Annihilate Me (Vol. 1) (The Annihilate Me Series) (18 page)

“What
do you need?” he asked.

He
could sense I was in distress.
 
I
couldn’t believe I was going to ask a complete stranger for money, but I was
desperate.
 
“I left my clutch in
somebody’s car.
 
I need cab fare,
but I have no money to get home.”

He
reached into his jacket pocket, removed a money clip thick with bills, and
lowered it into his lap so no one could see.
 
He peeled off one of the bills and said,
“Will this be enough?”

I
looked down.
 
It was a hundred
dollar bill.
 
My eyes filled with
tears when I looked up at him.
 
“I’m
so sorry to have asked, but I’m also so grateful to you.
 
You don’t know what this means to me.”

He
pressed the bill into my hand.
 
“I’m
much older than you,” he said.
 
“These things happen.
 
We all
are young once.
 
Go home and be
safe.
 
Maybe this will work itself
out.”

“Thank
you.”

I
turned, and saw that Alex was standing directly behind me, but knew that he’d
try nothing here.
 
Not with these
men.
 
I brushed past him and moved
toward the exit, hoping he wouldn’t follow, but naturally, he did.

“Jennifer,”
he said.
 

“I
told you to stay away from me.”

I
picked up my dress and hurried down the stairs.
 
I needed to get out of here.
 
I went across the lobby to the door,
hearing his footfalls behind me, and walked outside when one of the men
standing beside the door held it open for me.
 

“Just
give me a moment to explain.”

What
was the point?
 
He just revealed
himself to me.
 
I wasn’t giving him
anything.
 
I stepped onto the
sidewalk and looked up the narrow street for a cab.
 
There were none here, but there would be
on Park Avenue, so I moved in that direction.
 
Alex stepped beside me and kept pace
with me.

“You
don’t need to do this.
 
I know I
made a mistake.
 
Let me take you
home.
 
We can talk about it in the
car.
 
I just got jealous.
 
I don’t understand what came over
me.
 
I apologize.”

I
turned to him.
 
“Jealous of what?”

“That
you found him attractive.
 
That he
and other men found you attractive.
 
That men ordered you drinks.”

“What
am I missing here?
 
I was made to
look like this for a reason.
 
I’m being
paid to be your escort.
 
That’s
it.
 
You and Blackwell told me
that’s all this was.
 
I’ve been
nothing but professional.
 
I kept
that dragon Immaculata at bay to help you.
 
I also helped you with Cyrus.
 
I gave you that angle.
 
Fine,
I said I thought that Cyrus was attractive, but who cares?
 
And why should you care?
 
You told me you had no time for a
relationship when we first met.
 
You
said you wanted to focus on your work, and be left alone to do it.
 
You said you didn’t women to distract
you.
 
You said you didn’t want to be
romantically involved.
 
Do you
remember saying any of that?
 
Am I
just imagining that conversation?
 
No, I’m not.
 
I was hired to
keep the wolves at bay, which I did.
 
I was hired to make sure you could do your work, which you did.
 
The arrangement was clear to me.
 
One comment out of my mouth, a few
drinks delivered to me, and suddenly you’re pissed off and determined to
embarrass me in front of everyone.
 
Well, it didn’t work, Alex.
 
You intentionally hurt my arm.
 
You wanted to hurt me, you succeeded, and now I no longer work for
you.
 
Good night.”

“Give
me another chance.
 
I wasn’t
prepared for this.
 
I wasn’t
prepared for you.”

What the hell does that mean?
 
I decided I didn’t care, and looked around for a cab.

There
was one coming down Park.
 
I
signaled for it, the driver saw me, and he pulled to the curb.
 
Thank God.

As
quickly as I could, I hurried over to it, swung open the back door, and stepped
carefully inside so I didn’t ruin his overpriced dress.
 
As I shut the door behind me, I told the
driver to go.
 

I
didn’t look, but I knew Alex was standing on the sidewalk watching me
leave.
 
Had I done the right thing
by throwing away this job?
 
Absolutely.
 
I was nobody’s
property.
 
I would not be treated
like that or taken advantage of like that by anyone.
 
I’d learned plenty from my shitty past
with my parents.
 
And long ago, I
promised myself that if anyone treated me with the sort of disrespect Alex just
exhibited, I would have nothing to do with him.
 
I couldn’t do that to myself again.

“Where
to?” the driver asked.

I
gave him my address, rolled down the window, and let the sounds of the city and
the warm breeze fall over me.
 
Tomorrow, I’d return his dress and his shoes to him.
 
Then, I’d look for a job as a server at
one of the city’s better restaurants, and wash myself of this situation.

CHAPTER TW
ENTY-ONE

When
I returned home, Lisa was waiting up for me.
 
She was on the sofa’s foldout mattress
reading a book on her Kindle, and had a martini on the table beside her.
 

She
turned to look at me when I stepped into the apartment.
 
“What are you doing here?
 
