Alicia stood no chance. Thank goodness.
Chapter 10
Alicia may not have been a runner like her wife, but she could hold her own on a treadmill, even when she was distracted by the binder opened before her and obscuring her stats.
The company gym was not the most private place to work, but Alicia was eager to have a good workout that didn’t include her legs being spread around her wife – who currently lifted weights with one of her bodyguards a few yards away. (Dee? She was taking an early lunch.) Danica was not happy that her wife insisted on bringing her study materials down to the gym, but after she cleared the place of anyone she didn’t approve of, they got down to business.
I can’t remember all these names. Yes, she could. She did it all the time when she was a hostess. Remembering names earned her extra tips. Now she needed more than tips. She needed to impress the remaining shareholders that she and her wife had yet to buy out.
“Ow!” She tripped on the treadmill, but caught herself before falling. Danica dropped her weights with a loudclang!thatshook the whole floor. By the time she raced up to the treadmill, Alicia had already begun to run again. “I’m fine,” she insisted, catching that look of undying concern in her wife’s eyes.I’m not supposed to resent the color of your eyes, dearest wife.“I said I’m fine, Danica.”
She pointed to the binder spread before Alicia’s face. “You’re too distracted.” Alicia didn’t have time to protest with more than a “Hey!” as her wife snatched the binder, closing it beneath her arm. “Focus on your goal. Right now, that’s to run for another ten minutes.”
“What are you?” she snapped. “My personal trainer?”
Danica shrugged. “In a way.” There was little mirth in her voice. So much for her joke. Or was it a joke? Danica was probably dead serious about that. “If you want a real personal trainer, though, I’ll get you one.”
“I can get my own.”
“I know the best ones.”
They were on the verge of a petty argument in the middle of the gym, Danica in her sticky white T-shirt (damn her) and Alicia in an increasingly restricting sports bra.This thing fit me two weeks ago!She was gaining weight. She knew it. Totally gaining weight, and it was starting in her tits.
The fight never fully erupted. Alicia wanted to say that was a good thing, but the reason it was interrupted was because Mr. Clayborn (who had been relatively distant since Alicia’s fire mishap) strutted into the gym wearing his dapper little suit. The more Alicia saw him, the more she thought of how readily he did Russell’s bidding.Like starting fires?Alicia would never know who was paid to do that, like Julia Moreau never got answers about her own accident.
“Ma’am,” Mr. Clayborn said, tapping on Danica’s arm. Alicia’s wife tore her attention away from her and to her frequently absent assistant. “Your father has sent me to tell you and Mrs.Moreau that the shareholders’ meeting has been moved up to eleven.”
“Ele…” Danica was redder than when lifting weights. “That’s in twenty minutes!”
Alicia shut off her treadmill. “What?”
Mr. Clayborn did not look upset to have to report this news.That’s it! You don’t work for my wife anymore!Did Alicia have the authority to decide that? She better damn well have it!
“The shareholders came early and want to hold the meeting now. Your father told them that you and Mrs. Moreau are currently unaccounted for. So, they told me to come find you and let you know that the meeting will start in twenty… eighteen… minutes. ma’am.”
“Don’t you fuckingma’amme, Mr. Clayborn.” Danica grabbed both her and Alicia’s duffel bags. “Or I’ll shoot the messenger right in front of me.”
They raced to the locker room to take the quickest showers and change back into their business wear. Alicia fought with pantyhose and a bra that refused to click shut.
“Coming!” she cried, racing down the hallway with her shoes in hand. Danica held the elevator open.
God. The shareholders.
Moreau Industries was a privately traded company. Traditionally, this meant there weren’t many shareholders, and the ones who existed had a lot at stake in the company. This wasn’t as true with this particular company, though. Its age and constant networking ensured enough small-fry shareholders to make memorizing their names a pain in Alicia’s ass – or, maybe, that was the anxiety cramps flaring up in her stomach. Was her heart fluttering, too?
Alicia only had one job that day. It sounded like a simple enough job, until she considered that most of these bigger shareholders were her father-in-law’s buddies and not likely togive way. Any respect they had for Danica Moreau died when they heard she married a fellow woman – and without her father’s approval. This was only confirmed when they reached the executive conference room on the top floor and saw a sea of discontent permeating the table.
Danica only flinched the slightest.She’s nervous, too? Fuck.Her wife was supposed to be her rock. If the one impenetrable woman in existence was nervous, then how was Alicia supposed to feel? She didn’t usually get nervous at these types of meetings… did she?Shit fuck shit fuck shit!She wanted to throw up.
“Mr. Avery. Mr. Cummings.” Danica slipped right into her charismatic self as she shook hands and gestured to her wife. “Such a pleasure to see you. Have you met my wife, Alicia?”
No, they hadn’t. Or, if they had, they suddenly forgot who she was. Almost like they wanted to forget who she was.Fuck. Again. Nobody in attendance was happy to shake her hand or say hello. They only did it to prevent creating a scene.
Or to smile at the man approaching from behind.
“Ah, the kids made it.” Russell’s breath stabbed Alicia right in the back. “I was afraid you two might be unaccounted for, and I would have to lead the meeting myself.”Bastard.
“As you can see, Father, we made it in record time.” While Danica spoke, Mr. Nigel Clayborn opened the conference door all the way to allow more people in. He accidentally shared a cold look with Alicia.
