He was right. As much as I wanted to meet little Nathan, that would not happen.
I thought I’d be relieved, but my heart hadn’t stopped twisting my chest since I left the party. I hardly slept for the past two days.
It was so bad I was considering confessing to James, the same guy with a prank channel.
“I wanted to see Nathan,” I mumbled.
My brother lifted his phone, tapping at it a few times.
“Why? A baby is a baby is a baby. They cry, poop, and pee.”
I thinned my lips. “Does Marika know your views on babies?”
His eyes widened, and he ran to the door, closing it quickly.
“Shh. Keep it down. I don’t want people knowing about that.”
I shook my head. “Rock already knows.”
“But not everyone else. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about Marika. I heard you were looking for investors for your computer geek start-up.”
“Social Glass. It’s virtual reality.”
“Then, yes, sign me up. VR gaming is amazing.”
I shook my head. “It won’t have anything to do with gaming. It’s to help special needs kids understand their environment. Something they can work with teachers and therapists to help them navigate the world without the distractions that are currently around them.”
His eyes glazed over, and I knew my brother had stopped listening.
“I’m glad you want to help, but I’m looking for investors. Big investors.”
“Call Hamish. I don’t think they make them bigger than him.”
I tapped the desk with my finger. This office was small, but I didn’t require a big office. My brother was nice enough to lend me the room in his resort while I worked on my new venture.
I had a company out west working on apps to handle business efficiency. Different apps for different parts of a company that could be tailored to the specific company’s needs, ranging from helping HR to improving sales.
But the VR technology was advancing, and I wanted to use it differently and in a way to help people. Just about everyone in VR was looking at it for gaming and other entertainment purposes. A few were even looking to help doctors learn medicine.
But I wanted to push it further. To do more. I needed investments to research and develop a few ideas of mine. If I were back at my company out west, I’d have to focus on current projects and not getting the time I needed to work on VR. I let the CTO run things while I took a break in Virginia to work on my idea and seek investors.
“I thought about reaching out to him, but we do that with everything. He helped you and Rock and was even one of my first investors. Sure, he has all the money in the world, but I don’t want him to think the only reason we have him in our lives is for money.”
I met him at university. I had landed a scholarship to MIT. He had gone to Harvard, which was right down the road. We got to talking at a few parties and struck up a friendship.
I introduced him to Rock, and sometimes I thought Rock liked Hamish Blackwell more than me. Even James had a little man-crush on him.
“I see your point. Maybe we could come up with some ideas over lunch. I hear Laura’s making steamed blue crab.”
My mouth watered.
“I can’t. I have an interview that Rock set up for a new assistant.”
“Reschedule. I know how much you love crab.”
Why did I have to love food so much? I rolled my lips over my teeth and shook my head. “Stop it. Stop tempting me.”
He meandered toward the door and said, “And she’s making chocolate chip cookies for dessert.”
Ugh.
“I hate you.”
“Love you too, Big Brother.” He winked before opening and then closing the door as he left.
My stomach grumbled as I stared at the closed door. I was hungry. Maybe I could run over to the kitchen of The Blue Chip, the in-house restaurant, and grab a cookie. Laura wouldn’t mind.
I got up when I heard a knock at the door, the same moment my phone buzzed with a text message. Glancing at my phone on the desk, the message said my interviewee was here.
No time for a cookie.
“Please, come in,” I called out as I sat back down.
The door opened, and as I glanced up, I stopped pulling my chair into the desk.
It was Julia.
She stared at me, holding something behind her back.
“I’m, uh . . . here for the interview.”
She wanted to be my assistant? That was a bad idea. I couldn’t work next to her every day and not blurt out that I was the father of her child.
I nodded and waved for her to come inside. I wasn’t going to hire her, but I had to perform the interview.
She wore a short sundress and looked adorable. It wasn’t appropriate for me to stare at her legs, but it also wasn’t right that I hadn’t told her I knocked her up back in early December.
What could I say? I was a big jerk.
I lowered my gaze and pretended to be busy typing on my laptop as she made her way into the room.
Once she sat, I looked up to face her. Her cheeks were flushed, her blond hair tousled, and as she licked her lips, I wondered, Did she look like that after I fucked her?
My cock twitched.
She leaned over and handed me a piece of paper.
“What is this?” I grabbed the paper and lifted it in front of my face so I wouldn’t look at her.
The more my eyes focused on her face and those plump lips, the harder my cock became.
“It’s my résumé.”
“The Chicken Digs?” I read one of her previous employer’s name.
“Yes. I didn’t work there very long. It was more of a summer gig to earn a little extra cash.”
“You didn’t seem to work much of anywhere very long.” I lowered the paper.
It was obvious I shouldn’t hire her. I knew it, and based on the frown she had, Julia knew it too.
She forced out a laugh. “What can I say? I have been biding my time to work for the man.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “The man?”
Julia sighed. “Look, I’ll be honest with you. After the way you acted on Saturday, I didn’t want to come here. But Laura insisted.”
Now I was getting irritated. If she didn’t want to work for me, she shouldn’t have come.
“I apologize for my behavior. I was told to be there by Rock for a certain reason, and then when I got there, that reason vanished. He looked at me as if I shouldn’t have come. I felt weird and awkward, and I guess it showed in how I acted.”
“I guess I can understand that.” Julia bit her lower lip.
She had to stop doing that. My irritation was melting into arousal.
“If I’m so bad, then why did you come?”
That was when I heard a cooing noise. She bent over and lifted something that was gray and blue and large. It had a handle and appeared heavy. Turning it, I saw Nathan nestled inside, surrounded by blankets and a small plush rooster.
“He’s why I’m here.”
I couldn’t keep my eyes off that little bundle of cuteness. He had a small patch of black hair, and I swore he looked just like my father.
I had a powerful urge to run around the desk and hold him in my arms. And that thought did something to me.
This wasn’t about my attraction to Julia, or what we did together in a dark closet at a holiday ball. It wasn’t even about her not being qualified for this job.