Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) (22 page)

He had
a car and driver waiting and he opened the door for her. She settled inside,
being careful with the length of the dress. She’d tell him when he got in the
other side, when they were hand in hand again.

But
when he slid in beside her and took her hand he stole her incentive to speak by
saying, “I won’t disappoint you tonight,” and she wondered why he thought he
might.

NINETEEN

Reid walked into the foyer of the ballroom with Zarley on his arm
and Sarina was on him like a good cop on vice.

She
snatched his wrist, nails engaged. “What are you doing here?” she whispered in
the process of not kissing him hello. Their cheekbones crashed together because
she never had kissed him before and it was a confusing move.

He took
in the rapidly filling ballroom of The Fairmont. “You invited me,” he muttered,
then looked down at his arm, expecting to see blood.

“I did
not invite you. I cannot believe you’d crash like this,” she hissed, hand to
her cheek.

He
spoke up, “Sarina, this is Zarley. I told her how long we’ve known each other
and what a great job you do.”

Both
women leaned around him at the same time, hands outstretched to shake. Reid
watched Sarina’s face. She had every right to have them thrown out. He had
every right to be here.

“Hi,
Sarina. Reid told me you’ve had a lot to put up with from him,” Zarley said.

Sarina
gave a disconcerted laugh. “He did? He’s right.” She spared him a sharp look. “Hi,
Zarley, nice to meet you. Can I borrow him for a moment?”

Zarley
smiled and let go his arm. “I’ll wait here,” she said, and Sarina drew him away
from the foyer.

“You
can’t be here.” She kept her voice even. She was the perfect picture of politely
furious.

He gave
her a wry smile. “Are you going to throw us out?” He had to choose whether to
make a scene if she did.

He
looked back toward Zarley. He should’ve told her but he’d hoped to sail through
this because it would be too embarrassing to have him thrown out. He watched
her stand in that fantasy of a dress, head high. She had self-possession born
of being a performer. She attracted attention, she must’ve known that, but
didn’t show it. Before he turned back to Sarina, Dev was approaching Zarley
with an enormous grin on his face. He had green tennis shoes on with his tux
and a matching green bowtie. He must’ve seen them come in together.

A hard punch
to his arm brought his attention back to Sarina. “You bought a date.” He rubbed
where she’d hit. “She’s lovely. I’m proud of you. Is she, you know the,” Sarina
gestured vaguely to his middle and he glared at her.

“I’m
sure you can find us a place.”

Sarina
closed her eyes, a muscle in her cheek twitched. Her dress was long, red and
sparkled. Plus was a jeans and tee’s company. He’d never seen Sarina this
dressed up. “You look beautiful.”

Her
eyes snapped open. “Don’t try to sweet talk me.”

He
tugged on his suit coat. “Someone always drops out of these things, there’ll be
a no show or two, sit us anywhere.”

“Kuch
will go mental. This probably breaches your restraint.”

“Kuch
will nod and smile and glad-hand his way around this ballroom as though nothing
bad has ever happened in the world and you know it. He couldn’t care less I’m
here.”

“If all
that was the case, you’d have been invited.”

He
pulled his cuffs, aligned his cufflinks, knew it was nervous fiddling and
couldn’t stop it. He needed some of Zarley’s steadiness. “You’re not throwing
us out.”

“Oh,
but I really, really want to. This is wrong, Reid. It’s offensive.”

He
inclined his head. “The other way to look at it is to say it’s offensive not to
have invited me. There would be no Plus without me and I’m still a majority stockholder.”

“Yes,
yes, all that, a convenient truth hack. Just your style. You were let go. It’s
controversial. You weren’t invited and you shouldn’t be here.”

“But I
am, and I’m willing to make a noise about it.”

She
sighed. “There have been so many times I’ve wanted to knee you in the balls. Think
yourself lucky I don’t have room to move in this dress.”

