Otherwise Engaged: A Fake Engagement Romance

I checked my phone for the twentieth time in as many minutes, even though the ringer was on full volume. My text had gone unanswered, just like all the rest. Thayer still wouldn’t talk to me.

For the first couple of days, I wrote it off as her needing time to cool down. Now, I was starting to panic.

Regret wasn’t a strong enough word for what I’d done. It was more like self-loathing. I worked so hard to get behind those fucking walls of hers, and then I pushed her into building them right back up.

Ian was practically dragging me around by my tie at the office, trying to force me to deal with my responsibilities, from the menial to the critical. There was no shortage of work to be done; I just didn’t care. Having witnessed it firsthand with Holden, I was beginning to wonder whether I was depressed.

As I walked out of the kitchen with a beer in hand, a soft knock sounded at my door. Only a handful of people knew the code to my building, and I was praying to God it was the one I wanted.

In some bizarre act of superstition, I didn’t check the peephole before opening the door. And when I cracked it open, my prayers had been answered. Thayer was standing at my front door in black yoga pants, an oversized grey sweater, and not a trace of makeup. While she looked beautiful, like always, she also looked like she’d been crying. Knowing I was the cause of that made me feel even worse, and the dull ache I’d been carrying around for several days turned into a stabbing pain in my chest.

Our eyes locked and her mouth twitched, but I couldn’t tell if she was fighting a smile or trying not to cry. Which was sort of where I was at, too.

My hands itched to reach out and grab her, but I knew I shouldn’t. At least, not yet.

“Thay?” I opened the door all the way to find Quinn standing beside her. “Er, hi, Quinn.” Relief and hope gave way to an epic amount of confusion, along with a hefty dose of disappointment. I couldn’t imagine any scenario that would explain why the two of them were standing at my doorstep, but I was sure it didn’t involve Thayer coming over to reconcile with me.

“Can we come in?” Thayer asked. “It’s about Adam.”

THAT LYING, cheating, sneaky, bribing bastard.

I made another lap around my living room, raking a hand through my hair, which I was certain was standing straight on end at this point. Quinn and Thayer sat on the couch in front of me, looking mildly alarmed at the level of my anger. They didn’t know how well I was actually hiding it. If I’d run into Adam right now, I would have maimed him with my bare hands.

“Did you get screenshots?” I asked Quinn. Receipts proving he’d bribed the mayor were exactly what I needed to put a bullet through Adam’s career.

“No,” she admitted.

What little remained of my patience vanished and I slapped my thigh in frustration. “Fuck!” Quinn was a zero out of ten on the common sense scale.

“Bennett,” Thayer reprimanded me, nudging me with her foot as I passed by. It was warped, but the bodily contact gave me hope. Despite the fact that I was half out of my mind, she’d softened toward me since she first arrived.

“Adam’s still out of town,” Quinn added, evidently unfazed by my outburst. “I can get them. I’ll do it when I get home tonight.”

I made a sharp right, beginning another lap from one end of the room to the other. I’d long since lost count of how many laps I was at in total, but I’d been pacing for over twenty minutes, and at the rate I was going, I’d be pacing all night. The amount of adrenaline surging through my veins was unparalleled. I knew Adam was a slimeball, but bribing an elected official for the sole purpose of one-upping me? That was ballsy.

What I hadn’t figured out was how to leverage it, however.

“I know you guys want to help,” I said, “and I appreciate that. But outing his bribery and causing a big scandal will mean this development gets put on hold indefinitely, and that still leaves me in a bad position.” I hated to admit that, especially to Thayer, but it was an open secret at this point. We all knew Flux was in trouble.

“Well…” Thayer hesitated. “If AM Developments is going to win the bid, what if we take AM Developments?”

I came to a stop. “What do you mean?”

“According to the prospectus, Adam only owns thirty percent right now. My father has thirty-five, and his other investor holds the remaining thirty-five.”

‘Who’s his other investor?” Quinn asked.

I couldn’t believe she didn’t know. Had she and Adam talked about anything of substance at all?

