Womanizer

  To all the unplanned things in life

  “I Lived” by OneRepublic

  “All You Are” by Bluebox

  “TiO” by Zayn

  “For Your Entertainment” by Adam Lambert

  “Into You” by Ariana Grande

  “Lost Stars” by Adam Levine

  “Champagne” by Ferras

  “Turn the Night Up” by Enrique Iglesias

  “Fiction” by Kygo

  “You Make the Rain Fall” by Kevin Rudolf

  “Here With Me” by Dido

  “Put Your Arms Around Me” by Texas

  I stare out the plane window at Chicago beneath me. My home for the next three months.

  My best friends, Farrah and Veronica, didn’t believe the news.

  They weren’t the only ones who didn’t believe the news. Nobody in the entire Hill Country believed me, not even my dream employer, Daniel Radisson, head of Radisson Investments in Austin, who refused my application for internship and told me to get some experience somewhere else and come back to him when I was ready. I stopped by to tell him that I’d found a job and I’d be coming back to work for him when I finished.

  “You found an internship at the biggest firm in Chicago yourself?” he asked, shaking his head incredulously as he took in my fashionable pumps, miniskirt, cute little sequined top, and cross-body bag.

  I blinked at his complete lack of belief in me, resisting the urge to steal my hand around my waist and cross my fingers behind my back as I said a little fib.

  I loathed admitting that my brother got the job for me.

  I hate lying, so I resisted, but I hate being underestimated more.

  My brother may have gotten this job for me, but I’m going to be the one who keeps it and climbs the ranks on my own merit. No favors from anyone anymore. One day I will have my own business and help people realize their own dreams.

  “My brother is friends with the CEO, and they were happy to have me on board,” I said—which, technically, is true. Tahoe actually only said, Talked to Carmichael. Send all paperwork to this email. Start first week of June.

  “Happy” wasn’t mentioned but if his friend agreed, then I assume he is happy I’m coming on board.

  At least I am.

  I’ve been underestimated my whole life. For my eighteenth birthday present, my brother sent me to France for the summer and all I came back saying was oui. Huge disappointment to my parents, who wanted me to come back a fully sophisticated, French-speaking lady. So I don’t pick up foreign languages easily? It’s not the end of the world. I have a business degree, and I have big dreams.

  So the last week of May, all packed and ready and with one wistful last look at the bedroom I’ve lived in most of my teenage years and adult life, I take a risk—not only did I leave home, but I actually caved in to my brother’s insistence to send his jet to pick me up and fly me to the Windy City.

  There were tears when my parents stuffed my luggage into the trunk of the family SUV, and more tears as we reached the airport.

  Definitely I was the one most tearful. I’m just an easy person to make cry, don’t judge.

  It doesn’t mean I cannot be badass. Ask Ulysses Harrison, who got punched in the nuts when he tried to feel my boobs just as they started growing.

  I hugged my mom and dad, first inhaling my mom’s scent of cinnamon and apples, then getting a good whiff of my dad’s Old Spice. After begrudgingly letting go, I took the steps leading up to my brother’s luxurious private jet. From the top of the stairs, I waved at them, and they waved back, with one arm wrapped around each other and the other waving at me. My dad was smiling and wearing his I’m-tough-but-dammit-I’m-feeling-emotional face. My mom slipped on a pair of shades so I couldn’t see if her eyes were still weepy or not.

  When the pilot closed the door, I settled in a seat near the plane wings so that I didn’t feel as if there was nothing beneath me. A mindfuck, just so I can force myself to fly.

  The plane engines geared up, and I leaned back and closed my eyes for the flight, turning the ring on my left hand round and round.

  Heights and I . . . let’s just say we don’t go well.

  My brother saved me from heights once, and he’s the only one I feel safe with. I wouldn’t be caught dead flying commercial. But this is his plane. And when I opened my eyes midflight, I saw a message on one of the seats that read, Just hang in there. It’ll be over in a second.

