Wednesday morning Presley was sitting at a cute little table for two overlooking the beach, listening to the surf pound the shore and the laughs of people enjoying the sunshine. Nice was turning out to be everything she dreamed it would be and more. When her editor told her to book time off and recharge herself after back-to-back novels, she’d initially balked but then when the countdown to her flight to France and this beautiful resort in Nice drew to a close, her excitement ramped up. Now, she was grateful her friends and family pushed her to follow the editor’s direction.
She picked at a piece of a croissant and sipped her coffee, content in the first relaxing day she’d spent in months. Her book release was set. The initial pre-ordered copies would be available online for ordering on Friday with the new cover. The mass orders which would go to the bookstores would start being filled after. Her hopes for the book were for it to surpass the others she’d written.
Her phone rang on the small table, and she frowned. It was only after seven in Nice, so it was after ten pm back home. Since leaving at two in the morning on Tuesday, and losing nine hours, she’d spent most of her first day in France sleeping off the jet lag. Today however she was up bright and early, but she wasn’t expecting any phone calls at all today.
When she didn’t recognize the number back home, she hesitated to answer it. “Hello?”
“You blocked my number you, lying, conniving, witch!”
She groaned internally. She shouldn’t have answered.
“Hi Cruz. What can I do for you?”
“We were supposed to meet for lunch today. I had a PR team ready to capture us meeting for lunch. You stood me up.”
“Actually, I never agreed to lunch yesterday.”
“You said Tuesday.”
“I didn’t specify which Tuesday. You presumed yesterday but I never gave you a date or time. You sent me a text message, but I didn’t respond to your request.”
“What do you mean yesterday? It was today. Today! Not Monday. Tuesday.”
“Tuesday is yesterday where I am.”
“Where you are?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Vacation.”
She could almost hear the blood rushing through his gargantuan neck to his brain ready to explode.
“When are you due back?”
“July.”
“It’s only the beginning of June!” he cursed furiously. “You’re gone for a month!”
“Yes. My parents mentioned the vacation at brunch Sunday.”
“I’m going to strangle you.”
“Good luck with strangling me over the phone lines, dork. I’m not even in the country.”
“You need to get your ass home now. We made a deal.”
“Which I intend fully on complying with. I’ll even sign the four-date contract, no balls, but it will have to start when I get back,” she paused for added dramatic effect, “in July.”
“This is not what we agreed upon.”
“When did I agree I would start before I went away? My vacation has been booked six months. I never like to be around when the book gets released. It makes me nervous.”
She could hear him huffing.
“Where are you?”
“Vacation. At a nice resort.” She liked the play on words there and grinned to herself. Nice versus nice.
“I don’t think you understand the ramifications of your bullshit.”
“I don’t think you understand how much I don’t care. You do know the pranks you, Odin and Anderson have played on me over the years caused me to require extensive psychotherapy, right? Damn Cruz, you humiliated me at every turn. You ruined my first kiss. You ruined me getting my driver’s license. You ruined prom. You ruined my graduation ceremony. God, Cruz, you, and Odin bursting into my dorm room on Halloween with the intent to cover me in black paint with the orange confetti caused me to fall off Noah mid-stroke and I broke his dick! Do you get that? I broke his penis, and it took us four months before we were able to have sex again. Not to mention the tear I suffered with made peeing hurt like a bitch for weeks. We were eighteen and terrified to death of having sex again in case of the pain.”
He snickered, “it broke his dick?”
“It’s not funny! You ruined so many things of my life.”
“You wrecked my bike.”
“Not even remotely comparable.” She sniffed angrily. “Look. I woke up this morning content and feeling peaceful. You’re ruining it for me.”
“It’s already morning where you are?”
“Yes. I’m at a beach resort. The sun is up. Families are already at the water. I’m enjoying breakfast and watching the people as they walk by.”
“It’s a month-long vacation?”
“Yes.”
“Cut it in half.”
“I will not. Do you know how much I paid for this vacation?”
“Fifty million?”
“Okay, you need to get over the fifty-million thing. I stand by my statement you should have been making business deals in the boardroom and not with your cock. If you really needed to bed the daughter of the person you wanted to work with in order to get the deal, you’re a shitty businessman.”
“I am not a shitty businessman.”
“It sure sounds like it.”
He sighed, “listen. I need your help. Please. Can you come back? Reschedule your vacation and then take it from July to August.”
“My vacation cost me fifteen grand. I’m not a billionaire like you, Cruz. I can’t simply throw away a big vacation because you want me to come hold your hand a few times. Be a big boy and figure it out on your own.”
