A Double Dose of Billionaire (Part One) (3 page)

Ryan dangled the wallet in front of me. “You
forgot this.”

I let out a sound of annoyance and snatched
the object from him. “Thanks, now leave.”

“As you wish, princess.”

***

Kristie was acting like a busybody as she
always did. “I want all the juicy details.”

“I don’t have any.”

She tapped her pen on my desk and leaned in
closer. “Don’t lie, I’ve seen you on the papers.” She checked her
surroundings for people and then whispered, “How big were they? You
can tell me that, at least.”

I showed her the most disgusted reaction I
could conjure. “Kristie, that’s very inappropriate.” I frowned and
shook my head in disapproval, and then I leaned over, too, and
grinned cheekily. “Really big,” I replied in a hushed tone. “But
anyway, I don’t remember a thing except for Saturday morning”—I
left out the part about the car ride—“I got drunk on Friday night
and next thing I knew, I was waking up to a couple of naked
men.”

“You forgot what happened?
Seriously?”

“I wouldn’t have slept with them if I was
sober and conscious, right?”

“Hmm, yes, I can see how that makes sense. You
make a point.”

A very rude colleague of ours, Albert,
unceremoniously interrupted our hushed conversation. “Hey.” He
grinned a very unattractive grin, but from the way he was acting he
most likely thought himself attractive. “How’s the double dipper
doing?”

I deserved a medal for having enough
self-control to not punch this guy in the face.
“Peachy.”

“Must have had a lot of fun last Friday, huh?”
He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Anyway, the boss asked me to call
you, and I don’t think it’s about something he’s happy
with.”

“Meet you at lunch?” Kristie said.

I nodded. “See you there.”

My staff and colleagues were awfully quiet
today. Usually they greeted me with a hello and were more open with
asking me questions. At the very least, they’d say something
whenever they dropped a document on my desk. But today, they
avoided me like the plague and I guessed why.

I knocked on my boss’s door. I didn’t even
know how that man ended up in his position. Every time I visit him,
he’s either in the middle of a Facebook game or laughing
obnoxiously with some friend of his on the phone. He barely did
anything but sit on his fat ass all day, and to make things worse,
he had been hitting on me the whole of last month. At first I
thought I was imagining things, but when the bouquet of roses
arrived on my table with his name on it, I stopped questioning his
intentions.

“Come in,” he called.

I walked into his office to find him sitting
at his desk with his fingers intertwined. Strange—he was usually on
his computer or cellphone.

“Sit down, Scarlet.”

I did as he said and tried to loosen my
collar. Was it me or was the air conditioning turned too high? “You
asked to see me, sir?”

He was usually a flirty man, and seeing him so
serious made me nervous. Regardless of how much he acted like a
douchebag, he was still my boss and controlled how much I earned at
the end of each month.

“I’ve heard about your little incident with
the Crawford brothers. Is it true?”

What did my personal life have anything to do
with this? “I’m sorry, sir, I got drunk that night and don’t
remember.”

“It’s very unprofessional.”

“I’m sorry.” It happened during out-of-work
hours, though, so I wasn’t sure how it had anything to do with my
professionalism.

“Your sales team has also been underperforming
the last few months. All the other teams managed to hit their
targets but yours. Can I have a valid explanation for
that?”

I had to check if my ears were playing a trick
on me. In the last few months, my team outperformed all the other
teams, securing more contracts than them. My left eye started to
twitch. “I’m sorry, did you read your data sheets correctly? I’m
pretty sure that we’ve been
outperforming
everyone else. We
doubled your target last month.”

“Are you saying that I can’t read, Ms.
Fontaine?” He sunk back into his chair and crossed him
arms.

“No, not at all.”
But I am saying that
you’re a biased, two-faced son of a bitch.
I clenched my fists
together. I wondered how stuck up he’d be after I broke his
nose.

He sighed and passed me an envelope. “Here is
this month’s paycheck.”

“Thanks, but isn’t it due next
week?”

“I’m relieving you of your duties, so you
don’t have to come next week.”

I stayed silent, not quite grasping the
situation. “Wait, you’re firing me.” It was a statement, not a
question.

He sat up straighter. “Yes, I’m firing you. As
sales manager you represent our company’s image, and I can’t have
you sleeping around with men. It’s bad for our image, and we’d
rather not have you here.”

What a hypocritical bastard! He was trying to
get into my pants right before this. “Oh, that’s not the reason why
you’re being such a dick.” He wasn’t my boss anymore so why bother
to be polite? “You’re just jealous because I told you to get your
hands off my ass when you tried to grope it two weeks
ago.”

He scowled. “You think so little of
me.”

“Actually, I probably think too highly of you.
You’re probably firing me for some reason even more spiteful and
shallow than that, though I’m not that low to be able to think of
what.”

He ignored my insults and went back to
fidgeting with his computer. “You have until this afternoon to pack
your desk and leave. I’ll have Albert take over your
duties.”

Albert? That annoying dickhead? That was the
very last straw I could take. My fist was raring to go but I could
think of something better.

“See this?” I said, using my phone to show my
ex-boss a picture of him feeling up an intern. That perverted man
only hired attractive babes as interns.

