Saving Us (The Billionaire Brothers of NY Duology #1)

3. Gage

CHAPTER 3

Gage

“ W hy does he have to act like such a child all the time? My only wish is that my father was still around more to keep him in control. I mean, technically I’m now his boss, but he doesn’t see it that way, not yet anyway. He’s not professional enough when it counts, he drinks too much here at the office and at night when we go out with clients. I’m surprised he didn’t do more damage when I was away in Virginia last fall. When will he learn that he needs to step up and take a bigger role in this company, more than him being the playboy of floor thirty-five?”

When I stopped my rant and turned away from the window toward my desk, Maryellen was sitting stoically in her chair across from me. Her blonde hair was pulled tight on top of her head and her razor-sharp blue eyes narrowed in on mine as she held her iPad in her hands, waiting for our actual meeting to begin. She seemed to work hard to make her appearance not the focus while maintaining a high level of professionalism. But there was no denying she was a beautiful woman. I had no idea how old she was, my guess ranging anywhere from late twenties to mid-thirties. She was crafty at thwarting the attention of the many male clients that came through my office.

“Sir,” she started.

“Maryellen.” The sternness in my voice was met with a chide smile on her chiseled face. She knew I didn’t like when she did that.

“Gage,” she started again. “You know as well as I do that he’s struggling since he and Amy ended. He hasn’t been the same since. It’s almost as if he’s on a destructive path intentionally to hurt himself sometimes.”

Both of us Parker boys have had bad breakups in the past couple years. And I guess he wasn’t handling it as well as I thought he was.

“I wasn’t aware he was still struggling. I guess since I haven’t been around.”

“Exactly, and now you do, so I think you should cut him some slack,” she reprimanded.

I felt some remorse about my words with her response, but not enough to be sorry. “I can hardly cut him slack when he’s acting like a dick in front of clients or customers. He was a total asshole to Harper from the floral shop yesterday. He actually tried to pick her up.”

She balked a bit at that news, the frown visible on her face. But it disappeared quickly. She had such a soft spot for him.

“But the floral invoice came through this morning, so I guess it’s safe to say you rectified whatever Chase almost screwed up.”

I slumped into my chair, tired of my own complaining.

“Yeah, I stuck around and made sure it got done.”

But sticking around caused another issue.

Sticking around and finishing the meeting forced me to spend more time with Harper. Which I found hard to do. Because she was gorgeous and smelled amazing, things I shouldn’t have been noticing during a business meeting.

The exact things I sent Chase away for.

Maryellen started tapping away on her tablet, leaving me to the notes in front of me for a few minutes. Thursdays were spent wrapping up, preparing for the following week. I never liked to leave that for Fridays; employees weren’t as sharp on Fridays. The current invoices were on a shared document for Maryellen and me to go over as well as my social calendar with the company for the coming week.

“She’s really good at what she does,” Maryellen said.

I looked up, acting confused, because I really didn’t want to continue talking about Harper. At all.

“The flowers,” she said.

“Fiona?” I asked. “Her shop is nice, yeah.”

“No, not Fiona. Harper,” Maryellen responded, kind of emphatically. “She’s the magic behind all of what gets made in that place.”

“Oh, yeah, she seems great. And her arrangements are amazing. We see how everyone loves them here.” Yeah, not only are her arrangements amazing, but so many other parts of her as well.

Christ. What the fuck was wrong with me? To be thinking about a girl I’d just met, let alone a vendor of ours, was the last thing I needed.

Maryellen continued to stare as I worked on our schedule. She was acting weird, but I chalked it up to me being my typical annoying self that tended to get on her nerves. Then I noticed a new addition to the calendar.

“What’s this event you have on the schedule for next Saturday?” It was common for Chase and me to entertain clients who were in town. New York is an exciting place to visit for our European clients and they usually expected to be wined and dined. “I don’t remember there being a night out next weekend?”

Maryellen didn’t answer me right away as she continued tapping on her tablet. Finally, her eyes connected with mine.

“That one just came across my desk late yesterday. He’s the son of Ronald Weaver, the owner of Gold and Sons, the company you just acquired last week. He’s meeting with you because he’s moving to New York since it was decided he will run that sector of the company.”

I nodded along at the information she provided and noticed that Chase was on the calendar to join us as well. That usually meant it would be a very late, drunken night.

But I figured I was due for one of those.

“What club do you have us booked at? I’ve never been to that one.”

The Velvet Rope.

“Oh, it’s been around. I hear it’s a very good one, you just need to get out more.” She gave me a glance from under her long eyelashes after that comment. “I booked you a room in the VIP lounge. You’ll have a private server and bartender, as usual. It’s all set up, no worries.”

