In the Company

The minute Ryleigh relayed Jon’s message to me, I was off the couch and into my room.

“So I’ll take it we can’t wear our sweats?” Ry sighed.

“No, I don’t think we can,” I grumbled. It wasn’t that I was pissed I had to change or anything like that, I mean; doing things like this was a part of our job. I was less than thrilled that we had to go deal with Pat.

I ditched my lazy clothes on my bedroom floor with plans to put them back on as soon as I could and pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and a nicer shirt. I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and attempted makeup, stopping at eyeliner and mascara. Not even bothering with a purse, I grabbed my phone, keys, and some money. With heels on, I found Ryleigh exiting her room dressed in the same fashion.

“Ready to go kick some hockey player ass?” she asked, stifling a yawn.

I nodded and almost tripped going towards the door. Maybe the level of alcohol I had drunken that night and high heels weren’t the best combination, especially to go and reprimand a client for drinking too much.

“Smooth,” Ry giggled, showing her own effects of the drinking.

I muttered at her in Spanish under my breath, irking her, I’m sure, as we made way down to street level. Pausing at the curb, I turned to her.

“Where are they?” if the club was close, we could trek it. But if it was more than five city blocks, I was hailing a cab. I was in no condition to be walking that far in heels.

“They’re at Lights,” she scrolled through her phone. “That’s a good two or three miles away.”

“Yeah,” I whipped around and stepped out into the street. “Taxi!”

We paid for the cab with our company card and told him not to bother waiting. Stepping out of the yellow car, we were greeted with a long line of people waiting for admittance into the club.

“How the hell are we getting in there?” Ry asked. “We don’t have time to wait in line all night.”

“I’ve got it,” I took out my phone and tapped out a text to Jon. “You’re not the only one with a hockey player’s number.”

Outside with Ry. Can you get us in?

Hopefully, he had his phone in hand and wouldn’t take him long. We walked past the line and towards the bouncer in the hopes that we would find Jon waiting there for us.

“Sorry ladies,” the large security guard pointed to the end of the line. “You’ve got to wait.”

And as if on cue, and before Ry could open her mouth, Jon appeared behind him.

“They’re with me,” he explained and the burly guy let us through the velvet ropes with plenty of pissed off stares from the bottle blondes in line.

“Where is he?” Ry shouted over the noise of club.

Jon pointed up a flight of stairs. “VIP lounge. Come on, I hate to see what happened when I left him alone.”

It was plain to me why so many hot young people liked coming to Lights. The DJ was pretty decent, the wait staff was always around, ready with food or drinks, and the view of the New York skyline from the VIP lounge was to die for. It was exactly the kind of place Ry and I would never have gotten into if it weren’t for our jobs.

It was also plain to me as to where Patrick was. Even before we were completely up the stairs (having helped Jon get past a few female ‘fans’), we could hear Kane and his posse.

“He’s over in the middle of that crowd,” Jon said gesturing to the throng of young people. “What are you guys gonna do.”

Ryleigh straightened up, ready for action. “I got this.” She put a hand out to stop either of us from doing anything.

“Um, no,” I grabbed her wrist. “Remember last time you tried to do something like this on your own?”

We both cringed. Our last big assignment hadn’t gone over… perfectly. It all ended fine, sure, but we had our rocky moments.

“We need to work together,” I decided. “All three of us.”

“You need me?” Jon asked.

Ry nodded, seeing where I wanted to go. “If Kane’s anything like I think he is, he’ll want to put up a fight. You’ve got some authority over him, so having you along for the ride should make things easier on all of us.”

“Plus,” I smiled. “You can call our boss in the morning and tell her what a fabulous job we did.”

Jon laughed. “Alright, I’m in. What’s the plan?”

I rocked up onto my tiptoes, trying to see over the heads of everyone in the crowd.

“I hate being short,” I grumbled before kicking off my shoes to balance myself on a chair with a hand on Ryleigh and Jon’s shoulders.

From my new vantage point, I could see Patrick at a table, throwing back shots. On either side he had a stick thin, fake tanned, big chested girl, both of them giggling like crazy. Typical, right?

I shared my findings with Jon and Ry and they both shook their heads, trying not to laugh at the stupidity of the situation.

“Okay,” Ryleigh said. “I think I have an idea. What if we have you, Rose, go through the crowd and interrupt them, make up some lie about you being his girlfriend. Jon, you’ll-,” I cut her off.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I put up a hand. “You want me to do what?”

“Just go with it!” she snapped. “We don’t have time for you to voice your unhappy opinions on Pat!” She shook her head and went back to Jon. “Jon, you’re going to make sure that when Rose leads him away eventually, he doesn’t get away.”

“And you?” Jon asked.

“I’m going to clear the way for Rose in the crowd and when we’re leaving,” she decided. “Hopefully, we can do this without club security getting on our backs.”

“Right,” I sighed. As unhappy as I was about her plan, it was pretty foolproof. Score 1 for Ryleigh, 0 for me. “Let’s do this.”

Jon moved around so that he could see Kane through the crowd while I latched onto Ryleigh’s wrist. She yanked out my ponytail and put the hair tie around her wrist as she wound her way through the masses of people, stopping at his table. “Make it believable,” she whispered. “Those girls will eat you alive.”

Gee, thanks best friend.

Pat’s eyes were a little glazed over, but they glanced from the small glasses in front of him to me and then to the cups again in a few seconds and then back.

“Rosie!” All of a sudden, I had a new nickname. “What are you doing here?”

“Came to see my boyfriend,” I inwardly cringed. “Do you mind?” I asked the two girls that were attached to my new ‘boyfriend’. “I’d like to sit there.”

