Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Jason

I walked into human resources and pulled Via’s file. Her resume was impeccable. She had a Business degree from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s in marketing from Carnegie Mellon, and she’d worked on several high profile ad campaigns—Ralph Lauren, Versace, Microsoft, Google. Before coming to work for me, she’d spent four years directing projects at Cole and Hillman Associates in Pittsburgh, the largest advertising firm on the East Coast.

Why would she ever leave there to come here? Her position here is a major downgrade from that...She’s probably only being paid half of what she used to make...

I took the elevator to my floor and sighed. Even though her birthdate was clearly marked on all her files, I couldn’t believe she was about to turn forty. She didn’t look forty. At all.

Not that I gave a damn; I actually found it quite funny that she thought her age would be a problem.

“Mr. Ice?” My secretary looked up as soon as I walked by her desk. “I have something for you.” She handed me a card:

Jason,

I’m sure you noticed that I wasn’t at the board meeting today and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I’m going to Paris for a while to do some serious wedding planning with my best friend, Joanna—remember her? She’s the one who said you and I would make a cute couple at last year’s charity ball :-) Anyway, I was doing some thinking, and if I need to vacate my seat on the board for you to give us a chance, I will definitely consider it.

I’ll be thinking about you while I’m away.

Hope you’ll be thinking of me,

Vanessa.

I hadn’t noticed she was absent from the meeting and I was pretty sure I never alluded to the possibility of she and I having a chance to be together. I’d lost count of how many times I told her that I only saw her as a friend, nothing more.

I unlocked the door to my office and hit the lights. Tossing my jacket on the couch, I lay down and prepared to take a nap, but I saw my ex-girlfriend sitting at my desk.

“Audrey?” I sat up. “What are you doing? How did you get in here?”

I thought I had you banned for life...

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“About?”

“Us...”

“There is no us. There hasn’t been an ‘us’ in over a year.”

“Just hear me out please.” She motioned for me to sit in front of my desk.

I sighed. I pushed a panel in my wall and took out a bottle of bourbon. I poured myself a tall glass and offered her a bottle of water before sitting down.

“Go ahead.” I tried not to sound annoyed. “I’m listening.”

“Well, I was doing some thinking the other day. Do you remember how we talked about marriage a few times?”

“We broke up a year ago. I don’t keep a listed file about every conversation we had.”

She leaned forward in the chair and bit her lip. “It was going to work out perfectly because our careers were set, neither of us wanted children, and we wanted to travel the world every year once we tied the knot...” She started unbuttoning her jacket. “You don’t remember any of that?”

“No.”

“Well, I do. You and I were pretty serious at one point and then we just fell apart...”

“Was this before or after you called all my ex-girlfriends? Before or after you lied about being pregnant and dragged me to a fake doctor?”

She slid her jacket off, revealing that she was wearing nothing underneath it but a lacy pink bra. Before I could stand up, she’d walked around the desk, showing off the matching panties.

“Audrey...” I felt no attraction whatsoever. “Please get dressed. I don’t have time for this.”

“You know you don’t want me to put on any clothes, Jason...Make love to me. Right here. Right now. We never did get the chance to have sex in your office.”

A year ago, I would’ve gladly given in and fucked her in front of my floor to ceiling windows, but I was over her and her silly little games. She’d been the source of way too much drama in my life and I didn’t want that anymore.

“Put your clothes on or I’ll have security come and take you away in what you’re wearing right now.”

She slid her panties off. “But you told me to show up here wearing this! You said you wanted to talk about us getting back together!”

“What? What are you talking about?” And what is that red dot blinking on my bookshelf? Is she RECORDING this?

“I know you want me back, Jason, but you have to change.” She suddenly sounded hurt. “Just admit to your mistakes, apologize, and we can get back together...I’ve finally forgiven you for hitting me on Christmas Day and giving me a black eye...and bruising my ribs...And I know you didn’t want me to go to the press about it so if you’d rather pay for me to— ”

“Okay.” I walked over to the red blinking thing—a miniature pen recorder, and tossed it out the window. “I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to pull, but you know damn well I never hit you. Ever. Whatever we had was fun while it lasted, but that’s pretty much all it was before you turned into a psycho. Please get out of my office.”

She started crying. “I said I was sorry! I thought you were cheating on me when I set your Aston Martin on fire!”

I can’t believe I almost forgot about that...

I walked behind my desk and moved her crumpled clothes off my chair.

“And I apologized for calling all your exes! I needed to know if you were still talking to them! I needed to know that you were really mine!”


I handed her the clothes and sat down. “You’ve got one minute, Audrey. Get dressed before I call security.”

“I still think you and I could work out! I know you still want me!”

I picked up my phone. “Greg, I need security to come and escort someone out of my office as soon as possible.”

“The sex was incredible! Remember? We could go on for hours and hours!” She slid into her jeans and put on her jacket. “You can’t say you don’t miss that! Why don’t you want me back?”

There was a knock at my door.

“Come in!” I called.

Two security guards walked in and looked at me, then at Audrey.

She immediately stopped crying, like she always did whenever there was an unexpected audience.

“I don’t need any assistance walking down the steps!” She laughed. “Thanks for calling for back up though. My knees are fine, Jason!”

“You really should pursue acting Audrey.” I shook my head. “You would be great at it. Could you two please escort Miss Greene out to the parking lot and make sure to take her name off the approved visitors list?”

“Yes sir.” They motioned for her to leave the room first.

Audrey looked back at me and scowled. “I don’t want you back anyway, you sucked in bed! You couldn’t keep your dick up for more than a minute!”

Jesus...

The door slammed shut and I leaned back in my chair.

Maybe I need to date someone older...Someone more mature...

––––––––

On Thursday, I stayed late working on the marketing department’s reconstruction plan. I wasn’t sure why Via hated her job so much, but if the ideas her department submitted for the sPhone blue were any indication, I would probably hate working here too.

Their submissions were awful, god awful: “The new sPhone blue: Just blue it,” “The new sPhone blue. Yeah, it’s blue,” and “The new sPhone blue: Buy it. Ask questions later.”

There is no way “adults” came up with this nonsense...

I shut the folder and decided to call it a day. We were definitely going to have to hire new talent. Soon.