Jon
Patrick came back soon after Lydia left, just as I was packing up to leave. I felt him watching me as I collected my bag and readjusted my jacket.
“I doubt he’s actually going to hang around,” Pat offered unconvincingly. “He might just want to have lunch and then get back to his office.”
“Edward doesn’t do just lunch,” I replied. “He’ll be attached at the hip.”
“I told you I could come and keep him distracted.”
“That won’t work unless your idea of distracting him involves sucking dick.”
“Does it have to be his?”
“What do you think?”
Patrick shrugged. “I think I’d rather not if that’s the case.”
“Exactly.” I sighed and grabbed my phone off the nightstand. “Alright, I’m taking the Pullman, I’ll probably be back around eight or so.”
Patrick walked with me down to the foyer. “I don’t understand why you never take the Rolls-Royce,” he complained while opening the door for me. “You own it, you should drive it.”
I stared at him. “It’s thirty degrees out and snowing, and you want me to take the convertible?”
“Alright, don’t get testy, I was just saying that—”
“That I should take my convertible for a spin when it’s thirty degrees and snowing,” I interrupted. “Sometimes I’m surprised that you passed the bar.”
He rolled his eyes and gestured to the door. “Get out so I can have some peace for once.”
Snickering, I gave him a pat on the cheek and beelined for the waiting elevator. Lydia wasn’t the only one socializing today, I had my interview with Vihaan Bhakta for a position at NYU, and unfortunately Edward would be joining us. Edward had been just so kind in arranging this meeting at his favorite gentleman’s club, and while Lydia found it amusing, I was more uncomfortable than I’d been in a while.
My driver, Neil, seemed to notice my tense mood and decided not to rush things, instead he took his time weaving through traffic. I appreciated the slowness and used the time to try and just relax. Traffic waned, crowds thinned, and soon enough we were coming into Hell’s Kitchen. I could see the signs for the club and already wanted to sink into my seat and disappear. I tapped the partition for it to roll down.
“Neil?”
“Yes, Mr. Harris?”
“Is there a back alley I can use instead of the front door?”
He laughed. “I already called, they’ll let you in through the employee’s entrance.”
Thank God for competent staff. “Thank you.”
“Not a problem, sir.”
The partition slid back into place and a minute or so later, he was pulling up to the curb. I thanked him once again and grabbed my bag as I got out. The side street we were on wasn’t too busy, but you could hear the roar coming from the intersection for 11th Avenue.
I glanced at the cars and took a deep breath, steeling myself before heading inside. The club itself was a newer building for the area, the black glass reflected back out onto the street and digital screens with videos of women dancing decorated many of the windows. Around the back, a security guard was holding open the large metal door for me.
I’d done this plenty of times, coming in through the back so as not to be seen, but that was usually with people I already considered friends. It wasn’t awkward to schedule a lunch with Patrick and Charles and piss off to whatever strip club we wanted to go to because we knew each other well and it wasn’t about business. I didn’t really know Edward well enough to want to come here with him, let alone to have him and a complete stranger grill me about why I wanted a job.
Not to mention that there was already plenty about us on the internet, I didn’t need to be spotted at a strip club with two other men.
I didn’t have time to dwell before security ushered me over to the gold VIP elevator. I could see the stage where a woman with bright pink hair was currently twirling herself around the pole. The doors closed before I could get a better look and suddenly I was brought up to the third floor. The lift dinged and the doors opened to a dim hallway with black carpeting and blue velvet curtains lining the walls, at the other end was a set of large wooden double doors. The security guard went ahead of me and held open that door as well.
“Have a good time, Mr. Harris,” he offered flatly.
I smirked and thanked him as I crossed into the room. We were on the top floor and the outer walls were entirely floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the Hudson River on one side, and the busy street on the other. Blue and black furniture dotted the room, from the black leather sectional to the glowing neon blue bar, even the lights matched the room. Over to the far side on the section sat Edward, he was leaning forward and watching the two women dance around each other. His mousy brown hair was dishevelled, his suit jacket discarded onto the ottoman, and his shirt looked like it was about a size too small. Beside him sat a lean, tall, man with light brown skin and a mop of thick black hair.
Squaring my shoulders, I made my way across the room to them. One of the dancers glanced over and smiled, shooting me a flirty little wave – any other time I might have returned it. Edward noticed her wave and spun around in his chair.
“Harris! There you are,” he called, beckoning me over. “You didn’t bring Rosing with you?”
“No, he had other plans,” I offered apologetically. I stopped in front of the couch as the other man got up. “You must be Vihaan, it’s good to meet you.”
He smiled politely and shook my hand. “It’s nice to mee you too. Jonathan, is it? Or do you prefer Jon?”
“Jon – please.” I laughed and gestured to the chairs. “Shall we?”
He agreed and I took the spot next to him with Edward to his left. My bag was tucked between me and the arm of the sofa, the red haired dancer was working down the top of her blonde colleague, and a moment later a server brought a tray of drinks.
“So, Vihaan—”
“Harris, you really should have brought Rosing,” Edward butted in. “Or that cute little thing that’s all over the tabloids right now.”
