American Asshole Read online

  Damn, I didn’t know what to do.

  Maybe send him a text? Or would a call be better? He appeared at times to be so easy going and down to earth, I could already tell it might be hard to keep myself in the right frame of mind around him. It was his combination of confidence and good looks. His intelligence and his humor. It set me off my game.

  He was my boss and that was that. The sooner I got that through my head, the better.

  Like it or not, I was no longer my own boss and the company I worked for belonged to someone else. I was in the process of closing down Cross My Heart and even though it would take time to finalize everything, it felt final to me. The truth of the matter was, I wasn’t just in a whole new ballgame, I was playing a different sport altogether.

  The best thing I could do was make sure I not only read the rules and knew what they were, but also followed them.

  I’d told Tenor I’d be at work tomorrow and that was what was going to happen. No phone call. No text. And no more thinking of him as Tenor. As far as I was concerned, he was Mr. Butler.

  I arrived at Bachelor International early the next morning. So early, in fact, I expected to be the first one there. I was shocked, to say the least, when I walked in and saw, Sara, the admin already behind her desk. Makeup completely done. Hair just right. And too free and easy with the smile. God save us all from morning people. At least until the majority of us have had a cup of coffee.

  She stood up. “Do you need some help?” Without waiting for me to reply, she took the boxes out of my hand. “To your office?”

  “Yes, thank you.” I couldn’t help but look for Tenor as we walked down the hallway. But the entire office was silent.

  Sara put the boxes on the spot I indicated, but appeared to be in no hurry to return to her desk. “Can I help with anything else?”

  “No. I’ve got the rest of it. Thank you so much for carrying the boxes to my office. If you hadn’t been here, I’d have probably dropped at least one of them on my toe.” I peeked outside and into the empty hall. “What time do people usually get here?”

  “Most arrive before nine, but Mr. Butler is almost always here by seven-thirty.”

  In fifteen minutes, then. Maybe he’d be happier today.

  He would stop by my office, wouldn’t he? Being polite and all? Swing by to say hello and welcome to his newest employee?

  How great would it be if I already had my area set up?

  So great, I decided. I grinned and went to work.

  An hour later, I’d met six other employees and most were shocked to see me. Obviously, Tenor hadn’t told everyone I would be working for him and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. At first, I was a bit hurt. After all, I had been a direct competitor and now I was one of his employees. Wouldn’t that naturally be something you’d bring up?

  “You know that badass matcher, Mia? She works here now.”

  But then, maybe it made sense that he hadn’t told everyone. Because they’d want to know why and how would he answer?

  “Her mom owed me a quarter of a million dollars.”

  Yeah, on second thought, it was a good thing he hadn’t told everyone.

  But even if that had been the case, I couldn’t come up with any reasons why he wouldn’t stop by or at least pop his head in my office to say hello. I tried to convince myself that he hadn’t made it to the office yet. Traffic was bad or perhaps he was sick. But no, I heard his voice as he walked down the hall. He was in the office today; he just didn’t want to talk to me.

  And why should he? I asked myself as the truth hit me. He’d gotten exactly what he wanted. I was working for him and my agency had closed down. Why bother being nice to me anymore? I could have kicked myself for letting my guard down any at all where he was concerned.

  My initial assessment had been the correct one. He was an asshole who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Actually, the more I thought about it, he was even worse than I’d originally thought. Because he’d led me to believe there was a good guy under that gruff exterior and the truth was, there wasn’t.

  I tapped my pen on the top of my desk. This wasn’t over, not by a long shot. I’d concede the battle to Tenor, but I had all intentions of winning the war.

  7

  Tenor

  * * *

  I didn’t stop by to see Mia until near the end of her first day in the office. It was a dick move on my part and I knew it, but all day I kept thinking about how well we were getting along until she signed the employment contract. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that hiring her had been a bad decision. I was too attracted to her and since I couldn’t do anything about it, avoidance seemed the best way to go.

  My opinion on hiring her didn’t change very much seeing her sitting in an office that I owned. Yes, I decided. I’d fucked up and fucked up bad. Her back was to the door because she wasn’t sitting at her desk, but standing and facing a back wall. After a second or two, I realized that she was hanging pictures.

  “Do you need help?” I asked, coming through the door.

  Unfortunately, I startled her and she somehow managed to hit her finger with the hammer instead of the nail.

  “Ow! Shit!” She shook her hand while glaring at me, and then she stuck her thumb in her mouth. “What?” She asked around her thumb.

  Good lord, the sight of her thumb in her mouth and every thought in my head left until the only things I could think about were her mouth, my dick, and introducing the two of them. “I stopped by to see how you were doing, saw you and asked if you needed help.”

  She pulled her thumb out of her mouth with a pop. Fucking hell. “As you can see,” she said with a wave of her hand. Everything about her was cold, even her voice was frosty. “I managed to hang three others without your help and was doing perfectly fine with the fourth until you came by.”

