Chapter 4: HIS SIZE

Myla.

“Sofia!” I whisper-shouted at my friend as Sofia’s voice boomed across the lobby. To my absolute horror, I watched Fabian’s attention turn away from my boss, George, and toward our direction. Already, my cheeks started to feel hot and were probably bright red. I was mortified that she shouted that out so loudly. It drew too much attention to me. I didn’t like that. Or did I? Maybe it was just Fabian’s attention I wanted.

But instead, he barely seemed to see me. His gaze stopped on me for maybe half a second and then turned back to George again. I didn’t really know what to make of that. Was all that “Until next time” talk just a load of crap? Did he really have no interest in me whatsoever? I started to drive myself crazy trying to figure that out.

I watched, my heart starting to sink a bit, as Fabian continued on his way, pointedly ignoring me. Knowing that he’d been the guy I had se…made lov…ugh…did the deed with last night had been kind of exhilarating at first. But not anymore. Now I just felt like crap.

“Why did the boss say something about your room number? And what was all the other stuff he said? I only caught the number and only because that’s your room number,” Sofia rambled. I could see the insatiable curiosity lurking in her eyes. It was like a glimmer of earnest curiosity sparking out at me.

“I have no idea,” I outright lied. I would have said more, would have told her everything in fact, but the way Fabian brushed me off made me second guess all that. All of a sudden, the butterflies-in-my-stomach sense of excitement was replaced with a different emotion I couldn’t really define. All I knew was that it left me feeling hollow.

And empty.

“I don’t know,” I said, my voice coming out shaky, like I was on the verge of tears. Sofia gave me a look of concern but I brushed it off, took a breath, and steadied myself. “Maybe the view is better from that side of the building and he wants my room. Or something like that. I don’t really know.”

“What? Well that would be kind of a dick move to kick you out just because your room has a better view.” She paused and stared into space, looking thoughtful. Then she shrugged. “I suppose that does track. He is a dick from everything I’ve heard anyway.” She sighed and let out a little chuckle, mostly to herself. “Still want his dick though.”

Her eyes kept track of Fabian the whole time, so much so that she hadn’t realized I wasn’t really responding to her anymore.

I let her.

“Look at him. Such a stern and indifferent mask he puts on for the world.” She turned to me then, oblivious to how terrible I felt. “What do you think, Myla? Does that calm, icy exterior mask a freak in the sheets? You think that mask shatters when he’s in bed with someone and he lets all his passion out? I bet he does. And I bet he’s got a huge dick and knows exactly what to do with it.”

This was nothing new to me from Sofia. She was always fantasizing about having sex with Fabian. Fabian’s penis. What did Fabian look like naked? Etcetera, etcetera. The difference now, however, was that I knew the answer to each of those questions. And the second I even thought about last night, more memories from my time with him seemed to slip past the drunken hazy block my mind had put up. And they were great images.

Enticing images.

Images that made me want to…

Oh my God, stop brain. What are you doing? I hissed at myself.

All of those extremely graphic and oh-so-enticing mental images from the night before suddenly stopped assailing my mind. I forced myself to breathe. Just breathe. My suddenly pounding heart slowed and returned to normal. The pleasant sensation coming from…down south…at the thought of Fabian also started to go away.

Finally, I could focus a little. Which was probably a good thing considering I was about to head into a very important meeting for my company.

****

The ride to Roseforce’s corporate headquarters was a relatively quick one. It didn’t give me much time to look through my notes. I did the night before but that had been hours ago and a lot had happened between then and now.

Alcohol.

Drunken booty call text (that’s right, I know what those are).

Sex with my boss.

Stop! Brain, you and I are going to have some words if you don’t quit trying to relive that moment.

“You okay?” Sofia asked. Apparently, she’d been talking the whole time and I just now realized I wasn’t paying attention to her.

To be fair, my mind had been elsewhere.

“Uh…yeah. Definitely,” I told her.

“Is this about Mr. Ness talking about your room? You know as much as I want to fuck that man, I’ll burn down all my chances with him, and my job too, if you need me to tell him to fuck off. You know that right?”

I laughed at that.

“Don’t do that. I’m sure it’s nothing. I don’t even know if that’s what he wanted anyway. I was just guessing,” I told her.

