Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (139 page)

“So,” Nicole asked, “does that mean you
want me to use this celebrity wedding planner?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I like Marcie.”

“Then we’ll use Marcie.
 
Absolutely.”

She sighed.
 
“I feel like we’re not on the same page
lately.”

Red glanced at her again.
 
“Well, I’m super busy and now you’re
getting busy with wedding stuff.
 
Things are going to probably feel a little weird for awhile.”

“And we haven’t been close lately.”

“Every relationship has its ups and
downs.”
 

“I don’t want to become one of those
couples.”

He smiled a little.
 
“One of what couples?”

“One of those couples that says every
relationship has its ups and downs, and you know it means they’re sick of one
another.
 
And they’re probably
always in a down cycle but they pretend that its just the natural way of
things.”

Red didn’t say anything for a long
time.
 
When he did, his voice was
low and somber.
 
“I don’t want to be
one of those couples either.
 
I love
you.
 
What can I do?”

She sighed with relief.
 
“You can support me about our wedding.”

He put his hand on her leg and rubbed
it.
 
She felt a thrill as she always
felt when he touched her, and Nicole realized all it took was a simple look or
touch for her to know that he still cared and that they were fine.
 
“I support you one hundred thousand
percent and I always will,” he said.
 
“I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel anything different.”

They arrived at the office and went
inside.
 
Nicole hadn’t seen the
place in a few days and was surprised at all of the changes.
 
There was office furniture, for one thing.
 
Nice office furniture.
 
There were some paintings on the walls
and photographs.
 

“It feels like a real office now,” she
said.

“Let’s go in the conference room,” Red
replied, waving at one of his employees.
 

“When do we bring in the cubicles?” she
asked.

He shook his head.
 
“No.
 
I don’t want cubicles anymore.
 
I don’t care if they’re efficient.
 
People hate them and I won’t use them.”

“But what if you need the space for more
workers?”

“Shit, I’ll let the employees vote on
it.
 
If they want to keep their
offices and do a little more work, or if they want to start having cubicles and
more coworkers to lighten the load.
 
My bet is they choose to keep their own offices and do more work.”

They walked into the conference room and
sat down together on one side of the table.
 
“I just realized,” she said.
 
“I’ve never been on the other side of an
interview before.
 
I’ve only been
the interviewee.”

Red laughed and leaned in for a quick
kiss.
 
“First time for everything,
huh?”

“I’m nervous now.
 
My palms are sweating.”

“Relax and watch.
 
You can focus on getting an impression
of the person while I ask the questions.”

He passed her the resumes of the people
coming in for interviews that afternoon.
 
There were five people, all with great qualifications (way better than
hers), and Nicole thought she’d have hired any one of them in a pinch.
 
At least, based on their resumes.

When they actually came in to interview,
it was a bit of a different story.

Nicole was surprised to find that she
could tell almost instantly that someone wouldn’t be a good fit working for
Red.
 
One guy was twitchy and
nervous, and his lips were white and pasty like he’d just eaten a box of chalk.

Then there was a woman who had an
impressive resume, but when Red quizzed her on what she’d done previously, she
seemed bizarrely clueless—as if she’d made up her entire work history.

But then there were a couple of good
candidates, too.

One was a very attractive young woman,
probably only two or three years older than Nicole, with a killer resume and a
confident demeanor.
 
She sat across
from them with a friendly smile and talked about her college soccer playing and
how playing in a competitive team environment had made her unafraid to take
risks.

“Tell me what it means to take risks
professionally,” Red said to her.

The woman, whose name was Gia, sat up
straight in her chair and met his gaze levelly.
 
“It means that I take bold risks when
they’re warranted.
 
For instance,
when I came out of high school, I was heavily recruited by some of the
lesser-known division one colleges.
 
I knew I’d get a scholarship and a spot on the starting team if I wanted
it.”

“But you didn’t go with any of those
smaller programs?”

She shook her head no.
 
“I tried out as a walk-on at Duke and
made the team.
 
I started all four
years, and I qualified for scholarships three of those years.”

“Very nice,” Red replied, exchanging a
glance with Nicole.

Nicole merely nodded noncommittally.

After Gia, the other possible candidate
was a man named Rick.
 
Rick was
older, probably in his late twenties, and a bit effeminate.
 
He wore glasses and clothes that made
him resemble Alton Brown from The Food Network Channel.
 
Red didn’t seem quite as taken with
Rick, but Nicole got along quite well with him.
 

Her favorite moment of the interview was
when Red had asked Rick what he did for fun, outside of work.

“I’m kind of into playing poker,” Rick
said.

 
Red sat up in his seat, his eyes bright
with interest.
 
“I love poker.
 
What do you play?
 
What’s your game?”

Rick smiled.
 
“I play some Texas Hold ‘Em.”

“Me too,” Red had replied.
 
“Maybe we’ll play some time.”

“Oh, and I like Omaha.”

“Really?”

“Hi Lo, Stud, PLO.”

“So you’re basically a card shark.”

“I did win a satellite to the Main Event
three years ago, and I cashed for fifty thousand dollars.”

