the cell phone has done to her.” Court said, because Ji had said it over and over again when her girls tried to get her updated on technology.
“Yeah, yeah, ma,” Rebel said under her breath, “I have to get some stuff done so I’m not lying to her.
You had better get cleaned up. She’ll smell the sex on you and demand answers to her annoying questions about ‘the lucky girl’ and ‘when will I meet her’.
Hell, she’ll probably have you married by dessert. ”
It sounded baffling, but was true. Once an Ellis girl got her college degree, they were then required to get married.
Or at least Ji wanted them married, man or woman.
It didn’t matter to her who was at the altar, but marriage was required.
Ellis and Rebel were the only two daughters to reach that mark, with the two little ones both currently in college.
But Court had been hounded occasionally as well.
Ji needed a wed daughter, in any form. Nobody even knew why she was so desperate for it, other than that was how she had been raised.
But Court knew she’d outlast the older woman, because she was never getting married. Because marriage came with commitment, and she wasn’t committing to anything that wasn’t her job.
Not even the brunette who, after all the talk with Rebel, was still stuck in her mind.