  I laughed, and now I’m seconds away from landing, listening to some music to distract myself, settling for the song “I Lived” on replay as the plane finally lands in Chicago. My home for the next three months and the internship that will be the first step of many, many I need to take to make my career dreams come true.

  My brother Tahoe and his girlfriend pick me up at the airport in a very dirty Rolls-Royce Ghost. I swear my brother likes fine things, but he doesn’t give a shit about using them until they’re done. Me? I’m the sort of girl who stores her favorite purse with filler and in double dust bags and then in a box, rarely using it for fear of scratching it. Tahoe doesn’t even care enough to bother to pay someone to clean his $300k car.

  We reach a beautiful, tall skyscraper in the Loop, and take the elevator up.

  He kisses my cheek after we board.

  “Stay out of the clubs, Liv,” Tahoe whispers. A warning.

  “Leave her alone, you big bully,” his girlfriend defends me.

  Where my brother is tall and blond and raw, his girlfriend Regina is curvy and dark-haired and sultry.

  He pins her at his side and kisses her silent, a big smack that makes her groan as if she doesn’t like it. But she flushes, so she obviously does. “I’m her big brother, it’s my job not to.” He grins down at her with a special look in his eyes he gets only when he looks at her, and then looks at me somberly. “Seriously. Stay out of the clubs.”

  I groan. “I’m not interested, okay? I came here to work. Plus I survived seven years in Texas without you policing my nightly activities.”

  But the truth is, I love my brother. He’s a little rough around the edges but he means well. I love my family and I want them to be proud of me.

  “Good. Carmichael’s doing this as a personal favor to me,” he says as we step out on my floor.

  “Thanks for reminding me I don’t have qualities of my own to get me an internship.”

  “In a Fortune 500 company? Sis, you’re good . . .”

  I frown. “But not that good?”

  He looks at me with that smirk of his, then reaches out and rumples my hair. “You’re good. Make me proud, okay?” He tips my chin up.

  I nod.

  Callan Carmichael. I don’t know him, even though he’s apparently a close friend of my brother. When my brother moved to Chicago and I came to visit, he always told me to stay away from his friends. Now I’m old enough to work at one of their firms—Carma Inc. For the owner and CEO himself. Carma is a conglomerate of ten-plus huge multibillion-dollar companies involving media, real estate, and worldwide investments, and takeovers are Carmichael’s specialty. He’s a land shark. I’m not into city gossip, much less in a city I didn’t live in until an hour ago, but I know that in Chicago they speak of him with a touch of fear in their voice. Carma Inc. has been bringing karma to bad business handling for decades, without mercy.

  Well it’s time to seize my own karma, and I breathe in as I stop at my apartment door.

  I may have agreed to let my brother send his jet, but when he said he was renting me a place in his same building, I set my foot down. This is my independence we’re talking about. So we compromised when I couldn’t find anything affordable near work.

  I’m going to be taking over his girlfriend’s lease, since she basically lives with Tahoe now.

  Tahoe’s
friend Will Blackstone has a prime building in the Loop that he’s demolishing to make new apartment complexes. The permits are still underway and could take a while, and in the meantime Gina had a great rental at an unbelievable price that was sitting mostly unused. She still has some of her stuff over here, but what she needs, she has at Tahoe’s. It’ll be my place for the next few months.

  And suddenly here I am, filled with a rush of excitement when I use my brand-new key to open my brand-new place for the first time.

  “You going to open that door today, little sis?” Tahoe asks, shoulder propped on the wall as he waits not-so-patiently.

  “Give me a second! Let me savor this!” I protest.

  My hand trembles a little and my brother doesn’t miss it, but he still lets me be the one to open the door.

  I finally do, stepping inside.

  It’s a one-bedroom, two-bath apartment with a closet as big as my room in Texas, a huge kitchen for entertaining, a living room with views of the city that are to die for, and hardwood floors that smell delicious.