“I’m just saying. I’d burn it all down for you because we’re like sisters. All right, bitch?” she said with a bright smile.

“Really, it’s okay. And I know you would you crazy bi…uh…great…lady,” I finished lamely.

“You see that right there,” Sofia pointed out. “You need to work on that.”

“Noted,” I replied.

Five-ish minutes later, we finally pulled up to the impressive skyscraper that housed Roseforce’s corporate, national headquarters. They were a multi-million dollar company with their proverbial fingers in hundreds, if not thousands, of proverbial pies. Can you tell I like the word proverbial? Anyway, the numbers and fact checking I uncovered in my research of the company had told me they were in dire straits and nearly bankrupt. Investments had fallen through. Products weren’t selling. This and that. That and this. There is a lot of technical jargon in there I am glossing over but you get the drift.

It meant Roseforce was vulnerable.

And if there was one thing that Mr. Fabian Ness loved, it was wounded prey. I know because I have worked at Golden Time long enough to know just how ruthless Fabian was. There were many companies in the past he’d done the same thing with. Each time, or nearly each time anyway, I had been the one to show him exactly which targets were vulnerable and which ones were holding steady. It was my primary job as an analyst and let me just say, I may be a bit of a prude. I may be a twenty-three-year old virgin (or at least used to be). But I am damn good at my job.

The car stopped and we all got out. The others in front of us did too, including Fabian’s car way out front.

“Here we go,” Sofia said.

“Once more into the breach we go,” I replied. It was something I liked to say right before going into meetings like the one I knew we were walking into.

As soon as I got out of the car, I couldn’t help but look for Fabian. It was like the giddy, little girl part of me was taking control because a boy liked me. It was a short-lived feeling though. I still couldn’t shake the way he didn’t really want to look at me back in the hotel lobby. That hurt and, to be frank, it made me feel incredibly self-conscious. To be fair though, that wasn’t exactly hard to do.

I found him at the front of our little Gold Time motorcade. He was smoothing his suit and talking to a very attractive girl that looked oddly familiar even though I knew I’d never seen her before. Believe me, I would have remembered seeing a woman like that. I think anybody with half a brain in their heads would remember that woman.

“Damn,” Sofai said, staring at Fabian too. “That woman is sexy as hell.”

Before I could retort or shoot her a dirty look, George walked over to us. He looked so prim and proper in his dapper little suit. As soon as he came up to Myla, he held out a hand. He kept looking back at Fabian too, as if worried the man was going to head into the building without him.

“One last time. You are sure about the numbers you’ve run. And you are sure the data you’ve collected confirms what you’ve told me?” He was a nervous man, our Georgie.

“Yes,” I said, patting him on the shoulder affectionately. George was a solid guy and had always been nice to me but he tended to worry. And when I say worry, I mean worry worry. In fact, worrying about everything was probably his favorite hobby.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good, because if they aren’t, this will go very badly for us,” he said.

“It won’t,” I told him, again trying to reassure the guy. Considering he was my boss, you’d think that would be the other way around but here we are.

“Myla, you’re from Cantal, right?” he asked, completely out of nowhere. Not many people in the office brought up where I grew up.

“Yeah…I am. I’m from East Moss. Why do you ask?” I looked at him questioningly.

“I just remembered that’s where Mr. Ness is from. After this is all neatly tied up in a bow, let’s all go out to dinner with Mr. Ness. I think it would be good for you to connect with him. You know, use that bit of common ground to get to know him better. I see such great things for you in the company. It would be good to get started now.” He looked proud of himself for the thought, as if he were doing me some kind of enormous favor. “I’ll talk it over with him. I think he’ll say yes.”

“Hey,” Sofia said. “What about me, Georgie?”

George had to stifle a sudden shudder.

“I’ve told you before Ms. Moore, do not call me Georgie. I hate that name. And yes, of course, you are invited as well.”

“Oh, that’s fantastic,” she said, clapping her hands.

“Where something formal. Something that will impress,” George ordered.

Then he left. We watched him go, picking up his pace so that he could catch up to Fabian. After he left, we started walking too, following the line of Golden Time employees into Roseforce. As we did, I glanced over at Sofia.

“That was weird, right?” I asked.

“So weird,” she responded.