  It had been wrong of me to not stop by earlier in the day to see and speak with her. Whatever camaraderie we had managed to achieve the day before, I’d shot straight to hell in less than twenty hours.

  In some hard-to-imagine universe, I supposed it could be seen as a good thing. From the expression on her face, I couldn’t see her ever agreeing to dinner again. Flirting looked just about as improbable.

  And yet…

  I still felt the same. Whatever her feelings for me were, they had not changed mine for her. I wanted her. “I should have been by earlier and helped you with the other three,” I said.

  “What?” She still held a hammer in her hand, I noted with a bit of unease. “Why would it ever occur to you to stop by and help me hang pictures? How could that thought cross your mind when you couldn’t even stop by my office to say good morning, so glad to have you here, or screw you, on the way to your own office? Which, I might add, is no more than ten steps from here.”

  A quick glance at her desk showed Sara had given her our policy books to read. But yes, not stopping by earlier was clearly a mistake. That, at least, was now perfectly clear. It hit me at that moment, I could lie and make up a story about having a meeting. No doubt, she’d see straight through that since I’d already used it once before. Or, option two, I could tell her the truth.

  But as I stood there looking at her, I couldn’t see her taking it well that I had feelings for her and that I was questioning my decision to bring her onboard. So, I went with option three, landing somewhere between options one and two.

  “I agree I should have made it a point to stop by sooner. In fact, I’d planned to do that very thing. But as I walked into the building today, I also knew it’d be your first day working for someone else. I wasn’t sure you wanted to see me.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I had thought that as I entered the building, but it hadn’t been the deciding factor for me.

  Regardless of that fact, her expression had lost some if its ire and she watched me with slightly less anger. Heavy emphasis on the slightly.

  She placed the hammer on her desk. “What exactly are you saying?”

  “Plea
se forgive me for being completely clueless. I’d say it wouldn’t happen again, but I’m sure it will and I don’t want to lie.”

  More of her anger fell away. “Okay,” she said. “You’re forgiven. But only this once. Don’t take this as precedence.”

  “Duly noted.” I nodded toward the unhung picture, still on the floor where she’d left it after hitting her thumb with the hammer. “Now can I help you with the fourth?”

  She took a deep breath and sighed. “I don’t know. Now I’m thinking maybe this space only needs three. Do you think it needs another one?”

  “Seriously? You’re asking me for decorating advice?” Because I sucked at decorating.

  “This place doesn’t look so bad.”

  It didn’t and there was a reason why that was the case. ”I know what my strengths and weaknesses are. Trust me, decorating is one hundred percent weakness. I hired a decorator for the office, my place here in Boston, and my vacation home on Hawaii’s Big Island.” I added that last one just to get a reaction. Another dick move. Apparently, those were all I was capable of today.

  Her eyes widened. “You have a vacation home in Hawaii?”

  “Yes, and it’s beautiful.”

  She didn’t say anything, rather, she stood there looking at me with her arms crossed and her head titled to one side. I felt as if I was a science experiment.

  “What?” I finally asked.

  Her lips lifted into somewhat of a smile and I relaxed a bit. “I just realized that whatever I was charging for my services before weren’t nearly enough. It never occurred to me that I might possibly be able to afford a vacation home one day. In Hawaii, no less.” She stopped and thought for a moment before asking, “You know what that means don’t you?”

  “No.” Honestly, I had no idea since I was focused on her mouth.

  “I should have made you pay me more.”

  I loved how she could deliver a line like that so deadpan and I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. “Now you know,” I told her.

  She bent down to pick up the fourth picture and placed it on her desk. “I don’t think I’m going to hang this one. Three are good enough for now and I can always either add the fourth one later or rotate which ones I have up.”

  “Works for me.” I shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t decorate.” I looked at my watch and it was well after time I left. Mia obviously thought the same because she started packing up her desk. “Did you park in the deck?” I asked her and at her nod, I continued. “Walk out with me?”

  “Has everyone else gone home?”

  “Usually by this time, there are only a few people still here.” I raised an eyebrow. “Are you worried about being seen with me?”

  “I’m new and it’s bad enough I used to own a competing business. Don’t make it worse by making me look like the boss’s favorite.”

  “And walking out with your boss, who just so happened to be leaving at the same time you were, will give people reason to think that?”

  She picked up her purse.

  “Mia,” I said as calmly as I could. “If I hear so much as a whisper about anyone talking about you, that person will be looking for a new job.”

  “You can’t fire someone just because they were talking about me.”

  “Watch me,” I told her as we walked out of the office. I nodded to Sara as we passed. “This is a private company. I don’t answer to shareholders. I can pretty much do anything I want and get away with it.” It sounded smug and prideful, but it was the truth.

  I waited for her to say something else, but she was silent as we made it into the parking deck.

  We parted ways at the elevator. I had to walk down a flight of stairs to get to my car and she’d parked on the fifth level. I waited for the elevator with her. I knew it was a safe place, but you could never be too careful.

  “I hope you had a good first day, Mia,” I said as the doors closed behind her.

