The Billionaire’s Over 40 Love

So Faydra continued to watch, wondering if this whole time she had been threatened by a woman that was so far off his radar that she was practically non-existent. He continued to move her hands away until eventually he pulled her aside, down into an inlet used for storing extra food and drinks. Faydra moved quietly until she was at the wall adjacent from their meeting spot and she could hear what was being said.

This was it, the moment of truth. And because of where she’d placed herself Faydra was going to find out if there was anything left between them. Because if it was going to culminate, surely it would be in a dark corner of a romantic reception hall.

“Sophia, stop it. What are you doing?”

“What do you mean? I’m here supporting you and Queens. We won Best New Media, that’s awesome. We’re going to be getting so many more high profile clients, this is literally going to skyrocket our company.”

“Stop. First of all, I don’t care if it skyrockets our business. Sure, I want us to be secure and have a great lineup of customers but I don’t care about these big names. I want good relationships that will last.”

“Okay.” The woman’s voice twisted into a tone that made Faydra’s stomach flip. She had a way of making other people feel stupid and useless just by her tone of voice and it was awful. “Well we can do that too, but why don’t you want to make more money?”

“I have plenty of money, more than I need. And that’s not all it’s about Soph—don’t you get that?”

“No, but that’s fine. You can be the boring heart and soul of the company or whatever, and I’ll be the one that brings in the famous and wealthy customers, making sure that we stay on top.”

Calvin let out an exhausted sigh and must’ve moved away from Sophia because Faydra heard him from a different direction. “You weren’t supposed to be here,” he hissed. “I told you I was taking Faydra as my date, how did you even get in here?”

“Cal—honey, I know half the people here, my Dad plays golf with a lot of these guys. Anyways, that doesn’t matter. I don’t know why you’re taking this Faydra person so seriously. She’s obviously not your type and it’s never going to work out. You need someone like me on your arm, not her. She’s gross.” Faydra surprised even herself when she bit back a laugh instead of an angry emotion.

Sophia was pitiful and rude and a guy like Calvin, the real Calvin, would never be with her. And although he was too nice to get rid of her, Faydra was confident she had nothing to worry about. Instead, she thought she may have to worry about the woman poisoning her or slashing her tires if she stuck around long enough, but she knew she could handle that.

“She’s not gross, what are you even talking about? Your jealousy is on a whole new level and it needs to stop. We’re business partners and even that’s a stretch! You do not get to decide who’s in my life, and say rude things about the people I do decide to bring into it.”

“I don’t know what hold she has over you, maybe you feel like she’s your charity case or something but—” Sophia was clearly searching desperately for something that would strike him.

“Soph.” His one word stopped her.

“Yeah?”

“You need to leave. Now.”

“I’m not going anywhere Calvin, and you’d do well to appreciate me.”

“I do appreciate you! I just said that in front of a thousand people. What I don’t appreciate is you talking sh*t about a woman I love.”

The word sent shivers across Faydra’s arms. Love? It was too soon for Cal to be in love with her but in the silence of their conversation, she wondered if it was possible. Maybe it was too soon to be in love, but it was never too soon to start feeling love towards someone.

She felt that for him right then as he defended her in front of such an evil person.

Sophia cackled again. “You do not love her!”

“You don’t get to tell me how I feel about her.” Calvin’s words got angrier and sped up. “Faydra is a better woman and probably business partner than you will ever be. She’s hardworking, and no she may not come from the family you did but neither did I. She likes working hard, something you will never even experience. And she’s been through a lot, which means at the end of the day she’s had to fight to be where she is—including standing next to me. You’ve made it impossible for her, don’t think I didn’t notice or that Patty didn’t tell me that your gossip reel at the front desk called you instead of her to pick up Faydra that day for lunch. You’re conniving and downright mean.” Sophia’s angry gasps could be heard where she tried to start defending herself but couldn’t get a word in.

“So, yes. You’re going to leave right now, or at least get out of my sight. And you can think long and hard before Monday about whether or not you really want to be working at Queens. If you do, then you’ll get your act together and stay, if not you can pack your sh*t.”

“Calvin, wait!” he was gone, out into the room full of people who were starting to shift again towards the ballroom for dancing.

Faydra’s heart was beating fast, so turned on from Calvin’s words and so angry by Sophia’s actions. She had two priorities at that moment: finding Calvin and showing him how much she wanted to be with him, and finding Sophia and ruining her day, possibly week. The conundrum was which to do first.

Sophia took off after Calvin, which was a pretty bold move after what he’d just told her. Faydra followed her into the ballroom where Calvin was clearly searching for his date.

“You—come with me, right now.” Faydra pinched lightly at the white button-up shirt that fit perfectly on Calvin’s athletic torso.

“Is everything okay?” he asked concerned.

“Oh it will be,” she murmured, pulling him right past a dumbfounded Sophia and out of the ballroom. In the reception area, a few groups of people were still choking down cocktails and laughing amongst themselves.

Faydra pulled Calvin past the area that was meant for the reception and down a hallway. She pulled on one door and found it locked, she pulled on a second and found a room that seemed to be used as a lab or teaching space. There were desks lined up in two rows, and two large tables at the front where Faydra assumed the museum workers would demo artifacts and such.

“Whoa, whoa. What are we doing in here, Fay?” Calvin stood close to the door, watching as Faydra walked in and checked out the place. “Faydra,” he said again after getting no response.

“What?”

“What are we doing in here, the party is back that way—and there’s dancing.”

“I don’t want to dance,” she said with a plain look on her face.

“Okay… then what do you want to do?”

“I want to talk and then I want to fu*k you on this table.” His eyes widened and he looked at her.

“Hold on, wait. We do need to talk, but—”

“I heard you talking to Sophia. I heard what you said, how you stood up for me and for yourself. And sure, I may have had a couple glasses of champagne but I’m sober enough to realize that these feelings are real. And that all the problems I’ve been causing for the last weeks were for nothing.” He moved to lean against one of the desks, very clearly bewildered.

She paused when he put his face in his hands and let out a sigh.

“No, keep going,” he said with a smile when he came up for air.