  “Oh, I miss this place,” Regina says with a sigh.

  Tahoe raises his eyebrows at her.

  “I didn’t say I liked it more than your place.” She nudges him with her toe, and he grins at her.

  While they make goo-goo eyes at each other, I go and open the window. Gina sold me on the place when she told me the air smells of chocolate because there’s a chocolate factory nearby.

  I take a good whiff, and the air not only smells like chocolate, it tastes like it too.

  I scan my neighboring buildings and cannot believe I’m really here. I pinch myself a little, and it stings. It must be real!

  The buildings nearby are beautiful, the streets clean. We make a trip downstairs to bring up all of my luggage.

  In the closet, Regina has set her stuff on one side, but even with only half the space available, I can’t fill this closet on my own, it’s so big.

  I hang my clothes and actually—unlike my Texas friends—I really like closets that aren’t crammed. Someone once told me when you cleaned out your closet it left room for new things to come into your life. Mine always has just enough space to welcome something. What that something is, I don’t know. But something.

  So Gina helps me unpack, and my brother brings Chinese takeout for us to have a late lunch together, and when they leave to go get ready for some posh dinner they must attend, I look around the space and cannot believe this is my first place on my own.

  It feels a little odd not to hear my parents downstairs. But I hear the city sounds outside, of life and bustling activity, and it pleases me.

  In the living room, I add just one pillow I brought from home that has a colorful little crown and this embroidered right on top of it:

  QUEEN OF EFFING EVERYTHING

  My grandmother gave it to me. If there was ever any queen in Texas, she is it.

  At eighty-two, she’s still the coolest gran I know. My nana is my own Betty White with perfect white hair and more expletives in her dictionary than a sailor will ever know.

  The only purchase Gina never got around to making was a set of stools for the kitchen island. Since I want to learn to live on my own salary and plan to avoid superfluous spending, I’ll just pull the desk chair with a little cushion over when I need it.

  I make my bed and organize the framed photographs of Tahoe, Mom, Dad, and me on my nightstand. Then I huff and puff until I get my suitcases up on the top shelf of the closet so they don’t take up any floor space.

  That night, I sleep for the first time in my life in a whole apartment just for me.

  I’m not that sure I like it.

  Yet.

  On Sunday, I finish organizing the closet in my new apartment and then add office stuff to my brand-new briefcase—a gift from my proud parents.

  A girl of twenty-two left Texas, and tomorrow morning she will be a full-grown independent woman. I’m ready. I’ve got a lot to prove, especially to myself. And I’m here to learn how to play with the big guys in the big leagues.

  I stuff the black leather briefcase with things like Post-its, pens and pencils, the works. I also go shopping to make sure I have the perfect attire. Apparently the CEO has a dress code. My shopping is for uniforms, pieces in black, white, or gray, required for all Carma Inc. employees.

  I come home to bags of popcorn accompanied by a note.

  You can’t call yourself a Chicago resident until you’ve tried this.

  Your favorite bro.

  I text him: You’re my only bro, meathead.

  T.R.: Only reason I’d be your favorite.

  Me: Say hi to Gina. Turning in early. BIG DAY TOMORROW!

  T.R.: Babe, it’s going to be a big day every day for 3 months. Carmichael is cool as a cucumber in everything except business. You’ve been warned.

  Me: Challenge accepted.

  T.R.: If you wimp out, you can intern with me.

  Me: My favorite bro? So he’ll give me time to file my nails and watch reality TV while at work? No thanks, I’d rather earn my place.

  T.R.: K. Let me know when you miss being a princess and I’ll see what I can do.

  Me: Promise.

  T.R.: Speak of the devil, got a dinner with your boss tonight.

  Me: Please don’t talk about me, I told you no special treatment because I’m your sister

  T.R.: And I heard you the first time.

  Me: Okay promise me!