“Go on,” Patrick motioned for them to move and even in his drunken state, they listened to him. “And since when are you my girlfriend?”

I laughed, trying to play it off. “You’re so funny, Pat. You shouldn’t drink so much, you forget the silliest things.”

His eyebrows knit together, trying to piece together the puzzle that was before him, but the alcohol probably wasn’t making it easy on him.

As he thought, I flicked my eyes over to my partners in crime. Jon was watching the scene play out with a bemused expression on his face, one that he would pay for later. Ryleigh was trying to send me signals for what to do, although I couldn’t decode any of them. Deciding that I would be better off on my own, I turned my back to her.

“Let’s get you out of here, yeah? I’m sure you’d much rather be back at the hotel,” I offered. “We’ll get you a cab.”

“Nah,” Pat shook his head, ignoring the whispers of the crowd around us. He started to trace patterns on my hands and wrists and I tried to discreetly brush him away, to no avail.

“And why’s that?” I sighed.

“You’re not there,” he said simply.

That was kind of… cute. Why didn’t David say things like that to me anymore?

‘Don’t think like that,’ I scolded myself. ‘You and David are great.’

“Pat,” I dropped my voice to a whisper and leaned into his ear. “You’re drunk off your ass. If you were sober, you wouldn’t be saying half this stuff. Let’s get you back to the hotel and into bed.”

“No!” he shook his head. “Not unless you’re there with me!”

“I’ll ride in the cab back with you, I promise,” I assured him. “Let’s just get out of here. Come on, Ryleigh and Jonathan are here too.”

I stood up and offered him my hand, wiggling my fingers, but he stayed put.

“Please, Patrick?” I was about ready to tear my hair out. “For me? Your,” I swallowed my pride. “girlfriend?”

He considered that for a moment and eventually slid out of the booth, opting to sling an arm around my waist instead of taking my hand.

We walked past Ryleigh, who was now watching with an awestruck kind of expression, and Jon, who was doing his best not to burst into laughter. I stopped walking at the top of the stairs and we waited on them to catch up.

“Jonny!” Pat smiled. “Have you met my new girlfriend?”

But before Jon could respond to his teammate’s question, another voice answered.

“No, but I sure would like to.”

Now that was a very familiar voice. I shrugged out of Kane’s grasp and made a worried look to Ryleigh, before turning to see my real boyfriend.

“David,” I smiled as I pecked his cheek. “Hi! I thought you were in the Hampton’s tonight at that retirement party?”

“Change of plans,” he gestured to a group of well-dressed professionals were a woman was watching us curiously, but his eyes were on Patrick. “What are you doing here, exactly?”

“Uh, it’s not what it looks like,” I assured him as I dropped my voice to a dull roar. “It’s work, really. Can we meet for lunch tomorrow and I can explain everything?”

David seemed to debate that idea for a few minutes, but nodded yes. “12:00 at Meyer’s on 5th.” It wasn’t a question.

“I’ll be there,” I assured him. “And thank you.” I kissed him on the cheek, and as I turned around, I found Pat being restrained by both Jon and Ryleigh. I really hoped someone had videotaped his reaction, which would be some funny stuff, I’m sure.

“Come on,” I sighed, grabbing his hand again. “Let’s go.”

“Who was that? Why did you kiss him?” Pat rattled off question after question.

“Um, that was…,” I had no idea what lie to spout to keep a drunk Kaner calm.

“That was her ex,” Jon offered up, making Ryleigh happy I’m sure. “She was making sure he knew she had moved on, right Ry?”

My roommate and best friend nodded. “Yup! Exactly right. See, Kaner? No worries.”

That seemed to suffice for him and Patrick went back to having his arm wrapped around me waist, albeit a bit tighter.

“So let’s get us all a taxi,” Ry said as we emerged from the club.

“No,” Patrick protested. “Rosie said we’d get a cab for just us!”

Damn him. He was right.

“We’ll meet you guys at the hotel,” I said, biting my tongue. “The Marriot by the office, right?”

The cab ride was uneventful, although I had to keep knocking Pat’s hands away from my legs. Jon and Ryleigh followed behind in their own ride, I’m sure laughing about us the whole way. I managed to get Pat up to his room on my own but getting him to go to sleep was a whole other venture.

“Come on, Pat,” I groaned. “You need sleep!”

“I need you!” he protested. “Stay here.”

“No,” I said for the millionth time. “I have work tomorrow. I’ll see you there, I’m sure I will.”

“Please?”

“NO! You need to go to sleep and so do I,” I continued before he could stop me. “Alone! You aren’t going to remember any of this in the morning, so you’ll be just fine!”

“Rosie,” he whined.

“My name’s not Rosie,” I stated firmly. “It’s Rose. Now,” I managed to wiggle my hands out of his grasp as I forced him over to his still unpacked suitcase. “Get clothes and change.”

He shrugged and began removing his shirt, obviously still wanting to get on my nerves.

“Not out here!” I slapped my hands over my tired eyes. “In the bathroom!”

Of course, he didn’t bother listening to me and when I slowly opened my eyes a few minutes later, I found him shirtless, in his boxers.

“PJs,” he said simply.

“Right, right,” I rolled my eyes. “Bed for you, now.”

“So demanding,” he muttered. “I like it.”

I pointed to the large hotel bed in the center of the room and made sure he was getting under the cover before I turned my back to leave.

“Don’t go!” he protested.

“Bye,” I waved. With what little patience I had left, I placed a dose of medicine and a glass of water on his bathroom counter for him to find in the morning.

In the hallway, I found Jon and Ryleigh, leaning against each other and the wall in a fit of silent giggles.

“Not a single word,” I frowned at her. “Ever.”