Due Diligence

Chapter 20 Marcus

“Are you sure you don’t want any?” Alex asked as he rubbed his hand under his nostrils. He pinched them a couple times and inhaled deeply. When he looked at me, his eyes were already bloodshot and glassy. Cheers to him , I decided. And cheers to his dealer .

“I’m all set,” I replied. I finished my drink and placed the empty glass on the table, right next to the powdery remnants of the line of blow Alex just inhaled.

“Erin?” he asked, nodding at my date.

Classic Alex. Even when he was coked out in a way that would make the Rolling Stones nod with approval, he was still an impeccable host.

Predictably, Erin shook her head. “I’m studying tomorrow,” she responded.

Alex smirked and leaned back in his seat, settling into the plush cushions. “Erin, baby, just drop out of school. Look at Marcus and me—absolutely crushing it.”

“She’s a hot second away from getting her PhD,” I reminded him, forcing myself not to be too condescending—but still condescending enough that I could at least get some entertainment out of this otherwise insufferable conversation. “She’s not going to drop out just because you got high at your birthday party and offhandedly recommended it to her.”

He narrowed his bloodshot eyes and said, “Dude, you can be such a buzzkill. Are you sure you don’t want a little? I feel like you could really use some.” He nodded at the little baggie of cocaine on the table. “All yours.”

“Maybe later,” I lied. It was easier than giving him any of the number of reasons why I didn’t want to do a line with him right now. For one, there were over a hundred people at this spectacle of a birthday party, all of whom had their phones out to document every moment of it. If any of them caught me inhaling just one speck of coke, I would be out a shit ton of money. For another, I hated cocaine. It made me too twitchy. I was already an anxious motherfucker, and I didn’t need to feel any more alert than I already did. And lastly, I was still waiting for Cass to arrive; it was really the only reason why I was still hanging around this clusterfuck of excess and assholes after already completing my requisite hour.

I leaned back in my seat and glanced at my watch, wondering where she was. The night surrounded me, lively and cool, and from here on the rooftop of the Peninsula Hotel I had a rare, clear view of the stars. I imagined us sitting side by side, getting tipsy and leaning close as I pointed out constellations to her. But then again, knowing her, she probably had a vast knowledge of constellations that would put mine to shame. That was fine. Cass could read me the instruction manual for a toaster and the timbre of her voice would still captivate me.

The sound of Alex inhaling sharply, attempting to clear his nostrils, snapped me out of my reverie. I glowered at him, wondering if he were lucid enough to remember any of this tomorrow. If not, maybe I would take this opportunity to tell him that in a few weeks when we finally sold the company to Davenport-Ridgeway, I had every intention of withdrawing as much money as I could from the bank and fucking Cass on a pile of it.

“Hey, do you want to get another drink with me?” Erin asked me. She was watching me cautiously as I glared at Alex.

She was an angel—a brilliant, empathetic angel. I nodded and trailed after her towards the bar on the other side of the rooftop.

“He’s such a character,” she said. “I thought I would be used to it by now, but he still surprises me.”

“Same. Ten years together and I still don’t really know what goes through his head sometimes.”

Erin waited while I ordered us each another drink. We clinked glasses once I had them in hand, toasting silently to our enduring friendship of convenience. There was an empty cocktail table close to the railing, and we set up shop there.

She let out an exhale after the first sip of her drink and grinned, contentment washing over her face. “I always get excited when you reach out to me.”

“Yeah?” I asked. I stepped closer to her so she could hear me over Alex’s overpriced DJ. “Is it the free drinks all night, the opportunity to watch Alex make a fool of himself, or is it my brilliant conversational skills?”

“Oh, it’s the drinks,” she deadpanned. “Duh. But the other two are perks, I admit.”

Conversation was always easy with Erin. It was the main reason why I continued to invite her to these parties. Neither of us felt the need to put on airs. “So what’s new with you? How’s school?”

“Boring. Expensive. The same. How’s business?”

“Boring. Expensive. The same.”

Erin grinned. “How’s life? And don’t say, boring, expensive, and the same .”

“Then I’ll keep my mouth shut.” I took a drink and scanned the rooftop, still looking for Cass. She was nowhere to be seen among the throngs of people dressed to the nines, all to celebrate a now twenty-nine-year-old with too much money and not enough impulse control.

Watching me, Erin tilted her head to the side. “Sounds like there’s someone in your life. That’s new.” Her tone was teasing, almost sisterly.

I shot her a warning look. “That’s a long story.”

