The Billionaire & The Barfly (Coming Home) (14 page)

Getting her mother to agree to transfer Ben
’s school wasn’t quite so easy, but she had done it. No one wants to see their child on the street, even if they were trying to teach them a life lesson. At fifteen, that is too harsh of a lesson.

Ben and Mackenna had their own room
and Aubrey had hers—on the other side of the apartment. There were also rules that she came up with, and that was the hard part. She tried to think of things that were fair and more like a roommate than a mother.

Aubrey called them into the bare living room
, and they all sat on the floor in a circle. She had enough money to get the apartment, just not furnish it. She would in time, and it would be perfect. She just knew it.

“
Okay, I know that we said I didn’t want to be mom, but I think we need some rules. All of us. So let me say what I have to first, and then we can discuss anything you want. Got it?”

Her brother and his girlfriend just nodded their heads, their hands clasped together between them on the floor.

“First off, you will both get a job for after school and weekends. Mackenna, when you are too far along to work and right after the baby, of course that doesn’t apply. Second, you will help with bills, and you will put money away to pay for that baby. Neither of you has any real idea how much this kid is going to need. You will need to have money for all of that, too. Third, you will stay in school. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You will be in the apartment by midnight. My room is mine, your room is yours, but the rest of the apartment is for all of us, so the cleaning of it will be on all of us. Any questions?”

She thought she did a good job with the rules. The only one she thought stepped out of roommate boundaries was the curfew, but they were
fifteen, after all, and she would be worried sick if they didn’t come home.

“
How are we supposed to get jobs?” Mackenna asked with an attitude. Aubrey looked at her with a tilted head and raised eyebrows. Mackenna didn’t back down though. “I mean it, look at us. We are just two kids, and I’m pregnant. No one is hiring, and they really won’t hire me knowing I will be leaving in eight months. And Ben hasn’t ever worked before. You have to have experience to work. You said you got the second bedroom to help us. Not trick us into paying your bills.”

“
Whoa, whoa, whoa, little girl. I am helping you. Do you think that you can do nothing and take care of a baby? How do you know no one is hiring? Have you looked for a job? How do you think people get experience to begin with? They get crappy first jobs that pay little, but at least put some money in their pocket. You will not live here for free. I am not your mother. I will not pay for you. Ben, I suggest you check your girlfriend before I kindly tell her this was a bad idea and to get out.”

Aubrey stood and left the living room. She had never heard Mackenna talk like that before. Where was the girl that was always so respectful to her, the sweet girl who cried on her shoulder?

Her room was a disaster of boxes. The bedrooms were the only rooms that actually had anything in them, and boy was hers stuffed full. The attic in her parents’ house was much larger than the bedroom in the apartment. But it was hers. She had even given Ben and Mackenna the master bedroom because they would need the extra room for a crib and having access to a bathroom in the middle of the night would help when it came to pregnancy stuff. At least, that’s what she had heard.

A soft knock came from behind her
and when she turned, Ben was standing there. She didn’t say anything to him, and she just waited for him to speak. She knew if she waited, and stared at him, long enough he would break.

And he did.

“Please don’t kick her out. She just isn’t used to rules like those. You know, ones that were more than just be a good girl and do what I say ones. Her parents never made her work for anything, no chores, no nothing. They just bought what she wanted. I’ll talk to her and right after school tomorrow I will make sure we both go and get applications. I promise.”

“
I know, but she needs to grow up now. She isn’t in their house anymore, and pretty soon she will be the one buying a kid stuff. And remember, for a first job, you can’t be a job snob. Nothing is beneath you if they are willing to pay you to do it. Scratch that. Nothing legal is beneath you. Flip burgers, clean toilets, whatever. Just do it, do it well, and work hard. You will be fine. It’s not going to be easy, but I know you can do it, Ben.”

Her little brother stepped into her room and wrapped his giant arms around her in a hug.

“Thanks,” he said then left her room.

Aubrey closed the door behind him and fell back on her bed.
In her apartment.
She just hoped that she could manage not to screw it up. She had more than herself to worry about, and her failure would mean her brother and her future niece or nephew would be on the street and that was not okay. She couldn’t fail this time. She wouldn’t.

Chapter Eleven

The line at the coffee shop near her apartment was long. So long that when she left that morning she was going to be early, but her craving for caffeine was going to make her late.

Living just six blocks from her office
, she decided to save on gas and the environment and walk to work. But walking led her by the amazing aroma of roasting coffee and baking goodies. Her nose gave her no choice but to investigate. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the damn noses in the city must have done the same thing. She should have driven.

By the time she walked out with her steaming cup, she had exactly two minutes to walk the five blocks that remained. Aubrey walked as quickly as she could while carrying her shoulder bag and holding her coffee. When the crosswalk at the busiest intersection in the area turned red just before she got to it, she knew that she was in no way making it in on time.

With as much time as she had taken off to find the apartment and move in that week, she knew she was on thin ice. Just as she was checking her watch to see exactly how late she was going to be, a stranger bumped right into her, causing hot coffee to spill down the front of her light pink blouse, both scalding her and ruining her clothing.

“
Fuck!” she yelled, dropping her bag to pull her shirt away from her skin. Aubrey turned, venom in her eyes, ready to pounce on whoever it was.

“
Chill lady, it’s just a shirt,” the stupid kid said.