There was never anything to worry about when it came to Maryellen and her ability to handle my business life, or my personal life, for that matter. Somehow, she always got it done.

“What’s this I’m hearing about a night out next week?” Chase said cheerfully as he bounded into my office. His feet seemed to be bouncing in delight as his strides took him to my couch. “It’s about time we get a night out, bro.” His arms fell against the back of the sofa as his feet crossed at the ankles midair before landing on the table in front of him.

A silent look of tolerance was shared between Maryellen and me as she stood from her seat. She understood that we would have to finish our meeting later and excused herself without a word. But I did catch Chase watching her as she left.

“Don’t you ever work?” I chided as my eyes returned to my computer.

“Dude, we are among the lucky ones, where going out on a Saturday night, to an exclusive club, is work.”

He wasn’t wrong there. And I was due. I just didn’t think I was ready. But for the sake of the new co-worker, I’d put the happy face on and entertain away.

“Well, that’s still over a week away. We have a company to run until then if you haven’t noticed. And,” I paused as I glanced at my watch, “we have a staff meeting to get to. We should head downstairs now.”

Every Thursday we held a breakfast meeting for the entire staff at 10:00 a.m.

That was almost one hundred employees that we fed every Thursday morning.

My father wasn’t too thrilled with the idea when I came up with it last year, but participation during the meetings increased tenfold since. In addition, since starting the Thursday brunch, productivity had improved as well as employee approval ratings. It couldn’t all be coincidental.

Our father was playing around with the idea of selling the company. We were brought up being told this company would be our bread and butter, that it would be ours. Yet, he was thinking of taking it away from us. I wasn’t sure if I wanted that to happen or not. In the meantime, I’d make sure the company remained productive.

And I would do it in his name. They thought the brunch idea was his.

I had a reputation to uphold: curmudgeon.

Chase was the fun playboy brother that everyone could joke around with in the office. I, on the other hand, ran the business. Therefore, I had the stress of making sure the company made money at the end of the day. Not always an easy task.

Hence, curmudgeon.

But I felt as though Maryellen knew the real me, which most here didn’t see.

At that exact moment, the knock came on my door.

Her head popped in as I was standing from my chair.

“I know, Maryellen, we’re heading to the meeting now, thanks.”

“You should have included mimosas in the Thursday brunch menu,” Chase commented to the back of my head as we walked down the hall to the elevators.

It didn’t warrant a response.

After the meeting, Chase and Jared walked with me back to my office. Jared was a lawyer in our company. We not only worked together in my company but had been best friends since college. We were roommates and in the same frat down at brU. He wasn’t happy, though, when Rebecca and I used his services to finalize our divorce. He felt that “put him in the middle,” considering he was friends with us both. But we made our divorce easy enough for one person to handle. She took nothing, I wanted nothing. We just went our separate ways, so it worked. The three of us were something of a trio back at school, and he was as upset as I was when things didn’t work out between Rebecca and me.

He and I were like brothers, maybe more like brothers than me and Chase.

“Hey,” Chase said as we got close to my door. “Ya got a minute?”

“I’ll wait in here,” Jared said, heading into my office.

Turning toward my brother, he looked uncomfortable.

“So, hey, I’m sorry about what happened yesterday,” Chase said.

“Yeah, I meant to talk to you about that. It wasn’t very professional what you said to Harper.”

He leaned against the wall and let out a sigh as his hand scrubbed at his face. “I know, man. I’m sorry.” Unbuttoning the jacket of his suit, he turned toward me. “You know I’m not really cut out for this corporate shit, especially the meetings. I’m better on my own, sitting at my desk with my computer. Or the going out part, I’m good with the socializing stuff.”

He was right. And I should respect that. Knowing one’s strengths and boundaries was important, and I should limit his responsibilities to what he felt comfortable with. I’d work harder on that for him.

“So, anyway, I was thinking I might reach out to her, see if she wants to go out,” he said.

And my stomach dropped.

Yet I had no idea why this should even bother me. I made the decision I was done with women. Well, done with relationships. So, if he wanted to reach out to her, he should.

But my gut was telling me no.

That I shouldn’t let him.

So, the jealous asshole in me answered him, not the brother.

“Not sure we should mix business with pleasure.”

He appeared a bit stunned by my response as he stood in the hall, across from me, silent. I walked to the door of my office to meet up with Jared.

Turning to him, I asked, “Anything else, Chase?”

“Nope.” Spinning on his heels, I watched him walk to the elevator and hit the down button.