Chapter 5
He called her the next morning.
"I am happy you called," Sasha said softly. She had spent the entire night going over and over in her mind why it was an insane plan to get involved with a client, especially a client as wealthy as Stephan Coleman, but he had started something that she wanted to finish. Maybe it could be a little discreet affair with them having sex with each other every now and then. She knew it could never lead to anything else and she had no hang up about that happening. But he had stirred something in her that refused to be put out and she wanted to explore it. They were two consenting adults who were also mature so they certainly could deal with whatever it was. "I was thinking that we should be together physically. I am not expecting a lifelong commitment because that certainly will not happen, but for the time being we can explore this thing between us. It certainly caught me by surprise," she added with a laugh.
There was silence for a moment before he spoke. "I agree with you in most cases, but I am afraid we will have to put what we experienced on hold."
"What does that mean?"
"It means, Sasha, that I have a golden rule that I live by. I never mix business with pleasure and I have no intention of doing so now. That was a sign of weakness on my part and it will never be repeated."
This time the silence was on her side.
"I hope you understand."
Sasha had foregone her morning workout on the treadmill because she had overslept and had not gotten up in time to do so. She had overslept because she had spent most of the night thinking and reliving every emotion that he had wrung from her last evening when they had been together and had only this morning come to the conclusion that she would do something about it and now he was telling her that he wanted to put it aside?
"You decided to seduce me in your very sumptuous office. Am I right so far?" she asked him heatedly.
"It was not a matter of making a decision-"
"You took me in your arms and kissed me, telling me how much you wanted me and how much you are attracted to me. Now you are calling to tell me the morning after that we should go on with business as usual and forget that what happened ever did?"
"After we finished dealing with the ad campaign and getting it out there. It has to be the most important thing between us now and we have a very tight deadline."
"So you get to call the shots? You, with your looks and money, get to decide when we do anything. So what? When this ad campaign is concluded, you just call me up and tell me where to meet you, is that it? You get to call the shots?"
"It’s not like that," he said stiffly.
"So tell me how it is, Stephan. I am sorry! Should I even be calling you by your first name or should I be clearing it with you first?"
"Sasha-"
"Ms. Fullerton. It’s business between us, remember?"
"Don’t be ridiculous!" he said impatiently. "There is something between us and I have spent the night trying to rationalize what it is. But this campaign means a lot to me and to my company and I cannot allow my judgment and my emotions to cloud it and neither can you."
"You know what? You are right. Thanks for clearing things up for me," she said as she hung up the phone on him and turned it off in case he was trying to call her and explain some more how unwise it was for them to get involved. She had been an idealistic fool and she had never been that kind of woman played that way. She was usually wise and level headed and he had taken that away from her when he kissed her last night. Well! No more! she thought as she made her way to the bathroom and into the shower. She was through thinking about him!
*****
She deliberately went in twenty minutes late. She knew he was coming by to look at the finished design and signing off on the ad and she did not give a damn! She had dressed carefully, wearing a clingy sea green wool dress and brown knee high boots and had brushed her weave and curled it, putting it into an elegant bun at the nape of her neck. She had added tasteful diamond knobs and had put on more makeup than was usual for her. Bangles jingled at her left wrist and she had chosen to wear a large man-type silver watch on her left. In defiance, she had even worn one of his brands of lipstick: mocha rich which highlighted her lips and brought attention to the full lower one. She breezed into the conference room where they were all seated with her portfolio in front of her. The receptionist had told her nervously that Benjamin had been trying to call her all morning. But she did not give a damn!
"Am I late?" she asked carelessly as she went to the head of the room. Poor Benjamin and Marianne stared at her as if she had walked in totally naked! She saw him seated there along with the well-dressed woman who she had learned was the head of the PR department at the company. "I will get right into it." She placed the boards on the easel. "As you see, I have tweaked it a little bit, but I am sure you won’t mind when I explain what I have done so far. Mr. Coleman told me to add some plus sized models or regular women going about their day to day activities. This is a perfectly normal plus size woman going to work and enjoying what she is doing. She is level headed and smart and has no hang ups whatsoever." She shrugged a little. "That’s not entirely true! She might have some kind of issue with her size and tries to do whatever it takes to lose the weight. But she still go on as usual because she loves her work and then comes the rich prick who cons her into pretending that he wants to sleep with her-"
"Sasha-"Benjamin had gotten to his feet.
"I am far from finished, Benjie, so please sit!" she told him, her dark brown eyes flashing as she looked at him. She turned back then and looked at the rest of the people sitting there, her eyes on Stephan, who was staring at her with a bland expression on his handsome face. "This rich entitled prick seduces her into believing that they could have something and then calls her up the next day and tells her that nothing can happen between them because it would mess with the business."
