“I need something. Something big. Something that will convince PowerFun that Thompson Merraker and MegaStar genuinely have the company’s best interest at heart. That they won’t gut PowerFun and fire all its employees. That they understand PowerFun’s vision and want to make it a reality on a bigger scale.”
“Oh, only that?” Franklin asks dryly.
“This is so not my strong suit,” I say with a groan.
Natalie would be so much better at this.
Natalie would know what to do.
What would Natalie do?
Natalie Natalie Natalie Natalie Natalie.
Dancing on the desk, holding on to my tie, wielding a sledgehammer, glistening wet in a bikini, bouncing on a trampoline, eating cake, under me with her face slack with pleasure, on top of me in a pool of Jell-O?—
And I’m here…doing…what?
“Preston,” Franklin says, waving a hand in front of my face. “This is absolutely your strong suit. You do this in your sleep. With one hand tied behind your back. Whathappenedto you in Rush Creek? And don’t tell menothingbecause I drove to New Haven and then flew across the country to get youpastries. You’ve never even made me go to Brooklyn for takeout. Plus, that was enough food for a small army. Don’t tell me you just had a hankering for Italian.”
“Shit,” I groan.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I won’t tell anyone. But—who is thisNatalie?”
He says it with a ridiculous French accent.
“Nobody,” I say.
“She’s definitely not nobody,” he says. “You know how I know? Because you are a fucking mess. And in all the time I’ve known you, I haveneverseen you not one hundred percent on top of things.”
I sigh. There’s not much point in lying to the guy whose job it is to watch you like a hawk and meet your every need.
“Yeah,” I say. “She’s not nobody. She’s?—”
And then, because I think, despite my best intentions, Franklin is myfriend, I tell him. Just a little bit. About how the first time Natalie and I met, it was in Hanna’s office and I tried to fire her and the second time we met, she was dancing on a desk. I tell him about Jell-O wrestling and smashing things with baseball bats and sledgehammers and about Operation Fun.
“I don’t want to fuck this up,” I say when I bring him up to the present moment. “And I’m already fucking it up. It’s been less than a week, and work is eating me alive, and she and I are like ships in the night. And I knew this was going to happen because I fucked things up with Kali.”
“Whoa,” Franklin says. “Hang on. Hold your horses. You’re one ofNewer York’s titans of finance. You should know thatpast performance is no guarantee of future results.”
I stare at him, confused.
“Right? Isn’t that the saying?”
“Yeah, but?—”
“Well, it works both ways, right? You’re not necessarily going to get rich this time because you got rich last time.Andjust because you fucked things up with Kali doesn’t mean you’re going to fuck things up with Natalie.” He gives me a sharp look. “I’m your assistant, right?”
“Right.”
“It’s my job to know everything about you. Where you want me to order lunch from, whether you like your pants pressed with a crease or not, which hand you hold your dick with when you take a piss?—”
I close my eyes and wave that off. “Jesus, Franklin?—”
He shrugs. “My point being I’veneverseen you not get something you want. You’re the hardest working, most focused person I know, and if you tell me you don’t want to fuck things up with Natalie?” He gives a decisive nod. “You’re not going to fuck them up.”
My forehead feels too tight. My hands and feet are hot.
Because he’s right, of course. He knows me.