A Curve Ball Called Love

He had his arm around each girl and the two were hanging onto his every word, giggling as they looked at him as if he was the only thing in the world. And then there was the way they were dressed. The brunette was in an extra tight red dress and a pair of heels so high that Tiffany wondered how she was able to balance herself on them. The blonde was in a black spandex dress with a cut-out pattern on the sides that made Tiffany think of a nineties Toni Braxton. She too was in a pair of extremely high heels. As she stood in the doorway, Tiffany couldn’t help but wonder if what she was feeling was what women felt when they walked in on their husbands cheating on them. That was the only way she could explain what she felt as she stood there looking at her new boss. She didn’t know how long she’d been standing there before she finally got the courage to clear her throat loudly, announcing her presence there.

“Miss Meyers,” Douglas said as he looked at her.

Tiffany forced a smile.

“Mr. Ingram.” She walked into the office. “Do you mind explaining what the hell is going on here?”

“Well, this is Ginger,” Douglas took the brunette’s hand in his and planted a soft kiss on her knuckles. “And this is Peach.”

Really, your mother carried you inside her for thirty-nine, maybe forty weeks only to name you after a fruit?” Tiffany wondered. Maybe she should have called you a lemon…

“Can we talk?” Tiffany asked and Douglas nodded.

“Sure.”

Tiffany raised an eyebrow at the two women.

“Alone.”

Douglas smiled and then turned to the two ladies. From where she was standing, Tiffany couldn’t hear what he whispered to the two girls to make them giggle again. She had her arms crossed over her chest as the two women walked out of the office and she was praying that Douglas could see just how pissed off she was as she stood there. She’d decided to let her silence do the talking for her but he didn’t seem to have the ability to read the room.

“How do you like my new office?” he asked and Tiffany shook her head.

“I don’t, because this isn’t your office. It’s Vincent Abrahams’. One of Entity’s biggest names.”

Douglas raised an eyebrow.

“That guy?” He forced out a laugh. “What would his bright shirts and tighter than tight pants know about anything?”

“Digital marketing. Improving Entity’s online presence. Making Entity visible to start-ups as well as traditional companies….I could go on but I won’t because this is all information you would have, had you taken the time to know the slightest about the company you invested in!”

“Miss Meyers….” Douglas started.

“All you had to do was go down to human resources and ask them to assign you an office. You would have gotten whatever office you wanted customized to your liking… but coming and toppling the head of a department?”

“That guy is a head of a department?” Douglas shook his head. “How?”

“Like I said, he’s the best at what he does. Before he worked for us, he worked for the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns because he knows how to drive up numbers in the digital space. He created an algorithm to do personalized marketing for his thesis and sold it to a social media guru for two million dollars. That’s how good he is.”

Douglas shook his head.

“Two million dollars?” he asked. “Then why does he even need to work?”

“You’re a billionaire who stole someone’s office. You tell me. Also, he’s a gambler in recovery. So, there’s that.”

Douglas took a long, deep breath.

“I just wanted to be here. To get some work done.”

Tiffany shook her head and forced out a laugh.

“Is that what Ginger and Pear were? Work?” she asked cynically.

“It’s Peach,” Douglas corrected her and she rolled her eyes.

“I don’t care. She’s named after some kind of fruit…” her voice trailed off and she sighed loudly. “First things first, you might be a boss around here but you aren’t above human courtesy. So, you will apologize to Vincent. He deserves that much. And you’re also going to be giving him a nice little bonus from your personal account.”

“What?” he asked, surprised.

“I’m not done. This place isn’t a brothel. This is a place of business. So, wherever Ginger and Pear…Peach came from, you never bring them in here again.”

Her voice was firm and by the look in Douglas’ eyes, she knew that her message had gotten through to him.

“Yes ma’am,” he said in a soft voice.

“Good. My job is already frustrating enough without you throwing a wrench into the works,” Tiffany added as she looked into his eyes. “If this is going to work, I’m going to need you to work with me. Don’t throw any surprises at me and for God’s sake you have three properties in this state alone. So, if you have to meet your gingers and peaches, then do so at one of those places with the windows closed and curtains drawn for Pete’s sake.”

Douglas was smiling as she turned around and walked out of the office, but she was in a whole different place. All she wanted was to get away from the space he was in and back to her own office. She was probably going to put her headphones in and catch up on the last season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She’d been planning to do that for weeks and for the first time in a long time, she was done with her workload way before time.

“Perhaps extreme stress is the key to efficiency in my life,” she thought as she walked to her office.

She was just about to start on her first episode when Ian poked his head through the cracked doorway.

“You need to check out the tabloids.”

She shrugged.

“Which one?” she asked.

“Take your pick. They’re all running the same story as of two minutes ago.”

“Damn it,” Tiffany said under her breath. “Who was caught misbehaving?”

“Our new boss.”

“What the hell….” Tiffany muttered as she stared at the screen.

The words on the screen seemed to taunt her.

Entity Media Out Of Control as Billionaire Playboy Takes Over.

Tiffany was still looking at the screen when Virginia walked into her office.

“Are you seeing this?” she asked and Tiffany nodded.

“Yes, I’m seeing it but I can hardly believe it.”

How one person could cause so much trouble in less than a week was nothing but surprising to her. She had hardly gotten any time to rest since Douglas carved his way into Entity.

“I hope you have a plan to handle this,” Virginia said as Tiffany reached for her phone.

“I’m already on it,” she said.