Her Swedish Billionaire’s Baby

She tossed her short hair out of her face; with her pixie cut, it tended to get into her eyes now and then but it was also really comfortable in the heat and complimentary to her heart shaped face. She wore no jewelry or make up, her sleeveless arms were bare. Her fitted red t-shirt had ‘Good Morning. I see the Assassins have Failed’ emblazoned across it. It gave people an excuse to stare at her substantial bust; a fact which Samara was ruefully just realizing. She shrugged internally as she entered the cafeteria.

*****

Samara was doing further research on the inner workings of Nordstrom when she came across an article stating that Bjorn Fredriksen would be in California taking a break in the aftermath of his father’s funeral.

She gasped in excitement and was on her feet heading towards her professor’s office before she’d even really thought about it. Luckily professor Zhang had an open door policy and she didn’t so much as flinch when Samara burst in.

“Professor! Bjorn Fredriksen is in town! Like right now. What are the chances he might be willing to come to the campus and give a talk?”

“Whoa, hey, slow down there Sam. What are we talking about again?”

“Bjorn Fredriksen…Jan Fredriksen’s son? The shipping magnate who just past away. And my research project by the way…”

“Uh huh?”

“What if we could get him to come do a guest lecture on Nordstorm? Isn’t that something we would be interested in doing?”

“Well..yes. Assuming he would agree to do so-“

“Well we could contact him and see,” Samara was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

“We could, but you’d need to calm down first.”

Samara stayed absolutely still, “I’m calm. Promise.”

Prof Zhang gave her a look before she picked up her phone and made a call. One call led to another and another with one person referring them to someone else. Finally they were connected with Bjorn’s assistant in Sweden who was reluctant to commit him to anything considering he was doing a bit of R&R. On further negotiations however, it turned out that there were some Swedish artifacts the Archaeological department was holding that were of interest to the Nordstorm group. Bjorn might see his way to giving an in-depth lecture if negotiations could be opened on that front. Professor Zhang spoke to one of her colleagues based there and the deal was done.

“So he’s coming? He’s really coming?” Samara asked with excitement.

“He’s really coming,” Prof Zhang confirmed.

“Holy…I need to prepare. Excuse me,” Samara said rushing out and heading to the library. She had to get up to snuff on everything Bjorn Fredriksen.

*****

Alison walked into the hotel room from her coffee run to find her father sitting on her bed, waiting for her. She stopped in surprise.

“Dad!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah. It’s me. Your dad. Who you abandoned in Denver without a word?” Chris Khaled stood up from the bed, stretching to his full six foot four height and making Alison crane her neck to look up at him. She was the midget of the family at a perfectly normal five foot six.

“I..had to,” Alison said trying to hide the quaver in her voice.

“You…had to? Really? Why did you have to?”

“I couldn’t do it anymore Dad. Samara was ri-“

“Don’t you! Don’t you even mention that girl’s name in my present; she’s a coward and a traitor.”

“Don’t you call my little sister names old man! Coward? She’s the only one of us with any bravery.”

“Ha! You always were a stupid little follower Alison. Well guess what; Samara left us both okay? So get off your high horse sister. I need you on a job.”

“I’m not coming Dad, okay?”

“Oh yeah? And what you gonna do when you run out of money girl? Because trust me I ain’t maintaining your little ass for free.”

“I didn’t ask you to. I have a plan.”

“Oh yeah? And what plan is that?”

“Like I’d tell you,” Alison said turning aside to put her coffee down, not incidentally covering the brochure she had been reading earlier on different bartending recipes. There was a roadhouse down the street that wasn’t too particular about papers and credentials. It wasn’t exactly the high life; but it was a genuine start.

Her father smiled sardonically, “Well then, I’ll leave you to your…plan. Just don’t come running to me when it fails.”

He brushed past her, jostling her hard enough to make her stumble but she didn’t say a word.