Chapter 2

Jonathan

Jesus, she’s sexy...

I was at a business dinner with some associates when I spotted a gorgeous redhead looking out over the deck of Pacific Bay Lounge.

She was absolutely stunning. The short black lace dress she was wearing hugged her curvy body in all the right places and I was straining to see what was underneath that plunging neckline.

Her glossy hair was swept to the side in loose curls that barely touched her shoulder and her eyes—soft green eyes, were glimmering against the twinkling lights that hung above her head.

“Mr. Statham?” My executive lawyer interrupted my thoughts. “When do you want to go over that proposal?”

“Tuesday morning. I have a feeling it’s going to take a long time to sort through everything. I can’t believe they don’t want a merger. They’re going to lose a lot of money with a buyout.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I can’t believe it either, but it might be a power play to test your commitment. I’ll see you Tuesday.”

“Me too.” “Have a good New Year’s.” “See you at corporate.” The rest of the associates shook my hand and walked away.

I turned back around to get another look at the red haired goddess, but I didn’t see her anymore.

Was I dreaming? How much did I drink tonight?

I scanned the pier again and—there she was. She’d moved several feet down.

I watched her sip her beer and sigh, wondering if she was attending that party alone.

“I think that went pretty well.” My trust advisor Vanessa smiled. “You’re a great conversationalist. It’s a win-win for Statham Industries either way.”

“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get them to close on it.” I stood up. “Thank you for coming tonight. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You’re leaving? Don’t you want to stay and have a few drinks with me? It is New Year’s Eve and I don’t have anybody to kiss after the countdown...”

“Vanessa, we’ve been through this. You know I don’t date employees.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not a regular employee. I’m a chair on the board.”

Even worse...

“Yeah well, mixing business with pleasure? It’s more than a cliché. Besides, I don’t want things getting complicated between us.”

“They won’t get complicated.” She reached up and touched my face. “You and I would be perfect together and you know it...”

I sighed. Vanessa and I did have good chemistry and we’d come close to kissing in my office several times over the past year, but I always broke away. Even though she was extremely beautiful—curly coffee-brown hair, ocean blue eyes, and an amazing body—there was something missing, and I wasn’t quite sure what that was.

Maybe it’s nothing...Maybe I should give us a chance after all...We are really compatible and—

Out the corner of my eye, I saw the redhead moving down the pier again.

“I’ll see you at the next meeting, Vanessa.” I pushed my way past the café tables and looked back over my shoulder every few seconds, making sure the redhead was still there.

I rushed over to the front doors of Pacific Bay Lounge and made my way inside. I looked around the room and stopped.

There was a banner with the word “Jiggy” on it. There were little napkins on the tables that read “Cheers to the first middle-aged mixer of 2013!”

The majority of the people in the room were clearly in their forties and fifties. Some of them were even wearing party hats with their ages written on them in glitter. There were a few younger people scattered about, but those people were holding serving trays or cleaning off tables.

There’s no way the woman I saw was middle-aged...

I made my way out to the pier and looked around. I leaned on the railing and looked both ways.

She wasn’t there.

I walked back and forth along the deck, aimlessly searching, trying to find her. I went back inside and waded through the crowd, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Hello there.” A woman’s hand landed on my shoulder, making me turn around. “What brings you out tonight?” She purred.

She was an extremely attractive older woman—I guessed at least fifty years old, and I could tell by the way she was looking at me that she was the assertive type.

“Good evening.” I smiled. “I just came in looking for someone particular.”

“She’s right in front of you.” She rubbed her hand across my chest and batted her eyes.

Oh god...“Umm...”

“You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t interested in older women.” She reached up and playfully ran her fingers through my hair. “Those young girls don’t know how to treat a man right, do they? But I do. We should get out of here before someone tries to steal you away from me. My place?”

I started to say, “I’m sorry. I can’t do that,” but my breath caught in my throat once I felt her hand sliding down my pants.

