AllFreeNovel
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“Richest man in the city,” yells someone else.
“Any stock tips, man?” from another corner.
Pretty soon, we’re surrounded by a bunch of fanboys along with several women looking Cal up and down like he’s a tasty treat they’re going to devour. I step closer to him. That’s my man they’re undressing with their eyes.
“You can’t beat a market index fund if you’re a casual investor,” Cal says, “which you all probably know, but I’ll give you one tip, and that is, I looked at acquiring this company, but all the reports say that it’s got management issues and you’re losing big client after big client, so my recommendation is you find new jobs before this ship sinks. You’re always more attractive as a new hire when you’re coming from success rather than failure.”
“As if Harlow’s not a failure,” scoffs Stacy.
“Stacy, hush.” Mavis tries to save her ass.
Cal cocks his head, and I can see him about to unleash hell onto Stacy, but I lay my hand on his arm. This is my fight. I want to stand up for myself, not hide behind him.
“If I’m such a failure, why did you log into my computer and change the metadata on my proposal to make it look like yours? If you were good enough, you could have created your own ad proposal, but you suck, Stacy, and so all you could do was steal mine. Mavis firing me is also not my failure, but hers. She should have investigated this instead of jumping to conclusions. Like Cal said, a company with this kind of management is never going to succeed, and I’m glad I’m out. You can take your failure insults and stick them where the sun don’t shine. Let’s go, Cal.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You’re very sexy in leader mode,” he tells me as we walk away. “It’s a good thing my hands are carrying the box or I might embarrass both of us in front of your ex-coworkers.”
“Stacy and Mavis don’t deserve to see any of your skin, so yes, keep your clothes on.”
“But me flashing your other coworkers might be okay?”
“It depends on how much they pay me for the right,” I joke.
“I’ll try to keep the Line fortune intact so you don’t have to resort to selling parts of me online.”
“There’s a big market for feet pics.” I look down at his boots. “I’ll take a good look later to see if you have some value there.”
“I will pay you all kinds of money to not do that.”
“Just trying to secure the future for our children, babe.” I grin.
“You can only do this because you know I’m a jealous freak and would not even sell a photo of your elbow.”
“Yes.” I’m full-on laughing now. I didn’t realize love would make me laugh like this, make me feel free like this. While the sex is amazing, this is why I want to be with Cal. He makes the whole world appear brighter, better, more livable. I throw my arms around him and hug him tight.
He gazes down at me and hugs me back. “Should we go home and inspect each other’s parts to see what is sellable?”
“Yes, let’s.” I rise up on my tiptoes and tug him down so I can give him a proper kiss. He willingly, happily relents.
“I love you, Harlow. You know this, right?” he says, backing up slightly.
“Yes, I love you too. Now, kiss me,” I order.
He does, immediately, filling me up with light and joy and love, and not even the three people who yell for us to get off the street, get a room, and that we’re embarrassing could have moved me from this spot, this moment. That’s love for you. It makes you not care about anything or anyone else in the world. Just that one person.
Epilogue
CAL
“You’re going to be late.” Trident shoves a package into my hands.
“I’m not going to be late.” I check the time. “Fuck, I’m going to be late.”
“I told you?—”
“Not now, Trident. Where’s Harlow?”