“You accused me of abuse, Presley. Someone recorded it. You accused me of using drugs. Someone recorded it. You accused me of forcing you to have an abortion and then leaving you there alone. Someone recorded it. I work in the health service industry. Do you know the impact this has on my business? I have spent the last ten years, working my ass off to be where I am. The last six years I have put my blood, sweat and tears into it. I haven’t taken a vacation in over five years, and you are basking on a beach while my entire reputation is in the shitter. I need you to fix this. Please.”
She hated herself for the guilt she was feeling at his words.
“Ladybird,” he whined her name. “Come on.”
“Why do you hate me?” she asked suddenly. “Don’t give me the shit about being Odin’s best friend. Why do you hate me specifically? You were old enough to make up your own mind by the time you were thirteen or fourteen. Why did you keep doing this until you were in your mid-twenties? Why?”
“I don’t know.” He said quietly.
“You hated me for no reason.”
“You went too far this time, Presley.”
“You brought it on yourself. You made me your enemy. You can’t even explain why you did it. I know why I dislike you, Cruz. You ruined so many of my firsts and humiliated me at every turn. It would take a miracle the likes the world has never seen for me to forgive you for all the pain you caused me. You caused me all this grief, all this trauma, all this pain and for a reason you cannot even define other than my brother asked you to do it.” She looked out to the crystalline waters and sighed, “your date was ruined because of me and my prank Cruz but I’m not taking responsibility for you losing the business deal you were trying to secure via a woman’s vagina. As for your reputation, if it can’t handle just over four weeks of quiet, then it’s on you. Not me.”
“Look. I don’t even pretend to understand your mind, but you were the one who accused me of abuse.”
“Because you abused me!” She screeched the words out and then noted people at a nearby table turning to look at her and she dropped her head into her hand. “What you and Odin and Anderson did to me was abuse, Cruz. God why can’t you see it?”
“You think our pranks were abuse?”
“I don’t think it, Cruz. I believe it to the bottom of my soul. My mother believes it. My father believes it. My therapist, my best friends, hell a stranger on the street would believe it.”
“Your father?”
“He tolerates you Cruz because your father has been one of his close friends for decades and you were Odin’s best friend but the things you did to me, he doesn’t like you very much as a person. You can ask him yourself in you don’t believe me.”
“Honestly, Presley, most of the shit we did was to make Odin laugh, not to make you cry. You know he was suicidal half the time, talking about killing himself because your father liked you better than him.”
“What a load of bullshit,” she propped her head on her palm. “You put spiders in my bed when I was kid to keep Odin from offing himself?”
“Yes or least distracting him from finishing out what he threatened to do. Messing with you was a sure way to get him to refocus his thoughts. Look, I never thought it was abuse.”
“Well, you need to revaluate your behavior. You were a twenty-five-year-old man, not a child, a man, when you broke into my college dorm. Which part do you not comprehend? You are seven years older than me. I was a little girl, and you were torturing me with ridicule, mean pranks and cruel bullying. I hated you. I hated you so much.”
“I’m sorry, Presley.”
“You’re only apologizing because you want something from me.”
“No. I do want something from you but I’m apologizing because it’s the right thing to do. Spending the time away from Odin made me grow up, Presley. I’m not the person I used to be. Please. Hear me out.”
“I’m on vacation, Cruz. I’ll be back in July. If you want to do the four dates when I’m back, I will do as I agreed to do. Until then, you’ll have to deal with your fucked up reputation, one I believe from the bottom of my soul you’ve earned, all on your own.”
“Ladybird.”
“Bye Cruz.”
Ending the call, she flung the phone to the table and stared out over the beach wondering how one ten-minute phone call could ruin everything in front of her so easily.
One more thing the big jerk ruined for her.
With a frustrated sigh, she collected her belongings and went back to her room.
