Page 75 of The Billionaire's One-Night Stand Nanny
CHAPTER35
Ryan
“Who wants another round?”Charlie asked, waggling his cue stick in a manner that wasn’tquitelascivious enough for him to get scowled at by the ancient bartender. It was a line that Charlie had become intimately acquainted with over the past decade spent malingering at the Bankworth.
“I’ll take you on, Martin,” Barrett said. “You break it, you buy it?”
I smiled at his familiar phrasing–we’d played hundreds of games of pool on these green baize tables, and whoever went first was in charge of buying the next round. It wasn’t like it mattered much anyway, though: if we’d played a hundred games of pool, we’d bought athousandrounds of drinks, and as members of the club, they just went to our tabs. “Get me one, too,” I said. “A beer.”
Charlie smirked, but said nothing. He didn’t have to say it. I’d sworn off hard liquor at Bankworth after my end-of-summer breakdown, when he’d been the only thing between me and spilling my filthy guts to Barrett, and worse,James. Four months on–four months of Bankworth nights and pool and beer and steaks–and Charlie had kept my secret. Flora’s secret.
Four months on, and still it gnawed at me, a dull ache in my chest. A sharp pain when Maddie came home and unexpectedly mentionedMiss Connelly. She’d worn the skirt they made together to Tally’s engagement party and I’d been soproudof her, my little girl with big ambitions, and so desperately grateful that I’d come without a date. I hadn’t had to stand next to some anonymous woman while Maddie told and retold the story of shopping in the garment district with the woman who’d taught her to sew. I hadn’t had anyone to ask, anyway–I hadn’t gone on Barrett’s blind date; when it came down to it, I couldn’t stomach the thought of sitting at an intimate table with a stranger, and had to text him at the last minute.I’m sorry, I have to cancel. Let her know if she wants to keep the reservations, to bring a friend. I’ll buy their meal.It was the least I could do.
“I heard you’re a real heartbreaker, Ryan,” James said from his spot beside me. He was watching Barrett and Charlie’s game alone while I stared down into my drink. I was bad company.
“What?” I asked, my heart jumping heavily like a taxi over the curb. “Where did you hear that?”
“Some of the VCs were talking about you. Said your projections are… too accurate.” He gave me a look. “They’re used to the tech upstarts telling them their stupid app will have eight billion users in six months. You’re a shock to the system.”
I chuckled. “What they wanted to hear isn’t realistic. I gave them aconservative growth estimate.”
“Can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” he said with a smirk and a tip of his whiskey toward my beer.
“Hey, thatold dogyou’re talking about is my new CFO,” Charlie warned from his place at the pool table. “So don’t go talking aboutno new tricks, Jaime. I’ve been working hard on training him. He knows ‘work from home’ now, and ‘take a day off,’ and we’re working on ‘tee shirts.’”
“I just don’t see the point,” I argued, “of wearing a tee shirt to the office on Fridays when I’m coming here afterward. What, I’m supposed to carry around a suit jacket all day?”
Barrett gave me another look. “Dog,tricks. Your shot, Charlie,” he said, and leaned against the edge of the pool table. “Oh wait, how about ‘you can take the CFO out of the bank, but you can’t take the bank out of the CFO’?”
“I seem to recall the issue was they wanted to take theFout of the CFO,” James said. “And replace it with thatEI too find myself saddled with–”
“I thought Tally took theFout of him long ago,” Barrett smirked, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?” he said, shrugging. “When was the last time you got laid, Walker? Give it to me in VC terms: over-under five years?”
My stomach turned sour and I took a deep swig of beer to settle it. “Fuck off, Barrett,” I said.
“My point exactly,” Barrett said, then yelped in an ungentlemanly fashion as pool balls clattered behind him. “Fuck, Charlie, what wasthat?”
“Sorry,” Charlie said, chalking his cue and studiously avoiding my eye. I took another sip of beer, this time to hide my smile.Charlie.“Ball must’ve hopped.”
“Hit my finger–”
“Don’t wrap your fingers around the bumpers, then, Barrett,” James said.
“Yeah,” Charlie added with a grin. “You can wrap ‘em around your dick instead.”
“Oh, fuckoff–”
“Excuse me, sirs,” the manager said, looming up behind us, and Charlie’s eyes squeezed shut, his lips pressed together tight to stifle his laughter. He looked exactly like he had when, as elementary schoolers, we’d gotten called into the principal’s office together, and the sudden memory had me pinching back my own smile. A smile which dropped from my face in half a heartbeat when the club manager looked directly at me and said, with a deep, disapproving frown, “Mr. Walker. There’s… awomanhere to see you.”
CHAPTER36
Ryan
“Maddie,”I said, my beer sloshing over as I stood abruptly, knocking the table it was sitting atop. “Is Maddie okay?”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t know,” the man said, and I swore.
“Take me to her, now,” I said, but he interrupted smoothly.
