Chapter 14
Kyle
It was rare when my lab buzzed with social activity. If us scientists were anything, party planners were not it. But every so often, when I signed someone famous to be a spokesperson for one of my colognes or fragrances, Cleary Laboratories became a mecca of caterers, advertisers, and lawyers. That was when all my nerds in lab coats suddenly decided to be social.
Fridays were usually the day everyone crammed to get their work done so they wouldn’t have to work over the weekend. But today, no work got done. We were all too busy with the celebrity among us. Lenni Westbrook was probably the hottest female actress in Hollywood at the moment. I managed to nab her for my new perfume, Risqué. One of the entertainment networks dubbed her the sexiest woman of the year, which would bode well for sales.
The woman was all legs and boobs. I preferred the real ones, but on her they worked. A curtain of mahogany hair hung to the center of her back, its texture and shine similar to silk.
Frederick practically stumbled up to me. “Boss, she is gorgeous. If you need me to test a fragrance on her pulse points, just let me know. Her body is killer.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think testing will be necessary, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
When I looked across the room, Lenni put on a show for the press that our public relations department invited. Her figure was something you’d see out of a Playboy magazine. The tiny red dress didn’t cover much. To be honest, I was surprised her tits didn’t pop out when she bent over. It must be a Hollywood trick or something.
Every one of my employees was completely starstruck. Once our meeting with the lawyers was over, we walked out into a sea of cell phones all pointed at Lenni.
She played it well, smiling and laughing for her fans. But when almost an hour had passed and no one attempted to get back to work, I made the choice for them.
After a few groans and mumbles, everyone headed back to their workspaces. Except for Frederick who stopped to give her a hug before strutting out of the room.
“Thank you for indulging them. Their workday isn’t usually this exciting.”
Lenni tossed her hair over her shoulder and placed her hand on my forearm. “I’m sure it is. I’ve never been to an actual lab. I mean, I’ve seen one on a movie set. Would you be able to give me a tour?”
“Sure thing, I’d be happy to.”
We walked into the lab and now Lenni was the one pie-eyed. “This is so cool.” She picked up a test tube filled with water and sniffed it. “I like this, what’s it called?”
Doing my best not to laugh, I said, “Solo agua.”
“Oooh… is it French? How exotic.” Yes, very exotic right out of the pipes. Holy shit, did she have half the world fooled or what? Before I could respond, like a squirrel she was on to the next thing. “Wow, is that your office?”
Without invite, she walked in and planted herself in the chair in front of my desk. What I immediately imagined was Vanessa lying on it.
“This is fantastic.”
With my favorite brunette still on my mind, I sat in my chair across from Lenni. “Thank you. The advertising department should have given you any verbiage you will need for the commercial shoot.”
“I have everything. Will you be there?” Again she flipped her hair, and if someone had been sitting next to her, they’d get a face full of it.
“I am planning to, yes.”
An ear-piercing squeal penetrated the glass walls of my office. “Oh, that’s wonderful,” she exclaimed, clapping her hands like a happy child. “I just love Paris.”
“Well, the shoot should only take a day, so hopefully you’ll have time to enjoy the city before you head back to L.A.”
She leaned forward in her chair, affording me a nice juicy view of her cleavage. “Maybe we can have dinner… or… whatever.”
“Ahem.” Both our heads flipped to the door. Frederick stood grinning from ear to ear, and beside him was Vanessa.
Confused to see her there, and even more so to see the scowl on her face, I hesitated ten seconds too long for her liking.
“I’ll wait in the lobby,” she said, turning on her heel.
Before she could walk away, I bolted out of my chair to stop her. “Wait. What are you doing here?”
Her eyes cut to Lenni, but she responded, “I thought I’d surprise you. I guess I should have called first.”
“Why?” Knowing many eyes could be watching us, and not giving a damn, I nuzzled her ear and added, “I love surprises.”
Vanessa tilted her head away from my lips. “I’m sure you do, but I think I’ll let you continue your meeting.”
