On His Terms (The Arrangement Series Book 1) Page 10
“What is it you do?”
“You don’t know?”
“Should I?”
“I guess not,” he chuckles. “I’m often recognized from the tabloids stories, so I just assumed… Reporters love to try to destroy me whenever they can.”
“Sorry, I can’t say I read many tabloids.”
“I’m the CEO of Parker Financial Services, PFS for short. We are one of the largest companies in the investment and financial management world. We offer not only investment services but financial advice to large businesses seeking to grow or are struggling where they currently are.”
“Why would the tabloids have an issue with that?”
“The business articles written about me are typically very on point with what my company does. The tabloids though like to destroy my personal life. I’m sure you will see the articles if you google me and then you’ll know what I’m talking about. That’s one of the reasons I’m actually meeting you tonight.”
“What exactly are you looking for? I mean, I know what your profile told me but… ”
“I need someone by my side at events, dinners and probably even just an occasional date to keep the reporters off my ass. Apparently being seen without a date, or with various women at different events, is a sign of my inability to manage the hundreds of people that I currently employ. I’ve tried everything and my PR department can’t think of anything that we haven’t tried to throw them off. I don’t know if Bridget explained, but I’m going to need someone to sign an exclusivity contract meaning—“
“She explained. I can’t accept dates with other men.”
“Exactly. I need the media to think we are a couple so they get off my ass and let me focus on my business.”
“I understand.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Why are you doing this? I mean, clearly in my situation I have a problem and this is a perfect solution. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s in it for you?”
“If I can be honest, it was a hard offer to not consider. As I said, I currently work two jobs most days of the week but despite that, I barely make enough money to pay my bills. I would love to go back to school one day but I don’t want to take out more student loans and live in debt the rest of my life. There are other things I want to do and Bridget’s offer seemed like a good way to earn enough money to do those things.”
“I see.”
“Sir, ma’am, your dinner,” the waiter places large plates in front of both of us. My mouth waters just at the smell alone.
“Bridget must have ordered for us, if you’d prefer something else we can send it back,” Nicholas offers.
“No, it’s fine. It smells delicious.”
We spend the next hour slowly getting to know each other over dinner; the initial awkwardness is now gone. I learn that Nicholas lives and works in Manhattan but that work takes up most of his time. From the sound of it he often works as many hours as I do when I work both my jobs. He is honest in saying that he doesn’t have time to date woman and is not interested in dating at this point of his life because he knows he doesn’t have the time. He describes recent events that he has been to, I think to let me know what I can expect if we decide to move forward with this arrangement. Nothing he says about the events raise a concern for me; it sounds a very similar to things I used to attend with him.
“Kenzie, I want you to know that sometimes these events can be rather boring. It’s a lot of business discussions, contracts being negotiated and spreadsheets are being reviewed. It’s not going to be fun—“
“Nicholas, I… I have an idea of what to expect. I… I’ve been to these types of things before.”
“Oh?”
“I can mingle with guests and will not require your undivided attention. I understand that your focus is on these events and not on the company you’re with. It’s fine.”
“They won’t all be like that,” he quickly explains. “Sometimes these events are just social events that I need to make an appearance at. A charity fundraiser, a hospital dedication or a park unveiling—those types of events would probably be more enjoyable. Of course I still find them to be a waste of my time, but I’m obligated to attend. The food is usually half way decent, sometimes there’s dancing and there’s always good drinks.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“I’m going to speak with Bridget tonight, Kenzie, but I want you to know that I’m going to tell her that I would like an exclusivity agreement with you. I wanted to let you know now so you an opportunity to think about it. If you agree, I have a charity event this weekend I would like you to accompany me.”
“I…”
“Take the time you need tonight to think about it, I’m sure Bridget will call you tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
“Can I walk you to your car?” he asks as we ride the elevator to the main floor. Carter joined us as soon as we left the private dining room. I’ve confirmed that Carter is not only his driver but his bodyguard as well.
“Oh… I didn’t… I took the subway here. There’s a stop a couple of blocks away.”
“Carter will take you home—“
“No! I mean, that won’t be necessary. The subway is fine, I take it often and know the stops and transfers to get home.”
“Shit, I’m sorry, I forgot that part,” he nods at Carter who immediately flags down a cab. “The cab will take you wherever you need to go.”
“Nicholas, that’s not—“
“Please, I can’t let you get on the subway at this hour of the night. Please, let the cab take you home. I won’t know where you live, but will at least know that you arrived there safely.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.”
“Good night, Kenzie,” he whispers as he pecks me ever so lightly on the cheek.
“Night, Nicholas.”
Chapter 10
Nicholas
“Carter, I want a full background check on Mackenzie Rose first thing tomorrow morning,” I request as soon as the car pulls away from the club.