I forced a laugh to keep from wanting to smack him upside the head. “Like I said, Patrick had other plans. So did Lydia, and I don’t know how much she would appreciate this type of outing.” Probably more than I was giving her credit for, but Edward didn’t need to know that.
“Lydia is your wife?” Vihaan asked, glancing to me.
“No, she’s actually marrying my former business partner.”
“While having your baby,” Edward offered with a wicked grin.
I glowered at him, trying to get the man to just shut the fuck up for five seconds. I didn’t remember him as being this annoying, or this drunk.
“That’s not NYU’s concern,” Vihaan said dismissively. “We’re actually very excited about you wanting to join our staff.”
My mood perked and I smiled as I reached for my bag, ready to pull out my teaching statement. “That’s fantastic. I already have some things here for you – including my statement and my credentials.”
He took them and began looking them over while Edward got up and decided to join our dancers. I turned away from him completely, focusing my attention on Vihaan. He was nodding as he read through my statement and seemed to scrutinize my reference letter.
“This is very good,” he mused. “I think you would be an asset to the faculty.”
“Thank you, I always did want to go into teaching eventually.”
“Your father was a teacher as well, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he was actually the dean of Norfolk Boys Academy.” I was pretty sure it was a mixed school now, but it had been a boys-only school when I went.
“I thought the name was familiar.” He set the papers aside and turned back to me. “If I could, I would hire you now because I don’t know how many other chances we’ll have to get someone with your type of experience…”
“But?” I pressed.
“But the college does have some concerns.”
Those concerns probably started with being publicly known for fucking my assistant and capped off with being in a very public three-way relationship with said assistant. “I could probably guess why,” I said dryly.
“It’s because you couldn’t keep it in your pants, Harris!”
“Thank you, Ed.” I could practically feel him seething from my shortening his name, but if he wanted to act like an ass, then I would too.
Vihaan laughed, instantly I felt a little more at ease. “That is part of the concern, since you obviously come with that sort of past and we want our students to be in a safe environment. I’m sure you understand.”
“Of course, my daughter finished her masters last year and I couldn’t imagine her having a relationship like that with her teacher.” Which makes me a raging hypocrite.
“Exactly, these concerns are just something we have to be aware of. I’m glad you understand that.”
“Is there anything I can personally do to mitigate these concerns?”
“Not fuck your assistant.”
I closed my eyes for a moment and wondered if it was possible to shove Edward out the window. I could probably bribe most of the people here to pretend he fell, but that probably wouldn’t get me a job and it would be a sizeable dent in the bank account for little payoff.
Vihaan cleared his throat. “Well, yes, obviously that’s part of it,” he acknowledged with a faint blush. “But really there’s nothing you can personally do except being mindful of your surroundings and remembering that most of the students are still young, they need a mentor, not a romantic partner.”
“Somehow I don’t think the university just wants me to think long and hard about my actions,” I teased. “Is there anything else?”
He nodded. “Yes, I was discussing it with our department head and one thing we thought would be a good idea is an extended probationary period.” He glanced at the women that were hanging off Edward lazily, pulling at his tie and running their hands through his hair. Vihaan frowned and moved closer to me. “Essentially, you would spend the entire academic year on probation, subject to weekly and monthly reviews, and we would have a random teaching assistant monitor any professor, student interactions.”
Jesus. I understood that they wanted to protect both the students and the staff, but that sounded like it was going to cost the school more money than I was worth.
I glanced back towards Edward, watching as he started to teeter and then fell back on the oversized loveseat with one of the women in his lap. I didn’t want to end up like him; a drunk that couldn’t do something if it didn’t involve strippers or sex. I wanted to move on, to broaden my horizons and make a new name for myself. One that wasn’t tied to Christine or Patrick, or anyone else for that matter. And especially not one tied to Edward.
Turning back to Vihaan, I smiled and offered him my hand.
“Is that an offer?”
He grinned and shook my hand. “It is. These conditions are acceptable for you?”
“Of course, I completely understand why you’d want to take some precautions.”
“Excellent.” He stood up and I followed him back to the door while he tucked my paperwork into his bag. “I’ll need to discuss it with my higher ups, then get the contract for you to look over. Are you available next week to meet again?”
“No, actually I’ll be in Hawai’i, but if you’re available for Skype, I can definitely arrange that. Otherwise, I’ll be back around the fifteenth.”
“Of February?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, actually that’s perfect then,” he replied happily. “I’ll email you later this week with some general things for you to look over, but there’s no rush to get them back to me. Just let me know when you get back in.”
“Thank you so much, Vihaan,” I said, holding open the door. “I had no idea this would be so easy.”
“Oh, trust me, I went to bat for you,” he said with a chuckle. “But I have faith in you, Jon. Just try not to wind up in the paper again.”
I smirked. “I’ll try.”
He waved to me just before boarding the elevator. He didn’t even say goodbye to Edward, the doors just closed and suddenly he was gone, I was left with the nearly fifty-year-old pervert trying to motorboat a woman in a lime green G-string. The girl massaging his shoulders laughed and ruffled his hair as he craned his neck to look back at me.
