LOVING THE HEAD MAN (17 page)

NINE

Robert and Bree both seemed so traumatized by what they were witnessing that moments passed before another word was spoken.  And even then it wasn’t either one of them, but Alan, who broke the silence when he came up front, stark naked too, calling Bree’s name.

       “Mr.
Colgate
?” he asked, backing up and covering his manhood with his hands as soon as he saw Robert, his voice nearly breathless with shock, as if seeing his boss before him had knocked the wind out of him.  “What are you doing here, sir?”  He tried to smile, he tried to lay on that DeFrame charm thick, but it was a hard sell in his position.

       Robert, in fact, didn’t even respond to Alan.  He was too busy staring at Bree.  Bree was so anguished, so crestfallen that she wanted to die where she stood. 

       “I was going to phone you,” Alan continued, as if he could fast-talk his way out of this. “Just wanted to make sure you were okay.  It’s been like a feeding frenzy with the media, it’s been ridiculous.  The former Vice President of the United States accused of rape is a big deal, I know it’s a big deal, but give me a break. 
Wall to wall coverage, twenty-four seven?
  I know you have your hands full.  I was going to phone just to check on you.  And just like that here you are.”  He grinned.  “Given the pressure, I thought you’d still be in DC.”

       Alan’s casualness, his almost calculated coolness, disgusted Bree even more than she already was.  He was behaving as if nothing at all was wrong, when anybody with eyes could see that everything was wrong.  Including Robert, whose coolness, unlike Alan’s flippancy, was
chilling.
  He walked in further and closed the door behind him.  And Alan, to Bree’s shock, started right back up again.

       “It’s like an out-of-control monster of a case, isn’t it, sir?” he said to his boss, determined to use his infamous sleight-of-hands abilities to change the subject.  “The media’s been brutal. Bret Drysdale is even publicly questioning if Colgate should have taken it on given the crazy publicity.  But me and a few others went to Bret and told him he was out of line, I’m sure Monty briefed you on it.  I mean, the vice president’s been convicted already in the court of public opinion.  Not his lawyer’s law partners too.”  When it was obvious Robert wasn’t entertaining anything he was saying, Alan went back to his moot point.  “I thought you were still in DC, sir,” he said.

       While Alan continued with what was sounding more and more like nothing more than nervous chatter, Robert continued to study Bree.  Bree felt like a carnival act, where Robert, like any other gawker, was waiting for the gimmick to show itself.  His eyes were clouded by anger, Bree could see that, but his disgust was even more searing.

       And without saying a word, he walked up to her, with Alan backing up slightly behind her.  He removed his suit coat, and placed it around her naked body.  His face was grim and drained as he pulled the coat lapels together, effectively covering her nakedness.  She didn’t realize that she had dropped every piece of her clothing from her hands, when he first walked through that door.

       “What’s going on here, Brianna?” he finally asked her. 

       It wasn’t just that he looked exhausted - he was lead counsel in what many courtroom observers were calling the case of the century - of course he was going to look exhausted.  But he looked sad, too, Bree thought, almost depressed, as if the one event he had dreaded ever coming true was upon him.  Bree felt even worst just seeing that look on Robert’s face. 

       Alan, however, remained clueless.  “Nothing’s going on,” he quickly answered as if Robert had asked him the question, his nervousness now bordering on desperation.  He was in trouble, and he knew it.  “It’s nothing like what you think, sir.  We were just going over some interrogatories Bree needed help with.  She was trying to understand–”

       “You heard me, Brianna,” Robert said, still ignoring the younger man.  “What’s going on?”

       Bree wanted to deny it all.  She wanted to give some long-winded explanation about why she had consented to do what he obviously thought she had done, but she couldn’t pull herself to go there.  Robert Colgate was no fool.  She could tell any hard luck story she wanted, but at the end of the day the ending would be the same: she’d planned to sleep with Alan DeFrame.             “I was supposed to sleep with Alan in exchange for being hired at Colgate and winning the bonus,” she said to him, her eyes meeting his.

       “No,” Alan protested.  “She’s just playing, sir, she knows that’s not the truth!”

       Robert’s jaw tightened.  Although his eyes still held that coolness, the hurt, the pain was more evident now.  It was such a searing pain that it made her want to yell from the top of her lungs that she wasn’t that kind of girl, that it wasn’t as base as it looked.  She didn’t plan to do something like this for the hell of it or just to get a great job.  She’d never do it for those
kind
of reasons.  But who would believe her?  It would be like a hooker yelling she wasn’t a prostitute. 

       “We were going over some interrogatories,” Alan kept on in some last ditch effort to win the day.  “We had been working on this test case for the last few weeks and she thought she’d come up with this prototypical response to the Burlington decision–”

       “I was supposed to have sex with him,” Bree said bluntly, harshly, interrupting Alan’s silly lies.  “I had agreed to come to the company condo, where Alan was able to borrow the key, and have sex with him.”