A panicked look flashed over him. “Where did
you get that?”

“Your darling Albert took a picture of you
with her last year. It spread through the office in a matter of
days. We were all having a fit laughing. You were the only person
unaware.”

“Delete it,” he demanded.

“You wish. You’re not my boss anymore. I can
do whatever the hell I want with it. For example, I can send it to
your wife.”

“Liar, you don’t even have her number.” He
smirked proudly, stupidly thinking that he saw through
me.

I never imagined how awesome it’d feel
triumphing over my boss who had been treating me like a slave all
these years. “Actually I do. You brought her to the company dinner
last year, remember? I met your wife there—very sweet lady. Never
hurts to have more contacts.”

Horror wiped that smug expression off his
face. My inner mischief squealed at itself with glee. “No!” he
yelled, trying to reach for the phone over his table, but before he
could, I tapped on the green ‘send’ button.

“Too late.” I waved the screen at him, showing
him that the deed had been done.

Happiest that I’ve been since appearing on the
news, I turned around and strutted to the exit.

“You fucking whore!” my ex-boss
screamed.

He reached for my shoulder and forcefully spun
me around.

I was halfway thinking about a smartass
comment when I saw his fist flying toward my face.

***

I was definitely going to press charges on
that bastard. He dared punch my beautiful face. People have told me
that this face of mine deserved to be on billboards, though I
wasn’t sure how much I could believe those people since they were
my parents.

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” Kristie said,
touching up my eye with her makeup set.

This was the most pathetic point of my life. I
was hunched over at the lobby of my office building with a black
eye, a box of my belongings in my arms, and the paparazzi camping
at the entrance. I couldn’t possibly walk out like this.

Think of what they’d sensationalize tomorrow’s
article into? ‘Crawford Brothers’ New Mystery Girl Found!
Incompetent and Bruised!’

“You think they’ll get bored and go home?” I
asked.

“I don’t know. You can catch a ride in my car
if you wait for me till six.”

It was still one in the afternoon; Kristie had
taken a lunch break to accompany me.

I shrugged. “Sure, why not? It’s not like I
have anywhere else to go.”

“Honestly, I didn’t think that our boss was
such a brute. I’m not sure if I want to be in this company anymore,
with you not around and his violent tendencies.”

I smiled. “We knew how he was since years
ago.” Kristie could talk big but she didn’t have a choice to leave
the company. With the economy still recovering and job positions on
the low, no one would take the risk and quit.

I had enough saved up to last me two months.
If I lived on a tighter budget, I could probably stretch it out to
three months. Within three months, I had to get a job. After that,
I wasn’t sure if I could afford rent and I doubted that my pride
would let me crawl back to my parents and ask for help.

Kristie had to go back up after twenty minutes
since we didn’t have a long lunch break. I fiddled with silly apps
while waiting. After my phone went flat, I spent most of the
afternoon wandering around like an aimless soul. My company card
was revoked, which limited me to the first floor since I needed the
card to use elevator.

I found myself a quiet spot to take a nap when
the boredom became unbearable. My lack of sleep last weekend caught
up to me and I sunk into a deep slumber. When I woke up, Kristie
was in front of me eating from a bag of chips.

I stretched my arms out. “What time is
it?”

“Six-thirty. You were sleeping like a cute
little bunny, so I didn’t want to wake you up.”

Could anybody have a sweeter
colleague?

“Besides,” she said, “I had them to keep me
company.”

Them? I rubbed my eyes and turned my gaze to
the left. The twins were leaning against the wall. Did I mention
sweet? I actually meant stupid.

The sight of them made my blood seethe. “What
the f—“

“Oh, you’re awake. I thought we asked you to
meet us at the doorstep at six?”

“How did you two even get in? Security won’t
let you in without a card.”

Ryan gave me a look of disbelief. “We’re the
Crawford brothers; we can do whatever we want.”

“And they’re so hot, too,” Kristie pitched in.
“You said that you weren’t meeting them again. You naughty little
liar.” She giggled.

“Shut up, Kristie. You should’ve protected me
from these two idiots.”

“Excuse me?” Riley said.

Kristie swished my comment aside. “You don’t
need any protecting from these two. I’m sure they’ll take good care
of you.” She stole a side wink at them, and they winked back. What
nonsense did the twins fill her head with when I was
sleeping?

Riley came closer and bent down to examine my
swollen eye. “How is it? Kristie told us what happened.”

“It doesn’t hurt too much. That bastard didn’t
pack a punch.” He was sweet to ask, but that didn’t help with
subsiding how angry I was at the two of them.

Ryan reached for my wrist and pulled me up.
“We’ll take care of it. Thanks for looking after her,
Kristie.”

“I’m not going with you anywhere,” I said,
twisting my hand to try and get out of his grasp. “You two got me
fired!”

Ryan lifted me up by my knees and threw me
over his back. Did I, or any other grown woman, deserve such
humiliation?

“Put me down at once.”

“No,” Ryan said.

Kristie squirmed with delight as I was taken
away. “Bye, and have a lot of fun, the three of you.”

Traitor.