Determined: To Love: (Part 2 of the Determined Trilogy) (8 page)

From: Gina Moretti

Subject: Compensation Package

Samantha,

Thank you for coming up to visit me today. As we discussed, I have attached a document with the terms of the project. I hope you will consider the offer. I think we’d make a great team, and the project should be a lot of fun.

Regards,

Gina Moretti

PS: Finn says hi.

I opened the attachment. It was a long document, full of legal speak. I scrolled down, scanning until my eye stopped.

Employee agrees to make themselves available for extensive travel, both foreign and domestic. All travel expenses, including but not limited to housing, meals, incidentals, expenses and travel cost proper will be covered by the employer.

Travel will be extensive, and may constitute up to 90% of the employee’s work time.

I sat back and re-read that portion. Lots of women might have been thrilled by those sentences. Free international travel? I hadn’t ever been east of the Mississippi, let alone a foreign country. But I wasn’t excited. Instead, there was a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I ran a gamut of emotion in a few seconds. First, there was worry: there was no way this would fly with David. Then I got mad at myself for even letting his feelings cloud my judgment. Finally, a split second later I admitted it: I, too, hated it when we were apart. I read on.

I came to the Paragraph G: Compensation. I read it and then re-read it again. There was no way this was right. This was more than three times what I was making at the gallery. Sure, the gallery paid practically peanuts, but Gina was offering more than any of my other recently graduated friends were making. I stared at the screen in a daze.

The soft buzz of my phone brought me back out of the fog. It was Carrie, asking about tonight. We had planned to get drinks. I was more than pleased at the timing. I needed to talk this over with someone other than David.

Still on for tonight?

Yes, definitely. I need some advice.

Everything ok?

Yes… Don’t worry, it can wait.

Ok, meet you at the Kerry House at six?

Sounds good. See you there.

I put my phone down and re-read the contract. It was a great offer. An offer that five months ago I would have jumped at. But now, I wasn’t so sure.

7

Elliot dropped me off outside the Kerry House promptly at six. Inside, I scanned for Carrie and didn’t see her. The Kerry House was a dimly lit Irish bar with a convivial atmosphere and a wide selection of beers on tap. The place was pretty full for six o’clock on a Tuesday. I grabbed the last two seats at the bar. As I pulled up on one, I left my bag and jacket on the other, saving a seat for Carrie. I glanced over at the bartender and he came over. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a kind face.

“What can I get for you, miss?” he said with an Irish accent.

“Jack and ginger, please.”

“Coming right up. And I’ll need to see your ID.”

I was fishing my wallet out of my bag when Carrie came up behind me.

“Sammie! Hey!”

“Hey Carrie!” We reached out and hugged each other. “It’s so good to see you.” It was. Back when we were in school, Carrie and I spent every spare moment together. But now that we both had jobs, it was harder and harder to find time to get together. Carrie and I had met in a sociology class at UC Berkeley. We were majoring in the same subject at the time. Since graduation, she’d taken a job at a clinic in Berkeley.

“I know. This grown-up life thing is rough, right?” she said, smiling.

The bartender returned with my drink, and I flashed him my ID.

“And what can I get for you?” he asked, beaming at Carrie. She always managed to turn heads; her blond, all-American good looks appealing to men both near and far.

“Jack and ginger, please.”

He nodded and turned around to fix Carrie her drink.

“So, how is our favorite billionaire?” she said, grinning at me as I sipped my drink. That girl knew how to get right to the meat of things.

I swallowed and paused for a beat. “He’s… good.”

“Come on Sam, don’t hold out on me. You are nuts for this guy. You’ve barely been dating two months, and you’ve been completely M.I.A. for most of it.”

“I know, I’m sorry. We’re just having fun.” I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. We weren’t just having fun, and I felt terrible downplaying our relationship. We were much more than that, we loved each other. David was everything to me.

“Yeah, right. I don’t believe you.” She looked me right in the eye. Carrie always knew when I was lying, and this time I was grateful.

I exhaled. “You’re right. He’s amazing. We love each other.”

Carrie’s jaw dropped as the bartender deposited her drink on the counter. “Since when?”