I gently grabbed her hand and moved it away. “I’m not here looking for—I don’t... I was really here looking for someone else.”

“Oh my god! I’m sorry!” She gasped. “I thought...I’m so sorry.” She looked embarrassed.

“If it’s any consolation,” I said as I adjusted my pants, “you’re very attractive and I’m sure you’ll find the right guy soon.”

Before she could reply, I turned around and bolted out of there.

––––––––

I walked into the security director’s office and shut the door.

“You’re here on time?” My best friend Corey rolled his eyes. “What am I supposed to be doing for you again? Stalking some woman you met?”

“It’s not stalking.”

“Whatever you call it, it’s highly illegal. But since you said it was love at first sight, I guess I can make an exception.”

“First of all, it’s not love. Second of all, I don’t even know who she is.”

“So, why am I hacking into the security footage of Pacific Bay Lounge at seven in the morning?”

I sighed. “Because you’re my best friend and an employee. Don’t act like this is against your morals or something, Corey. You do this all the time.”

“I do, huh?” He laughed. “What’s the time frame?”

“New Year’s Eve between eleven thirty and midnight.”

He began typing away at his keyboard and the twenty massive screens that covered his office wall began to illuminate in grids and static.

“Wait. You were having a business dinner that late at night? Since when do you agree to those?”

“Since the client is worth five hundred million dollars.” My eyes focused on the screens that were now showing people walking in and out of the lounge. “She was wearing a short black dress. Is there any way you could color code this thing by clothes or search for people by their hair color? She’s a redhead.”

He looked at me and raised his eyebrow. “You said you saw her on the pier, right? I’ll just tap into those cameras...Give me a second. They have some pretty outdated software...And surprise, there’s no audio, only visual...”

The screens started to show the pier action in slow motion. People were lounging on couches, drinking beers, and dancing next to the speakers.

“Wait.” I stepped closer to the screens. “That’s her. Pause it.”

The images suddenly froze and I looked the woman over again.

She was walking out onto the deck with a beer in her hand, slightly pursing her plump, pink lips. From the angle of the cameras I could see that her fitted black dress cut right above the top of her thighs and gave way to a set of perfectly toned legs. She was even sexier than I remembered.

“I’d probably waste company resources trying to find her too.” Corey nodded his head in approval. “You said she was fifty? She looks pretty damn good to be fifty. I say go for it. I would.”

“What? I’m not sure how old she is. She can’t be much older than me though.”

He pressed play on the video again and paused it when she leaned over the railing. “She has C-cups...Not bad.”

“How old are you again?”

“It’s a habit. If I had to guess, I would say she’s thirty or a tad bit younger. Any older than that, and she knows where the Fountain of Youth is hidden. Actually, now that I think about it, I meant to tell you that there was an article about—”

“Please not today.” I shook my head. “You need to stop reading those conspiracy books. There’s no such thing as the Fountain of Youth.”

“Really? Well explain Johnny Depp.” He crossed his arms.

I rolled my eyes.

“Exactly. If I wasn’t making so much money working for you, I’d be out there trying to find it myself.”

“Good to know. Is there any way you could access the cameras in the parking lot? I need to get her license plate number and–”

“And what? Show up to her house and say, ‘Hey. I tried to find you at the lounge the other night but you were already gone. But don’t worry, I had my friend hack the security system so I could get your tags to get your address and come ask you out?’ Seriously?”

“I wouldn’t say it exactly like that, but—”

“Forget it. All the street cameras are managed and monitored through Flynn-tech and they’re impossible to hack. Trust me, I’ve tried it.”

“So what do you suggest I do?”

“Um, move on?” He turned off the screens. “You don’t even know her name. Yeah she’s beautiful, but there are plenty of other beautiful women out there. I’m sure you of all people can find another one in a heartbeat. Speaking of which, why don’t you give Vanessa a chance? She has no baggage, she’s insanely hot, and she practically loves you already.”