“Sir, we already have a full background check on her. We can review it once we are back at the condo.”
“Why do you have a background check on Ms. Rose? I don’t recall requesting one.”
“You didn’t, sir,” he confirms. “After I learned her identify at the bakery, I had Asher run a full background check on her. At the time… sir… well, I wasn’t sure of your intentions, therefore I thought it would be beneficial to have it ready if you ever decided to make contact with her.”
“I see. Were you aware that I was meeting her tonight?”
“Not exactly sir. I attempted to obtain that information from Mrs. Wilder but she refused to provide me with any information. Without knowing who you were meeting tonight, maintaining security measures were going to be difficult. I had Asher monitoring the club’s security cameras beginning half an hour before your scheduled meeting. It was not until we left PFS did I receive a text alerting me who the woman you were meeting tonight was after Asher identified her from the background report I asked him to run on Ms. Rose a month or so ago.”
Mackenzie was the last woman I expected to be the woman Bridget arranged for me to meet tonight. When I thought about what type of woman might decide to become an escort, I never once pictured Kenzie as that woman. I’m still not entirely sure what I think about her and this situation; everything about her until now has told me she is not interested in money, yet her reason for becoming an escort was money. Of course she has dreams which require money and I was pleased to learn it was education related and not something crazy like plastic surgery or to buy a bigger house.
It’s still hard to wrap my head around the thought that she is the type of woman who would accept money in exchange for a date. I can’t help but wonder if her innocence is all some act, but at the same time that innocence was there the night we met her on the sidewalk after the rain storm. If I believe her, she had
no idea who I was that night or even tonight, although I’m sure as soon as she gets home tonight she will be on google, finding out everything she can about me. She will not only learn that I’m one of New York’s youngest billionaires but she will also have the opportunity to read everything the media has written about me including when they rake my name through mud over my personal life. Ever since the plan my PR department came up with backfired, I have been attending events solo which of course the media still thinks means I’m hiding something but at least I don’t have to hear about why I bring a different woman to each event.
I’m hoping this arrangement with Bridget is the solution to my problems with the media. I hope that once they see I have the same woman attending events with me, they will forget the idea that I’m hiding something and will stop digging into my personal life. Asher has completed full background checks on Bridget’s company and as far as they can know, she only provides consultation services to different companies along the east coast. They weren’t able to find any trace of her running an escort service or any other type of business. If it was out there, they would have found it. Besides Carter, no one knows about my arrangement with Bridget. Asher believed he was doing a background check for a possible new customer I later changed my mind about. I try to keep my personal life separate from my work life and this is one of those things that no one at PFS needs to know about… hell no one needs to know about.
“Carter, my office,” I request as we enter the condo.
“Yes, sir.”
He disappears into his suite off my apartment before coming into my office with a manila folder which I can only assume contains the full background check of Mackenzie Rose. Carter is very good at his job and this is just another example of knowing what I needed before I knew it. I should have known he wouldn’t take me past the bakery every day on our run without having completed a full check on Mackenzie.
“Sir,” he hands the folder to me. I quickly take it but before I can open it I am reminded about what Bridget said about certain information needing to remain confidential and my promise not to access the information through the background check. I’m tempted to just say fuck it; that I need to know everything about Mackenzie if I’m going to move forward with this arrangement. Surprisingly though, I hand the file back to Carter electing not to learn the information that Bridget said her staff require remain private.
“I’m not supposed to know her address, phone number and emergency contact information,” I sigh. “It’s part of the arrangement so we both maintain our privacy.”
“I see,” his face tells me he is surprised that I’m not requesting the information anyway.
“Tell me what’s in the file. I can’t know exactly where she lives, but does she live in the city? Does she have any roommates that I need to be concerned will find out about this arrangement?”
“Sir, she lives alone according to the information we were able to obtain. She rents a very small, studio apartment in a less desirable neighborhood—“
“Less desirable meaning what exactly?”
“Let’s just say sir, that I would not be comfortable going into that area without being armed—“
“It’s that bad?”
“Even with an increase in police presence around that area, the crime remains very high.”
“Why the fuck does she live there?”
“Sir, she has less than a couple hundred dollars in her bank account, so I doubt she can afford something in a better area of the city at least without a roommate.”
“She works two jobs and can’t afford something better than that? Are the rent prices that high in this city?”
“Yes sir, they are. She pays over a thousand dollars a month in rent for her studio apartment, now adding in her utilities and transportation costs, she likely doesn’t have much left at the end of the month. She likely takes at least the subway and/or buses to work as there is no indication she owns a vehicle… that cost alone adds up.”
“Okay, what else? High credit card bills? Debts?”
