TEN - WILL

IT WAS MY OWN MISTAKE that caused it. I had got so wrapped up in her, I’d ignored the much bigger problem. I still needed to do something about Lionel, about the bet that was about to come back to haunt me.

But I didn’t do anything about it. I swept it under the rug, too busy drinking in Jen to give it more than a moment of thought. If I had, I might have been more prepared to find Lionel waiting to meet me at my office the next morning.

I gave Jen a lift in, though we separated a quarter of a mile from the office, her idea, not mine. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself.

“Would anyone even notice?” I asked.

She just smiled and said, “You don’t think me turning up to work in the C.E.O’s Ferrari might turn a few heads?”

She had a point. I could handle people talking, it didn’t bother me but she was a different creature altogether, that was one of the reasons why I liked her so much, that and that sweet ass of hers.

I got upstairs to find Robert already there and Lionel sat in the armchair opposite, clearly waiting for me. “Good to see you,” he said, getting to his feet. “I thought you might have died.”

“Oh?” I managed, already knowing where this was going.

“You don’t call, you don’t write. You weren’t at the club last night. Rumour is, something’s going on in your life. Care to share?”

“Not really,” I replied, swiping my card to unlock the door to my office. He followed me in. I didn’t want to let him rile me. The bet that had seemed worthwhile a few days ago seemed small and petty to me by that point. “Won’t you sit down?”

He sat in the chair opposite my desk, putting his feet up on the corner, already looking around for a pen to steal. Why was I even friends with the man?

“So?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“So what?”

“So I seem to recall we had a wager. Today’s the day to pay the piper, for one of us anyway.”

“Just get to the point, Lionel.”

“Did you fuck her?”

“Who?”

“The Goddamned Queen of England, who do you think?”

“You mean the I.T geek?”

“Of course I mean her. Did you do it?”

I shook my head. “Afraid not, it didn’t happen.”

I wasn’t going to tell him the truth, that she’d had my cock in her mouth just an hour before. That was between us.

“So you admit you lost then?”

I nodded without saying anything, watching as his grin remained fixed on his face.

“So why weren’t you at the club then? We’re all dying to hear all the juicy details”

“I had something on.”

“Like what?”

“Since when did I have to explain myself to you?”

“All right, Mr Touchy, I was only asking.”

I clenched my fists out of sight under the desk, keeping my face as calm as I could manage. “I guess you’ll want paying then.”

“Could do.” He paused, yawning theatrically before brushing an imaginary piece of dirt from his knee. “Or you could admit the truth.”

“Truth? What truth?”

“That you’re not only fucking the council estate geek, you’re inviting her round for high tea.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Jen Murphy, Will. I’m talking about the fact that people talk, especially when there’s plenty of money to make them talk.”

“What people?”

“Never mind that. Just I heard a little birdie say that Jen has slept at your house for three of the last five nights, you dog, you!” His grin broadened and I had to resist smacking it off his face.

“If you know, why’d you bother to ask?”

“At least you’re not denying it. I wondered if you’d maybe set up a Scrabble tournament at yours. Maybe I could pop by and play sometime?”

The way he said the word play made my nails dig into my palms. None of it showed on my face, I kept visibly calm even as the need to throw him out the window began to grow. She was mine. I possessed her. I worshipped her. I wouldn’t let this creep anywhere near her, not now, not ever.

“Here,” I said, writing out the cheque and tossing it across the desk. “You win, all right? Now get the fuck out of here.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” he said, picking up the cheque and biting it like it was a coin. “Seems genuine enough, unlike you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Why lie about things, Will? Why not just admit you boinked a dork? All power to you for doing it. I found a woman in the I.T department, bound to be a dog, you got her into bed anyway just to win a bet, kudos all round to you from the group. Yet then you pretend you didn’t do it? I’ll be honest, I don’t get it.”

He never would. Even if I spent an hour explaining, he’d never understand. I didn’t bother trying. “I’ve a lot of shit to do,” I said, waving towards the door. “If you wouldn’t mind?”

“I know you’ve got shit to do,” he said as he got to his feet, crossing over to the door before looking back. “But I’m sure she’ll get better at it.”

Then he was gone and luckily too because a second later I hurled a paperweight across the room. It shattered against the door, shards of glass and bouncing back before sinking into the carpet.

I was furious beyond belief. The way he’d talked. Did I used to talk like that? That was what made me angrier than anything else was the thought that I might ever have been like him, might ever have thought that was normal.

He would never have what me and Jen had. The only problem was, if he knew about it, that meant the rest of them would know soon. I could only hope it didn’t filter through to Jen. There was a slight chance I might still be able to sweep this problem under the rug.

I sat there with my head in my hands, thinking hard. What would she do if she found out? She’d hate me, that was a given. She’d never want to see me again, maybe threaten me with a harassment lawsuit if I even spoke to her afterwards. The thought made my stomach churn. To imagine never seeing her again, I didn’t think I could cope with the idea.

I was a bad guy. I should never have involved her in the bet. As soon as I saw her I should have run a mile in the other direction. I’d let my lust rule my head and now I had dragged her into something wrong. Someone as pure as her should never have to know about sordid little bets between immature men like us. She deserved better.

I’d known all of that and I’d ignored it. I was a bad guy. But I realised one thing, one truth that I would never forget, one fact that powered over all the others. No matter what was about to happen, I was not going to give up on her, on us. I was going to do everything I could to make it work. Let Lionel do his worst, I’d be ready. I’d taken on Japanese businesses and had them bowing out before breakfast, I’d stamped on the stock market and wrung it dry, I’d defeated hundreds of bigger and older companies, I could handle one man.

My hands were shaking when I got up from my desk. Despite my certainty that I could fix this, I felt more nervous than I had in a very long time.