“She’s an employee. It’s against company policy. I specifically ordered that a no-fraternization clause be included when I started this company, remember?”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. You can find yourself another pretty redhead.”

That was true, but I’d never thought about a woman after meeting her for the first time. It usually took a couple dates or a few lengthy phone calls to keep a woman on my mind—but I hadn’t even met this woman yet.

I’d also never asked Corey to find footage of someone I was interested in before. I’d never been that intrigued.

––––––––

I pulled into a grocery store parking lot and sighed. Thanks to a dry-cleaning mix up, I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans and would have to run home to get another suit.

I was supposed to be at a board meeting in an hour, but I honestly didn’t feel like going. I felt like driving back home, turning off all my phones, and pretending like I wasn’t the CEO for the rest of the day.

Anytime I felt this way, I had to force myself to revisit painful memories of my past; memories that made me realize that I needed to be grateful for all that I had—that I could still be wandering around in a trailer park going through people’s trashcans, begging disabled neighbors for their leftovers.

Still, sometimes that wasn’t enough. I was starting to hate my company and all the obligations that came with it.

For the past few months, the board had been pressuring me to lay off thousands of low level employees. They swore it would save us millions, but I didn’t want to do that. If I was going to fire anyone to save money, I would lay off the people that made the most money—the senior level executives that spent more time on the golf course than they did at their desks.

As a matter of fact, ever since I made the decision to relocate company headquarters from New York City to San Francisco six years ago, the board members had questioned my every decision—as if I hadn’t started the company myself, without their help.

If their past donations hadn’t helped me grow my first software company from a side job in college to a billion dollar empire within a decade, I would’ve written them off years ago. 

Why did I ever bother becoming the CEO? Why didn’t I just sell the company once I dropped out of college?

My cell phone started to ring. An Ohio number. Allen Correctional Institution.

I debated whether or not I should answer it, letting the full chorus of Coldplay’s “Clocks” play before picking it up.

“Father.” I answered.

“Jonathan! How are you son?”

“I’m fine.”

“And how’s your company?”

“Great.”

“You don’t have to be so short with me all the time. I was just...I was just calling because I haven’t heard from you in a while...I wanted to say thank you for putting all that money on my books last week.” He paused. “I stocked up on honeybuns and blue shampoo...Are you going to your mother’s graduation?”

“I always go to her graduations. She seems to graduate every year...”

He sighed. “She’s going to stay clean this time. She promised me.”

“Okay. I believe you,” I said like I had several times before.

“I meant what I said last month. I want to be a part of your life again, Jonathan. I know I wasn’t the best father but...I’ve always been very proud of you and I want to do whatever I can to fix our relationship.”

“This call is currently being monitored and recorded by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. There are thirty seconds left on the call.” The all-too-familiar automated voice droned on the line.

“Okay.” I sighed. “Well...I’ll do my best to remember that. I’ll send you a letter this week and...Don’t forget that I promised to take you out for a beer in six years. Hope you’re still looking forward to that.”

“I am. I’ll hold you to that, son.”

“Goodbye.” I hung up.

I knew I should’ve been more enthusiastic about his phone call or about my mother completing drug rehab, but the excitement tended to wane after someone relapsed twelve times, after someone disappointed you so much that you no longer believed in them.

I tried to shake the thought of my messed up parents out of my mind and revved up my car. I was about to hit the gas in reverse, but I suddenly heard the jangling of a grocery cart from behind.

I sighed and looked in my rearview mirror, prepared to honk at whoever was there, but I saw that it was the beautiful woman I’d seen days ago.

She was wearing a dark gray pencil skirt and a pink silk blouse, but her hair was different today. It was bone straight and the wind seemed to enjoy tossing it as she walked.

She pushed her cart past my car without looking my way, but I still caught a glimpse of her gorgeous green eyes.

I watched her walk inside and turned off my car.

Before I could step out, my phone rang again. Oasis Drug and Rehabilitation Center.

My mother.

So much for not thinking about the past today...