“No credit cards, she has a small student loan balance but she has been paying it fairly regularly. It looks like she stopped on paying for a few months a couple of years ago and was granted a financial hardship reprieve; however since that expired, she has been making regular payments.”
“I didn’t think she went to college.”
“She only had one semester left before appearing to have dropped out.”
“I see. What else can you tell me?”
“She appears to have moved around a lot as a child, there are many different addresses and schools on record for her. Her mother is deceased, no father is listed on the birth certificate—“
“Is there anything alarming in her file that I need to be concerned about the press finding out?” I quickly interrupt Carter. Hearing all these details about Kenzie’s personal life makes me again feel like I’m invading her privacy. I guarantee Bridget’s background check isn’t this thorough, but I think this is one of those situations that the less I know the better. This is important information for Carter and Asher to have but none of it will impact the events that Kenzie attends with me.
“Nothing that I can find sir. I’m curious as to the reason she left Denver and how she ended up in New York as it appears she has no family anywhere in the state or even on this coast. However there is nothing here that suggests the reason she left is something for us to be concerned about. She has no criminal record, not even a parking ticket, and appears to pay her bills on time every month.”
“Thank you Carter; that will be all.”
To: Bridget Wilder
From: Nicholas Parker
Subject: Meeting
Bridget,
I am confident that after tonight’s meeting both parties are in agreement with the contract moving forward. I would like to review the background report before signing the contract. If both parties are still in agreement, I would like to request our next meeting occur at the New Beginnings Gala this Saturday night. I will contact you later this week to confirm the arrangements.
Nicholas Parker, CEO
Parker Financial Services, Inc.
I reworded the email several times to Bridget, trying to sound vague without disclosing the information about the contract or what services I’m discussing. Going forward I will have to find a better way to communicate with her regarding this arrangement. I think it will end up best if we have these discussions over the phone rather than leaving something in writing. I contemplate requesting Asher provide me with another email address that I would only use for communicating with Bridget, however I still worry about it being tied to PFS. Above all, I will protect PFS and would rather the press destroying my personal life than risk doing something that would ruin everything I have done to build PFS from the ground up.
A few minutes later my email dings indicating I have a new email. I’m tempted to ignore it and instead focus on the financial spreadsheet that was sent to me just before I left to meet Kenzie but instead, I open my email and see that I have an email from Bridget.
To: Nicholas Parker
From: Bridget Wilder
Subject: Re: meeting
Nicholas,
I am pleased to hear that your meeting tonight was successful. I will have the file couriered to your office first thing tomorrow morning. If the other party is in agreement, I will include a draft contract for your review. The effective date of the contract will be Saturday.
Bridget Wilder
CEO, Wilder Consulting
I hadn’t expected such a quick response from Bridget but I’m pleased to see that I’m not the only one who works late hours. Sleep doesn’t come easy, which is nothing new and the next morning finds me running past the bakery once again with Carter. I know I can easily walk in and say something to Kenzie especially after our dinner last night, but of course we jog past the window as we do every morning.
When I arrive at PFS, I find the courier has already delivered
Kenzie’s background check and a draft contract as promised by Bridget. I pleased that both were in there, as it means that Kenzie has decided to move forward with our arrangement as well. Although I thought last night was a success, I couldn’t help but worry that if she would change her mind after she read the shit the tabloids wrote about me. As soon as I suggested she google me, I immediately regretted the words, but since she knew nothing about me personally or professionally, google seemed like the best way for her to access the information quickly.
Later that night, when I finally have a few minutes of down time I open the file containing the background check that Bridget sent me:
Full Name: Mackenzie Rose
Age: 25
Occupation: Personal shopper/Bakery assistant
Bank Account Balance: Checking account: $127.93
Savings Account: $53.54
Education: High school graduate, college credits
Residence: New York City
Political affiliations: none
Religious affiliations: Catholic, not a member of a church currently
Driver’s license: None; previous license from Colorado state expired
Assets: None
Marital Status: Single, never married
Mother: Avery Jones (Smith) deceased
Father: Unknown
There’s isn’t much more to her background check exempt a list of previous employers which include a coffee shop, a restaurant and a bank. A brief medical summary was included, indicating that there have been no major medical issues in her life. She was in a passenger in a car accident once and then fell down a flight of stairs requiring an emergency room visit but nothing suspicious.
I review the draft contract next. It’s similar to the one that Bridget presented me when she first discussed this arrangement with me. This contract has been drafted with my name and Kenzie’s, with an effective date of this Saturday for the gala as Bridget indicated it would be. The contract is pretty straight forward: all arrangements must be made through Bridget, contact between parties cannot occur outside of prescheduled dates and times, physical contact is limited to basic touching, there is no set number of dates/events and either party can terminate the contract at any time.