“Get the hell away from me with that, Vince. You’re making me sick.”
Vince laughed, his obnoxious, “I’m better than you” laugh, and tsk’d. “You should be open to trying new things, Dax. You’re going to lose out on a lot in this life.”
“I already told you, that human garbage is no good for anybody. If you want to kill yourself and wither the mountain away with your fast food, be my guest. Just don’t bring my ass into it or we’re going to have a problem.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it!” Vince exclaimed, though the look of mirth in his eyes told a different story. “Besides, I have some important things to do today. I’m wasting my time with you. I have a plan that will be sure to impress the bosses.”
“What do you mean?” Dax asked, frowning.
But Vince had already turned his back on Dax and left the cubicle. Something wasn’t right here, but Dax couldn’t tell what it was. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it. Not one fucking bit.
“That guy is such a prick,” Nancy, the secretary for Alan’s assistant said, shaking her head.
Nancy had always been interested in Dax, but he had never been interested in dating. Now that he knew that he might get his big promotion if he had a nice solid family lined up, somehow all the annoying things about Nancy weren’t looking so bad. If things didn’t pan out with the woman he wanted to claim, there were options…
Dax shook his head. He had to be strong. He wouldn’t go pimping himself out just to get a promotion. What kind of an example would that set for his daughter? And besides, he’d already survived one loveless marriage. How in the hell would he ever be able to justify a second one? He wasn’t going to use the poor woman only to dump her once he got what he wanted. That was a despicable way to think. He wasn’t Vince.
“Yeah, he is,” Dax agreed. “But I guess we can all be assholes sometimes.”
“No,” Nancy said, beaming at Dax. “I think you’re the cream of the cop. I bet you’re only an asshole when you’re damn good and ready to be and I be whoever is on the receiving end deserves it!”
While it was nice to always have a cheerleader, Nancy seemed to overdo it. He had always found it annoying when people were too interested in him. The constant flattery started to get under his skin. What made them think he was so flawless? He put enough pressure on himself to be perfect. He certainly need to be living up to anyone else’s delusions about him.
And not only that, but flattery never led to anything real, or good. In fact, it was often manipulative, used to get one’s guard down. He didn’t trust it, even in a woman.
“Trust me, Nance, we can all be an asshole without the greater good in mind.”
She didn’t say anything else, just chuckled and went back to her own desk, leaving Dax with the pile of paperwork that Alan had given to him to work through. If he could get it all done and flawlessly by the deadline, it was going to look very good to his superiors. Even if he had to take it home, he would make sure that he finished everything before Vince ever got a chance.
They were all being tested; he could feel it in his bones. There was a competitive edge to every interaction now, not the usual team comradery that the elders liked to encourage. He wasn’t going to pretend it wasn’t there and play buddy-buddy with his enemies. That wasn’t the way he was, and the elders shouldn’t expect him to act any other way than himself. They would be expecting the best of everyone and as far as Dax was concerned, the best version of himself was himself. If the board didn’t agree, he wouldn’t have been up for the promotion in the first place.
Still, he had to wonder. What would it take to beat a guy like Vince? He had it all: a great wife, a young newborn son who was growing up in Vince’s likeness under the watchful eye of his parents, and the charm and charisma to mask all his thieving, manipulative snake in the grass ways. He would have to play hardball to win in a competition against that monster, but that didn’t mean dating Nancy just to get promoted. No, he would have to do better than that.
Dax sighed, lifting his papers into his bag and standing up to stretch from his desk. It was time to go home to his daughter. Hopefully this time, he would be able to keep the promise he’d made to spend the day with her, even if that meant that half of it was spent with him buried in his computer work. He was doing it all for her and he hoped maybe one day she would understand. He made every choice in his life for her.
Except for the date he’d proposed to Jennifer. He hadn’t quite known what that was. The bear had driven him there after a late emergency meeting the day before and he hadn’t been able to resist the pull of her smoky eyes and beautiful smile. He was going to have to be careful with that one. He had a feeling when it came to Jen, he was playing with fire.