The Love Of Money - Episode 104
28-07-25 (08:44)
Natalie looked up at me, and the look on her face was
the very last thing I expected to see - she was giggling.
When her eyes met mine, her giggles broke out into a
fit of laughter. "Oh you should see the look on your
face!"
"What?"
"Fuck, Marcus! You think I'm mad at you?" She giggled
again.
I glanced around, unsure of what kind of footing I was
on and terrified of saying anything at all. Everything I
knew about wonen told me she should have been
furious with me. "So, you're not mad?"
She shook her head and then took a moment to calm
down.
"Actually, I feel a little bit better about things. What
was going on between us was pretty intense, and it
was scaring me a little. I would have been less
surprised to open that door and see you humping a
pillow with my face or something, But that..." she said,
pointing in the vague direction of Bobbi, "that was the
last thing I expected."
I couldn't help but smile a little at how humorous she
found all was, even though she had essentially accused
our budding relationship of crazy behavior. I guess I
couldn't blame her. We had been friends for a long
time, and the moment I got a little bit of power, I fired
Gina and gave Natalie the job, then got intense with
her really quickly. She had told me as much before she
left for the wedding.
"I've got some questions though, Marcus," she
continued.
I'll bet she did.
"Bobbi? Really?"
"Well, she is insanely hot," I ventured, hoping it wasn't
the wrong thing to say.
"Damn, Marcus! She's fine as hell, but the bitch is crazy!"
Natalie protested, "and mean, which leads me to the
second question. How?"
"How?"
"She hates your guts! She hates everyone here!"
"Oh. That. Um..."
Suddenly the idea of telling Natalie that I'd been using
Bobbi as a personal fucktoy in exchange for not tuming
her in to the authorities for embezzlement seemed like
a bad idea. I didn't have to say anything though.
Natalie read me like a book.
"You've got something on her."
""
"Did she kill someone?"
"What? No!" Natalie wasn't reacting negatively toward
the possibility of extorting Bobbi, which was a good
sign. We had also been good friends for a long time, so
I decided to go ahead and trust her. "She's been
stealing from Marduke.
Gina was too. It's why I fired her. Well, it's not why I
fired her. I hated her and wanted her gone anyway,
but it's the justification I used."
Natalie was enthralled for the next few minutes as I
filled her in on the details of my time with Bobbi. When
I was done, she simply shook her head, "Damn... I could
tell something was going on with her, but I couldn't
figure out what it was."
"You're not mad?" I asked.
She cut her eyes toward me and said, "I should be.
You're blackmailing a woman to have sex with you. If it
were anyone else, I probably would be. Not Bobbi
though. She made my life hell a lot longer than yours,
and she's been at her most pleasant over the last
week. Now I know why."
That's not what I meant, but figured I would take the
win. The fact that she was taking this so well was a
testament to how much she hated Bobbi.
"I meant, about me having sex with someone else."
Natalie sighed, "No. We aren't officially dating, and since
we're being honest... I hooked up with someone this
weekend at the wedding.
I felt my stomach drop.
I fucking hated hearing that, but I could hardly accuse
her of anything when I had a veritable harem at my
fingertips.
"Oh. Okay."
"It was just a stupid thing," Natalie was quick to
explain. "There was alcohol, and... you know... wedding
stuff."
"Yeah," I said, my heart in my throat, "I get it. Is that all
it was?"
Natalie didn't answer immediately. A long moment
passed where' we simply stared into each other's eyes.
My dread grew with each unanswered second that
passed.
"At first," Natalie finally said, "it didn't mean anything.
It's just... I hadn't had any since Garrett."
Her old boyfriend.
"I was thinking about getting into another relationship,
but I met this guy. I didn't think we would see each
other again, so I thought 'Hey, I owe myself this one
thing. Let's just get this out of my system. But then we
started talking over breakfast, and we clicked. Turns out
he lives in New York. We..."
The look of pity she gave me was enough for me to
piece together what she was trying to tell me.
"You guys decided to date," I finished for her. Her
expression became even more piteous.
"Fuck," I said, leaning my head back against the wall.
"I'm sorry," Natalie said, her voice quiet.
"Yeah. Me too. I thought we had something special."
"Not special enough, apparently," Natalie said, and I
could hear the tinge of sarcasm laced in her voice.
"You said we were just friends for now," I retorted, "I
would have kept it in my pants all weekend if the
situation was different."
"I'm sorry," she said "That wasn't fair."
Neither of us spoke for several minutes, both of us
contemplating the floor in silence.
"So that's it for us, then?"
think so," she said. "I didn't plan for this, Marcus. It's just
that so much has changed for you so quickly. You have
all this money, and you bought out the company. You
made me head of the department, and then we almost
started dating. We went from really good friends to
making out in my office, and..."
Again, Natalie didn't finish her thought, but she didn't
need to. I understood what she was getting at. Every
other woman in my life right now was throwing
themselves at me. I never stopped to think that most
of them were either paid to be in my life, desperate to
lock me down, or just plain crazy. Natalie was a level-
headed woman that didn't fit any of those categories. It
made sense that she shied away from whatever was
happening between us.
"I get it," I said.
"You do?" Natalie asked.
"Yeah. I don't like it, but I get it."
More silence followed. After about a minute, Natalie
sighed and pushed herself off the wall she was still
leaning against. She fidgeted with her fingers, looking
up at me with a puppy-dog expression. "Are we going
to be okay?" she asked.
I stared back at her, not knowing quite what I should
say. Would I still want to be friends with Natalie after
getting a taste of her? Could I see her every day and
be okay when knew I almost had her if it wasn't for....
"What's his name?" asked.
"Tyler," she said reluctantly.
Tyler. I suddenly felt an irrational hatred for the name.
Maybe I could have Tyler killed. I had the money for it.
Wait... could I actually have him killed?
I finally shrugged one non-commital shoulder at her. It
wasn't fair to either of us to lie.
"I don't know if we're going to be okay," I said, pushing
off the wall and stepping toward the door. "I need
some time."
"Okay," Natalie said. It was obvious that wasn't what
she wanted to hear but didn't protest further.
To be continued... Don't forget to leave a Comment 