When Rick left, Red turned to
Nicole.
 
“Was that guy for real?”

“I think you’re just intimidated because
you realized he’s better at poker than you.”

Later on, Red and Nicole were walking
down the street to grab some dinner, and Nicole was confused about who they
should hire.

Red pressed her for a decision.
 
“Tell me who you liked best,” he
said.
 

“I liked Rick and Gia the best, by far,”
she told him.

“Yeah,” he agreed.
 
“Either one of them could do the job.”

She looked at him as they walked arm in
arm.
 
“You liked Gia a lot,” she
said, raising her eyebrows.
 
“That
was clear as day.”

Red shook his head at her.
 
“Don’t make it about that,” he said.

“She’s incredibly attractive.”

“She’s okay, but not my type.”

“Are you sure about that?” Nicole asked
him.

He smiled at her.
 
“I’m very sure.
 
Gia’s young and overconfident and she’s
got a lot to learn.”

“I seem to remember you enjoy teaching.”

“Not anymore.
 
My teaching career is over, I’m happily
retired.”

Nicole laughed, but her stomach was
churning.
 
She didn’t like that this
was making her feel so strange.
 
“What about Rick?” she asked him.

“He’s very attractive too,” Red
deadpanned.

“I’m serious.”

“He’s fine.
 
I don’t think he’s a great fit, but
he’ll do.”

Nicole wasn’t sure what to think.
 
“I liked Rick a lot.
 
To be honest, I got a really nice, sweet
vibe from him.
 
I think he’d make
the office a fun place to work.”

“He’d probably have everyone playing
poker after hours.”

“You don’t like him?”

Red smiled.
 
“I like whoever you like, honey.
 
You decide.”

“So I can totally make this call,” she
said.

“Yup.”
 
He kept walking without breaking stride.

When she brought it up again later, Red
still didn’t want to discuss the two choices.
 
He told her to simply inform him who she
wanted to hire, or if she wanted to keep looking instead.

At home, Nicole stewed over the
issue.
 
Finally, she called Danielle
and explained her dilemma.

“So who would you choose if they were
both guys?” Danielle asked her.

Nicole considered this.
 
“I can’t even imagine Gia as a man.
 
She’s so feminine and cute and sexy.”

“Do you dislike her because you’re
threatened by her?”

“I just can’t tell,” Nicole said.
 
“I don’t want to hire someone who’s not
right for the position just because I’m insecure.”

“You have no reason to be insecure,”
Danielle told her.
 
“Red loves you.”

“Thanks,” Nicole said.
 
“I just wish I could figure out what I’m
feeling.
 
Do I not like her because
she’s competition, or because I just have a bad feeling about her?”

“I say, go with your gut and hire Rick.”

Nicole groaned in frustration.
 
“The thing is, I don’t really believe
he’s as good a fit for Red’s style of work.
 
Red likes people who enjoy confrontation
and competition.”

“So the girl, then.
 
You said she played Division 1
soccer.
 
That’s, like, the ultimate
competition.”

“But she might be a total bitch.”

“Nicole, you’re overthinking this
thing.
 
The truth is, it doesn’t
really matter that much who you hire.
 
Red’s going to be fine either way.”

Nicole agreed with her, but inside she
was still fighting to understand her issue with making this decision.
 
Rather than belabor the point, however,
she asked Danielle how things were going between her and Kane Wright.

Danielle got quiet for a little
while.
 
“Things are getting a little
strange,” she admitted.

“How so?”

“Kane has a temper.
 
Sometimes he just yells at me for the
stupidest things.”

“Like what?”

“For instance, last night I spilled wine
on the rug in the great room.
 
And
he just went ballistic, screaming and yelling about how inconsiderate I
was.
 
I mean, it was an accident.”

“He shouldn’t treat you like that,
Danielle.”

“I think he’s just stressed because of
work.
 
Now that he’s taken over
Jameson International, things have gotten a little more difficult for him.
 
That company’s not all it’s cracked up
to be.”

“Really?
 
How so?”

Danielle was quiet.
 
“I don’t know.
 
But maybe Red was the lucky one in that
whole situation.”

A few minutes later, Nicole got off the
phone and went up to the study, where Red was reading and drinking a glass of
scotch to unwind from the day.
 
Nicole still hated the study—it reminded her of one of the worst
nights in their entire relationship.

But Red smiled when he saw her.
 
Even though he was clearly tired, she
could tell he was happy.
 

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked, giving a
little stretch.

“I was just on the phone with Danielle.”

He swished his scotch around in the
glass.
 
“Oh?
 
How is she?”

“Not so good.”

He waited for her to tell him why.
 

Nicole felt like such a gossip, but she
wanted to share with him.
 
Partly
because she knew he’d want to know about Kane struggling a little, but also
because she’d suddenly realized how lucky she was to be with Red.
 
Red, who never yelled at her for
something as stupid as spilling wine on the rug in the great room—even
though they didn’t even have a great room.
 
“Danielle says that Kane yells at her,” Nicole told him, finally.