Love In Rewind (33 page)

"Phil, good to see you."
Not
, I think to myself as I shake his hand. "Where are we meeting your friend?"

"What … no small talk? Is the little lady still keeping you on a short leash?"

What was I thinking? He just came to fuck with me, the son of a bitch.

"Relax, Lou, man, I can see she let you keep your balls on today. I'll be a good boy, promise. I know you think I only care about pussy. But I'll have you know that when I heard from Ronny your company was headed towards bankruptcy I was working hard to find you capital. I will always be grateful to you, man. You helped me open my first club when no one even wanted to take a meeting with me. You are my brother whether we share pussy or not."

Talk is cheap
, I think.
Okay, motherfucker; time to show me the money.

"Phil, it's good to hear you have my back. Even though you disrespect the most important thing in my life to my face."

"Lou, stop bitching! Did you grow a fucking vagina instead of that massive cock I remember? I'll let you bitch slap me later. Now let's go make you some money."

We head toward the elevators at the Plaza lobby. Emily loves to bring Rose here to have tea on Sundays. I remember Emily and I spent a whole evening in one of the suites when we were still dating because we couldn't wait to go all the way downtown to be alone. Once I pull us out of this mess, I'll bring them all here to celebrate. Phil presses the PH button and off we go to the make it or break it deal of my life. We exit the elevator into an elegant suite.

The Plaza had undergone a big renovation. It was my company that was given exclusive rights to sell the residential condos eight years ago, and look at me now! I'm at the mercy of a fucking club rat and a Russian oligarch.

"Miss Alexandra Ivanov will be right out to meet you gentleman. Please have a seat; she'll just be a few more minutes," a man informs us.

Alexandra?
Wasn't Phil telling me about a man?

"Phil, what's this? You said we're meeting a dude?"

"Don't worry, Boris' daughter makes lots of deals for him. If he's indisposed, she's the one you'd want. Trust me. You'll see, she's a fucking knockout with balls of steel."

A throat clears behind us. We both jump up like little students caught talking about their teacher.

"Thank you
Phillipchik
for revealing my secret. Now how will I get a good deal from this handsome man if he thinks I have balls?"

Wow
, Phil wasn't kidding, she is stunning. Her thick Russian accent actually sounds sexy and not butch. Dark long hair, tall and young, I mean she looks to be about my wife's age. If what the papers write about her father is even only half true then they have more money than God. Fucking filthy rich. This Alexandra has an entourage of two bodyguards who put the guys at WWF wrestling to shame.

"Miss Ivanov, Louis Bruel. Pleasure to meet you," I say, stretching out my hand for a shake.

"You can call me Sasha. You, Mr. Bruel, don't need any introductions.
Moy
Papa has been romanticizing over some of your properties ever since I can remember."

She leaves me hanging and doesn't shake my hand. She's a wolf in sheep's clothes. This twat is trying to intimidate me. I've had girls like her for breakfast. I happen not to be the least bit sexually interested in this cunt. Any kind of mind fucking will be done on my end.

"Call me Louis. Mr. Bruel sounds old and too formal on your lips."

She lifts her green eyes to give me a sexy,
maybe we should fuck look.

That's right bitch, let's see who will leave who hanging by the end of this negotiation.

Phil's voice filters in, saying, "Should I leave you two alone? I don't need to ask if you need a room because Sasha already has the whole floor." Sasha laughs at Phil's stupid comment.

That is not how I do business, fuckface. My family's future is depending on this deal. I don't need or want to touch this woman. I want to deserve to touch my wife.

"No, Phil, we won't need a room for what I have in mind."

"That's a shame," Sasha says and walks over to sit opposite me, pouting her red lips and very slowly crossing her long tan legs to give me a peep show.

If only she knew what I have waiting for me at home. The sight of my wife's tits alone could make me come. Well, I haven't been able to fuck Em with all this shit pounding in my head. My brain won't let my dick do its job with all the crap eating away at me.