"Does this rich prick give a perfectly sound explanation to her?" Stephan asked the question quietly, causing everyone to turn and stare at him. "Does he explain in detail why it is not a good idea to mix business with pleasure?’
"Of course he does. But the woman finds herself wondering why the rich asshole had not thought of that before seducing her. And so that is where Coral Deep comes into play. She picks up the pieces of her life, dusting off the rejection, and putting on the shade of lipstick, she tells the asshole to go screw himself and realizes that he was not that big of a deal after all and that certainly will not happen to her again ever!"
The silence after her passionate sell was profound as everyone stared at her. Sasha felt the adrenaline go flying out of her and she realized what she had just done. She had most certainly alienated one of the most important clients they ever had and she was most certainly going to lose her job. "So there you have it." She gathered up her boards to exit the room.
"I am so sorry about this, Mr. Coleman-" Benjamin shot to his feet, galvanized into action, but Sasha had her back turned to them as she tried to calm herself down.
"It’s okay, Mr. Moore," she heard him say smoothly. "Could you give us the room, please?"
She turned to face him as soon as the rest of them had left. He sat where he was staring at her for a moment. "You are certainly passionate about your craft."
"I live to please," she said sarcastically.
"And you made my point," he continued. "You took what I said to you personally and you came in here and instead of being a professional you made it plain that you were hurt and angry. I am sure most if not everyone in here knows that you were personalizing."
"So?" she said defiantly.
"I did not mean to make you angry, Sasha-"
"Ms. Fullerton."
"Sasha," he said deliberately. "I just want this campaign to go off without a hitch and I want us to be clear headed about it."
"That ship sailed the minute you called this morning," she told him coldly.
"Why are you so angry?" he asked her softly. "I did not reject you as you put it. I merely told you that I want to slow things down until all of this is finished."
"You know what, Stephan Coleman?" She finished packing up her boards. "You don’t get to dictate anything in my life. You do not own me and if you want to take the account from us, well, I am sure Benjamin will have a heart attack or something else, but right now I do not give a crap. You can go screw yourself!" With that, she marched out of the room and into her office, slamming the door behind her and locking it. She had sailed past Benjamin and several of the staff members who stood out there waiting for them to come out, but she did not stop. She wanted privacy to get herself together and decide her next move. Because she knew after that performance she was certainly unemployed!
*****
"What took you so long?" Sasha asked plaintively as she opened her door and dragged her friend inside.
"I work, remember?" Diana stripped off her jacket and gloves and put them away. "I tried calling you to tell you that I was on my way, but the phone went straight to voicemail." She looked at the girl curiously. "What’s wrong?"
"I will tell you right after we have shared this very expensive bottle of red wine I picked up on my way home. I know it is not the wisest thing to do considering that I am currently without a job, but I told myself what the hell!" She went into the kitchen and took out two glasses. She had left work while Benjamin was in the conference room talking to Stephan and had turned her phone off. She did not want to hear the words "You are fired!" today. It was Friday, so the longer she put it off the better or so she thought. She had sat in her living room staring at nothing for the past few hours and was still in the clothes she had worn to work this morning. She poured the wine into the glasses and handed it to her friend. "You had plans for later?"
"No. Brian is working late again." She avoided her friend’s eyes. "I don’t know what to think."
"You know what, girl?" Sasha said suddenly as she lifted her glass to her lips. "We are not going to think about men tonight. We are going to get dressed up and go and paint the town red. We are going to go to Club Eleven and we are going to hop into the bed with the first available man who hits on us."
Diana stared at her and laughed. "I am not doing that and neither are you."
"You are right," Sasha said soberly. "That’s not me. Okay, we are going to go to the club and will have a good time, forgetting our worries. I have to go to church tomorrow and help out with the soup kitchen because I promised Pastor I would and maybe I will commit my life to doing good and helping out people in need. Who needs a job in the secular world anyway?"
"People who need to pay their bills," Diana pointed out. "I think it is time you told me what’s going on."
Sasha drank half of the glass of wine and then told her friend what she had done and why she had done it.
Diana stared at her for a moment. "He kissed you. Stephan Coleman kissed you and told you that he was attracted to you."
Sasha lifted her glass. "For one second."
"I don’t know the man but for him to tell you something like that-"
"And then turn around and tell me that we should just be about business."
"Honey, I am sure he did not mean he is rejecting you. He is a businessman and to him business comes first," Diana pointed out.
"I was a fool, Di," Sasha said with a sigh. "And I am so humiliated. I have always been sensible and now it feels like I am the stupidest woman on the planet! He is Stephan Coleman for crying out loud! He has been declared to be one of the sexiest men in the beauty industry. What was I thinking?"
"That you are a beautiful woman and he sees that. Honey, you need to look in the mirror and see for yourself that you are in fact smart and beautiful."