  T.R.: Sis, believe it or not we do have other things to talk about than you.

  Me: Really? Then stop bugging me. I’m fine! I’m more than fine. Don’t smother me, that’s what Mom is for.

  T.R.: I’d say we’re done now.

  Call me or Regina if you need anything.

  Me: If I don’t lose your numbers.

  T.R.: HA.

  I remember Gina has a key and she must’ve left the popcorn there for me. I have the Garrett Mix popcorn for dinner and groan the whole time, even when I lick the remainder off my fingertips, then I wander into my bedroom, surprised to see a small basket of condoms on the bed.

  Liv, don’t tell Tahoe I left this, I just want to be sure you’ll be smart about anything.

  Love, Gina

  I laugh and look at all the condom flavors in here, all of them in an extra-large size. I don’t even wonder why Gina decided that is the most usual size because I’m pretty sure it’s not, but okay. I hide the basket behind one of my picture frames on the lower shelf of the nightstand and then call my parents to finally tell them I’m settled in.

  “All okay over there, Olivia? Did your brother help you settle in?”

  “Mom. Any more and he and Gina will be moving in with me.” I groan, but I laugh, too, so grateful to have a family that loves and supports me. I know nobody wants better for me than my family. I love my family, and I want them to be proud of me.

  I wake up before the alarm clock, that’s how nervous I am.

  It’s not only because I’ll be facing my first official job, but because of where. I know the experience at Carma will give me an edge for when I go back to Radisson Investments and, later, create my own firm. Learning from the toughest raiding firm in the country will teach me the dirty games companies play—so I can learn how to stop them and protect the companies I hope to serve. But although I’m determined to learn as much as I can, I know that I need to make sure I walk away from Carma three months from now without losing my soul.

  I don’t want the experience to make me ruthless, like the rumors say about everyone who works at Carma.

  I dress the part, though. Sharp corporate uniform: pencil skirt matched with a form-fitting cropped jacket. My hair back in a ponytail, low at my nape. It’s elegant and it’s sleek and I like how my hair feels close to my neck; it warms me. I’m very sensitive there. Any air at my nape tickles me. Next are pumps and pearl earrings. I want to accessorize, like using scarfs and bandanas on my ponytails and buns, but this isn’t college. This is life now.

 
It’s a hot, windy day in Chicago as I step out of the cab and look up at the building of Carma, Inc.

  If the company’s reputation isn’t enough to intimidate you, the building should be.

  Soaring high at over fifty-something floors, it not only seems to swallow me up as I stand on the sidewalk before its imposing glass doors, it also spreads out, side to side, to encompass the entire block.

  Wow.

  I can’t believe this is where I will be working.

  Today I’m to be briefed, along with a dozen other interns, on my duties.

  I inhale, clutching my briefcase a little tighter to my chest.

  Okay, then.

  I lower my briefcase, and walk inside to my first official job.

  Butterflies flap in my stomach as I ride the elevator to my floor. I see myself dressed in the required uniform. Goodness. I look scared. Get a grip, Livvy! I’m not sure if I will meet him today. Or ever. I don’t want my brother’s favor to extend to any special treatment and I made that clear, which means Tahoe probably made it clear to Callan Carmichael. I’m a working girl now.

  Still I hope to do such a good job that he’ll eventually hear about me. Oh yes, he’ll be quite happy he brought me on!

  All right, first day.

  Thankfully, I will only have a first day here once.

  Only a day in, and I’ve already heard about the newest takeover. It’s talked about in the cafeteria and in every phone call my boss receives for the day. I’ve been assigned to the research department, working for Mr. Henry Lincoln. He is a kindly, historian-looking middle-aged man with a shiny bald head and a gruff voice, but warm eyes that always seem to stare off into space as if he’s thinking of something else.

  I’m assisting him in his research. He’s one of Carmichael’s most genius minds, and it is our job to find the businesses that require Carmichael’s definite attention.