"Okay, Sasha, let's get down to business. I know the properties you and your father are after. My deal will be easy with a short expiration date. For every building you want that I don't want to sell, you buy two properties that I do have on the market. I will only part with these properties on that condition. Take it or leave it." I'm about to bluff and hopefully not piss my future away. "I have been talking to my friends in China this morning. If you even try to negotiate a dollar off the proposed deal I'm offering you, I will take the deal from right under your nose and gift it to them."

Sasha seems to contemplate my offer. I hand her the written proposal that Eddie and his team had finished drafting last night.

"Louis, you need cash very badly, I know. But lucky for you, the banks don't own everything you have … yet." She gives me that
I want to see you crawling and begging
look. She smiles with her bright red lips extending almost to her ears. "I need a few minutes to talk to
moy
Papa. I promised him I'd call before I turned down any deal with you."

She walks out into another wing of the suite. The bitch is swaying her hips from side to side and clicking her heels on the marble floors, giving Phil and I a seductive show. As soon as she rounds the corner Phil jumps out of his seat.

"Lou, are you crazy? They were only prepared for five buildings in Chelsea. Fuck, now you want them to buy fifteen. That's the most asinine move I've ever seen."

I don't even need to dignify that with an answer. I'd been making deals while this prick was still sucking his mother's tit. I know how much money I need to get my company on the road back to recovery. I took that amount and included in the bundle whatever was needed to make the deal sweeter.

Please God, I need help. I'm sweating my balls off. I keep picturing how I'll tell Em that the bank took away her house in Turks. If the Russians back off this deal it's game over for me. Bruel Industries will be sold off in pieces to our blood-sniffing competitors. The bank won't give us any more loans. No investor wants to touch us with a 100-foot pole. My choices are very slim. I would have to sell our townhouse to pay the creditors. Emily decorated every inch of that place. We brought our children from the hospital to that house; it's their home.

Whoever is looking down on me: Dad, Nana Rose, my grandparents … please, help me now. You were all good, no, amazing people; call in some favors for me. I already have the beautiful, healthy family thanks to all of you bringing me the love of my life. Now I need some luck. If Nana Rose were alive she'd say I need a
bissle Mazel
. This reminds me of waiting for my kids to be born. I knew what outcome I wanted; I just had zero control. All I can do is pray.

We wait for that Russian cunt for a good half hour. She comes out wearing a different outfit. Fucking bitch just trying to keep us sweating while she does an outfit change. Emily would love her dress. I can't remember the name of this stupid designer, but I know my wife has a least five dresses by him. I do very vividly remember how hard my dick got when Em came out of the closet wearing a tight cream-colored dress. I think it was Alaïa because the last thing she said before I tackled her back into her closet and then lowered her on the floor was,
I can't believe I'm on my knees getting pounded in a fifteen thousand dollar Alaïa.
That image puts a smile on my face. Okay, dickhead now is not the time to dream about Emily on all fours. This is show time. Freddy said it best:
Show Must Go On
.

"Sorry boys, right after our meeting I have to run to my lunch date with my attorney," our Russian princess finally says.

Stop milking us and spit it out
, I beg her in my head. I need this torture to end.

"I spoke to
moy
Papa," she smiles an
I will fuck you up smile,
and continues with her verdict, "and we should drink to our good fortune and our new business agreement. Well played, Louis. Boris Ivanov wanted that hotel in Chelsea since you first built it. You could've sold him the air rights to the Kremlin and he would've agreed."

Thank God, thank fucking God. Seven hundred and fifty million dollars is just what we need. I can't believe I won't have to sell our home, our treehouse, or
The Blue Lagoon
. I need to get out of here now and start the paperwork before they change their mind. I'll go home early today. I will make sweet, sweet love to my beautiful wife tonight. One day when this is all behind us, I'll tell her the tale of how close we came to losing everything.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Sasha. I hope to meet your father next time. I know he likes a few of my Fifth Avenue buildings. Maybe by next year he'll be ready for them. I'll have my attorneys contact yours to start drawing up the papers."

The man who greeted us at the elevator reappears with a tray of chilled Vodka. He fills the shot glasses and hands us some caviar on little blintzes. In Russia if you don't close a deal with some kind of alcohol, then the deal isn't closed.

