Page 63 of Games We Play
“Whatcan I do for you, Aaron?” Sloan leaned back in her chair, one leg swinging over the other. She had worn a short black wig that day, but now she wished she had gone for the frosted blond instead. That always intimidated this guy’s balls off. “Don’t tell me you want to take me to Hooter’s for lunch. Because the last time we went, I took all the attention away from you, remember?”
“Valentine’s Day,” he said.
“Good job, Aaron! It’s around the corner!”
Ayla excused herself before the business owners could get into a row in front of her.She knows when to scram.Besides, didn’t she have a jeweler’s to get to?
“Do you have plans on Valentine’s Day?”
Sloan had half a mind to call security and throw him out.He’s not asking me on a romantic date, is he? How many times do I have to tell him I’m gayer than a lesbian bar on ‘80s night?“I do, actually. I’m having dinner with my girlfriend, whom I’m flying in earlier that day.” She absentmindedly checked the time on her watch. “Don’t worry. I’m using my personal money, not the company jet.”
“Cancel it.”
“Excuse me?”
Aaron showed her an alert on his company phone. She wasn’t in a hurry to brush her hand against his, but it was the only way to get his phone so she could see what the hell it said. “This is much more important. Harold Wright is coming into town next week, and we need to put on the Ritz for his old, feeble, conservative ass.” Aaron backed away as Sloan read the email. “That means you need to put on a nice sweater dress and your most demure wig so we can impress him with your domesticated wiles.”
Sloan slid the phone across her desk, disgusted. “I will do no such thing. If you want to meet with him that morning, fine. I’ll put on my least intimidating pantsuit and go easy on the war paint. I’ll let you lead the meeting, but I willnothave dinner with you two.”
“Don’t be an ass about this, Mags.” Aaron’s voice was gravellier than usual. Either he had started smoking more, or he was invested in intimidation.Not going to work on me.Aaron could start throwing the shit off her desk, and Sloan wouldstillnot budge.He’s done it before. I’ve practiced. A lot.“We’re talking about almost twenty-million dollars here. Wright has more invested in our company than you’ve got sticks up your ass. Do youreallywant him to think we’re a pair of wretched sinners?”
“Just because the man holds the record for Most Pious Billionaire doesn’t mean I have to go against everything I am to keep him happy. It’s not my fault God made him afraid of powerful women.”Guess I’ll leave my pink pussy hat at home!“He’ll deal with my gay ass like you do every fine day. Or, better, I won’t have dinner with him at all. Or meet with him. How about you and Christie Yearwood take up that mantle on my behalf? Tell him we’re no longer together and she’s your fiancée. He’ll love it. Especially the part where she’s forty years younger than him.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Maggie.”
“Why not? You try to do it to me every day.”
“I’m serious.” He jammed his finger into her desk. Aw, more intimidation tactics at ten in the morning? What a gentleman. “You may not give a shit about what you’re doing to this company, but…”
“WhatI’mdoing? What, pray fucking tell, am I doing?”
“You’re a joke, Maggie.” Aaron turned around in a huff.What’s crawled up his ass and died? One of my sticks?Aaron was more likely to coyly manipulate her, not use overt aggression. Not this early in the morning. “Every fucking day I hear everyone laugh about you going out with hookers and spanking them until they can’t sit down anymore. Now you’re dating some wannabe kinkster fromPortland?C’mon. Portland! Couldn’t spring for a local girl or at least one from New York, oh no, she had to be from the God awful Pacific Northwest, where everyone gets called a Liberal Tree-hugging Commie. You really have no shame.”
“I like to keep my image fresh, you know? Right now I’m trying this monogamy thing. You might like it. I hear you used to be into it, too.”
“If Harold Wright has caught wind of your lesbian philandering…”
“That sounds like the title of my future memoir.”
“Then we can kiss him goodbye. We’ll take such a hit that it could takeyearsto recover! Do you remember what it was like when we started building this company fifteen years ago? Or do you only remember me saying the wrong thing that one time?”
“So, basically, what I’m getting from you is…” Sloan interlocked her fingers and considered her options. Go for the gay joke? The BDSM angle? No. Those were too easy. She needed to slam her foot into Aaron’s balls. Make sure he was hobbled for the rest of the day – like putting down a rabid dog. “If I bump into Mr. Wright next week, let alone with my girlfriend on my arm, I shouldn’t bring up how many abortions I’ve had.”
The fire was in his eyes before it spread to her desk. Sloan had exactly two seconds to brace herself for the impact of Aaron’s hands against her place of work.
The sound wasn’t what almost frightened her, however. It was that visage, the same one he had several years ago, when she realized he would never again be the man she once thought he was.
The flashback it gave heralmostmade her flinch. Almost.I would never give him the satisfaction.
“You’re a cunt, Mags.”
“Yes,” she sweetly responded. “I know.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but stopped himself. Good. If he really wanted to play dirty, she could fling her shit right back at him. It wouldn’t be the first time security had to break up the bosses from destroying each other.Nothing more satisfying than taking out a shit like him.She had done it once. She would willingly do it again.
“Fuck you.” Aaron ran his hand through his gelled hair and stomped toward her office door. “Fuckyou, Maggie, and your low blows.”
Sloan steepled her fingers and stared at her business partner through the union of her thumbs. “It’s the low blows that nail you in the balls,” she muttered. The door slammed shut, and she was left to her suffering silence.
