Page 4 of Trials of a One Night Stand
He’s well trained because another drink is quickly placed before me. Now that’s service, and he doesn't bother wearing a fake smile either. I like this guy. “Bad day, night, month, year?” he asks.
“All of the above.” I take a sip. Yep, just as sour as the first one.
“Let me guess. Trouble of the female kind.”
I half laugh. “What brings you to that conclusion?”
“Whiskey, and it’s your second one tonight. It’s the drink for brokenhearted men, my friend. Vodka is for the ladies who have reason to hate a man, while beer is the drink of choice for work and money worries. And if a couple asks for champagne, you bet your bottom dollar one or both are cheating on someone.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Who knew there was a science to ordering alcoholic drinks?”
“Who knew indeed.” He flips his bar towel over his shoulder. “So what happened? How did she break your heart?”
“Which one?”
The bartender grimaces. “That’s really bad news. Okay, so who broke your heart first, and then who annihilated it?”
If truth be told, my heart isn’t broken. A little damaged maybe.
“I thought I was still in love with my ex-wife, and she’s engaged to another guy.” I take another sip of my drink. “As I came to the realization I was just clinging on to the good times in our past, I met someone else, but then she moved across the pond for a great job opportunity.”
“That’s some bad luck, dude, but more power to the second one.”
“She deserves every bit of her success. Hardworking.” Almost as hardworking as I am, which is why we got along so well.
“So you’re happy for her.”
It’s not a question, but I still nod.
He leans on the bar, getting closer to me as a group of women in the corner yell and cheer. “Do you like the guy the ex-wife is marrying?”
Jack Parker is a good guy despite my initial opinion of him. “Yeah, actually, I do.”
“Well, the way I look at it is you just haven’t met the one yet.”
The one. Fuck, now he sounds like Ashton, Bradley, and Max. But at least I’m not sitting here talking to myself. That’s better than nothing.
“You think?” I huff a cynical laugh and glance at the women in the corner who are now yelling, “take it off, take it off, take it off” to some poor guy. He has great biceps, so I assume they want him to get rid of his T-shirt. “Not sure I haven’t already and missed my shot.”
“Believe me. If either of them were the one, you’d be beating the door down of the ex-wife telling her that the new guy is a dick, or begged the other woman to stay, or hopped on the next flight across the pond. Have you done any of those things?”
“Nope, and I have no desire to do either.”
“Then neither of them is the one.” He pushes away from me and nods at my glass, which has gone down way too fast. “Another?”
“Make it a beer.” I laugh wearily before knocking back the rest of the whiskey sour. “I’m not driving, but I still need to make it home.”
The bartender grins. “Mixing what you’re drinking might not sound like such a good idea in the morning.”
He’s right, but if the booze helps me to forget all the shit going on in my life, then I don’t care. A crap love life is bad enough, but the fact I have idiots trying to sue my company is the cherry on top. Can you hear the sarcasm? And they aren’t even the first ones to do that.
UnoPharm, a rival pharmaceutical company, attempted to discredit Zentello and our new drug Orchid. Their CEO and chief scientist, Nigel Carrington, claimed our newest product as his own. He also happened to be one of Zelda’s ex-boyfriends, who we discovered was stealing, lying, and attempting to discredit myself and Zelda. Her new fiancé helped bring down Nigel. Jack’s love for Zelda is the most important thing to him, more important than the job at the science magazine he lost helping her, so how the hell can I hate the guy?
Putting the UnoPharm and Nigel fiasco to rest was great, but our time of peace was short-lived. Orchid, a drug to enhance women’s sexual gratification and mood, launched to overwhelming customer praise. Saying the product is a success doesn’t come close to accurately portraying what the drug’s done for our earnings. In the past two quarters, we’ve crushed every stock analyst’s estimate.
But six months ago, a company called Sugar Valley Drugs claims they created Orchid, and we stole it from them. Unlike UnoPharm, who’d made similar accusations, none of us knew anything about Sugar Valley Drugs, so it came out of the blue, and the lawsuit will finally get underway soon after months of negotiating, research, and preparation. A bigger waste of my time than tonight is what I call it. Our legal team, especially our hired gun for this case, think it’s important and must be handled correctly.
Of course, the accusation is complete shit. Zelda developed the original formula, and Bradley and Max took her formula, which we’d called the Happy Pill and developed it into what is now called Orchid.