Lenni stood and walked toward us. The two women stood face to face. “Vanessa, this is Lenni Westbrook. Lenni, this is Vanessa Monroe, she’s a good friend of mine.”
Vanessa snipped, “I know who she is, Kyle. I don’t live under a rock.” She held her hand out to Lenni. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Lenni offered a limp hand to Vanessa, and the two shook. I was ready to be alone with Vanessa to find out the real reason she was there.
“I should get going. I have a dinner meeting with a local director. You know what they say, Hollywood never sleeps.” Vanessa rolled her eyes before turning away. “Kyle, call me and we’ll discuss the Paris details.” She once again placed her hand on my arm. “Walk me out?”
“I’d be happy to walk you out, Ms. Westbrook,” Frederick chimed in. I didn’t even realize he was still there.
Before they left the lab, Lenni grabbed the water-filled test tube, covered the top with her finger, tipped it, and then ran it between her breasts. Frederick looked as though he was about to come in his pants.
She turned toward Vanessa. “You should try this. It’s divine. Right, Kyle?”
“Yup.”
When the coast was clear and it was just the two of us, Vanessa picked up the vial Lenni just held. She put her nose to it and inhaled. “This doesn’t smell like anything.” She then raised the tube to look at the liquid in the light before taking another whiff. “Is this water?”
The corners of her pretty lips quirked up. When I just nodded, she let out a laugh. “She’s not exactly the sharpest tack in the box.”
“Why use her then?”
I wanted to say—well, look at her, she has a million followers on Twitter, and she’d probably do anything I asked. All I admitted to was, “She was in our price range.”
“Which perfume is she advertising for you?”
I walked over to the glass shelving in the corner where I kept retail samples of all my products. Vanessa was opposite Lenni in so many ways, and I worried she wouldn’t approve of the scent.
She raised a brow when she saw the packaging. The hourglass ruby red bottle now seemed ridiculous, obvious. But when I pulled off the cap and held it under her nose, she surprised me with a genuine smile. “It’s really pretty. Was this what Lenni had on?”
“Thanks,” I said, almost embarrassed. “Yes.” It looked like she was about to say something else when she opened her mouth only to close it again. “What?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t think she’s right for it.” Now it was her turn to look embarrassed. “Sorry. This smelled entirely different on her. It almost smelled cheap and overpowering like a drugstore brand. But what’s in this bottle is lovely.”
Her comment floored me. “I appreciate the honesty.” Strangely, up until that day I was completely comfortable with our decision to hire Lenni. Seeing her true personality, combined with Vanessa’s comment, now had me doubting Lenni was the right choice.
“So, dinner?” Vanessa was completely unaware of the way my thoughts were now consumed with fixing this mistake.
“We got absolutely nothing done today. I was planning on hanging here for a few hours.”
“Okay. I understand, next time I’ll call first,” she said, grabbing her bag off the corner of my desk. “You still need to eat. Would you like me to go get you something?” As I shuffled through the papers on my desk searching for the folder containing the contracts, it occurred to me she assumed that I was too busy for dinner.
I took the bag from her hand and placed it back on my desk. “I had another plan in mind. How about we have something delivered, and while I’m working, you can play?”
Her face immediately lit up. “I’d love that, but I wouldn’t want to be in the way.”
I pulled her into my arms, which might have been a mistake. My eyes cut to my desk and she read my mind. “If you’re busy, desk sex wouldn’t be the best idea. Plus, your employees are still loitering around.”
“You’re right, that would be unprofessional. Don’t worry, more voyeurism is in your future.”
Vanessa arched a brow. “I can’t wait.”
Well, fuck me.
I pushed a button on my desk phone to alert Frederick that I needed him, but he didn’t answer. Just as I was about to text him, he walked into my office. “Boss, I’m going to head out.”
“Before you go, can you please set Miss Monroe up in the lab? She’s going to be putting some samples together for me.”
Frederick looked confused but didn’t question me. “Will do, boss.”
“Oh, and be sure to get her a lab coat?”
Vanessa’s eyes lit up like the Fourth of July. There was no way I’d get any work done tonight. “Kyle, I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“That’s the fun part.”
