The Billionaire’s Over 40 Love

Faydra’s blood started to boil but she maintained a straight face. “Is he expecting her?”

“Yes,” the man replied in a slightly incredulous tone which Faydra was appreciative of.

“Okay, hold on.” The woman was clearly uninterested in helping them and Faydra grew bewildered as the woman made an outgoing call.

Casually ,the woman waited for whoever was on the other end of the line to pick up, “Hey—it’s me,” she said informally as if talking to her best friend. “Listen, there’s a woman here to see Cal—do you want to come get her?” Faydra wasn’t familiar with the goings-on of companies and big building politics but she was fairly confident that this was not the typical way a guest was escorted to someone’s office.

The woman glanced Faydra up and down again, lingering over her face or hair, “Umm…no—well, maybe.” She paused another second before finishing the conversation. “Okay, great. See you then.”

She put down the phone and turned back to Faydra and the driver who was clearly losing patience at the interaction. “Sophia will be down to get you in a minute. You can wait right there,” she indicated to a set of chairs near the elevators with a large fake smile.

Faydra nodded, and spoke to the driver, “You don’t have to wait, I’ll be fine.”

He nodded and replied, “I’ll be back to pick you up when you’re done.”

“Thank you,” Faydra smiled and watched him walk away from the chair she sat down in. She waited at least fifteen minutes while fighting the evil glances from the woman at the desk. Eventually, Faydra was greeted by a pair of long, perfectly shaped white legs adorned with a navy blue pencil skirt and white and blue polka dot blouse. At the top was the gorgeous, blonde face of the woman who had all but accosted her at the taco truck the other day.

“Oh hi—Fowdra? Is it?” she said in the most condescending voice Faydra thought she’d ever encountered.

So, this was how it was going to be. Faydra didn’t even have time to consider what the woman was doing at Cal’s office and what possible relationship they could have before she had to respond and follow her towards the elevators.

“Uh, Faydra, actually. And I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name—you must be Cal’s secretary.” Faydra wasn’t sure if that was true or not but she figured if it wasn’t, it would at least be mildly offensive. And emphasizing that she didn’t know the woman’s name should serve to explain that Cal had never once mentioned the woman to her.

The flat face that greeted her once they were inside the elevator replied, “Sophia. And no, not his secretary. I’m his business partner and girlfriend.”

The small space was immediately fifteen degrees hotter and lucky for Faydra, her skin hid blushing very well. This wasn’t the time to argue with some woman she didn’t know, but she also knew it was impossible to stand down at this point. Sophia had started something and Faydra would surely try to finish it.

“Oh, really? He never mentioned you in any of our conversations.”

“Why would he?” Sophia retorted, “He’s very private.”

“Eh, I don’t know if I agree with that. He’s shared a lot with me, including how this company came to be and interestingly, your name never came up.” Faydra was pleased for the moment but realized that if there was at any point a line between obvious hostility and harmless girl intimidation, she had just crossed it.

Sophia scoffed and seemed like she was about to respond when the elevator slowed and the doors opened. They opened onto a large floor with a similar, but smaller front desk immediately out front. The woman there—the real secretary—stopped Sophia the moment she saw her.

“Is that Mr. Dennison’s guest? Why did you—?” The woman clearly had expected to fetch Faydra herself.

“They called me for some reason, it’s no problem, I’ll take her to Cal’s office myself.” The woman briskly walked away from the desk and to the back right corner of the building, indicating that Faydra should follow. She practically had to run to keep up and was glad that the woman had opted for silence this time instead of daggers.

Faydra hadn’t had to defend her territory in a long time, and although she technically had no claim over Cal, she liked making Sophia feel jealous.

She couldn’t help but wonder, though, how much truth there was to her words. Was Cal really dating this woman or was she just an overprotective bi*ch?

They arrived at a corner office lined with deep mahogany panels so that no one could see inside. The door read Calvin Dennison, CEO and a small desk to the right of the door held a small, older woman’s desk in matching mahogany.

“Oh, you must be Faydra!” she yelped excitedly when she saw the two approaching. She shook Faydra’s hand, and said: “Sophia, that’s all for now, thank you!”

Sophia clearly did n’t want to leave and as the secretary knocked and began to crack open Cal’s door, Sophia tried to peak in. Noticing that Faydra was very well aware of her strange behavior, Sophia rolled her eyes and scoffed away. What a bizarre human.

The woman ushered Faydra into the office, smiled and shut the door behind her when she left. The office held a lot of matching mahogany furniture: a large desk, a big wood table with many chairs and multiple bookshelves. The best part of the office was the view, naturally. Faydra remembered how long they had to travel in the elevator to land them this high up over the city. The corner of the office was completely glass. A small couch was set to look out over the city and all Faydra found herself wanting to do was bury herself in it.

In front of the window was Cal. He had the phone pressed to one ear and was fiddling with a Rubik’s cube in the other. Faydra found this fascinating. She walked in, unsure of where to sit—it seemed Cal hadn’t heard them enter. She walked over to the window and slid a hand across the back of Cal’s white dress shirt. If he was surprised he didn’t make it known.

Instead, he reached over and put the Rubik’s cube arm around her and, with the phone still pressed to his ear, planted a kiss on her lips. When he drew back he was smiling and Faydra moved towards the couch where she took a seat.

“Listen Mitch, I gotta go. You’ve got everything you need to clear this up, right?” Liking the response on the other end of the phone he responded, “Great, I’ll talk to you later. Thanks. Bye.”

He looked over at a very comfortable and awestruck Faydra. “It’s amazing isn’t it?” he asked her.

“It’s perfect. I mean—I’ve seen this view before, rooftop bars and what not. But it’s so quiet up here. You can see it all but you can hardly hear anything. It’s crazy.”

“I know, I’m a lucky guy.”

“Well, you’ve worked hard for it, I think that’s more than luck.”

“Maybe,” he said with a smile as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her, kissing her again. “But, I think it’s luckier that I get to look at you and the view at the same time like that’s miracle status.” Faydra couldn’t help but laugh.

“Right,” Faydra replied. They hung out on the couch for a few minutes before a knock on the door signaled their lunch. Faydra realized that when Cal said sushi—he meant sushi. Three sushi platters were brought in by cart, what Faydra could only assume by mental math was probably three hundred dollars’ worth of food. “Geez…” she couldn’t help but mutter the word when she sat in front of the platters and took it all in.

“You don’t have to eat it all.”

“Well, I hope not. It would take me three weeks!”

Cal laughed. “I think you could put some of it away. Try one of each or something.” Faydra looked around, not know which to start with. He helped her pick a few rolls and move them onto her plate before he started eating.

Faydra ate all three of her rolls before she said a word, her eyes bulging at the taste and quality of the meal. “Where did this come from? This is the best sushi I’ve ever tasted.” Not that that was saying much because Faydra hardly ever splurged—and definitely not to that extent.