“Richard,” Thayer and I both said.

WE PORED over the prospectus Adam had provided Thayer’s father, stress-testing AM Developments. It took a few hours to determine whether our plan was financially feasible, and then we double-checked the figures to make sure Adam hadn’t padded them to paint himself in a more favorable light. Quinn tried to help as much as she could, but she didn’t understand most of it.

When Quinn excused herself to use the bathroom, Thayer and I found ourselves alone for the first time since our fight. While being around her could have been awkward, it wasn’t. Partially because we were so occupied crunching numbers, but also, I thought, because of what was still between us. The ever-present magnetism was just as strong as it had always been. After spending a couple of hours with Thayer, I was confident I hadn’t ruined things forever; I just didn’t know how to make her see that.

“AM Developments is in a pretty good position right now,” Thayer pointed out, running her finger along the totals at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

“Of course, it is,” I said, failing to keep bitterness out of my voice. “Look how liquid he was when he started. Flux has never had the luxury of that much operating capital. I floated the entire company myself when we started out.” And then Adam stole from me, which meant I’d floated his company, too.

Her tone softened. “I wasn’t blaming you, Bennett. I know he screwed you over, but we’re going to get him back.”

We. The simple two-letter word did something to me. Was there still a “we”? I wanted there to be, but I didn’t want her to be on my team right now out of pity.

I turned to face her. “You don’t have to do this for me, you know.”

“Don’t think of it as me doing it for you, think of me doing it for Quinn,” Thayer said, offering me a weak smile. “Plus, you told me that parcel of land AM owns downtown is worth over five million dollars on its own, right? I’m not worried about it. Adam aside, the figures justify the investment my father made.”

I was deeply torn. On the one hand, this was my only way out of this mess alive. On the other, I didn’t want Thayer to save me. Plus, if we pulled this off, Adam was going to be out for blood. I didn’t particularly care when it came to myself, but I didn’t want to put her in his crosshairs.

“I don’t want you to make an enemy out of Adam,” I told her.

“We aren’t exactly BFFs as it is,” she said. Her fingertips landed on my arm and we both startled, like she’d breached some unspoken barrier. But she let her hand stay there, and warmth spread through my body in response to the contact. “I know what I’m doing, Bennett. Adam deserves to go down in flames.”

“We can both agree on that.”

Quinn tiptoed back into the room, like she was afraid she was interrupting something. I only wished that were the case. If they’d driven separately, maybe I would have had a shot at Quinn leaving first, but as it was, I was stuck with both or neither of them.

“Sorry,” Quinn said softly. “Can you run me through what I’m supposed to do one more time?”

Thayer removed her hand, and we exchanged a brief look. Something clenched in my chest, like all the unsaid words I couldn’t tell her in front of Quinn had formed a gigantic knot.

When I walked them to the door a few minutes later, Thayer let Quinn go ahead, lingering behind. She fidgeted with a button on her grey wool peacoat, looking back up at me.

“You’re going to run this by Ian tonight?” she asked.

“I will.” I wasn’t sure whether Ian would be amenable to a forced takeover of Adam’s company. It did mean taking on a significant amount of additional work and responsibility, especially until we absorbed the expansion internally and eliminated staff redundancies, but I hoped he’d be on my side once he saw the assets we would acquire. Plus, being able to pay off the IRS was a fairly significant benefit. We’d both sleep better at night once that happened.

“Thanks for the help,” I said.

And I miss you, I wanted to add, but I wasn’t sure she wanted to hear that since she hadn’t replied to my earlier text. Still, something flitted across her face that made me think she might miss me, too.

“Thank me when we get your money back,” Thayer said, stealing a glance over her shoulder at Quinn. “I’ll see you Friday.”

“See you then.”

Our plan was risky. It probably wouldn’t even work. But I had to try.*

The following day, it was do or die.

Last time I met with my Uncle Richard at his office, it had been a last resort. This time, it was still a last resort, but I had a few more cards to play. Ones he wouldn’t see coming, for a change.

