Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 104

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...