Page 10 of Summoned by the CEO (Curvy for Keeps)

I laugh and shake my head. I took four weeks of paid vacation that I’d been saving for years. I needed to get away from the office, from that environment, from Archer. I needed to know if what I felt was just lust or something more. And I suppose I needed to know if whathefelt was real or just words that a horny alpha beast mutters when his cock is hard and his balls are full.

“Clearly he doesn’t,” I say out loud, glancing at my phone again even though I know it’s lame that I’m sitting at home waiting for Archer to call whenIwalked out onhim! No shit he almost went nuts with rage! Am I really that insecure that I need him to call and beg and plead and declare his undying love again and again until I sigh and clutch my heart and say “Yes!”?

But it’s not just that. It’s much more than that. This month alone at home has confirmed what I suspected: That I need to work. I need to be productive. I love my job, but I know that if Archer and I were publicly together there’d be no way I could keep that job at Archer Industries. It would just be too weird. It would change the way my peers would treat me. It might even change the entire culture of the company. Besides, Archer is right: Thereisa clear policy against people with reporting relationships being romantically involved. And it’s a policy that most companies have. It makes sense, of course.

I sigh again as I pull up the calendar on my phone. Tomorrow is the last day of my paid vacation. I’m due back at work after this coming weekend.

“Moment of truth, girl,” I whisper out loud, absentmindedly staring at my phone. “You asked him for time, and now you’re out of time. What’s the answer? What’s the decision? What do you feel? Is this real or a mistake? Are you a woman in love or just a floozy bending over to pick up a pencil? Are you ready to be a butterfly or do you want to crawl through the mud forever? What do you want, Angie? What do you want?”

A shiver passes through me as I think about what Archer said about him having more faith in me than I have in myself. I was kinda insulted by that, but I see the uncomfortable truth in it now. In fact I saw the truth back then too. I just wasn’t ready to face it.

And now I leap to my feet as a bolt of energy jars me from my melancholic stupor. It’s the electricity of insight, an acceptance that ofcoursesaying yes to Archer will change every damned thing in my life, that ofcoursethat’s scary as hell, terrifying beyond belief, earth-shattering and nerve-wracking!

“After all,” I say out loud, smiling and shaking my head like a madwoman as I feel something open up in me as the words gush out. I know I’m talking to myself, but I don’t care. I need to hear myself. I need to reconcile this, merge the two parts of myself that are in conflict, win that fight with myself before I’m ready to truly be with Archer.

“After all,” I say again, “things wouldn’t change that dramatically for Archer, would it? He’d still be a billionaire CEO, ruler of his corporate kingdom, lord of all he surveys. But my life would be flipped on its head. No shit that’s uncomfortable. No shit people will whisper that I’m a gold-digger, that I’m a whore, that I’m that proverbial floozy who walked into the lonely boss’s office and bent over and spread for him, snagged her man using her honeytrap of a pussy. I’m going to be forced out of the background and into the spotlight. I’m going to have to smile for the cameras and laugh at the rumors. I’m going to have to be Archer’s partner, his equal, his queen. I’m going to have to transform myself, push through the discomfort of personal growth. I’m going to have to find my wings.”

“Flap flap,” I squeal, flapping my arms and running around my little apartment like a lunatic. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this shit out, but I’m ready now. I’m so ready it hurts!

And now suddenly I’m panicking as I wonder if I waited too long, if all this time apart has just made Archer realize that the whole thing was a mistake, that it reallywasa one-and-done!

“So what do I do?! Do I call him? Do I show up at his office and shrug and smile and tell him we’re together now? What if he laughs and tells me to get the hell out of his sight?! Can I blame him after that nonsense I pulled a month ago?!” I shriek, clutching my head as I feel like I’m going insane. I don’t know why my emotions are all over the place. This isn’t like me. No, it isn’t like me at all. The food cravings that are unusual even though I have a long list of foods I crave in general. These back-and-forth mood swings that feel borderline psychotic, on the edge of hysteria, almost like I’m . . .

“Oh, God, no!” I yelp as I pull up my calendar again and realize that I’m late—like two fucking weeks late. “I mean, oh, God, yes! I mean, ohgod, ohgod, ohmygod!”

It feels like my world is either exploding or crashing down on me, and I’m a nervous wreck by the time I find the old pregnancy kit that’s been in my medicine cabinet for what must be like a year. I hurriedly check the expiry date, and then I somehow control myself enough to pee on the damned thing.

And it tells me that this is real.

It tells me that this is fate.

It tells me that maybe Iama character in a romance novel, that maybe thisismy happy ending, that maybe Archerwillcome bursting through the door and sweep me off my feet, sweep me into our shared forever.

“Well, now Ihaveto call him, don’t I?” I say as the blood pounds in my head. “I can’tnotcall him now that I know I’m pregnant with his baby. Which means the decision is made for us, isn’t it? There’s no second-guessing this now. With a baby involved, we’re going tohaveto give it a shot. Shit, now common sense is on my side! A month ago it seemed crazy to stay. Now it would be crazy to leave! The universe just answered everything for me! Squeee!”

Squeeeegoes my phone just as I reach for it to call the office and get transferred to Archer.

“Wait, why is work calling me?” I think, my heart leaping as the answer comes to me like a song. “Ohmygod, it’s him, isn’t it! Weareconnected in some weird, cosmic way! How could I have ever doubted him, doubted myself, doubted what my body was telling me with such clarity?!”

I’m still babbling as I answer the phone, and it’s only when I hear a woman’s voice that I shut the hell up and listen in shocked silence.

I listen as my world suddenly goes dark, like the light just went out, like I just got reminded that life isn’t a fairy-tale, that happy endings don’t just float in with a simple phone call.

“Ohmygod, did you see the news?” comes the woman’s voice over the line. It takes me a moment to realize it’s one of my coworkers. I didn’t recognize her voice at first. Still don’t, in fact.

“Why do you sound so strange? What news? Did Canada just invade us or something?” I say, trying to smile though I feel a sense of dread looming before I even hear what she’s calling about.

“Aran Archer,” she says in a whisper. “He was in an accident, Angie. A bad one. They don’t think he’s gonna make it. It’s total chaos in the office, because apparently Archer has a totally crazy succession plan if something happens to him. He’s such a control freak that he can’t let go of his company even if he dies! Angie, it turns out that his policy is that if he dies suddenly, the entire company gets liquidated. Broken up and sold off in pieces. He doesn’t trust anyone else to run it if he’s not here to control everything. Doesn’t trust anyone with his legacy, his name. Told you he was a crazy control-freak. We’ve been told that at least the severance pay will be generous. But it’s still chaos, because nobody knows what’s gonna happen! We’re all wondering if we’re just gonna get severance checks and a pink slip on Monday!”

I drop the phone without even bothering to say a word in response. In a daze I stumble over to my computer and pull up the news. There it is, in black-and-white print, like a slap in the face from the universe, fate flipping me off, destiny flapping its wings and flying away from me as if it was my choice that led to this, my lack of faith in forever that stole that forever from me!

ARCHER INDUSTRIES CEO IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER PLANE CRASH

Enigmatic CEO Aran Archer was involved in a plane crash in the Rocky Mountains earlier today. The small plane flew into bad weather even though it was advised otherwise by Denver Air Traffic Control. Aran Archer was the only person on board. He is a licensed pilot, and although is reported to be excellent behind the controls, clearly flying a single-engine prop-plane through a Rocky Mountain snowstorm is a sign of arrogance that may have paid off in the business world but led to his doom in the world of nature. Doctors do not expect him to survive the weekend.

Almost bigger news is the update from Archer Industries’ Attorneys. True to his oddball reputation, CEO Aran Archer had instituted a succession plan that involves no successor at all! Yes, you read that right. In the event of Aran Archer’s death, the company is to be liquidated, shut down, split apart and sold off in bits and pieces in a way that ensures no other company can put the pieces back together! In other words, Aran Archer was so obsessed with control that he put in a plan to take his company with him to the grave!

We’ll never truly understand the rich and famous, will we? And given what we know about how Aran Archer’s mind works, that’s probably a good thing.

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