“Since, uh, a week ago,” I lied. David and I had said the words in early December, and I had been too nervous to tell her until now. I knew she’d give me a hard time about saying it even after a month.

“Ah! David- fucking- Keith loves you? Sammie, that is so crazy!” she exclaimed.

I leaned back against the back of the stool. She wasn’t mad. What a relief.

We spent a couple of hours catching up. I told her about our trip to Hawaii, carefully omitting the parts about the person impersonating David. She told me about her trip to L.A. over the holidays and her subsequent break up with Derek, the guy she had been seeing before she left.

“So then he was like, well, I think we should stop seeing each other. Can you believe that? Just because I was going to be gone for two weeks! He couldn’t wait.”

“I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Oh well. Good riddance,” I said, sliding my empty glass forward on the bar.

“That’s what I say. Onward and upward. Besides, there’s this cute new guy at work…”

I laughed. Carrie has always been a little boy crazy.

“Oh, hey Carrie. Before I forget—I wanted to ask for your advice on something.”

She put her drink down and swallowed. “What’s up?”

“I sort of got this job offer,” I said, looking over my shoulder.

“Job offer? Does Curtis know?” She looked shocked. She knew how close Curtis and I were.

“No. And you can
not
tell him,” I said emphatically.

She made a little locking motion with her fingers and mouth and looked at me solemnly.

“This woman came into the gallery yesterday and bought some art. Turns out she just moved to the area and needs someone to act as an art buyer for her house.”

“So, you can do that part time on your days off, right?”

“That’s just it, she sent over the contract today, and it requires tons of travel. There’s no way I could work both jobs.”

“How much does it pay?” Leave it to Carrie to cut to the chase.

“Three times what I make now.”

Carrie let out a low whistle. “Dang, Sam. That’s not bad. What did David say?”

I played with the coaster on the bar.

“You haven’t told David yet?”

“I wanted to find out more first. The contract just came in this afternoon.” I looked up at Carrie, who was sitting at attention. “What do you think?”

“It sounds like an amazing opportunity. I think pre-David Sam would jump at it.”

“I know.”

“I think you should talk about it with him. I mean, you would want him to do the same if he was thinking about signing something like that, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Good point. I’ll ask him about it later tonight.”

“You know, all this talk about a contract reminds me of this episode of
Truth and Lies
…” She launched into a story from her favorite true crime show. I tried to listen as she spoke animatedly about a serial killer in Seattle, but my thoughts were still obsessing over the job. I knew I’d feel better once I got this all settled.

~

After several cocktails and a plate of cheese fries, Carrie and I parted ways, and I was whisked back over the glowing Bay Bridge to David’s apartment in the city.

Stepping off the elevator, I was greeted by David, who was dressed down in a Cal t-shirt and pajama pants, barefoot in the foyer. He removed his hands from his pockets as I walked toward him.

“Baby,” he murmured as he took me into his arms.

“I missed you,” I returned. And I had. Desperately. I inhaled deeply and took in his scent as I nuzzled against his soft shirt. His strong arms wrapped protectively around me and for a moment I allowed myself to become lost in his embrace. Nothing else mattered as the concerns of the day slipped out of sight, giving way to a feeling of complete wholeness.

He led me to the dining room, where two dinner plates had been set. I picked at my grilled chicken, still full from the cheese fries, as we shared highlights from our respective days. I was pushing around some green beans when David asked about my trip to Tiburon.

“So,” he said, putting his fork down. “How was your meeting with Gina Moretti?”

“Um, good. She’s really nice, and her house is gorgeous. She wants me to do all the art buying for it. And she wants to spend a lot.”

“No doubt to the detriment of her ex, I surmise?”

“How’d you know?”

“I ran a background check on her.”

Duh. Of course he did. I knew he was a little too cool about letting me go visit her alone.

I looked him in the eye. “And what did you find out Mr. Investigator?”

He met my gaze for a moment before returning to his meal. “Not much. Just a philandering husband. And lots of money.”

“So she is wealthy?” I wasn’t sure why I’d doubted it.

“Yes, very. Most of it’s in offshore accounts, so we can’t be positive of how wealthy, but all the signs are there.”

