“Oh, holy snap.” Zac turns to me. “You need to do a better job engaging with your employees, Jack.” He gives me a smarmy look. “This lady’s been working for you for twenty years, and you didn’t know it? Wow.” He turns to Cora. “I apologize for my brother. Sometimes he thinks about money way more than he thinks about people, and that’s a real shame.” He looks at Katherine again. “Well, I didn’t mean to disturb you, but I just wanted to say it’s really good seeing you again.”
She nods. “We’re just grabbing our pizza, and then we have to go back to work.”
Zac nods and turns back to me. “I guess we’re gonna grab sushi or something, right?”
“Whatever you want,” I say, shrugging. “You have a good day, Katherine and Cora.” I nod and then turn away. Zac follows behind me.
“Damn. She’s fine,” he says under his breath as we make our way to a table. “She didn’t seem too happy to see me, though, huh?”
“You dumped her after cheating on her, why would she?”
“I mean, I was young. I was dumb. I made a mistake,” he says, shrugging. “But holy shit, she is sexy now. I wouldn’t mind her giving me another chance.” He looks at me. “Do you know if she’s seeing anyone? Do you know if she?—”
“Zac, really?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Do you really think she’d be interested in seeing you again? She would need a lobotomy even to think about that.”
“She was young; I was young. Maybe I’ll get her a dozen roses and apologize and whisk her to dinner and then see if she wants to give me a second chance. I mean, I’m single, free, and disengaged.”
“You literally just got out of a relationship.”
“That wasn’t a relationship, bro. That was a situationship. And hey, it’s over. Fuck, I haven’t banged anyone in two weeks.”
I just stare at my brother. “You know you sound pathetic, right?”
He starts laughing as he runs his fingers through his hair. “It’s a good thing I’m so good-looking and rich.”
I shake my head. “If you weren’t my brother?—”
“What? You wouldn’t be my friend?”
“I totally wouldn’t be your friend.”
“It’s a good thing you can’t ‘un-bro’ me then! Or cut off my inheritance,” he laughs. “Only Mom and Dad can do that, and seeing as I’m their favorite, they never will.”
“How on earth are you my brother, Zac? I just do not understand where your brain cells are.”
“Well, it’s a good thing it’s not for you to understand.” We take a seat, and I watch as he pulls out his phone.
“I don’t suppose you have her number, do you?”
“What? Whose number?”
“Pussycats. I want to text her.”
“Why would I have her number?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “I just figured maybe you would. But I guess if you don’t even know employees who’ve been working for you for twenty years, you wouldn’t have her number. Shit, if I had a good-looking woman like her working under me, I don’t know how much work I’d get done.” I stare at him for a couple of seconds. For a few moments, I consider telling him that my lips had been between her legs just a few weeks ago. That I’d made her come on my face. That she’d been more intimate with me than she’d ever been with him. But I decide not to. I don’t want him in my personal business. And I don’t want him to think I’ve crossed any lines, which I don’t think I have, technically, but maybe he would. So instead, I sit back in my chair and study his face.
“Are you really interested in her?” I ask him in a low tone. “Is this someone you want to consider having a relationship with?”
He stares at me for a couple of seconds and shrugs. “I mean, I don’t know how serious I want to get with her. Fuck, I hadn’t seen her in years until today. But do I want to get her back into my apartment, under the sheets? Sure. She’s fucking hot. Did you see those legs?”
“You keep saying she’s hot, and she has good legs, but do you want to get to know who she is as a person? Do you want to figure out what she’s been doing? Are you?—”
He stares at me. “What the fuck, Jack? Are you high or something?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
