Page 47 of Stranded

“I’ll grab your change.”

“Keep it,” I grumble.

“Are you sure? That’s like a fifty-dollar tip.”

“I said, keep it,” I say in frustration, not wanting to talk to him any longer as I turn on my stool, planning to stand and get out of here. But I’m stopped by a tall blonde woman who eyes me up and down, a smirk on her lips.

“What?” I say gruffly, not liking the way she’s eyeing me.

She raises one of her perfectly shaped brows at me, as if I’m the one being weird.

“Move,” I try again, ready to leave.

“Hey buddy,” the man on the bar stool next to me says as he stares at her with wide eyes. “Don’t you know who she is?”

I glance back at the woman, but she doesn’t look familiar to me.

“No, and I don’t care.”

“Dude! That’s Clarissa Parks.” When I continue to stare, he huffs in disbelief. “The porn star! Do you live under a rock or something?”

I eye her carefully, trying not to show my distaste. I didn’t want to be cruel, and I don't care how anybody chooses to make money, but I believe sex should be between two consenting adults who care for one another. Which is exactly the reason I was celibate.

“I don’t watch the stuff,” I finally answer and he reels his head back in disbelief.

“I could give you a private show. You are pretty hot, you’ve got this whole grumpy thing going for you,” the woman, Clarissa, says as she tries to trail her finger up my arm. I immediately push her hand away and, as gently as possible, push my way past her.

“No, thanks.”

“I guess he’s gay,” I hear the man say as I head for the exit. Let them think whatever they want, I don’t care what people think about me.

I was in the limelight enough as it was, so my name was constantly thrown around the tabloids.‘Benson Jr: CEO or Kingpin?’or‘Benson’s Business Under Fire’or my personal favorite,‘Titan Tech Triple Threat’.

My stomach tightens at the thought of my business partners, my best friends, and my brothers. We might not share blood, but I was closer with them than anyone in my family. They were the ones who saw a grieving teenager and pulled his head out of his ass long enough to make something of himself.

If it wasn’t for them, who knows what would have happened to me. My father’s idea of helping me was to yell at me or ignore me, there was rarely a middle ground.

I step outside and spot my driver waiting. “Hey Arnold, take me home, please,” I tell him as he opens the back door for me.

“Of course, sir,” he says kindly before closing my door and moving to the driver's side.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out, groaning when my dad’s name flashes on the screen.

“Dad, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Have you been drinking, son?”

“Why do you care?”

I hear his heavy sigh over the phone. He’s been trying to get me back into his office for the past five days. Apparently, two days was plenty of ‘grieving’ for the two men so close I considered them brothers.

“Look, son. Tomorrow it will be eight days. You’ve got men out there looking, there’s nothing more you can do. Get a good night’s sleep, then come into the office with me tomorrow. Working will help distract you.”

He means well, but the last thing I want is to be distracted. If anything, I needed to be more focused on a solution. I owned a god damned leading AI company, and I still didn’t have any tech to help me find them.

“Dad, with all due respect, if I do make it into the office it won’t be yours. It will be to Titan Tech.”

“Now, Reece, I know you love that company, but why don’t you give that a little rest while you heal?” Even though the three of us had made Titan Tech a billion dollar company, my dad was always pressing for me to continue with him and drop the ‘computer nonsense’ as he so eloquently put it.

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