Chapter 6
Brenden
I had followed Darin and the floral-scented girl outside the coffee shop before I realized it. A slight breeze alerted me, as did the soft thump of the coffee shop door suddenly muting inside sounds. I felt a sudden pang in my stomach—that specific kick of missing out on a special treat.
I sipped my coffee and pretended to listen to the flirtatious girl. She smelled of freesia but the scent was too sweet to be real. I fought off the urge to wrinkle my nose. At least her voice was soft, though painfully slow in an attempt to sound more cultured.
What had I said to the barista? It was that sweet new hire named Faith, I was sure, but I had no idea what I had said to her.
I cursed Darin and his constant patter, even as I smiled at my friend and pretended I had heard his joke.
I was still listening through the door and trying to pick out Faith's soft tones from the hum of the coffee shop.
"So, it was nice to meet you." I deliberately stuck my hand out in the wrong direction.
"Um, yeah. Have a, um, nice day."
The girl actually blew a kiss at me. I heard it and the way her heel dragged an inch or two along the sidewalk as she cringed at her faux pas.
"Man, what are you doing?" Darin demanded. "I thought you brought me here to scope out women."
It was my turn to cringe. For some reason, I couldn't get Faith out of my mind and I had to know what she looked like, even if it was a shallow hope that her appearance would help me dismiss her.
"I just want to know what the barista looks like," I said. I flagged Jasper down to mask my more than casual interest. "I mean, I'm here every day."
"Yeah, sure. I get it," Darin said. He chuckled and strolled back to the front windows of the coffee shop. "Sure, I get it. Soft voice. All right, she's, I dunno, average."
I punched him on the shoulder. The normal joy of feeling my friend jolt at my accuracy was tempered by my irritation. "What do you mean, average?"
"You know, brown hair. Medium height. Kinda skinny, not knocking it out of the park in the curves," Darin said.
I raised my fist again. "She's a decent woman who works for a living. Have a little respect."
"Ugh, fine. She's cute. Girl next door type." Darin jumped forward and grabbed my arm. "But not worth going back in to talk to!"
I heard Jasper pull up and his door pop open.
"I just want to make sure I wasn't rude. You seem to have that effect on me." I pulled away from Darin and turned back to the coffee shop door.
"Sir? Pitch meeting this morning," Jasper said from the car.
I heard him walk around and open the door for me. "Fine. You're right. I'll just be a minute," I said.
Darin let go but said, "You come here every day, man."
I gritted my teeth and turned back around. Darin was right. Jasper cleared his throat and I was able to head toward the open car door. He quietly held out his arm and guided my hand to the car. I got in and took a long breath in the short quiet.
My coffee was delicious as always, but I was somehow disappointed.
Darin jumped into the car. "So I finally get to see Mr. Bigshot in action."
I shook my head. "Jasper can drop you wherever if you're too busy."
"Nah, I'm free. What we got today?" I heard Darin kick back and help himself to a soda from my car's mini fridge.
"I told you weeks ago. A new game app. They've put together all the numbers we requested. Oh, and I need you to take a look at those numbers," I reminded him.
Darin had unwillingly become my eyes on certain projects. He had a brilliant mind for money, though his ambition never reached beyond his own luxurious lifestyle.
He gulped some soda. "I remember. But, unlike you, I get distracted by, you know, life."
"You mean women?" I asked.
Jasper snorted from the driver's seat. It was his usual subtle expression of disapproval but it sounded angrier than usual.
I shook off the useless puzzle of how much Jasper hated Darin and the various reasons why. I had to concentrate on the upcoming meeting. It was potential millions in revenue…or a total flop.
"The first thing we need to measure is the beta testing results," I said.
Darin groaned. Luckily for me, Jasper wove through traffic and got us to the office in record time. We were all set up in the conference room before Darin had a second chance to escape.
And the presenters were on time.
"Bunch of geeks," Darin whispered to me.
I cleared my throat. "All right. Let's hear what you've got."
I heard Darin sit down and I had to bite back a smile. It had been a while since he'd been in office with me. I ran the bunch of twenty-something 'geeks' through the full gauntlet of investor questions.
"Hand him your demographics." I nodded to Darin.
He flipped through the pages. "The numbers look good, boss."
I drilled them on their marketing strategies, the mass distribution plan, their hiring system, and everything down to why exactly they wanted my money.
The main speaker of the group stumbled over his words. "Because, we, all of this, we really believe in this. And, and if we all had the money ourselves, we'd put every penny into it."
"Some of us have," another called.
The group gave a nervous laugh and all agreed.
"You have passion. I like it. I'll give you 500k for forty percent of your company," I said.
Darin choked back a cough but then I heard him swing forward in his chair. "I like those numbers."
"Thought you might. Question is, do they?" I asked.
There was muttering and a general grumbling of, "That's too much of the company."
I stood up. "Let me remind you I have five other game companies ready to be in this room tomorrow. You change your minds before then, give me a call."
I made it halfway down the hallway to my office before Darin caught up with me and interrupted my step-counting.
"That was impressive. And a lot of paperwork. You made them go through the ringer for just a little start-up money?" he asked.
"What else do you expect?" I asked. "It's business."
Darin grabbed my elbow and prevented me from running into the wall next to my office door. "Your count’s off. I'm just saying that you're diligent. No one can fault your attention to detail."
I yanked my arm out of his grasp and counted my way to my desk. Darin wandered over to the sofa in the corner of my wide office while I listened to my newest emails.
In between reports from various businesses, I could hear Darin typing furiously at his phone. No, his pace was excited, not angry.
"Who's the girl?" I called out between messages.
"Girl? I'm just wrecking some social media sites," Darin said.
A few messages later I heard him suck his breath in through his teeth.
"Please tell me she's not sexting you while you're in my office," I pleaded.
"What? No. She's just—shit."
I laughed. "All right. I caught you. Now tell me who she is."
"Just some chick I'm doing," Darin said.
I groaned. "Not with the novels you've been sending off over there. Or are they love poems?"
Darin stood up. "Forget it. Let's talk about the fundraiser before I take off for lunch."
I knew the girl meant more to him than just one of his normal hook-ups, but I dropped the subject. "Rachel's pissed."
Darin knocked the toe of his shoe hard against a chair. "Rachel? Isn't she always pissed at you?"
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "She didn't know the difference between a charity event and a fundraiser."
"There's a difference?" Darin sat down in the chair across from my desk. "So, is she going?"
"She's refusing. Telling me I falsely represented the evening or some bullshit." I threw my hands up in the air. "So, Rachel's going off with her friends."
Darin made a few sympathetic noises then asked, "You want to go to lunch?"
"Raincheck. Double it if you go to the fundraiser with me," I said.
"Oh, no. Not me." He stood up and backed away.
"You don't have plans. You're coming. Gotta make you look like a legit consultant for this company before I cut you a paycheck," I said.
Darin stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Ugh. Fine. Now I'm going to lunch. On you."
I laughed and let my friend escape my office while I settled down to work.
It shouldn't have been a surprise that Rachel was short with me when I returned home late and only had a small window of time before the fundraiser.
"I thought you'd be out by now," I said as I slipped past her and headed for a quick shower.
"Why? You've totally ruined all my plans for the night," she fumed from my master bedroom.
"What? Your friends are suddenly not into expensive drinks, impulse buys, and taking selfies at every scene in town?" I turned on the water and half hoped she hadn't heard me.
"God, you're awful, you know that, Brenden? You don't even care!"
I sighed and wondered how much she wanted to stop whining. Another Tiffany bracelet? A trip to Ibiza?
"What do you want this time, Rachel?" I asked. "You could always come with me to the fundraiser."
She shrieked. "God! You are so predictable! How can you stand it?"
"It's called work, Rachel. And, for your information, fundraisers are always for a good cause."
She slammed the double doors of my master suite and I let out sigh of relief. I had no idea what I had done to ruin her night this time. More than that, I didn't care. Rachel was relentlessly opposed to everything I said or did and I was done fighting.
I soaked up as much peace and quiet in the shower as I could, and was dressed in a tuxedo and out the door in twenty minutes.
Jasper pulled up to the curb of the skyscraper just as Darin's car drove up. I heard his gruff sigh.
"Darin's grouchy lately, huh?" I asked Jasper.
"Nothing new," Jasper said in a clipped voice. He jumped out and opened my car door.
"Man, you have no idea how you've ruined my night," Darin said.
I could tell he'd tipped his head way up to the penthouse hosting the fundraiser by the tone of his voice. "It won't be that bad."
"You have no idea," Darin muttered.
I stepped toward the bright blobs I assumed were the entrance lights. A crowd of people streamed around me and Jasper materialized at my side.
"About three yards straight ahead," he said.
"Wait. Did you smell that?" I asked. "Lilac. And coffee."
Jasper stepped forward to guide me towards the front doors but I turned in the direction of the continuing crowd.
"Faith?"
There was a long pause and then a soft voice separated from the causal chatter of the group.
"Yes?" Faith asked.