Pointedly, she did a scan of the rooftop. Debauchery surrounded us, and we stood there like the parent chaperones at a high school dance. “Well, unless you’re going to ask me to dance or to do coke, we really have nothing else to do.”

“She’s supposed to be here,” I explained. “We’re kind of working together, doing this thing I can’t talk about.” I took another drink and nodded at Erin. “Question.”

“Shoot.”

“What do you do when you like sleeping with a woman, she obviously likes sleeping with you, but she keeps trying to stay away from you?”

Surprised, Erin let her jaw drop. I knew what she was thinking—that it was rare for me to show any serious interest in someone. “Oh, sweetie,” she cooed. “Women can’t really stay away from me.”

We were laughing when my eyes finally landed on her. Immediately, my laughter faded away. She had just walked through the glass doors that led out to the Salon de Ning. Time may as well have stopped. She was radiant—sex and beauty and familiarity and everything I needed wrapped up into one woman. My pulse quickened at the mere sight of her. It was true—she owned me. She always had.

She slid her long hair off her shoulder and her gaze traveled over the party before her. Almost like she could sense me watching her, her eyes met mine.

When we looked at each other, it was like a surge of heat traveled over me. I wondered if she felt it too. My hand tensed around my glass, straining to stay steady.

“Is that her?” Erin asked as Cass started walking in our direction.

“Yep.”

That word held so much more than Erin could have deciphered. Yep. It was her. The woman that my body needed. The woman I had waited for. The woman I would do anything—literally anything—for. Yep. That was her.

“Hot damn, Marcus. She’s a find.”

“I know,” I responded softly, keeping my eyes on Cass. I couldn’t look anywhere else. I didn’t want to look anywhere else. She was wearing a leather fucking dress that made my pulse go wild.

“Easy there,” Erin said with a nudge. She was watching me. “Play it cool.”

“I’m incapable around her,” I admitted.

She clicked her tongue. “Oh, buddy, I know that look. You’re done for.”

Cass reached the table and flashed me a bright smile. Her long hair was loose and wavy tonight, different from the straight, neat way she wore it for work. I truthfully preferred her messy ponytail, but this worked too—everything did on her. My eyes followed her perfectly painted red lips, down to her minuscule black dress that hugged every mouthwatering curve on her body. Frankly, she was putting a considerable amount of trust in that dress—that it wouldn’t bust at the seams with how form fitting it was.

“Hey,” I greeted her. “Good to see you.”

She raised an eyebrow—and that was when I knew I way overshot playing it cool and was just being straight-up cold. Shit. I definitely needed to dial it back.

“Good to see you too.” She turned to Erin. “Hi, I’m Cass Pierson.”

“Erin Roberts.” She reached out and shook Cass’s hand. “How do you two know each other?”

“Cass and I went to college together,” I filled in.

“For a week,” Cass challenged.

Fuck, she was mad at me—I could tell.

“Right, Marcus? That’s about how long you made it before you peaced out.”

“Close. It was more like three months. And we took a class together.”

Cass paused and pulled her eyebrows together in a frown. I could see her practically reciting every single grade on her transcript and trying to figure out what class that was. “Econ 100,” she said after a beat. “It was a three-hundred-person lecture in McCosh, and you used to sit up in the balcony. I used to sit in the third row.”

I didn’t have a moment to be surprised she could miraculously conjure up that memory because Erin started nodding and said, “I used to sit up front during econ too. Helped me to keep my focus on the material if I thought the professor could see me.”

“Where did you go?” Cass asked, eyeing her with interest. “And sorry, how do you know Marcus?”

“She’s my date,” I cut in—again, way overshooting cool and ending up so cold I may as well have been in the south pole. Maybe I just needed to be honest with her—that she made me so nervous this just kept happening. That I blurted out the wrong shit and then ended up simmering in regret hours later.

To my chagrin, Cass paused with both eyebrows raised. “Your date?”

“Yep,” I said, eyes locked on hers, pleading with her to read my mind— I wanted it to be you . “My date.”

Erin shifted uncomfortably for a moment before she cleared her throat and said, “I went to Harvard, then got a master’s in economics at the University of Chicago, and now I’m doing a PhD at Columbia.”

That clearly made the whole thing worse because Cass slowly lowered her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side as she looked between Erin and me. However, she recovered quickly and asked, “And you met…”

“He did a talk on the economics of financial data at Columbia and I came to listen. Afterwards, I went up to him and told him his app is the only thing keeping my head above water as I think about paying back all these loans. Do you use Libra?”