He was exhausted. His head was pounding. He’d been eating antacids like candies since he’d realized Presley skipped town on him. His PR team were losing their minds because another story popped up this morning with a trending tweet questioning his use of steroids. His legal advisors wanted to sue her, but his father and her father were old friends and not to mention she was Odin’s younger sister. Legal action was not going to happen.He needed her to get back and fix this shit. He sent her another text asking if she would at the very least release a joint statement. He already knew it was going to bounce back as blocked. He’d been blocked since Tuesday and when he’d texted her from his assistant’s cell, she’d blocked it as well. She’d been gone four days. It was Friday now, and she was in the wind.Cruz needed caffeine and he left his office in search of something stronger than what his admin assistant made for him out of the instant coffee machine.“Sir?”“You brought me a coffee yes
Sitting on her lounger at the beach, Presley was ready to scream with frustration. The blowhard man who’d followed her from breakfast down to the beach wouldn’t give it up.His name was Algernon. He wore a tiny banana hammock under his protruding gut. He was bald and bragged how he didn’t have hair anywhere on his body at all, wiggling his eyebrows in what Presley was certain he meant to be suggestive. The thought was confirmed when he said no hair meant she wouldn’t be picking it out from her teeth when they became closer during the vacation.She’d tried to ignore him, putting her earbuds in and picking up a book she’d brought to read but now he boldly removed the earbud from her ear and was asking her if she wanted to get out of the heat and get into the water with him.“We could swim deep, and I could get very deep.”A woman traveling alone needed to be careful. Setting a man off was dangerous, especially one who was staying directly across the hall from her. She gave a benign smil
Coming out of the water, she felt Cruz’s eyes on her and she wanted to smack him. Why wouldn’t he go away? He was sitting on the end of her lounge chair, his hands clasped loosely between his knees watching her intently.Grabbing her towel, she patted herself dry and then wrapped up in her beach cover up. Without saying a word to him she began packing up her belongings.“Ladybird, we need to talk.”She maintained her silence and when all of her things were packed into her oversized beach bag and her slides were slipped onto her feet she began walking the short distance back to the hotel. He walked behind her, silently, as if waiting for her to blow up.In the elevator she was contemplating all the ways she was going to murder him. Narnurs the intergalactic cop was going to get a sequel. He and his two dicks were going to die a tragic death and the female love interest in the story was going to find a man with three penises and maybe a vagina too. Maybe the funeral process on Narnurs’
Presley considered never in a million years did she ever consider her vacation was going to be ruined by Cruz Hawley. She’d made her escape free and clear, and her father sold her out.She was sitting in small swinging chair in the garden area of the resort licking her wounds and preparing to call her father. After throwing the coffee mug which was the closest thing to her fingers at Cruz’s face, he’d barely ducked away from it, and it bounced off his chest to shatter at his feet. A large shard impaled the top of his foot and gave her the escape she needed.She felt a miniscule amount of regret for making him bleed but she remembered the time he broke her arm as a kid and pushed it away. Now she was kicking her toe off the rocks of the quiet area and trying to get her thoughts in order.She called her father’s cell phone and waited for him to pick it up. After the third ring he answered, and his voice told her he was dreading whatever it was she was going to say.“Hi P.”“How could yo
“Hey Mom.”“Did you tell your father he’s not your father anymore?”“Did he tell you he called me a horrible human being for using Cruz Hawley’s likeness on my book?”“No.” the tone of her mother’s voice told her that her father was in shit when she got hold of him.“He scolded me saying I went too far. Cruz has bullied and abused me my entire life. I did the thing the at the restaurant. He demanded I make restitution in the way of dating him on four dates. I negotiated him agreeing to do the cover. I showed him the photo I was going to use, Mom. He approved it. I agreed to four dates to fix his image with the company because of the restaurant thing and I got to use his photo. He agreed. He signed off. It’s not my fault he chose not to read up at all on what my book was, who my audience is or to even ask proper questions.”“You make a compelling argument,” her mother laughed.“Dad gave him my itinerary, Mom. Dad actually gave him my full itinerary and the name I’m traveling under. Cru
Presley Brookmore wasn’t one to let an opportunity pass her by. All of her life her older brother Odin and his two best friends Cruz Hawley and Anderson Oak did everything they could to terrorize her. Everything from jumping on her sandcastles when she was a little girl to making fun of her when she got her braces at ten to interrupting her first kiss when was thirteen.It was the first kiss which was on her mind now. While Odin and Anderson were always just on the right side of going too far, it was Cruz who didn’t just straddle the line, he hopped over it with vengeance. Cruz always took their games too far and if she wasn’t crying, he wasn’t laughing, and man did that boy love to laugh.She cocked her head to the side as she and her two friends, Sloane, Anderson’s little sister, and Halima were sitting in a restaurant. One might argue it purely happenstance which put them in the same restaurant as Cruz Hawley, but Presley was certain it was fate.“I haven’t seen him in like five, s