       Alan responded with such amazement that Bree could barely believe it.  “Why you keep saying that?” he said as if it was Bree who was telling silly lies.  “Have sex?” he said.  “What are you talking about, girl? 
Sex?
 
Sex
?
  Are you out of your mind?”  He actually grinned.  “She’s just joking, Mr. Colgate.  I wouldn’t–”

       “Alan?” Robert said, his eyes still refusing to leave Bree’s.

       Alan swallowed hard.  He knew that tone. 
“Sir?”

       Robert looked at him.  “Does it look like you’re convincing me?”

       Alan’s heart dropped.  He ran his hand across his blonde hair, finally ready to admit the obvious.  “Okay, sir, it’s true, we did come here for that, but nothing happened, sir. I wouldn’t let it.  And it had nothing to do with any selection.  Bree was attracted to me, and I was attracted to her, so we decided to hook up.  That’s all this is about, sir, and she knows it.  But I changed my mind, sir.  Nothing happened.”  When he could see he was still getting nowhere fast, he exhaled.  “I promise you, sir, coming here like this, it won’t ever happen again.”

       Robert looked at him as if he had just birth a baby.  “Won’t happen again? That’s the damn truth.  I know it won’t happen again. 
Because you’re fired.”

       Both Bree and Alan were floored. 
Especially Alan, who looked as if he had just endured a body blow.
  “Fired?”

      
“Effective immediately.
  Get your clothes and get off of this property now.”

       “But, sir–” Alan pleaded.

       “Get your shit,” Robert said, his anger on the verge of breaking loose, “and get off of this property now.”

       Alan was
devastated,
Bree could see it all over his face.  But it wasn’t like he didn’t get exactly what he deserved.  The idea that he would give her the prize only if she agreed to sleep with his slimy behind was morally reprehensible. 
For him as well as her.

       As soon as he began heading for the bedroom to retrieve the rest of his clothing, his body language unable to conceal his defeat, Bree turned to leave too.  She needed to get out. 
To think.
 
To get away from her own devastation.
  As soon as she moved to retrieve her clothes, however, Robert gripped her by the arm and moved her back in front of him, and he didn’t do it lovingly either.

       “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked her.

       “I need some fresh air.”

       “Did I tell you you could leave?”

       Bree hesitated.  There was an undercurrent of nastiness in his anger now. 
“No, sir.”

       “You’ll do what you’re told,” he said, his hand still grasping her arm. 

       Bree’s heart began to pound.  She knew what he was doing.  He wanted to rub it in.  It was bad enough that he had seen her at her
lowest,
that he had caught her in what he had undoubtedly convinced himself was some kind of grand scheme she had been cooking up from the moment they met.  He wanted to exonerate himself for having any interest in her to begin with, as if he knew all along she was a snake but was waiting to see just how she’d sizzle. 

       Alan returned to the living room fully clothe.  And just as Bree suspected, his old arrogance had returned.  He was already fired.  He had nothing left to lose.  “I’m not blowing my own horn, sir,” he said, his smile now non-existent, “but I’ve had excellent results for Colgate ever since I’ve been there.  And I’ve had better trial results than some of your senior partners, sir.  Not to blow my own horn.”

       “Then stop blowing it,” Robert said.   And then he exhaled.  “You’ll get a letter of reference,” he said, rubbing his forehead, “and it will outline all of your accomplishments while you worked for me.  But you can’t have any more association with Colgate.”

       “If it was any other finalist,” Alan boldly asked his former boss, “would I even have been reprimanded?”

       Robert stared at Alan.  “What kind of question is that?”

      
“Because it’s the truth.
 
Because it’s your fault.”

      
“
My fault
?
  Your sleeping with Brianna is my fault?”

       “He didn’t sleep with me,” Bree made clear.

       “You elevated her profile, sir,” Alan said, ignoring her.  “And it made me curious.  Hell, yeah, it made me curious.  I mean, why were you so interested in her?  She was cute and had some nice curves, but so did a ton of other females at Colgate and you never showed any interest in any of them.  But you were so interested in Bree.  You always wanted me to report back to you about Bree.  ‘How’s Brianna?’ you was always asking me.  ‘Make sure you stay on her.  Make sure you let me know if her work product starts falling off.’  And I would see the way you would look at her every time I was talking with you and we saw her walking by.  So I figured what was it about this girl that would have Robert Colgate’s attention like this?  Damn straight I had to tap it.”

       Bree was floored by what she had heard, the idea that Robert was
that
interested in her, but she was not so thrown that she couldn’t see how Robert’s jaw tightened at Alan’s admission of “tapping” her. 

       “I’m sorry I let you down, sir,” Alan finally said, “but if it was any other finalist standing here naked in this living room, you would give me another chance.  You know it and I know it.”  Then Alan looked at Bree, a look of pure hatred on his face, and then he left, slamming the door behind him.