Taken (Dark Desires 1)

"Would you like to join me for dinner?" he asked.

I looked around as if he might be talking to someone else and he chuckled a little. It wasn't a condescending or cocky laugh. It was like he was surprised I was so surprised.

"You said Chinese food, right?" I asked.

"Yup."

"MSG?"

"Loaded."

I smiled and walked into his office.

"And that was it? No sweeping everything off his desk to make wild passionate love under the fluorescent lights?" Diamond laughed.

"No."

"Your cheeks are as red as a stop sign. What the heck, Nat? You better spill it before I beat it out of you. What kind of job security do you have?"

"None. Really. I mean, yes, there is a connection with Marty."

"Above or below the waist?"

"Can you climb out of the gutter for just a few minutes?"

"I'm sorry. I'm out."

I looked around the bar we were at. It was a dumpy place with poor lighting and a jukebox that played the most horrible construction worker rock. As the night went on and the patrons got a little looser someone would inevitably play Journey's Don't Stop Believing, AC/DC Shook Me All Night Long or Tom Segar's Old Time Rock and Roll. There were no windows to speak of. The sound of the balls being knocked around the pool tables in the back of the room could be heard every couple of minutes. But what I liked, as trashy as it sounded, was the smell. People used to be able to smoke in here and had for years and years before the anti-smoker movement took hold. Now, it was forbidden to even light one within ten feet of the door let alone smoke inside these dingy walls. But the smell remained and I liked it. It reminded me of carnivals when I was a kid and sneaking into bars with my fake ID's as a teenager.

"Marty isn't like a regular guy. I mean, when I'm on the clock he's very professional."

"Professional how? Does he ignore you or does he talk to you like an equal to...say, Denise."

"I don't think he'll ever see anyone on par with Denise. She's just that kind of secretary." I took a deep breath and let it out. "The best example I can give is that two nights ago we were in his office just talking. He was on his loveseat that faces the window and I had pulled the chair in front of his desk around to face him. Well, this Wally guy comes in, they talk a little business and he leaves saying goodnight to both of us like it was no big deal. Marty didn't make an issue. I certainly didn't and I don't know if Wally went and wrote it all over the stalls in the men's room but no one acted funny to me the next day."

"Well, that sounds nice." Diamond said, seeming to soften up a little.

"And most of the time he leaves his office door open when I’m there."

I knew that would get the wheels turning in Diamond's head. I smiled at her and laughed as I took another sip of my new drink.

"What do you talk about when the door is still open?"

How did I explain this to my friend? Here I was just a little person who was no different from anyone else and this powerhouse businessman, whose net worth had so many zeros after it I couldn't even imagine saying the number out loud, who wanted to talk to me about some movie he saw that made him laugh or the kind of dog he wanted to get when he ret

ired.

"You gotta be home for a dog or they get lonely. They're like children that way. I'm just not home that much right now," He said almost sadly.

What kind of a billionaire worried about if their dog was lonely or not? He said he had birdfeeders all around his country home in the Hamptons and that to keep the squirrels from eating the bird’s food he put jellybeans all over the ground.

When I asked him how he got into the business and he began to tell me about his father, he lit up like a Christmas tree. His eyes got all bright and happy and his hands became animated as he described coming to work with him as a kid. Then, he talked about his mother who obviously earned a different kind of respect from him.

"Until the day she died I sent her flowers once a week. I only wish I could have found a wife and had some kids before she left." He said and stopped chewing on the egg rolls he had gotten from Wing Ho Chinese Restaurant a couple blocks down from the building. He missed his parents.

"He's like an old fashioned gentleman wrapped up in a modern, three thousand dollar suit." I said shaking my head. "I don't think a lot of people just talk to him, you know. I think he is probably used to people always coming at him with an angle. And I don't want anything from him. Just my job."

"Yeah, so, there is not attraction to this guy at all?"