It’s still early.
 
I thought you’d be late.”

“I
also thought I’d be late.
 
Let’s
just say I was wrong about a lot of things.”
 
I kicked off my shoes at the door and
watched her slide out of bed with a concerned look on her face.

“Are
you all right?”

“No.”

“What
happened?”

“I
need a drink.”

“Do
you want a martini?
 
I’m having
one.”

“Absolutely.
 
Three olives.
 
Make it cold and make it dirty.”

“I
know how you like it.
 
I just wish
we had better vodka.”

I
pressed my hand on her shoulder.
 
“One day, we will.
 
Let me
get out of this dress that doesn’t belong to me, and we’ll talk.”

“This
doesn’t sound good.”

“It
isn’t.”

“Jennifer,
whatever it is, I’m sorry.”

“It
will be fine.
 
Sure, I gave up a
well-paying job tonight, let alone the glittering diamond perks that came with
it, which I gave back to him, but I actually learned a lot in the process.
 
You of all people know how my parents
treated me, especially my father.
 
I
left Maine because I refused to let them abuse me again.
 
And guess what?
 
Tonight was a test.
 
Tonight, I stuck to my promise to never
let anyone treat me like shit again.
 
You know what’s better?
 
I’ll
be able to sleep tonight, and tomorrow night, and all the nights going forward
because none of what happened tonight comes down to me.
 
It’s all on him.
 
Screw him.”

I
went into my bedroom, which at this point should have been Lisa’s bedroom, and
changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top.
 
As carefully as I could, I draped the
dress over the bedroom’s lone chair.
 
Then I met Lisa outside the bedroom door.
 
She had a martini in her hand and a
worried look on her face.
 
She was
my family.
 
She always would
be.
 
I gave her a kiss on the cheek,
thanked her for always being there for me, and then took a long swallow of my
drink.

“God,
that’s harsh.”

“It’s
crap vodka, but that’s all we can afford.”

“Doesn’t
matter.
 
It also feels good.”

“Really
cold crap vodka can have that effect under the right circumstances.”

“Let’s
never forget that,” I said, raising my glass.
 
“Here’s to cold crap vodka we barely can
afford.
 
You have a reason in life.”

“Hear,
hear,” Lisa said.

I
took another sip, and let the vodka sink into me.
 
It was a hellish kind of heaven, if only
because the vodka was so brutal that it burned my throat.
 
But it was better than nothing, and it
did its job.
 
I was happy to have
it.

“So,
what happened tonight?” Lisa asked.

I
told her everything.
 
When I was
finished, I looked at her.
 
“Did I
do the right thing, or did I overreact?”

“You
said he hurt your arm?”

“He
did.”

“Intentionally?”

“To
be honest?
 
I don’t know.”

“Are
you sure he tried to trip you up during the waltz?”

“If
I hadn’t been able to keep up with him, I would have gone down.
 
He knew that.
 
I’d say it was intentional.”

“Well,
this is complicated.”

“He
was a bastard on that dance floor.”

“And
he smoked a big blunt of jealousy before he got on that dance floor.
 
What did you say he said about not being
prepared for you?”

“Just
that.
 
He said something about
giving him another chance.
 
He said
he wasn’t prepared for this or for me.”

“Maybe
he wasn’t.
 
Jennifer, you don’t see
yourself the way others see you.
 
I’ve told you that for years.
 
You still see the person your parents wanted you to see.
 
But what everyone else sees is a
stunning, incredibly smart woman.
 
A
beautiful and kind person who happens to be super intelligent when it comes to
all things business.
 
You said you
gave him advice about how to get to this Darius guy?”

“I
did.
 
I told him to go through his
son.”

“How
did you know to tell him that?”

“Because
anyone who reads the business pages knows that Cyrus is poised to take over his
family’s company, but few have much confidence that’s he’ll succeed at it.
 
If I were Cyrus, I’d be feeling that
lack of confidence.
 
I’d be feeling
my father’s disappointment at my core.
 
He needs to show his father something.
 
He needs to bring him a deal.
 
He was the logical one to approach
because his father wants to see some initiative on this part.”

“And
Alex hadn’t consider that angle?”

“No.”

“Since
you were hired only to be an escort, do you think it’s fair to say that you
surprised him?”

“Probably.
 
He suggested as much.
 
But who cares?
 
I went in fully aware of the situation.
 
So did he, as he’s the one who set the
rules.
 
At the interview, Alex
himself told me he didn’t want anything romantic in his life right now, which
is why he was searching for someone like me.
 
He said he didn’t have time for
anyone.
 
Blackwell said that I’d
only ever be an object to him.
 
That’s all I thought about tonight—I was an object.
 
She warned me away from him, probably
because she could tell that I was attracted to him.
 
Yes, I said that I thought Cyrus was
good looking, but was that crossing a line given the situation?
 
And am I responsible for the drinks that
were sent my way?
 
What am I missing
here?”