“I’m going to kill your fucking sister,” Cruz hissed into the phone he held to his ear.Odin’s voice was quiet for a half beat before he responded, “half-sister and what the fuck did she do?”“Assaulted me in a fucking restaurant, accused me of abandoning her at an abortion clinic, beating her up, breaking her arm which all ultimately scared my fucking date off. This was a fifty-million-dollar deal with my date’s father and your bitch of a sister fucked it up!” He kicked the tire of his car and growled furiously wanting to punch the fuck out of something. Considering the way many of the patrons were watching, he didn’t dare.“Well, you did break her arm,” Odin chuckled.“It was an accident.”“My Dad still thinks you were trying to kill her. I mean I don’t like the brat but bumping her off seemed excessive even to me.”“Would you fucking focus?” he nearly screamed at his childhood best friend. He and Odin were not as close as they once were. He’d moved away more than seven years ago an
Her footsteps faltered as she entered her parent’s home and noted the quartet seated on the patio. She caught her mother’s eye who was in the kitchen with the chef and housekeeper and pressed her lips together.“I didn’t know Odin was coming to brunch today or he was bringing guests.”“Me either and it’s been fucking delightful,” her mother guzzled a mimosa and then started making a second one while the housekeeper Mary huffed her agreement of the woman’s sarcastic snarl. “Anderson is drunk already I think, and Cruz hasn’t said two syllables however your father and Odin were bickering about money. I came in here to try to get a good buzz before I go back out there. Join me?”She giggled at her mom’s words and then accepted the offered drink, “bottoms up.” She took a long drink and then smacked her lips together, “delicious.”“Thanks. I told your father if I needed to put up with the bullshit out there, I was opening the champagne he was saving for our anniversary.”“Fair deal.”They c
“Hey Mom.”“Did you tell your father he’s not your father anymore?”“Did he tell you he called me a horrible human being for using Cruz Hawley’s likeness on my book?”“No.” the tone of her mother’s voice told her that her father was in shit when she got hold of him.“He scolded me saying I went too far. Cruz has bullied and abused me my entire life. I did the thing the at the restaurant. He demanded I make restitution in the way of dating him on four dates. I negotiated him agreeing to do the cover. I showed him the photo I was going to use, Mom. He approved it. I agreed to four dates to fix his image with the company because of the restaurant thing and I got to use his photo. He agreed. He signed off. It’s not my fault he chose not to read up at all on what my book was, who my audience is or to even ask proper questions.”“You make a compelling argument,” her mother laughed.“Dad gave him my itinerary, Mom. Dad actually gave him my full itinerary and the name I’m traveling under. Cru
Presley considered never in a million years did she ever consider her vacation was going to be ruined by Cruz Hawley. She’d made her escape free and clear, and her father sold her out.She was sitting in small swinging chair in the garden area of the resort licking her wounds and preparing to call her father. After throwing the coffee mug which was the closest thing to her fingers at Cruz’s face, he’d barely ducked away from it, and it bounced off his chest to shatter at his feet. A large shard impaled the top of his foot and gave her the escape she needed.She felt a miniscule amount of regret for making him bleed but she remembered the time he broke her arm as a kid and pushed it away. Now she was kicking her toe off the rocks of the quiet area and trying to get her thoughts in order.She called her father’s cell phone and waited for him to pick it up. After the third ring he answered, and his voice told her he was dreading whatever it was she was going to say.“Hi P.”“How could yo
Coming out of the water, she felt Cruz’s eyes on her and she wanted to smack him. Why wouldn’t he go away? He was sitting on the end of her lounge chair, his hands clasped loosely between his knees watching her intently.Grabbing her towel, she patted herself dry and then wrapped up in her beach cover up. Without saying a word to him she began packing up her belongings.“Ladybird, we need to talk.”She maintained her silence and when all of her things were packed into her oversized beach bag and her slides were slipped onto her feet she began walking the short distance back to the hotel. He walked behind her, silently, as if waiting for her to blow up.In the elevator she was contemplating all the ways she was going to murder him. Narnurs the intergalactic cop was going to get a sequel. He and his two dicks were going to die a tragic death and the female love interest in the story was going to find a man with three penises and maybe a vagina too. Maybe the funeral process on Narnurs’
