Nick
I STRIDE INTO the building and ride the elevator up to my floor, still feeling pissed as hell about what happened with Tess.
The office is quiet. Everyone must be at lunch or out scouting. Frustrated, I toss my coat on the rack. Striding across the room, I slam my briefcase onto my desk and then flop down into my chair.
Before I can stop myself, I pull my phone out of my pocket and consider calling her. I bring up her number, but can’t bring myself to hit the call button. I switch to text and hover my fingers over the keypad. Words escape me. Nice ones anyway.
Dropping it to my desk, I look at the stack of notes, list of calls that need returning, and documents that should be signed. Leaving everything untouched, I lean back in my chair replaying the events of the past hour in my head.
What the hell did I say?
Or not say?
The knock on the door forces me to stop thinking about it. I glance up to see Hayden with a worried look on his face.
“What’s up?” I ask.
He shoves his hand through his hair. “We need to talk.”
“Sure, come in and sit down.”
The chair is opposite my desk, and Hayden takes a seat.
“What’s going on?”
He sighs. “I hate to bring this up, but Ash and I think you should know what’s going on.”
I steeple my hands together. “That statement infers there is something going on that I don’t know about.”
Clearing his throat, Hayden says, “Nick, what I mean is Ash and I wanted to handle this, but it’s gotten too big.”
Growing impatient, I ask, “What exactly is this?”
“This is Bigelow,” Hayden rushes.
I furrow my brow. “Bigelow?”
“Chill man and let me explain, will you?”
I wave a hand. “Yeah, sorry, go on.”
As if settling in for a long-winded story, Hayden crosses his leg over his knee. “Over the past week Bigelow has undercut the last four clients I asked Natasha to show properties to, and then he underbid a property Ash just about had in the bag. He’s about to do the same right now. Ash is out today trying to salvage the bid on that old publishing house near Harold Washington Library Center that the county owns. But it seems Bigelow has someone at county on his payroll, and it looks like he’s going to win the auction.”
I lean forward. “Did Bigelow underbid Ash?”
“Yeah, but only by like five grand.”
I take in a long breath, processing this information. “So Bigelow somehow found out what our bid was,” I surmise.
He nods.
“You think Bigelow is messing with us or just doing business the way he does business? It’s inevitable that we’re going to start overlapping soon.”
“Fuck yeah he’s messing with us.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The only thing that makes sense is he must have found out you rented Tess that property for under market value and now he’s going to show us who’s boss.”
I level my stare. “Then we don’t let him.”
As if unsure, Hayden rubs his hands down his pants. “And how do we do that?”
“Underbid, undercut, and outsmart every step of the way.”
“You sure you want to do that? It’s going to cost you.”
“Do you have any other ideas?”
His frown deepens. “No, but going to war with the likes of Bigelow could get messy. Let me talk to Ash, and get back with you tomorrow. Do me a favor though?”
I lean back in my chair. “Sure, what do you need?”
“Can you ask Tess if she used a realtor to look at Bigelow’s place or if she answered one of his ads directly?”
I twist my lip. “Yeah, I’ll try.”
“Try?”
“Try!” I hiss.
With amusement in his eyes, Hayden sits forward. “What did you do, Nick?”
I narrow my stare at him. “What makes you think I did something?”
Both of his brows pop. “Because I know you.”
“I’ll give you that,” I smirk, “But hell if I did, I have no fucking clue what.”
“What did you say that set her off? That’s always a good place to start.”
I shrug. “I don’t really recall.”
“Did you tell her you love her?”
My eyes widen. “What? Fuck no, we’re only friends.”
The smirk on his face is meant to aggravate me. “Right, and the Bulls are going to go all the way this season.”
Conceding, I admit, “We might be slightly more than friends. How the fuck do you know anyway?”
Hayden’s mouth quirks up even higher at one corner. “Come on dude, your voice goes up an octave or two when you talk about her.”
Incredulous, I respond with, “No, it doesn’t.”
“Yeah, it does, now tell me what happened?”
Ignoring the grade school boy comment, I tell Hayden a stripped down version of the story, leaving out the blowjob part. I didn’t think Tess would appreciate that.
With a shake of his head, he says, “Listen, man, I’ve been with Allie for five years, and I still fuck up all the time. But I’ve learned something you might want to know—sometimes you just have to say you’re sorry even if you have no idea why.”
I lean back in my chair. “She called me a jerk—again, and I have to be the one to apologize.”
“You are a jerk,” he laughs.
I flip him my middle finger.
“No seriously, she’s probably feeling uncertain about what’s going to happen when the two of you aren’t caring for Max anymore.”
All I can do is stare at him.
“If I were you, I’d start by discussing what’s next, and soon.”
Stunned by the fact that Hayden is giving me advice on how to deal with women, I seek council on the biggest question. “What if I don’t know what comes next?”
Hayden stands and looks right at me. “Then you better figure it out—fast.”
Great.
Just fucking great.