"
Zah Vahs … Na zdoróvye
."

We all down our shots. I fucking hate alcohol. Haven't touched it in years.

"
Phillipchik
would you give me a ride to Daniel's? I have a meeting there in fifteen minutes. It will take my driver twenty minutes just to go around the block to pick me up."

"Sasha, honey, I'd love to but I'm already late for lunch with the wife down in Tribeca."

I almost shit myself when I hear Phillip say he is married.

"Phil, you got married? To who?"

"Don't look at me like that, asshole. She's great. Maybe one day I'll let you meet her. We can all go out with you and Emily. I'll apologize for being a dick and we could maybe start over."

I start laughing. Yeah right, I wouldn't let him near Emily if his life depended on it.

"Payback is a bitch, my friend. Wait until I tell your wife some interesting stories about her loving dickhead of a husband." I'm talking to Phil, totally engrossed in the new information I've just learned and forget all about the Russian Princess standing there listening to our juvenile exchange.

"Boys, I hate to interrupt your moment but I need to go."

I turn to her and since I'm feeling beyond elated from our deal I say, "Sasha, I'm headed towards my office. My car is running out front. I can have my driver drop you off by Daniel's, it's on my way."

Phil says goodbye and heads into a waiting elevator. "Man, I got to run, if I'm more than five minutes late Irene goes into bitch interrogation mode."

Maybe Phil grew up. Or maybe his dick finally had enough. I wait for Sasha to get all her shit together and we head towards the next available elevator.

She's gone...

I
get to my office, lock myself in my private bathroom, and throw up. I've been nervous all morning. The coffee and vodka combined with my stress do some crazy shit to my stomach. I take out my phone to text Mike that the meeting went better than expected. He's the only person in my family who really knows about the financial problems Bruel Industries has been facing. I can trust that Mike won't blab to Jenna. It would get back to me faster than a speeding bullet.

I text Em that I'm sorry for being an ass and that tonight I'd make it up to her. I know my behavior the last few months has been detached and strangely distant from her. I couldn't reward my financial deterioration and inevitable collapse with her love. I didn't deserve to enjoy myself and dull my anxiety in our love. Every time I looked in the mirror all I could see was a good for nothing, inadequate, sorry excuse for a man. My wife deserved a winner. I was as big of a loser as they come. I was too much of a pussy to man up and tell her the truth. Emily never cared about the money. But these were our memories, our fucking roots that I was going to lose. I was her husband; I needed to protect and safeguard all the sentimentality she bestowed upon me.

At nine o'clock I finally head home. I had Eddie and my legal department draw up all the necessary paperwork. I waited in the office to make sure that both sides started the negotiation process. I'm on cloud nine. This has been a momentous day. The weight on my shoulders has eased a bit. I want to go home and see my family. I want to kiss my kids and make love to my wife. I haven't tasted her in months. As soon as we're alone, I'll rip her clothes off and fuck her until neither of us can walk straight. Fuck yes, my dick is hard just thinking about those big tits bouncing as I pound her into the bed.

I'm a few blocks from my house when Adele, my mother-in-law calls. "Hi, Adele. How are you?" I say, still thinking about what I plan to finally do to her sexy daughter.

"Louis, have you spoken to Emmy today?"

"I'll be home in a few minutes. Should I tell her to call you? Her phone sometimes dies. Adele, just try calling the house; she should be home." There is a pause and I hear Adele take a deep breath.

"Louis, Jenna just told us that Emily left this afternoon. She called and left me a message a few hours ago. I was in with patients so I couldn't pick up. She said she's leaving for a little while and that I shouldn't worry."

Her words don't quite make sense to me. What does she mean,
Emily left
?

"Where did she go?"

"Nobody knows. She asked Jenna during lunch today to watch over the kids for her while she's gone. Oh Louis, I don't know what kind of problems you and my daughter are having, but we're very worried."

The sound of my mother-in-law crying, coupled with what she's saying, feels like being shot. I feel like the air is slowly being sucked out of my surroundings. I get home and stand in front of my house, looking up at the door, not really believing what Adele says is true.