Mr. Corporate (Mister #3) by J.A. Huss Read Free Book Online Page A

ask him just what the fuck.
    This Wallace Arlington contract is the pinnacle of everything I’ve been doing for the past fifteen years. I’m there. I am so close I can practically taste it.
    And it’s slipping away. Everything feels like it’s slipping away.
    When I get to the building I realize it’s more of a house. There’s a lot of windows and I can see inside as I walk to the door and pull it open.
    Victoria is sitting at a kitchen island, her head in her hands.
    “What’s up?” I ask. Because I know that means she’s frustrated.
    “It doesn’t work.”
    “The radio?” I say, dropping my shoes at the front door. “Let me look at it. I’m good with electronics. Maybe I can—”
    “You can’t, Weston. It’s smashed.”
    “Smashed?”
    Victoria is pointing to the counter across from where she’s sitting, and when I step a few paces to the side I see that, yes, there is a radio, and yes, it is smashed to bits on the counter. “Who the fuck would do that?”
    “Someone who doesn’t want us to be anywhere but here today, West.”
    West. She almost never calls me West. It’s like me calling her Tori. Reserved for intimate moments.
    “Something is wrong,” she says.
    Or vulnerable ones.
    “Why do you say that?” I ask, walking up to the island and taking a seat next to her. She smells good. She always smells good. Always something flowery, too. Jasmine or honeysuckle. Gardenias or roses.
    Today she smells like something else, though. The one I always preferred. It’s fitting. Her eyes are violet, her shirt is lavender, and her scent is lilac. She is purple.
    And right now those eyes… they are stuck. On me. The past. The present.
    Why is she here?
    “Because we are in the wrong place.”
    I get up and go into the kitchen, pulling open cupboards. Empty. I open the fridge. Empty. “Fucking great.”
    “Look,” Victoria says, leaning over the island and lifting up the tap. “Water. At least we have water. That Vlad guy will be back tonight. So as long as we stay inside and hydrated, we’ll be fine.”
    “Assuming he comes back.”
    “Why wouldn’t he come back?”
    I’m sorry I said it because Victoria’s eyes get wide with concern. “Never mind. He will.”
    She goes silent and I know she won’t forget those words. It’s going to haunt her all day. She will dwell, and fret, and work herself up into a blind obsession.
    Because that’s the kind of girl Victoria Arias is.
    Wild. It’s her default setting.
    Victoria taps her nails on the countertop and I can’t help but look at them. Yesterday they were periwinkle, but today they are the lightest shade of purple imaginable. So light, they are almost white.
    “So…” she says.
    “So…” I say.
    “Are you doing well?” she asks.
    “I am, thanks. And you?” I roll my eyes. Are we so far apart this is all we have to talk about? Are we so far apart that polite conversation is all we have left between us? “Your dad,” I say. “What’s wrong with him?”
    “Oh.” Victoria sighs. “Too many things to list.”
    “I’m sorry,” I say. And I am. I always liked him.
    “He was talking about you the other day.”
    “He was?”
    “Yes. He asks about you a lot. And before you ask, it’s always good.”
    “Well, when you see him tell him I said hi. And ask him if I can come by and say it in person.”
    “He’d like that.”
    “Me too.”
    The silence takes over again. I’m actually stuck in it, I think. I want to say something. Anything to make the distance between us go away. But… I get caught up imagining all the things I could say. All the ways they could come out wrong. All the misinterpretations they might come with. And then one second has turned into thirty. And then thirty has turned into two minutes. And… Victoria gets up and goes into the bathroom.
    She closes the door, then immediately opens it. “Do you think it works?”
    I shrug. “The water works.”
    She disappears again and I’m left here alone, my