"And overweight and bigger than the women he is used to." She sighed. "You know what? Let’s forget this and when we are done get out of here and go and have some fun."
*****
Stephan hung up his phone after trying to call her again. He had come out of the meeting with Benjamin who apologized to him profusely for Sasha’s behavior. "I plan to get rid of her as soon as I am finished here with you, Mr. Coleman."
"You will do no such thing," Stephan had said to him coldly. "If you do that, you will no longer have the account."
The man had stared at him as if something had addled his brain. "But she was rude-"
"She was passionate and that is exactly what I want for the campaign. She is to continue working on it and any other campaigns I have lined up. She is the best I have ever seen."
"Of course, sir," he had said soberly.
He had looked for her when he was leaving, but he had meetings waiting for him and he had had to leave shortly. He had spent the time when he was free trying to call her, but she had obviously turned her phone off. He was going home now and had tried her again this time he had left a message. "Sasha, please call me back. We need to talk about the campaign among other things. Just call me back, please." He shook his head as he remembered her passionate display and the burning light in her beautiful dark brown eyes. She was indeed a very passionate woman and he could not wait to be with her. He bit off a sigh as he felt the stirrings of desire in him. He had told her that they should wait until they had finished with the business side of it, but he was not sure he was able to do so and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this time he was going to have to work double to get her trust back!
*****
"That guy over there looks hot and single," Sasha murmured as she sipped her cherry daiquiri. They had arrived at the club at ten and had decided that they would spend at least two hours before leaving. She was wearing a skin tight all-in-one red bodysuit with a chic black jacket over it and Diana had on lime green pantsuit.
"They all look single until you look closer and find that there is the mark of the ring on their fingers when they take it off," Diana said dryly as she looked around the crowded room. Brian had called her and told her that he would not be coming around tonight as he was hung up at the office. She did not believe him for one second!
"You are right. Men are such pigs," Sasha said feelingly. She looked at her friend swiftly as she grabbed her arm. "Honey, what’s wrong?"
"That’s Brian, and he is not alone."
"Where?"
"Over at the far table and he is with some white bitch. I am going to kill them."
Sasha turned to look at the man with his head close to the woman. There was no doubt that they were more than casual companions. She grabbed her friend’s hand to stop her. "You are going to do no such thing, honey. You are however going to go over there and pour your drink over his head and let him know that you see him. I will go with you, and then we need to get out of this place."
She watched as her friend sat there staring at the couple and saw the glitter of tears in her eyes and felt like going over there and killing the son of a bitch! Men! she thought heatedly.
"Ready?"
"Yes," Diana whispered.
"Okay, let’s go."
******
"Are you okay?" Sasha asked her quietly as she sat next to her on the bed. She had persuaded Diana not to go back to her place but to spend the night with her and then they could both go to help out at the soup kitchen tomorrow. The girl had poured her entire drink along with the ice on top of Brian’s head. The girl he had been with had gotten to her feet in haste and had disappeared fast. Sasha remembered the look of shock on the man’s face as he looked up and saw them coming over. He had followed them out and tried to explain that it had been business. He had grabbed Diana’s arm and Sasha had pushed him off her.
Diana wiped the tears from her cheeks and sat up on the pillows. Sasha had given her some time to process what she had seen tonight and had gone to take a shower before coming back into the room she had made up for her friend. "I did not want to believe that he was actually cheating on me."
"But you figured it out."
Diana nodded. "He told me that he loved me, Sash. He told me that we could actually plan a life together. Why would he do something like that and know he did not mean it?"
Sasha just stopped herself from saying that all men are liars! But she did, knowing that her friend was not in a position to hear that right now! "I think he meant it at that time, honey," she said gently.
"What am I going to do?" she asked pitifully.
Sasha stifled the impatient retort that sprang to her lips. "You are going to pick up the pieces of your life and go on as usual. He was not your lifeline, honey, and you need to realize that."
"You are strong. You are confident, and I always envied that about you. No matter what happens in your life, you keep going. I am not like that and I will never be."
"So what are you going to do?’
Diana bit her lip as she stared down at her hands. "I have to find out why he did it."
"Oh, hell no!" Diana looked up startled as the girl hopped off the bed. "Diana Amelia Chambers, if you ever call that man or go to him and ask him why he cheated on you I swear, friend or not, I will never speak to you again! Are you crazy? You are honestly expecting an explanation as to why he is screwing someone else? Girl, you are going to go to work, you are going turn off your phone or don’t answer his calls at all, and tell him that you do not want to see him ever again! Do you hear me?"
The bewildered Diana nodded as she stared at the girl’s animated face and her blazing dark brown eyes. "I understand."
"Good, now get some sleep. We have things to do tomorrow."