He put
his hands in his pants pockets. “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“Not
sorry I’m here. I deserve to be here. I’m sorry that makes it tough on you.”

Sarina
waved both hands in front of her face, blinking rapidly. “Wait, that was you apologizing
to me. That’s never happened before.” She dropped her hands and stung him with
a mean dry-eyed expression. “I think I’m going to cry.”

Yeah,
he deserved that too.

“All
right, I don’t see asking you nicely to leave is going to achieve anything so
you get to stay. But I’m officially furious with you.”

“Unofficially?”

She
broke eye contact. “There is no unofficially.”

But
there was, there always was. He’d been wrong to think the four of them weren’t
still friends. He’d wait her out. Three heartbeats at best.

“Zarley’s
dress is incredible.” There it was. Too soon to mention Cara, he’d do that by
email when Sarina wasn’t pissed at him. “Zarley is incredible. What does she
do?”

Where
did you meet would’ve been easier to answer. He’d say a dive bar and it’d be
amusing. “She’s a Business Studies student.” He bit down on his back teeth. He
should say it, he wasn’t uncomfortable about it, but others would be, Sarina
could be. “She supports herself as an exotic dancer.”

“She’s
a stripper?” Sarina’s brows lifted and she shot a disbelieving look Zarley’s
way then she punched him again. Same place, just as hard, made him grunt.

“No,
but she’s an entertainer. A pole dancer.”

“Oh,
wow, no wonder she has that body. Good for her.”

“She’s
an ex-USA Olympic team gymnast. You should see her dance, she’s incredible.”

Sarina
shook her head and her earrings tinkled. “Don’t try to impress me with your
newly discovered human side. I don’t care about your love life.”

“Of
course not.” She wanted every detail.

“She
clearly didn’t think the, you know, was bad taste.”

He
folded his arms, widened his stance and Sarina took a step back. “The you know
you promised to forget.”

She
turned toward the room and looked at him over her shoulder, already in motion. “Oh
hell, that was before you crashed my party,” she said, and left him standing
there.

It took
time to work his way back to Zarley. A lot of people wanted to catch his eye, have
a word, wanted to know what he was doing now. Plus staff, a stockholder or two,
a couple of journalists, and Owen.

“Please
tell me you’re not drunk,” Owen said, drawing him out of the crowd that’d
gathered. He wore a similar suit to Reid’s, but Owen’s wasn’t fresh out of a
tailor’s bag. He had family money and knew his way around social events in a
way Reid had long envied, because Owen wore his wealth lightly, never showing
it off, and working like he had a thousand years of debt to pay off and a national
obligation to be humble. You’d never have known the guy was privately cashed
up.

He
patted Owen on the back. “Nice suit.”

“Gate-crashing.”
The whisker of a smile. “Sarina already asked you to leave.”

“She
did. It’s not her fault I’m here.”

Owen rubbed
a hand over the top of his short crop of blond hair. “God, Reid. Why?”

“It
should never have gone down like it did. This is still my company.”

“No,
it’s not. Shit happens. It happened to you because you were an asshole to work
for and we have a no asshole rule. We made that rule together. You and me, Dev
and Sarina.”

“But I
was an asshole who knew what we needed to do.”

“That’s
not how the no asshole rule works. You don’t get a free pass for being
brilliant and you know it.”

“You
think stockholders think that way? You think they care if I’m an asshole if
they’re making money?”

Owen
made a down gesture with his hand. “Lower your voice. We’ve had this argument a
thousand times.”

“And
you never won it.”

“Except
I did.”

He said
that with no pride, no intention to rile Reid up. Owen wanted to keep the
peace, but Reid was on edge. “No, Kuch won it for you. You don’t have enough
asshole in you to out-asshole me.”

Owen put
his hand over his face to muffle a laugh and that did rile Reid.

“It
took me being an asshole to build Plus, rule or no rule, but suddenly I need to
be a different guy when the company is on top. And you’re going to fuck it up. You’ll
misfire on Ziggurat and then you’ll be out of a job too.”

Owen
looked away. “I don’t want to fight with you. I get what happened was brutal
but you brought it on yourself and if Ziggurat fails I’ll take responsibility
for it.”

Like
the fucking all-round good guy Owen was. Reid shoved his hands back in his
pockets. “It doesn’t have to be like that, bring me back in.”

Owen waved
to someone behind Reid with a quick smile. “What are you talking about?”

“Bring
me back as a consultant, head of projects, let me focus on Ziggurat and you run
things with Sarina and Dev.”

“It
doesn’t work like that.”

“You
can make it work like that.” If he wanted to. He was the boss. He could make
anything happen.

“I
don’t want to fight with you, Reid.” And wasn’t that the whole problem.

“If
you’d have stood up to me harder this would’ve been different.”

Owen
made a noise of exasperation. “Now you’re blaming me. You are unbelievable.” He
turned his face away.

“It
cuts both ways. I’m a monster and the only person on the face of the planet who
could do anything about that wanted to keep the peace instead.”

Still
facing away, Owen said, “You shouldn’t be here.” His cheeks were flushed and
he’d mirrored Reid’s posture, hands shoved in his pants pockets.

Reid
was sweating under his suit. “Maybe it’s you who shouldn’t be here.”

Owen
faced back around and pinned Reid’s eyes with his bright blue ones. “Never
admired anyone more than you, Reid. I fucking hate you’re turning that against
me.”

And
that was the hardest thing of all in this. It wasn’t about the money or the
moral right or who was the biggest asshole. They were partners, equals. Friends,
and now this was between them.

“Is your
date the woman from the bar? What was her name, Lush?”

“Her
name is Zarley.”

“Well
it’s good you’ve got someone in your life. Enjoy it.”

“You
mean while it lasts because you think I’m going to be an asshole to her too.”

Owen
sighed. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I didn’t say that.”

Reid
didn’t want to fight with Owen either. It made his chest go tight like that
time he broke a rib in a building site accident.

Owen
skewered him with a last hard look. “Try not to be any more of an asshole than
comes naturally tonight.” He left without a backward glance.

Reid
knew this wouldn’t be easy. His road, he’d walk it.

Zarley
was no longer where he’d left her but standing by two empty seats at a table for
ten near the front of the room. She waved; he waved back. He had the length of
the place to negotiate before he could get to her and the rest of his plan to
put in action. He should’ve come alone; he’d left her waiting too long. He
hadn’t thought this through and it was an asshole move to leave her to fend for
herself, even with Dev smoothing the way.

He made
for Nerida. As head of marketing, she’d have been responsible for the official
program tonight. She’d obviously been warned he was here.

“Hi,
Reid.” She looked up from her tablet. “Good to see you. Surprising, but good.”

He dug Nerida,
she was a straight talker, no bullshit. “I like the shoes.” She wore a fifties-style
formal dress with a big poufy skirt to her knees with gym boots.

They both
looked at her shoes. She shrugged. “I got no time to be glam tonight.”

“I need
you to put me on the program to speak.”

“Oh. Er.
No.”

“You
can make it happen.”

“I
don’t think so. Kuch and Owen have speeches, and we have a band, and the
sculpture exhibition.” She lifted her eyes to the gallery above them. “It’s not
meant to be a talk-fest. There are staff awards. It wouldn’t be right.”

He
frowned, pretend concern. “You don’t think so?”

She
grunted and rolled her eyes. “Don’t make this hard for me. You aren’t supposed
to be here eating the rubber chicken, let alone on the podium.”

“You
wouldn’t serve rubber chicken.”

“I hope
not,” she grimaced.

“Five
minutes. Let me go first, that way if I do any damage Kuch and Owen can fix it.”

She put
her tablet up over her face and mumbled into it. “You’re going to get me fired.”

He put
a finger to the top edge of it and drew it down. “No chance, it’s me, remember.”