“Hmm.”

David looked at me and cocked his head. “What is it, Samantha?”

I decided to get it over with. “The contract says the job requires extensive travel.”

David paused and looked at me. “How much travel?”

“Up to ninety percent of the time. Foreign and domestic. It’s in the employment contract.”

He paused for only a beat. “Nonsense. I can’t imagine she holds fast to that request. So much can be done online now. Besides, every contract is negotiable.”

Of course. I hadn’t even thought of that. “Would you look at the contract for me? I mean, you have much more experience with those kinds of things.” I smiled at him, fluttering my eyelashes.

The corners of his mouth turned up, and he sat back in his chair, looking at me. “Hmm. I could. What’s in it for me?”

“That, sir, is negotiable.”

~

David ended up proofing my contract, and I thanked him with an extra special blow-job. It was a fair exchange. Done with our business transactions, we sprawled out on the bed. David turned over to face me, and eyed my naked body with a primal appreciation.

“You are truly exceptional, Samantha.” He cooed.

“You’re not so bad yourself, chief.”

“Chief?”

“Yeah. You’re the boss right? So you’re chief. “

“Chief.” He smiled, looking pleased. He glanced down at the foot of the bed and paused for a few beats. “Mmm. I like that,” he murmured quietly.

David hadn’t always had such a charmed life. His dad had never been in the picture, so he was orphaned when a horrific car accident took his mother and left him in the hospital. He was only five at the time. A nurse working on the floor convinced her husband they needed to adopt him, and they all lived together in Louisiana for about a year before his adoptive father got a position as head surgeon out here at UCSF. His adoptive mother had been told she was never going to be able to have kids, but soon after moving to California, something happened and she brought not just one, but two children into the world. Everything seemed to be going right, when tragedy struck again. When the youngest was just barely a year old, David’s adoptive mother was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. Her death was swift. David’s two younger siblings barely remember their mom, but David was old enough to feel the pain, the hole of loss, for a second time.

David was a regular fixture on the society circuit in San Francisco, due to his generous philanthropic efforts, but the dates were only for the photographers. He avoided serious relationships as a way of preventing the kind of hurt he experienced when he was young, or at least that was my non-expert opinion. The fact that he’d opened up to me as far as he had, was amazing. It made me feel special, to be privy to something so private and sacred.

“I love you, Samantha.”

I looked over at him and wrapped my legs around his naked body. “I love you, too, Chief.” It was my job to keep him safe and loved, and I wanted to spend every moment I could doing just that.

8

The next day, I felt dread building inside me as I made my way to the gallery. I had emailed Gina back last night, after talking with David, so of course I was eager to see if there was a response. But I also felt like I should mention something to Curtis. We were a small team, and if I was going to leave, I didn’t want him to be surprised.

I got in right at ten, and shrugged off my black pea coat, hanging it on the back of my desk chair. I had chosen to wear a loose cashmere sweater and soft black leggings today—a conscious attempt to be kind to myself by wearing what was essentially a big, cozy hug. I booted on the computer, and after a few minutes settled in with a big mug of coffee.

I logged into my personal email account and went straight for the one email I was hoping would be there.

To: Samantha Sharp

From: Gina Moretti

Subject: Re: Compensation Package

Sam,

Happy to amend the contract per your suggestions. I wasn’t sure how much travel you’d need, so I had bumped it up that high. If you think the job can be done by staying locally, then that’s up to you. Attached is the revised version.

Please let me know when you’d be available. I’m eager to get started.

Regards,

Gina

That’s it? She just made the changes? I don’t know why, but I was expecting to haggle. My stomach started to churn. This just moved up the time table. I had hoped to have a few days of back and forth emails, at least. Now I had to say something to Curtis, if I was going to take this job. And was I going to take this job? I was crazy to pass up such an opportunity, right? All my life, I’d been go-go-go. Do well in school to get into UC Berkeley. Do well at Berkeley and graduate at the top of your class. Land a job right out of school. The next step was to grow that career. This was the Sam Sharp everyone, including myself, knew. So why was I now so reluctant to pursue my dreams?