about.”
“No, Cole. I haven’t said anything. Why? That was… a while ago.”
“I’m going to be real with you, Maya. What we did was a big mistake. We got caught up in a moment. I have a lot on my shoulders at the moment. We’re close, Maya. This deal is going to close and it’s going to be good for everybody.”
“That’s good.”
Her cheeks started to turn red.
“You still think about it.”
“Excuse me?”
“That night. It’s on your mind. Right?”
“I don’t want to talk about it in this setting, Cole.”
“I’m not taking you out on a date to talk about it,” I said.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“I think we need a more stringent agreement here, Maya. Something more than just a verbal agreement.”
“What?”
“I need to know you’re quiet about everything,” I said. “Us. This company. We need legal proof of it.”
“You want me to sign something saying I won’t tell anyone we had sex?”
“We’ll call it a relationship that didn’t work,” I said. “I don’t need that leaking anywhere. That I was with my secretary.”
Now her face was bright red. “You’re being serious right now?”
“I am, Maya. There’s too much at risk here. Believe me, I trust you. I just-”
“I can see that you trust me, Cole. I don’t know why you think I would do that to you. Or myself. I’m the secretary who slept with her boss. That’s not who I am. And it was weeks ago. I can’t believe…” Maya shook her head. “You know what? Whatever you need, Cole. You’re the one who’s paranoid. Not me.”
“Good. I’m glad we see eye to eye then. Now bring me those files. And something to eat. I’m starving. I had a late night last night.”
I winked at Maya.
Her red face turned angry.
The more she hated me, the more the memory of us together faded.
Mr. Pickle sat across from me at my desk.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I think we let the lawyers look it all over and you and I take a well-deserved break.”
I smiled. “I think I can live with that.”
Things were finally moving the right way again.
Maya was back to herself. I was back to myself.
More time had gone by.
Everything felt… normal.
“Tell you what,” Mr. Pickle said. “Why don’t we plan another trip to the cabins? How’s that sound?”
“Again, I think I can live with that.”
“I sure hope you bring that secretary of yours,” Mr. Pickle said with a wink.
I had no choice but to laugh at him. “I don’t know about that. That wasn’t quite the, uh, situation I had been hoping for.”
“Ice cold that night?”
“No comment,” I said. “There could be legal implications.”
Mr. Pickle laughed and clapped his hands together. “You’re better off. I like the way things are right now, Cole. Nothing is holding either of us back. That’s why I’m sitting here with you. I’m not the kind of man that just dishes out money, you know? There are a lot of companies out there I can buy, sell, fuck with… whatever I want to do. But when I look at you, I see myself. You’re a good-looking man with a ton of cash and a lot more on the way.”
Trust me, I looked nothing like Mr. Pickle. Nor would I ever look like him.
The women and the money thing? That was accurate though.
“My advice,” Mr. Pickle said as he leaned toward my desk. “Get someone else for the next trip. You need them paid, quiet, and ready to be fucked.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“Now, how about a drink? Let’s get a scotch or something. Call your secretary. Send her down to my car as I have a special bottle for us.”
I reached for my phone and called Maya’s office.
Maya didn’t pick up.
It was Janice. She worked in a different part of the office.
“Where’s Maya?” I asked.
“She went home sick,” Janice said. “She threw up.”
“You could have stopped at sick,” I said.
I told Janice what I needed her to do.
There was a moment or two when I thought about texting Maya.
But that wasn’t my job.
My job was to have a drink with Mr. Pickle.
And think about how fucking perfect my life was.
Chapter Seventeen
Maya
I hung over the toilet and groaned.
I had nothing else to deposit from my stomach to the toilet.
The feeling hit me like nothing had ever done before.
It wasn’t an upset stomach where I knew something could happen.
It was just… boom.
“Bad eggs?” Bev asked.
She sat next to me.
I looked at her and took a deep breath. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t