Inflated Ego novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Roof

Margot takes Mason to the roof, says she voted to keep him, and kisses him back; he decides she is his way in.

Margot Langhorn took me up six flights of fire stairs without asking where I wanted to go.

She was faster than I was, even in flat shoes.

At the top she shoved the steel door open with her hip, and the night air hit us.

The roof was gravel and tar and a view of the whole lit city.

"Nobody comes up here," she said. "The roof alarm broke in July and my grandfather won't pay for it."

"Your grandfather doesn't pay for anything he can't put his name on."

She laughed once, a short surprised laugh, and then covered her mouth.

"Sorry. That was not funny."

"It was a little funny."

She sat down on a crate and took a flask out of her jacket pocket.

She drank, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and passed it to me.

It was cheap whiskey, warm from her body.

I drank it anyway.

"You're the chief financial officer," I said.

"I'm the person who knows how much you cost him and how little he paid you."

"That's a strange thing to say to a man you just met."

"I didn't just meet you. I wrote your cheques for three years."

She looked at me for a moment, steady and green-eyed.

"You were the best invoice I ever approved."

I should have laughed.

I should have been playing the plan, because I had one now, and it was sitting right in front of me.

Instead my chest went tight and strange.

"He read my contract out loud," I said.

"I know."

"He read my measurements."

"I know. I was standing at the back of the room, and I wanted to throw a chair."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because it's his chair." She said it flatly, without any joke in it. "It's all his chair."

I stared at the skyline.

A siren went by down on the avenue and faded.

"For what it's worth," Margot said, "I voted to keep you."

I turned.

"There's a vote?"

"There's a meeting. Three people and a man who's been right for forty years. I voted to keep you and Dale voted to cut you and my grandfather decided before either of us spoke."

That was Dale Schuler.

Her grandfather's partner, the pink shirt and the gold watch.

I filed the name away.

"Why would you vote to keep me?"

"Because you're good," she said. "And because you sent me a thank-you note when I fixed your tax form, and nobody does that."

"That was one note."

"It was a good note."

She stood.

She was close enough that I could smell the whiskey and the faint cedar of her soap.

I told myself this was the plan.

I told myself she was the key and I was only turning it.

Then she reached up and pushed a strand of my hair off my forehead.

"I'm going to say something stupid," she said.

"Go ahead."

"You're the most beautiful man I've ever seen, and I hate that I noticed it tonight."

Her hand stayed on my face.

I could have said something clever.

I kissed her instead.

She made a small sound against my mouth.

Her fingers curled in my collar and pulled me down, and I tasted whiskey and salt, because she was crying a little.

When she let go, her clip had fallen out and her hair was loose around her shoulders.

"That," she said, breathing hard, "was also stupid."

"It was a great kind of stupid."

She laughed against my chest.

I held her there for a moment, and I felt something I didn't plan for.

Then I thought of Victor's voice reading my measurements, and the feeling went cold and useful again.

She picked her clip up off the gravel.

"My grandfather has never apologized to anyone in his life," she said.

"I noticed."

"So I will do it for him. Come to dinner tomorrow at his house. Seven o'clock."

"To his house."

"He won't say sorry. But I want you to see that he has a face like anyone else's, up close."

I thought about walking into Victor Langhorn's home with a plan folded in my chest.

I thought about his granddaughter's eyes when she said I was beautiful.

"Seven o'clock," I said.

She smiled, small and real.

Then she walked to the door, and at the last second she turned.

"Mason. Wear a tie. He'll pretend not to notice, and he will notice."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend