Page 70 of Just Another Chance

Ask any single girl to take a look at him and his life, and you’ll find out why.

Son of a billionaire.

Tall, handsome, impossible to ignore.

His presence is demanding.

And also extremely infuriating.

His father made me the vice president before he died.

And now… well, everything is up in the air.

Nash and I are literally fighting for the same position.

Our positions in bed, though, are way easier to navigate.

It was all fun, games, andhatebefore a third person came into the picture.

Our unborn baby.

That left me with one option – a broken heart.

And well, quite possibly, unemployment as well.

So much for thinking that I was going to lead a billion-dollar company…

The only thing I’m now left with is a stick I just peed on!

Prologue: Nash

I’m sitting at the highly polished, elegant, walnut conference room table and listening with only half an ear as my father, the illustrious Thomas Beckett, CEO and President of TB Technology, drones on and on.

I wish he’d just get to the point and delve into what we’re all waiting to hear– who did he choose to promote to Vice-President? Me, his oldest son, orher? Even though I’ve been avoiding eye contact withherfor the past hour, my eyes inevitably drift over to slyly observe the cool blonde who sits directly across from me.

Charlotte “Charlie” Langley.

If she didn’t have such a huge stick up her ass, I might’ve found her attractive. With shoulder-length, honey-gold hair and keen aquamarine eyes, she has so much potential, but she shuts down any sex appeal she possesses with her high-strung, uptight, pretentious attitude.

Charlie is nicknamed “The Ball-Crusher” for a very good reason and luckily, I’ve been able to keep my jewels out of her trap. So far, anyway. To a certain extent, I get it. She’s a woman in a man’s world, trying to be heard and make her way to the top, blah, blah, blah. Too bad she has to be such a complete and utter bitch while doing it.

I hate her.A part of me wants to lunge across the table, grab the lapels of her smart suit jacket and throttle her. I’d love nothing more than to get this damn promotion and kick her ass to the curb.See ya, babe.Go work for one of our competitors and make their lives miserable instead of mine.

Charlie is the Head of Marketing and I’m the Head of Finance and we’re both up for the position of Vice-President. Being the owner’s son, you’d think I’d have it in the bag. Far from it, though. My father is a prick, and our relationship is contentious. He’s old school, I’m new school. Hell, up until a year ago, the women in the office were all required to wear nylons and skirts. No pants. After a lot of convincing, and with the men onboard, we were finally able to convince ol’ Thomas to change the antiquated dress code.

I’m still working on trying to establish Casual Fridays. I have a pretty good feeling that as long as my old man’s in charge, it’s not going to happen.

That’s one of the reasons I want to get this promotion. I have so many ideas and it’s time to bring TB Tech into the future. It has lingered in the past long enough like a lumbering dinosaur on the verge of extinction.

Charlie, on the other hand, embraces tradition. It’s a key point that she and my father agree upon and, of course, she still wears the panty hose with skirts and wouldn’t dare show up in a pantsuit. Especially not today when my father is on the verge of promoting one of us in front of the entire board.

A part of me suddenly wonders if she’s full of shit and just manipulating Thomas into giving her the promotion by agreeing with everything he says and does to the point where it’s ad nauseam. Truthfully, she’s full of ideas, some of them even good, and my dad plucked her from a rival firm because of her forward-thinking. She’s tough, resilient and fast-paced just like the city we live in– New York City, the greatest metropolis in the world.

Truthfully, there’s nothing about Charlie Langley that’s old-fashioned except her panty hose.

A sinking feeling fills my gut. Have I been played? Did Charlie give me just enough rope to hang myself?Ah, for fuck’s sake.I look down at the cold coffee in my mug and feel it regurgitating up the back of my throat.

“Now, onto what I think you’ve all been waiting to hear,” Thomas says, looking down the length of the table.

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