I get that ball rolling as soon as I hang up. In the meantime, I devise a plan on how to get Vivi to go out with me. She's presented a challenge I can't seem to get off my mind.
It's five after twelve when I grab Lynn to take her to lunch. I let her choose the place and she picks Nikki's. It's close and the food is good, so we walk, though I initially object to that since it's so cold.
"You need the fresh air," she says.
"About that. Did you tell Granddad that I needed to brush my teeth?" I elbow her in the side.
"Absolutely not. The entire building is aware of it."
"That bad, huh?"
"Yeah. Sorry. Honestly, Prescott, if you were the average Joe, no woman would look twice at you."
No wonder Vivi didn't want to go out with me. I probably smell like I cohabitate with Jack Daniel's.
"Message received."
"I'm worried about you. Do you think … "
"What?"
She crams her hands in her pockets and says, "You know … that you may have a drinking problem."
My brows leap toward the sky. "No. Honestly, Lynn, I can stop anytime."
With a determined look, she says, "Prove it. Stop coming to work stinking like bourbon. If you don't, you're going to need rehab one day."
"I know. I promise to lay off. Here's the thing. I get to thinking about him and before I know it, I'm grabbing a drink."
"Well, grab something else because he's not worth your time. If you don't slow down, Prescott, I might consider resigning."
"What? You'd quit?"
"Yes, I would. I don't want to stand by and watch you ruin your life over some worthless piece of shit."
"So what you're saying is if I don't straighten up, you'll resign."
"Pretty much. I'll give you a pass here and there, but I'm tired of telling you to brush your teeth every morning. I'm not your mom and you're not five. It's pretty simple. Start behaving and you get to keep me as your admin."
I stop walking. "Oh, come on, Lynn. You can't possibly mean that. Where else can you work that would give you the salary, benefits, extra perks, and hours that you have with me? Besides, I spoil the shit out of you."
"True, but I cover for your drinking way too much lately, and I'm not willing to lie for you anymore." She grabs my arm and we walk again.
By now, we're almost at the restaurant and I have to give some thought to this. "Can we finish this inside?"
"Sure."
We walk through the door and a beautiful sight is moving toward us. It's Vivi, but she's with another man. As she closes in on us, the sun streams through the door, glinting off her honeyed hair. It takes all my self-restraint not to grab her, plow my hands into that damn hair of hers, and taste every bit of her plump mouth.
"Prescott," she calls out to my astonishment and satisfaction. After our earlier meeting, I wasn't sure she'd acknowledge me at all.
"Vivi, this is a nice surprise." I'm even more shocked when she grabs and hugs me. The scent of flowers invades my nostrils, and I don't want to stop inhaling. I return her embrace and am disappointed when it ends. Her reaction to me is a complete one-eighty from this morning, and I can't help but question it. But I'm not going to say something to screw it up either.
Then she introduces the guy she's with as her boss-some dude named Joe. He stumbles over himself to shake my hand like I'm some sort of celebrity. He's a goofy shit with wavy, greased-back hair and way too much cologne.
"Nice to meet you. This is my executive admin, Lynn Cochran. Lynn, this is Vivienne Renard. She and I went to Crestview Academy together. We're old friends."
"Ah, it's so great to meet you. You'll have to tell me some stories about him in his younger days," Lynn says.
"Oh, I'm not sure you want to know," Vivi says, winking.
"Now that's where you're wrong. I can imagine how he worked his way around the ladies."
"Let me say this. He had most of them wrapped around his homework binder, not to mention his letter jacket," Vivi says.
Interesting comment about the homework binder.
"All right, you two, stop telling stories about me. I'm standing right here."
They share a laugh and then Vivi says, "Well, we better be going. Back to work, you know. Don't want my boss to get the wrong impression." She lets out a squeaky laugh.
"Hey, Vivi, give me a call soon, will you?"
"Sure. Nice meeting you, Lynn."
But I get the impression she has no intention of ever calling.
Her boss, what's his name, nearly trips over his feet in his exuberance to say goodbye.
As we're being seated, Lynn says, "Wow. Were those the kind of girls you went to high school with? She's gorgeous."
"Yeah, isn't she, though?" Vivi is stunning. Why hadn't I ever noticed that about her back in the day? Her large silvery gray eyes and that luscious mouth of hers should've told me something, even back then. I was probably too busy being distracted by other girls eager to get their greedy hands on my dick. Vivi wasn't one of them. Too bad. We could've had some fun.
"But that boss of hers is creepy. He looked like he wanted to eat her."
"I hadn't noticed." I was too busy wanting to eat her up myself. Like tongue her pussy until she is dripping wet and screaming my name, and then suck her tits, turning her nipples into rock hard diamonds. I'd give anything to see her stretched out naked on my bed right now …
" … that's what."
"What did you say?"
"Are you even listening to me?"
"Um, yeah." I rub the back of my neck. My dick is painfully stiff from my filthy thoughts. I'm going to have to adjust myself in a minute. My balls feel like they're on fire. "Hey, you're not going to leave me, are you?"
"If you don't start acting right, I will." She stares me down with laser point precision.
The waiter takes our order and brings our beverages.
"Fuck me, Lynn."
"Thanks, but I'll pass. You're a bit young for my taste and besides, I'm happily married. The bottom line is you're a mess, Prescott. If you don't do something about it and turn your life around, you'll end up worse off than that asshole father of yours."
My cheeks rattle as I blow out a breath. "Okay. Message received. Just promise me you won't run off and leave me with some silly temp who doesn't know her ass from a hole in the ground. Please?"
"No promises until you get things under control. That sexy smile of yours might have worked on me thirty years ago, but now you're like a son to me and I'm seriously worried about you. You don't have a spare ounce of fat on you, you work like a group of demons are chasing you, and every day you smell like the bottom of the barrel you swam in the night before. Clean it up-and fast." Her stern, no nonsense voice lets me know this is not a test.
"It's a deal." I hold out my hand for her to shake. And she does. I hope like fuck I can keep the damn promise. If I lose Lynn, my ass is fucking toast, without the butter and jelly.
Chapter 3
Vivi
Over two weeks pass and I don't call Prescott. Weirdly enough, I'm a bit surprised he never contacts me. The way he acted that day in the coffee shop and then when he saw me at lunch, I was pretty confident he'd be back. Even Vince says he usually shows up at least twice a week for coffee. Maybe he decided I'm not up to his usual cream of the crop female standard. He always did go after the finest, like all those rich girls at Crestview. Not that I would've ever agreed to go out with him, but I'd be a big fat liar if I said it hadn't boosted my ego a bit.
This job is so mundane that thinking about Prescott is a nice distraction. The new software program is running, all the glitches are fixed, and I'm wrapping up my work at this particular shop. Vince and I decide to celebrate that night by grabbing a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant. It's a pub he enjoys because it's on the cheap side and they serve great beers.
"They even have daily specials that don't rob you. A lot of NYU students hang out there sometimes."
"Cool, I'm in. Let's go right after we close, if that's okay with you."
The coffee shop closes at seven, although Joe is debating on expanding the hours to ten. He's looking into it, now that the new programming is near completion. Just the other day he mentioned he'd need the extra income to help cover the added costs of it and me.
Vince is talking, but I'm not paying attention. "Hey, you. Did you hear me?"
"Sorry. What did you say?"
"Yeah, I was talking about how starved I am and about Joe and his idea about staying open until ten. I'm not sure about that. He likes us to work these long shifts, but as a part-time student, I couldn't handle staying here that late."
"Hmm. I guess that won't work for a lot of the employees. But we'll see," I absent-mindedly answer.