I tilted the iPad screen so Richard could see, swiping through the image files Quinn had sent to me.

“Here, you can see a large campaign donation to our recently-elected mayor,” I said. “Timing’s a bit odd, don’t you think? Especially because he publicly stated this would be his final term in office. Could be construed as a bribe, especially if Adam received something in return, like preferential treatment for a development bid. Which, incidentally, is exactly what the mayor promised him in this lovely little email here.”

You’d think between Adam and the mayor, someone would have been smart enough not to leave a paper trail; but their stupidity was to my advantage in the end.

Richard’s jaw tensed as he scanned the email on the screen, and he nodded tersely, indicating for me to continue.

I swiped to the next image, a cash flow statement from two years ago. “But this one is my favorite. Turns out, these figures highlighted in red were part of an elaborate framework to embezzle funds from Flux. Quite creative on Adam’s part, really. I’ve got to give him credit where it’s due.” Adam probably got his knack for concocting schemes like that from Richard, but I knew better than to say that out loud.

Richard harrumphed, studying the screen with a frown. His eyes ping-ponged back and forth along the columns of numbers, connecting the dots. It was obvious once it was laid out in plain sight.

Finally, his hawkish gaze landed back on me. “Are you trying to blackmail me, son?”

“Would I ever skirt the rules of the law like that?” I asked.

He cocked a salt-and-pepper brow. “I don’t know, Bennett. Would you?”

“I’m merely bringing the situation to your attention since you’re an affected party. Of course, I don’t particularly want to involve the IRS and the Securities and Exchange Commission—but I can’t let misappropriation of my company’s funds go unaddressed, either.”

This was a bluff; I couldn’t afford to involve the IRS or the SEC, or I risked running into trouble due to some of the gray-area things I’d done myself. Luckily, Richard didn’t appear to know about any of that. He knew I was destitute, but not that I’d basically kited checks to stay afloat.

“All I’m saying is, I don’t think any of us want to see a second family scandal, especially not with your history of previous SEC investigations. Might be perceived as one of those smoke and fire situations. I’d hate to jeopardize your securities license. We both know how limiting that’s been for my father.”

As in, it ruined his entire life.

“That’s what this is really about, isn’t it?” He picked up his glass of scotch, swirling it.

“The fact that you walked away scot-free while he lost everything? It could be a factor.”

“Your father was going down either way,” Richard said. “The informant had him on tape. Do you honestly think that taking him down with me would have somehow improved the outcome for you?”

Part of me knew he was right, even if I hated hearing it. It still didn’t excuse him working my father to the bone in a lower-level position, underpaying him for his level of expertise and experience. Even a lateral move to a different firm would be difficult, if not impossible, with my father’s history.

He added, “I took care of your family, Bennett, and I made sure Lydia had everything she needed when she was sick. I still do.”

“Now,” he said. “I do concur with your assessment of the situation and that the optics of this blowing up publicly would be undesirable for everyone. What do you propose?”

“Again, I’m not looking to coerce you in any manner. But if you happen to be looking to divest yourself of the equity in Adam’s company, I’d be happy to take it off your hands.”

Richard regarded me skeptically. “You’re not liquid enough to do that.”

Little did he know, I was about to be. But I was in no hurry to tie up that much capital in one place.

“I’m sure we can work out a payment schedule that we both deem agreeable,” I told him. “If I default on the payments before the balance is paid, I’ll even ensure your equity will be returned to you in full.”

I was practically holding my breath, but I tried not to look like it. This was the last step in our plan, and without it, everything Thayer had done would be for nothing.

“How much?”

I slid a piece of paper across the table to him. Frowning, he picked it up, and his frown deepened. His eyes flicked back up to me.

“Your call,” I said.

He studied me for a beat before finally giving me a nod. Something a bit like begrudging respect emerged across his face. “I’ll have my lawyers draw something up,” he said gruffly.

“I’ll have my lawyers draw something up,” I said, “and yours can review it.”