Page 5 of It Must Be Love

"Did you fuck someone else?" I sipped the whiskey I'd been nursing all evening. I didn't like getting drunk and limited myself to a couple of drinks. I didn't like to lose control.

"No. She wanted more than I could give her."

"She wanted a ring on her finger?"

Hayes grimaced. "She'd want that eventually; for now, she wanted the three little words. I told her I'd say them if it was important to her, but they didn't mean anything to me."

"Christ! That's cold."

"It's honest. In any case I think the failure of my relationships is pre-programmed in my DNA." Hayes crushed his cigar on the ashtray at the bar table we were standing around and picked up his drink that looked like a caipirinha.

"Speaking of failed relationships. I don't know if Ann and I are gonna make it."

"Color me surprised," Hayes mused and raised his glass in a toast. I clinked mine against his.

He wasn't a fan of Ann. He thought she was way too insecure, and it made her mean, and according to him, sometimes downright cruel to people who she thought were less than her. I always thought he was exaggerating—sure she could be catty, but no more than anyone else.

I recalled then how she'd made fun of Naya, saying something nice about her outfit while she'd been dissing it a second before—like it was a secret joke between her and me. Damn, but that girl needed a makeover, stat. Naya wasn't bad looking, but between how she seemed to shrink all the time and how her clothes covered every inch of her fucking body, it was a miracle she was getting laid.

But she was a good programmer and program manager. I didn't say that to Ann because, for some reason, she'd decided to be jealous of Naya, of all the people in the world. Ethan, a Vice President of development at Midas and an old friend, adored Naya—and thought she walked on water. According to him, she worked damn hard and did exemplary work. And yet, I'd reamed her ass yesterday. I had no idea why. It wasn't the first time, either. Something about her annoyed the hell out of me. Maybe it was because I'd hired her as a favor, or maybe because the way she looked at me with her big gray eyes made me uncomfortable as fuck. I knew she had a crush on me. Hell, everyone who'd seen her around me knew. Not at work, though. There she was completely professional. She wasn't the first woman who threw herself at me…no, wait, she'd never done that. She kept to herself most of the time, but I could feel her eyes follow me around. I once asked Nolan what her damage was, and he simply said that she'd always been like this, and apparently, there had been an accident of some sort, and that had made her even quieter. Actually, he'd used the word pathetic.

I wondered if the scar above her left eyebrow had something to do with the accident. It wasn't ugly or anything…but clearly there. Any other woman would hide it with concealer but not our Naya, she seemed to have no clue how to present herself. I doubted she wore much makeup…or any. But she always looked fresh-faced and calm.

I used to feel sorry for her…maybe I still did. Her and Nolan's mother died years before I met them. Their father had been a high school teacher and a decent man. Nolan always seemed to have a problem with his middle-class upbringing, probably because he hung out with all of us fuckers who had family money. He seemed ashamed of his family, though I liked his father. He'd made sure he'd given the best education money could buy for his children and more importantly been there for them. He was there when Nolan fell sick, or when he needed to talk something through. He was present. That was more than I could say for my parents.

Naya was a little mouse who spent most of her time gaming or coding. When I did see her, she gazed at me like I was the almighty. The times I was at Nolan's place with a girlfriend, I'd catch a hurt look in her eyes, which pissed me off. She had no business giving me that wounded look.

I ignored her. It was easy to do. Nolan didn't care much about his sister and didn't care that I all but pretended she didn't exist. But when he told me she was moving to Boston to take care of their sick father, I felt bad for her. She was leaving her job at Google and coming all the way here, because Nolan—since he was married to the super bitch, Kara—was not able to be his dying parent's caregiver.

"Kara and I are so busy with work. And I've been here all these years while she went to California. It's her time to pitch in," Nolan said.

"Your father didn't need you to take care of him earlier," I objected.

"Well, like I said, we're busy and she's single so it's not like she has any other commitments."

I didn't bother to argue the point that Naya also worked and would be just as busy. Regarding her single life, taking care of an ailing parent wasn't going to help her find a date.

I knew that Naya would be looking for work and I asked a recruiter in HR to connect with her and find a job for her. It had been a good decision, especially since her boss loved her.

"Have you talked to Nolan lately?" Hayes asked, interrupting my reverie.

"No. Why?"

"He's looking for a new gig. Wanted me to ask around. I thought he'd have reached out to you," Hayes explained.

I shook my head. "I don't have any openings at his level." And no fucking way was I hiring a friend who'd directly work under me. That was asking for all kinds of trouble. Hayes was a different story. He sat on the board and was more or less equal.

Nolan and Kara came out to the balcony, and we did the hello, how are you, how is the family chit-chat. They ordered drinks when the server came by, and Kara looked around with what I knew was envy. Nolan had a well-paying job, but he didn't win the successful start-up jackpot like I had.

"I love your place, Amias, so, so amazing." She put a hand on my arm as she spoke. She was a bit of a flirt. Like Ann, she was blonde with a toned body. Unlike her, she was petite and dumb as a doorknob.

"Thanks, Kara. How's Magnus?" They had a cute one-year-old and since the baby, Kara had not returned to work, which I knew was making Nolan nervous. They'd bought a new house in Beacon Hill that required two incomes, he'd told me.

"Wonderful. Naya is babysitting," Kara beamed and thanked the server who brought her a cosmopolitan and Nolan a scotch on the rocks.

We all toasted.

Naya had worked until late on a Friday night, and tonight she was babysitting? That poor woman must be lonely as fuck. She was twenty-six years old, and from what I could see, she didn't seem to have a social life at all. Even when colleagues went for drinks, she was holed up in her cubicle. As her employer, I appreciated her dedication—as her brother's friend, I felt sorry for her.