The Billionaire’s Over 40 Love

“This Japanese chef I know, he’s a personal chef and cooks for a couple of people I know.”

“Personal chef—Cal, this is really expensive…”

Each piece of sushi was wrapped perfectly in the seaweed wrap, and not a grain of rice was out of place. Even the wasabi that decorated the edge and the ginger were in dancing designs around the edges of the platters.

“I wanted to treat you though, you deserve it. He’s a friend now anyway, and we have a deal that I spread his name around town when I have business meetings and he does things like this for me for cheap. It’s really not too big of a deal.”

“If you say so…” she grabbed a few more rolls from the platter.

“Besides, the rest will go out into the break room and my employees will love me for an extra few days so that’s definitely worth it. I think.”

“Oh yes, are you kidding? They’ll love it.”

They continued eating for a few more minutes before Faydra confessed that she couldn’t eat another bite and Cal followed her soon after. She went with him to put the remaining food out in the break area where about half a dozen interns swarmed the trays. Cal winked at Faydra as they watched them go on and on, thanking him.

Next, he took her through the building, introducing her to his employees and explaining how everyone had a role in the company. When they reached the other corner of the building they noticed more and more stressed out faces and a tenser environment. At one point Faydra could hear a woman practically screaming at someone from behind a cracked open wooden door that was smaller but similar to Cal’s.

The door read Sophia Benson. Oh boy.

“We’re already three days late because you screwed up and now you’re telling me that you can’t deliver. This is completely unacceptable Travis. I don’t know whose idea it was to hire you but it was a bullsh*t call and I’m over it entirely. Get this job done and then pack up your desk, I don’t want to see you again!” The roaring voice was very obviously Sophia’s and very obviously pissed.

Cal’s face contorted into one of pain and embarrassment as he glanced back at Faydra who offered him a pitied look. “Hold on a second,” he said as the wood door swung open and a skinny young man practically ran out. Faydra couldn’t tell, but by the head-in-the-hands motion, she figured he was in tears.

Cal looked towards the young man and grimaced before walking into the office and letting Faydra follow him. “Sophia, what the hell was that?” he asked angrily, something Faydra had never seen from him before. Faydra walked in just in time to see Sophia look up: horrified, angry and embarrassed—and fuming when she saw Faydra.

“What the hell is she doing here?” she asked.

“Well, I was giving her a tour of the office and our last stop just so happened to be firing one of our best interns so naturally, we had to stop in. Forget her, you aren’t allowed to fire anyone. You don’t have that authority. You’re in charge of the interns because you’re supposed to be teaching them and honing them to be as good as you—not as miserable as you.”

“Excuse me, Calvin, you don’t get to come in here dragging your flavor of the week through the halls and bossing people around. I hate to remind you but you wouldn’t have this company if it weren’t for me so just remember that. If I want to fire a useless intern I will.”

Cal was angry, extremely angry. Faydra could tell by the warm flush across the back of his neck in front of her. He stood tall and tense, unlike his usually casual but collected self. She wasn’t sure how to take the flavor of the week comment. Again, her list of red flags from Calvin was getting longer and longer and she wondered how long she’d actually put up with it before she called it quits. Was he really worth all this drama and self-doubt she was putting herself through? Probably not.

“I’m not going to have this argument with you right now, I don’t have the energy. But I can tell you this. You know how grateful I am that you motivated me to start this company. I am. But that is where I draw the line. You never put a dollar in and only did the work—which it turns out you’re extremely good at—when I begged you or you found something to get out of it. That’s it. So, we’re all going to need you to get your act together and deal with the problems with maturity and professionalism instead of whatever it was that just exploded in here and tried to take out the intern before I walked in.”

“Uh—” Sophia tried to speak but he cut her off.

“I’m serious. I don’t want to hear it, I have to walk Faydra out. We can have this discussion later.” With that, he turned on his heels and followed Faydra out of the office. They walked silently to the elevators and Calvin waited to speak until the door shut behind them.

“God, I’m so sorry—that was so rude and unprofessional of her.” Faydra wondered if he was so oblivious to forget how she treated her the first day they met at the taco truck.

“No it’s fine, problems at work bring out the worst in people—happens to me sometimes.” Why was she still trying to be nice?

“Yeah I guess, but it’s unacceptable. Anyway, you were the highlight of my day. Thank you so much for coming, I had a lot of fun.”

“Me too,” she said and leaned in to kiss him. What was supposed to be a quick kiss on the lips turned into a full fourteen-story make out session in which no one got on the elevator… which Faydra found relatively surprising. Cal’s fingertips teased the area between her legs and near her butt which was exposed as her purple dress slid up in the commotion of contact.

As the elevator slowed Cal pulled away and let Faydra straighten her skirt. She wished for a second that he ‘d have done that in his office so that they could have had s*x on that amazing couch looking out over the city. The area between her legs throbbed as they exited the elevator.

Cal’s driver was waiting at the door and Cal walked her towards him. Seeing a restroom sign to her right and needing to compose herself she stated, “I’m going to use the restroom, thank you so much for lunch. It was delicious and so fun to see where you work. It’s amazing what you created, it really is.” She smiled and let him kiss her once again.

“Of course, I’m glad you were able to come. Text me when you get back to work,” he said with a smile. She waved goodbye and headed into the restroom where she peed and quickly washed her hands. She took a second to check her makeup in the mirror, which had only slightly smudged in the last few hours and required only a little bit of maintenance.