“Is he gone?”
“Just left.”
“Good, now get over here, I’ve got these lovely girls for another two hours.”
I went over to the couch, not to join him, but to at least make small talk until Neil got back with the car. My phone buzzed in my pocket, I ignored it for the moment, not wanting to catch Edward’s attention.
“Are you still meeting with Patrick tomorrow?” I asked casually, trying not to notice the groping he was giving them.
“Oh yeah, Kimmy has a dinner planned for us, and I made some arrangement for dessert.” He glanced at me and winked conspiratorially. “I’ll finally get to meet this assistant I keep hearing so much about.”
“Lydia,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to dwell on the fact that he was meeting her, the less I thought about it, the happier I would be.
“Lydia,” he repeated casually. “Old name, very cute nonetheless.”
I didn’t even like the way her name sounded in his mouth. It was like he was dirtying it.
I’d never thought of Edward as someone to be concerned about, he was always harmless, and in the workplace he was nothing but professional. But Pat and Lydia weren’t meeting him at his office, they were going to his private home and from the sounds of things, both Edward and Kim expected the evening to end in sex.
And I didn’t like that.
I didn’t feel like I could trust Patrick or Lydia to speak up if they wanted things to stop, not when she was eager to make her Master happy and he was convinced that he had to do this to have a career. And if I was completely honest, I didn’t appreciate the idea of either of them fucking Edward.
I leaned back in my seat and crossed my knees as I watched him, trying to look as casual and calm as possible. “Did Patrick not tell you that they just want to keep things professional?” I asked with feigned surprise.
“What?” he snapped, shoving the dancers away. “What the fuck do you mean?”
I almost smirked but quickly disguised it by scratching my cheek. “Lydia isn’t comfortable with the idea. Patrick wants to be supportive of her decision.”
“No, he didn’t tell me that,” Edward seethed. “For fuck’s sake, he couldn’t have made it clear before now?”
I cocked an eyebrow. “That’s not a problem, is it?”
“Fuck,” he growled and stood up. Edward paced back and forth across the black carpet, annoyance etched into his features. Suddenly he stopped and narrowed his eyes at me. “What did you say to him?”
“Nothing, why?”
“Cut the shit, we all know you’re the puppet master between the two of you.”
Now I couldn’t help but smirk because he wasn’t wrong. “And what about it?”
“What the fuck did you say to him?”
“Nothing. It was a discussion. Lydia wasn’t comfortable with it and I can’t let her go around making choices that she’ll regret.” A bit of a lie, neither of them knew that I was poisoning the well right now, but I also hadn’t planned on doing it either.
“You can’t let her do something? And what about Patrick?” Edward demanded.
I shrugged. “Like I said, it was a discussion.” After uncrossing my legs, I leaned forward on my knees and pinned him with a questioning stare. “Why is this such a problem for you? I thought you just wanted to help Pat.”
“Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” he replied hostilely. “You think I want that sort of reputation hanging around my business for nothing? Not happening, especially not when I know all three of you are deranged perverts.”
“Lydia is off limits,” I told him, losing my patience. “She isn’t Christine, she isn’t comfortable speaking up all the time, and I don’t like the idea of you holding that job over Patrick’s head.”
Edward crossed the distance between us, his eyes narrowed and jaw tense. “You don’t get to speak for them, Harris. Rosing can do that on his own, and if you don’t think your newest piece can speak for herself, then I should call Vihaan right now and tell him you can’t be around co-eds.”
I met his gaze without flinching and stood up. I was a good six inches taller than he was, but it felt like six feet for how his eyes widened. “I think he’s more inclined to believe me than he is you,” I replied. “But by all means, go ahead and call him.”
It didn’t make me feel like the macho man for trying to intimidate Edward, but it was becoming clear to me that he saw this as a way to sleep around instead of doing something good for someone. Patrick hadn’t been comfortable with this from the beginning, and Lydia’s reaction in our little sharing circle told me that no matter what, she also had reservations. Plaisir was one thing, it was a controlled environment and we were both there with her, we could read her tells well at this point, but a near stranger’s house, with Patrick’s future job potentially on the line… I couldn’t let them get into that position, not when Edward seemed to be so far off the deep end that he was practically living at strip bars.
He finally collected himself, eyes flashing, he pointed at the door. “Get the fuck out before I call TMZ and tell them you both propositioned me.”
“You say one word to TMZ, and I’ll call Christine,” I warned him. “She still has the video, and she doesn’t have anything to lose by sending it in.”
The fear in his eyes was obvious. I stood there for another moment until he finally shrank back before grabbing my bag off the couch and following the same way Vihaan had gone. “Have a good day, Edward.”
I heard him mutter something under his breath, but I just kept walking. Once the doors closed behind me I pulled out my phone to text Patrick and check my messages.
3:40 PM Me
Done earlier than I thought. Heading back to the house, meet me in the garage with the Queen, we’ll go for dinner.
I had one missed message from Lydia already.
2:32 PM Dove
I think your ex-wife just propositioned me.
I laughed in surprise and tucked my phone away. It seemed like both of us had a good afternoon.