Page 7 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
Chapter Three
Dinner with Singularity’s management happened much like all the corporate wine-and-dines Fazil had attended since he’d started working for Sam: a fancy restaurant, too much alcohol consumed by the clients, and far too many people trying to impress them. When Sam was at one of these things, he was always graceful and poised in a way that neither Fazil nor Eli could manage.
The suit was getting to Fazil. He never understood how Sam and Eli managed to wear them day in and out. He had dressed this way every day before, but that job—working for a corporate bank—had been sheer hell, from the quips about his ethnicity to his off-the-rack clothes.
Eli wore a suit like he’d been born in it, but was out of his element when faced with small talk and pleasantries. Not that he wasn’t the consummate professional, he just never relaxed on these trips, and this one seemed to be eating away at him. His smile was too sharp, as if it wanted to turn into a snarl or worse—a frown—and he couldn’t stop fiddling with his watchband.
Eli met Fazil’s gaze. He was stuck in a conversation with Ryan Kendall, Singularity’s mouthy CFO, who was bragging about how much money he’d saved the company. There was a hint of desperation in Eli’s lifting of an eyebrow.Please help me out here, he seemed to say.
Fazil cleared his throat. “So, the Seahawks have become quite the team.” It was as if the whole table sighed in relief, and boy, did everyone have an opinion.
“You a Steelers fan?” That from Stephen.
Fazil shook his head. “Eagles. Born and raised near Philly. Can’t quite escape my youth.”
Someone laughed and Stephen grinned. “We have a guy like that. Todd.”
A cool numbness followed by heat trickled up into Fazil’s skull. How many times had watching the game in Todd’s basement turned into making out on the couch until they both couldn’t breathe?
Before he could say anything, Sandra cut in. “Fazil knows Todd, don’t you?”
He caught the edge of Eli’s look. Curiosity. That was on the faces of everyone else, too. He tried to shrug and hoped to hell it didn’t look like the wince it felt like. “We went to the same high school. He was a pretty serious fan back then.” But not so much that he hadn’t sucked Fazil off a few times while the sports announcers droned on in the background.
Those memories superimposed with the stunning man Todd had become didn’t do anything to keep his dick down. Yeah, he wouldn’t mind replaying those old times.
Fazil shifted in his seat and reached for his water. “I have to admit, I’m pretty surprised I don’t get flack when I wear my jersey in Pittsburgh.”
“Really?” Stephen said. “I thought people there were rabid about their team?”
“Oh we are.” Eli toyed with his glass. “But it’s not like he’s a Ravens fan.”
The conversation devolved into stats, predictions, and how the refs had screwed both teams over. Fazil leaned back and sipped his water. Deed done, though he hadn’t expected Eli to be into football. Or hockey, for that matter, when talk slid into that for a moment.
For the rest of dinner, the conversation remained light and thankfully devoid of Todd’s name. Still, he couldn’t keep the more adult version of Todd’s smile from slipping into his brain. He’d put on muscle and scruff and stopped Fazil’s heart.
So very unfair. If they hadn’t known each other, if Todd hadn’t broken his heart repeatedly, he’d have been tempted to flirthardwith the man. That was one of the better ways to get over a breakup—a nice, hot one-night stand. Would certainly put Kris from his mind.
But Toddwasa breakup. Many, many,manybreakups. And there weren’t enough menorwomen in the world to get Todd out of Fazil’s head.
His swirling thoughts of Todd weren’t helped by a silent and twitchy Eli during the ride back to the hotel. Eli fiddled with his watch again.
Okay, somethingreallywas bothering him.
Sure enough, those proud shoulders dropped the moment they stepped into the hotel. Eli gestured at the bar. “Care for a few? On me?”
After sitting next to Todd all afternoon and nothing but water for dinner? He fuckingneededa beer. “Don’t you mean on Sam?” He followed Eli into the hotel bar.
“No, this is on my dime. I’m not charging Sam for my sins.”
“Yoursins?”
Eli signaled the server and took a seat at one of the booths. With his leg, bar stools were probably not the most comfortable. “I’ve been expressly forbidden from beating the finance department into submission. Doesn’t keep me from wanting to, especially given the state of their records. The fools are justaskingfor an audit.” He flicked open the bar menu. “And after that stint of bragging by their CFO? I’m going to get a bit drunk.”
Eli the control freak, tipsy? This ought to be interesting.“Engineering isn’t bad. Lots of stuff not written down, but the procedures are coming along.”
Thanks to Todd. Who knew someone so lackadaisical could also be so organized? Then again, thinking back, his room had always been neat. “There’s some undocumented open source code I noticed, so speaking of audits, I’ll need to do one.”
Eli twisted his lips into a bitter expression. “Let Sam know.”