“No,” Cass responded sharply. “I’ve never had trouble remembering how and when to pay my debt.” Her eyes stayed on me when she answered, even though she was speaking to Erin.

I needed a reset button. A hail Mary. A fucking magic blue genie. I needed anything to take this back and do it over again. When I emailed Erin, I thought I would enjoy seeing Cass squirm. For weeks, it was a goddamn delight to watch her try and fail to manage her frustration with me. Now, watching her glare at me like I betrayed her, I didn’t feel any enjoyment whatsoever.

I was about to come clean and tell Cass that Erin accompanied me on almost every single public appearance and we had zero interest in each other—that she had zero interest in men, for that matter. But I didn’t get a chance to. Cass simply gestured over her shoulder and said, “Well, it was so good to chat, but I think I’m going to get a drink.”

She left before I could stop her, and when I moved to follow her, Erin grabbed my arm.

“Pause,” she advised.

I gritted my teeth as I watched Cass head over to the bar and disappear into the crowd. When I turned my attention back to Erin, she was staring at me with both of her eyebrows sky high.

“Well?”

“What?”

“You’re so stupid,” she muttered, shaking her head. As usual, she didn’t mince words with me—and I sure as hell needed the truth. “You didn’t tell me she was into you.”

“Is she?”

“Of course she is.” Erin’s eyes were so wide I could see the outlines of her contact lenses reflected in the string lanterns hanging over us. “Are you that dense? That’s not just a woman who likes sleeping with you. That’s a woman who wants you and wants to fight off anyone who gets too close to you.”

I sighed. “That’s not what she said. She’s been trying to put some space between us.”

“So?”

“And…I mean, look at her. She’s so hot I kind of suspect her parents made a deal with the devil.”

“I refuse to listen to your insecurities.” Erin took a drink. “You’re so frustrating sometimes.”

“Me?” I demanded. “What about her? She told me she didn’t want to be with me, so of course I just went on with my business. I told her I would respect her boundaries.”

Erin was visibly frustrated with me at this point.

“Oh, Marcus. You sweet boy,” she said. “Sometimes, people say things that don’t reflect what they mean. And that woman over there, that woman with a body that, honestly, I would fight you to get my hands on, wants you.”

“ Fucccckkk ,” I droned, feeling clarity wash over me like an ice bath. I downed the last of my drink. “Shit—Erin, was that my second drink?”

Erin’s eyes traveled down to my empty glass and then back up. A grim expression passed over her face. “Yeah, unfortunately. Does that mean you’re tapped out for the night?”

Another fucking L for me. “Damn it. I was supposed to nurse that.”

“Tough break, kid,” she said. She glanced at her phone. “Well, what’s your plan? Do you want to hang out here, or do you want to head out?”

I shook my head. “I’m done here. This night is a bust. It’s not your fault, obviously. You did everything right.”

“I know.” She grinned, her expression sisterly again. “And no rush paying me. I know that’s weird.”

Without a word, I opened the banking app on my phone, typed a few verifications, and within a few seconds Erin’s phone lit up.

“Gotta love online banking,” she said. “Thanks. This is going to cover rent, food—all that good stuff—for at least two months.”

I returned my phone to the inside pocket of my jacket. “Just doing my part to keep young people out of debt,” I responded. “I’ll call you a car. Give me a second.”

A few minutes later, Erin kissed my cheek and headed out, promising to set up drinks with me in the next few weeks.

Once she was gone, I took stock of my evening. It had been a shit storm of epic proportions.

As usual .

Erin was probably right. I was stupid, dense, and probably insecure. I could handle that. Nobody was perfect.

But despite my flaws, I was persistent—un-fucking-daunted in the face of setbacks. I had to be; I built a half-billion-dollar company with my own two hands.

I resolved to find Cass. My eyes immediately went to Alex, who was sitting at a table surrounded by a troupe of beautiful women as a waitress brought over a bottle of champagne with sparklers shooting out of the top. To my relief, I didn’t see Cass in the mix.

I took my empty glass and did a quick lap around the rooftop. Finally, I spotted her standing alone by the railing. Her long hair blew softly in the breeze and she was focused outward, in the opposite direction of the party behind her. Briefly, I wondered what she was thinking about. Some days, I would do anything to know.

As I stared at her, I realized my palms were sweating. She did that to me. She made me feel unsteady. I thought I would hate that, but it was enlivening—the first thing to inspire me in years.

I braced myself and walked over to her—ready to win her back.