Sitting on her lounger at the beach, Presley was ready to scream with frustration. The blowhard man who’d followed her from breakfast down to the beach wouldn’t give it up.His name was Algernon. He wore a tiny banana hammock under his protruding gut. He was bald and bragged how he didn’t have hair anywhere on his body at all, wiggling his eyebrows in what Presley was certain he meant to be suggestive. The thought was confirmed when he said no hair meant she wouldn’t be picking it out from her teeth when they became closer during the vacation.She’d tried to ignore him, putting her earbuds in and picking up a book she’d brought to read but now he boldly removed the earbud from her ear and was asking her if she wanted to get out of the heat and get into the water with him.“We could swim deep, and I could get very deep.”A woman traveling alone needed to be careful. Setting a man off was dangerous, especially one who was staying directly across the hall from her. She gave a benign smil
He was exhausted. His head was pounding. He’d been eating antacids like candies since he’d realized Presley skipped town on him. His PR team were losing their minds because another story popped up this morning with a trending tweet questioning his use of steroids. His legal advisors wanted to sue her, but his father and her father were old friends and not to mention she was Odin’s younger sister. Legal action was not going to happen.He needed her to get back and fix this shit. He sent her another text asking if she would at the very least release a joint statement. He already knew it was going to bounce back as blocked. He’d been blocked since Tuesday and when he’d texted her from his assistant’s cell, she’d blocked it as well. She’d been gone four days. It was Friday now, and she was in the wind.Cruz needed caffeine and he left his office in search of something stronger than what his admin assistant made for him out of the instant coffee machine.“Sir?”“You brought me a coffee yes
Wednesday morning Presley was sitting at a cute little table for two overlooking the beach, listening to the surf pound the shore and the laughs of people enjoying the sunshine. Nice was turning out to be everything she dreamed it would be and more. When her editor told her to book time off and recharge herself after back-to-back novels, she’d initially balked but then when the countdown to her flight to France and this beautiful resort in Nice drew to a close, her excitement ramped up. Now, she was grateful her friends and family pushed her to follow the editor’s direction.She picked at a piece of a croissant and sipped her coffee, content in the first relaxing day she’d spent in months. Her book release was set. The initial pre-ordered copies would be available online for ordering on Friday with the new cover. The mass orders which would go to the bookstores would start being filled after. Her hopes for the book were for it to surpass the others she’d written.Her phone rang on the
“I came with Anderson, can you give me a lift?” Cruz asked her frustratedly as they got outside.“I’m not going your way.”“You didn’t even ask where I’m going. When we first got here your mom said you bought a condo downtown on Cordova. I moved into my place in Coal Harbor a few weeks back. The bit of renos I needed done are complete now. You said you were going home to do laundry, so I presume we’re heading in the same direction.”“You said you needed to leave because your tech guy said there was an emergency.”“I need my laptop which is back at my place. I can go from there once I get home. Come on. Save me from having to call a rideshare. Please?”She’d never heard the word from his lips before and decided it would be torture for him to squish his big frame into her tiny car.“Fine.” She clicked her key fob and almost laughed as he was forced to crunch himself into the small sedan. She didn’t drive very often, and the car spent more time in the parking bay assigned to her in the c
“What was that for?”“So, she knows I didn’t forge it.”“You punched me in the throat. It hurt like a bitch but nothing like the way my balls need an ice pack.”“You cornered me and lifted me off the floor. I was defending myself.”“I want you to kiss it better.”“As if.”He pointed to the front of his neck just below the Adam’s apple where a red mark still lingered. “This. Kiss it better.”“Not in a million years.”“Kiss it better or I’m going out there to your father and telling him how you crashed my date last week.”“Go ahead and I’ll tell him how when I was sixteen and you were twenty-three you, Odin and Anderson came to the coffee bar where I was working and made me cry by humiliating me in front of the customers in the store for not doing your coffee right even though it was perfect.”“You were a shitty barista, and I paid nine bucks for the coffee you fucked up.”“I didn’t fuck it up. You caused a scene to humiliate me.”“Kiss me better or I’m going out there.”“Why?”“Because
She was almost back to the patio, her heart pounding and her head reeling with what occurred when her cell phone rang in her back pocket. She slipped to the side hall.“Hello?”“Hey, it’s me. Consuela.”Her editor. The best and most wonderful person on the planet next to Sloane and Halima as far as she was concerned. “Hey you. What can I do for you?”“Did you get a signed authorization for the photo you used for your cover?”She halted her footsteps, “um. No. I have his verbal. It’s recorded.”Consuela sighed, “legal is saying it’s not good enough. Especially since of the way the photo is being altered. They drafted a specific document. I’m going to email it to you, but you need to get this model’s signature in order to release the book. We delayed the release five days so you could get this change in your cover, and I admit I like it better, but we need the proper authorization.”“Why can’t we use the verbal?”“Because you and I both know it was coerced and it didn’t specifically out