  8

  Mia

  * * *

  “Gentleman might prefer blondes, but women prefer assholes.”

  Wren rolled her eyes at me, but kept silent.

  “Come on,” I said, watching people go past our table as we finished eating our favorite dairy-free ice cream. It was a beautiful Boston afternoon and we were celebrating the end of my first day. “You know it’s true.”

  “Even if it is true, and I’m not saying it is,” she said. ”It doesn’t make sense.”

  “It doesn’t have to make sense for it to be true. Seriously, if you really think about it, a lot of things that are true don’t make sense. But research has shown that after interacting with two men, generally speaking, the woman is usually more attracted to the asshole.”

  Wren took a big bite of her peanut butter chocolate cookie ice cream and hummed her delight before turning her attention back to me. “I can’t believe someone did research on that.”

  I shrugged. “Can’t argue with science.”

  “And as a matchmaker, whose job it is to find your clients that one true love, their soulmate, what do you think of that study?”

  “Skeptical at first, but now I believe it, completely.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “It wasn’t your study, was it?”

  We both shared a laugh over the idea of me running a study.

  “No, but seriously,” I said, when we could both speak again. “You should write this down. Use it for your next big investigative piece.”

  “An in-depth look into the dating habits of assholes?”

  “Hey,” I said with a grin. “Beats what you normally find in the newspaper.”

  She sucked the last bit of ice cream off her spoon. “True that.”

  “The way I see it, we’re all assholes. Just of varying degrees. As a matchmaker, it’s my job to find the one you’re most compatible with.” I couldn’t help but wonder if Tenor had ever taken his company’s multiple choice assessment.

  “This doesn’t explain to me why women pass on the nice guy in favor of the dickwad.”

  “I don’t think dickwad and asshole are interchangeable terms, but I’ll ignore that for right now.” I also ignored her smart comment in response to my statement. “Look at it this way, when you think of your perfect man, he’s not really perfect, is he? Even if he always holds the door open for you and helps old ladies cross the street, you want him to be a little bad, right?”

  I could tell she was starting to see things my way when she got that far away look in her eyes.

  I dropped my voice. “A nice guy wouldn’t spank your ass while taking you from the back or push you against a wall because he had to fuck you right now, this second, would he?”

  “No,” she answered, even though I’d meant for it to be a rhetorical question and had actually been picturing Tenor pushing me against a wall.

  “But a mostly good guy with a dash of asshole?”

  “For sure yes.”

  “Now do you see what I was I saying?” I couldn’t help the fact that my question came out a bit smug. At her nod in response to my question, I asked, “And what is the takeaway from all this?”

  “Assholes are inevitable,” she mused. “Might as well use them for sex and get something out of them.”

  I almost snorted water out of my nose. “I don’t think that came out the way you intended.”

  “It made more sense in my head,” she said, flushing a bit. “And didn’t sound so perverted.”

  “Please,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Perverted thoughts are the best kind.”

  “Says the matchmaker for assholes.”

  “Someone has to do it.”

  Her expression grew serious. “How are you doing with the business?”

  “It gets easier everyday. Just ready to finalize everything and be done with it, you know?” I asked, because I knew she meant my old business and not my new job.

  She took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “I know.” The smile slowly returned to her face. “Let’s go for a walk. We’ll see if w
e can find the biggest asshole in Boston and convince him to let you find his soulmate.”

  “I know who the biggest asshole in Boston is.” But I stood up and threw my trash away. “I work for him. Don’t you remember?”

  “Hard not to, with you talking about him all the time.”

  “I do not talk about him all the time.” Maybe half the time, but not all.

  She just snorted, but kept walking.

  “Do I?” I asked, but there was no response.

  As loathe as I was to admit it, working at Bachelor International was not too bad. Certainly, it was better than I had anticipated. The other employees were friendly and Tenor stayed out of my way.

  I had spent my first two weeks in an orientation and training type of atmosphere. I thought the training was a bit beneath me, to be honest. I mean, I had run my own business doing the same exact thing, but Tenor refused to budge. He insisted everyone have the exact same training so there would be no foreseeable way for the new hire not be told something.

  Frankly, I thought it was a colossal waste of time and had no trouble telling him as much the few times he dropped by my office to see how I was doing. He refused to allow me to skip anything, however, so at the end of two weeks, I’d yet to be given my own clients, much less been told anything beyond the high level details of the international division.

  The other time suck Tenor stood by were staff meetings. Every other day, he gathered all the employees together at nine. Every other day. When the woman who had the office next to mine, Rebecca, told me that, I’d laughed because I thought she was joking. My laughter soon died when I noticed she wasn’t laughing with me.

  “You aren’t joking,” I said.

  Not only was she not joking, she said Tenor felt very strongly about these meetings and you didn’t miss them unless you were in the hospital. I rolled my eyes because I thought that was overkill if I’d ever heard it, but I parked my butt in the conference chair at five minutes before nine every other day. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.