The Rivals

“I…have a little problem.”

“You cannot wear black pants with brown shoes, even if I’m no longer there to save you from yourself.”

I laughed. “I wish it were that easy.”

“Hang on a second.” Scarlett covered the phone, but I heard her muzzled conversation.

“What is this?” she said curtly.

A man’s voice answered. He sounded nervous. “Umm… It’s…your coffee. From the new Cinnabon place you asked me to fetch it from.”

“But what’s inside? It weighs half a stone.”

“Your cinnamon bun is inside.”

“What?”

“You ordered a coffee with a cinnamon bun on top.”

“I ordered a coffee with cinnamon on top. Who in their right mind thinks someone would want a cinnamon bun inside of a coffee?”

“Uh… Sorry. I’ll go back.”

“Yes, do that.”

Scarlett came back on the phone. “Did you say you have a problem? Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than the new assistant the temp agency sent over.”

“I overheard. Sometimes I think you’re too hard on people. But I promise you, that’s not the case today.”

She sighed. “So what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into, love?”

“Well…you remember the family I told you about. The one that owns the competing hotel chains and now jointly owns The Countess with my family?”

“Sure. The Locks or something like that?”

“Right. The Lockwoods. Well, I don’t think I ever mentioned that I’d accidentally slept with one of them—Weston. He and I are the same age.”

“You accidentally slept with someone? Did you fall on his cock and it impaled you?”

I laughed. “No. I guess accidentally might not be the right word. It was more like I had a temporary lapse in sanity and slept with him. Anyway, it was a long time ago—the night of my high school prom, actually. I went with another guy and came home with Weston.”

“You dirty dog. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

I smiled. “It’s a long story. But I was acting out. My mother had died earlier in the year. I found out during the prom that my boyfriend was sleeping with someone; ironically, it was one of my cousins. That seems to be a thing with me. My father didn’t show up for the gratuitous pre-prom pictures because it was also my half-brother Spencer’s junior prom, and his was infinitely more important than my senior one. Anyway, I wound up leaving prom with Weston. He ditched his date, and it was a one-time thing. We hated each other, but the sex… Let’s just say we were only eighteen, but it was mind-blowing.”

“Ah. Hate sex. It’s one of my favorites.”

“Yeah, well, that’s apparently my problem. It’s one of mine, too.”

“I’m not following.”

“Weston, the guy from my prom, he’s at The Countess. His family sent him, just like my family sent me. We’re both here to manage things and figure out a valuation of the hotel so one of us can try to buy out the minority shareholder and take control of the property.”

“And you’re attracted to him, but you still don’t get along?”

“Yes.” I turned onto my side and sighed. “But I also accidentally slept with him again.”

Scarlett screeched so loud I had to pull the phone from my ear. “That’s fabulous.”

“No, it’s definitely not.”

“Why not?”

“God, for so many reasons. Number one, I don’t like him at all. He’s arrogant and cocky and grates on my nerves by calling me this stupid name that he’s called me since we were kids. And second, he’s the enemy! Our families hate each other, and both of us are trying to outbid the other, just so we can get controlling interest and push the other family out.”

“But yet you accidentally fell on his cock again?”

I smiled. “Yeah.”

“It sounds…illicit. Maybe this is what you need after the doldrums of Liam Albertson the last year and a half.”

“What I need is to keep away from Weston. I don’t know what happens to me, but every time we have a fight, we end up clawing at each other.”

“That sounds positively divine.”

She wasn’t entirely wrong. In the heat of the moment, it was positively divine. But the short, cheap thrill didn’t last when the clouds of lust started to clear. And then I felt worse than ever. Plus, I was here to do a job, not fraternize with the enemy.

“Do they still sell chastity belts? I think I might need one.”

“I think what you need is what you just got—to get laid by someone more exciting than Liam.”

“Have you ever been attracted to someone you know is no good for you?”

“Do you not remember me telling you I slept with my forty-year-old psych professor my first year of college? He was divorced three times already, and his last wife had been a former student. It was the dumbest thing I ever did. But man, it was the best sex I ever had. The guy was like catnip. Every day I’d walk into class and say I wasn’t going to do it again. Then he’d say, ‘Miss Everson, could I see you after class a moment?’ He’d say it in this tone like he’d caught me cheating, and he was going to scold me. And that was it. My ass went home with black dry erase marker all over it because he liked to pin me to the whiteboard.”