Vanessa
Kyle made this look so easy but it wasn’t. Each of the little glass tubes held different scents, ranging from vanilla to some spicy thing. I held a glass beaker in one hand and an eyedropper in the other. In my head, this all made sense. Why wouldn’t chamomile and ginger go together as a perfume? They’d make a great tea. But when I mixed the two, it smelled wretched. Shit.
I tapped the tip of my finger to my bottom lip. What could I add? I glanced at the rainbow of liquids sitting in the cascading rack. Hmm… then my eyes landed on a bottle labeled orange blossom. Yes, that should work. One drop turned into five. When I brought it to my nose, my eyes watered.
Frederick had given me a waste bucket to dump bad mixtures in and this was the third one I dumped. With my nose buried in the container of coffee beans, I grabbed a notebook before starting my new concoction. Positioning a clean beaker in front of me, I stared at the array of choices. Something about the one I just dumped challenged me to try again.
I glanced around looking for Kyle who had to bring a file upstairs. Before he left, he gave me a quick rundown of what everything was. He even left me a chart of different notes and measurements, but nothing I tried so far worked. Not sure when he’d be back, I attempted to fix the concoction I created. In deep concentration, I slowly added orange, chamomile, and ginger, but this time in reverse order. Grabbing the glass stir stick, I swirled the liquid around. Said a small prayer, apologized to my nose in advance, and sniffed. It wasn’t as bad as my first try, but it wasn’t good either.
“What the fuck am I doing wrong?” I slumped on my stool and stared at the beaker, willing it to speak.
“How’s it going?” Kyle startled me as he placed his hands on my shoulders. “That looks interesting.”
I twisted my head to look back at him. “That’s one word for it. Can you and your bloodhound nose smell it, too?”
He released a hearty chuckle. “Yes, but it’s not horrible. You just need to adjust the ratio of ginger to chamomile.”
“Oh my God. You do have the nose of a bloodhound. But there’s one more ingredient in it. Do you know what it is?”
Kyle sat on the stool next to me. “Yes, it’s orange. What you need to add is a few millimeters of H2O.” Water? When I didn’t move, he grabbed a bottle and handed it to me. “Fragrances are made up of different notes. While some are in the same family, they don’t necessarily blend well together. They almost fight each other. Sometimes you need to start with distilled water or else the fragrance will be too harsh. A good perfumist can detect what goes into making a scent as well as determine what goes best together.” He methodically poured the smallest amount into my beaker.
He handed me the glass stir stick. It clanked against the container as I once again hoped this worked. I leaned over and gently sniffed. “Wow, it’s not half bad.”
“It’s great for your first time, Nessa. It takes practice. Chemistry is all about experimenting. No one can just walk into a lab and create magic. It takes time.” I nodded but was still confused. Sensing this, he continued, “Think of a fragrance as a cup of tea. The ingredients need to steep. When making an original, which is what I like to do, there’s always one ingredient that is just mine so it can’t be duplicated. But, I will tell you, that not many people are able to take into account the chemical makeup of someone’s skin and how it reacts to the scent. That’s a talent that really can’t be taught.”
The way Kyle believed in me started to put cracks in the walls around my heart. Maybe he was just blowing smoke up my ass, but he didn’t have a reason to. I was his sure thing, so that couldn’t be an excuse. Could it be that he truly thought I had a talent?
“What are you thinking?” Kyle spun my stool to face him.
“I’m thinking how jealous I am that you get to come to a place every day and have fun. Whereas, I sit at my desk and watch the clock tick by as if in slow motion. I’ve been here for over two hours and it feels like minutes.” Faint lines appeared on Kyle’s forehead. “Now what are you thinking?”
He dipped his finger into the scent I just created. I tracked his finger as it disappeared into my cleavage. When he pulled it out, he leaned forward, placing his face close to my breasts. I could feel my nipples harden beneath the lace of my bra. He lifted his head with a devilish grin. “I’m thinking it’s time to get out of here.”