“
Just a shirt? What about the skin that has been burnt off under it?” she seethed. Just before she could go off on a rather curse-filled tirade, a black town car stopped beside the road. The window rolled down and Henry looked out at them.

“
Need a ride?” he asked, looking back and forth between her and the stranger who was two seconds away from having his head bit off.

“
Yeah,” she said, never taking her icy glare off the man in front of her. “Fuck you,” she said then opened the car door and slid in beside Henry.

“
Are you okay?”

“
I don’t know. It burns like a bitch. I just got that damn coffee, too. I didn’t even get to taste it. I guess that’s what I get for waiting in line for twenty minutes to spend five bucks on a coffee when I make just enough to get by.”

“
Buying yourself something nice once in a while isn’t going to kill your budget. Let me see.” Henry reached forward toward her shirt, taking her completely off guard.

“
What are you doing?” she asked backing up quickly.

“
I wanted to see your stomach, see how bad the burn is.”

“
Oh, right.” Aubrey lifted her shirt just enough to show the red welts that were covering her stomach. The searing pain went all the way to her bra line. Thank god she wore a formed cup bra. That kind of burn would be hell on nipples. “Mind if we go to my place before you take me to work? I need to get a different shirt.”

“
Do you have burn cream? This looks pretty bad,” he said, ghosting his fingers over one welt. Aubrey winced and jerked away. “Sorry! Oh, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“
I don’t have any kind of first aid stuff at the apartment. We just moved in and all. The only rooms that have much are the bedrooms. Ben and I are going shopping this weekend to get other stuff we might need.”

“
Okay, then first we stop at the pharmacy, then I take you home, then to work.”

“
Won’t that make you late?” The amount of care he was putting into helping her was sweet. And she did need the cream.

“
That’s the good part about being the boss, I’m allowed.” The grin he gave her set her heart on fire, beating a million times a minute, causing her to smile right back.

Henry pushed the little intercom button to tell the driver where to go
, and Aubrey watched him with affection. He definitely was someone special. If only she could make sure she was good enough for him.

~*~

By the time Aubrey had gone to the pharmacy, gotten home, changed, and gotten back to work, she was more than a half hour late. There was a note at the front desk asking her to go straight to Mike’s office.

Dread sat heavy in her stomach. This was it. She signed a year lease
, and she was about to lose her job. At least, if she could keep herself from pouncing on Henry’s dick for three months, she could collect a cool million. She had no interest in anyone else’s appendages, which scared her like crazy. She laughed to herself as she entered the elevator. Who had ever heard of such a crazy challenge? Not having sex was the easy part.

As long as she stayed away from anywhere private with Henry.

The office had its usual busy atmosphere about it with assistants running around, phones ringing, copiers working. But something felt different. Perhaps it was her impending unemployed status.

Aubrey looked over to her desk by Jenna
’s office to see the temp packing her things in tears. Jenna looked up at just the right moment and locked eyes with her through the glass wall and glared. She didn’t know what she had done to get on Jenna’s bad side, but she didn’t like it.

Mike
’s door was shut and Bridgette was nowhere to be seen, so she walked up and knocked on his door. Mike opened it quickly with a quizzical look. If Bridgette were anything like her, she would never let anyone knock if it could be helped. She would always buzz Jenna to tell her about a guest. Mike got no buzz.

“
Aubrey, I expected you a while ago.”

“
Sorry, there was a coffee incident that left me with a pretty nasty stain on my shirt and matching one on my stomach. I had to take care of that, but I came in as fast as I could. What did you need to see me about?”

Mike looked around at the people behind her then opened his door further
. “In here.”

“
Okay?” she said as more of a question than a statement. Aubrey walked into his office. Mike usually kept his space as clean as a whistle. Not a paper out of place, not a pen lying randomly on the desk. But right then, it looked like a tornado had hit it. “What the hell happened in here?”

“
I’ve been pouring over contract after contract. Apparently, when Buffet, Hodges, and Keith signed with us ten years ago, there was a clause in there. They can take their games and their business elsewhere after eight years. Somehow, the other companies found out and are all trying to steal them away. I’ve been making sure the other contracts don’t have the same clause. I wish Peterson still worked here, so I could slap him silly for putting it in there!”

The enormity of what was going on wasn
’t lost on her. Those three clients alone made up fifty percent of their business. They produced at least thirty games a year each. And they all sold and sold well. If Viola lost them, it was only a matter of time before Viola itself was lost.

“
What can I do?” Aubrey looked around, itching to start cleaning up for him. She knew that the disarray of his office was adding to his stress level, even if he didn’t realize it. She wasn’t a neat freak, but it was starting to bug her, too.

“
I need you to take this file,” Mike thrust a large manila envelope at least two inches thick at her, “and go through it. Find a new way to market the old games. I think that is going to be our saving grace. While every other company is going to focus on the present and the future, we are going to promise them the same devotion to new games they have always gotten, but we want to start a back log campaign, too. I just need to find a way to make ten year old games interesting again. You come up with out-of-the-box stuff. I need you to do that for me now. Can you?”

“
On games that work on consoles that are outdated and not sold anymore?”

“
I know, sounds crazy, but just try to come up with something.”

“
I will do my best. I promise.”

“
I don’t think I need to tell you how badly we need to keep these contracts, do I?”