One Night Standards Read online

  “You don’t understand,” Mrs. Marion said. “The only way she’d sell was to ensure that they’d stay true to their original vision. She’s insisting on choosing her own account manager.”

  Mark felt his blood run cold. “But I’m the account manager.”

  “Not anymore.” Mrs. Marion shrugged. “She’s insisted on having her daughter Sophie take over that role. The sale was contingent on that issue.”

  “And…Sophie’s taking the job?” Mark asked.

  Mrs. Marion nodded. “I’m sorry. But you were right, Mark. This deal is the best for everyone.” She paused. “Well, it was the best for my company, anyway. I’m glad you brought it up.” Another pause. “And good luck.”

  With that, she turned and left.

  Mark downed the rest of his drink. “Waiter,” he said, pointing to his empty glass.

  Roger rubbed at his temples with his fingertips. “Well, if that’s not ironic.”

  “Still glad you slept with her?” Simone asked.

  That was when Mark realized—Simone had been covering her own ass. As much as she’d supported him, the moment she realized he was going to be promoted to her level, she’d taken steps to ensure her own longevity.

  He’d gotten screwed in more ways than one.

  “So you’re not going to be the account person,” Roger said slowly.

  Mark waited for him to finish the statement. Roger looked at him intently, as Simone continued drinking.

  “I’m fired, aren’t I?” Mark finally supplied.

  Roger nodded. “You’ll get the official word on Monday,” he said. “And a package.”

  Mark didn’t hear the rest of what Roger had to say. He politely excused himself and exited the place as fast as his legs could carry him.

  In one short day, trying to help the woman he loved, he’d lost the prize account, his promotion…his job. His future was in shambles.

  He had to talk to Sophie. He had planned to meet her at her hotel later that night anyway. Change of plans. It only took him fifteen minutes to reach her door. He knocked, conflicting emotions swirling through him chaotically.

  She opened the door. “I didn’t know until we’d left the restaurant,” she said by way of greeting.

  “I got fired,” he said, walking in. The shock still reverberated through him.

  “Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” she said, hugging him. “I didn’t know this was going to work out this way.”

  “I did all this trying to help you,” he said. “I thought I had it all planned.”

  “I can’t thank you enough,” Sophie breathed, kissing his neck, his chin. “Now, my mom’s retirement is secure, and her house…”

  “I won’t get my promotion,” he pointed out. “Hell, I don’t even know where I’ll get another job, Sophie!”

  “I’m sorry,” she repeated. Then, slowly, she offered, “I could get you a job in the department. I mean, I am account manager.”

  He stared at her. “You took my job, Sophie.”

  Sophie blushed. “It was the only way my mom would sell,” she said slowly. “I’m sorry, but…Mark, I couldn’t do that to her again.”

  He closed his eyes. “And that’s it, huh?”

  “You felt that way when you won the account,” she pleaded. “I was out of a job, and I still wanted to be with you….”

  “I put everything on the line to help you!”

  Her eyes were wide and rimmed with tears. “I can’t jeopardize her again,” Sophie said. “The best I can do is get you a job working for me. You’ll still have a career….”

  “When everybody knows we slept together?” he asked, feeling despair wash over him. “Sophie, I’ve spent my whole life trying to prove I got where I am because of my own merits. Not because of my face. Not because I slept my way to the top!” He felt like hurling something against the wall. “So now I’ve got nothing!”

  “I don’t know how to help you,” Sophie said.

  “I don’t know how, either,” Mark said.

  “Where does that leave us?” Sophie said as he turned and headed for the door.

  Mark paused. He still wanted Sophie. But wanting her had gotten him here, in this position. Nothing had been clear or right since then.

  “I need to figure things out,” Mark said. “When I do…I’ll get in contact with you. Okay?”

  “And that’s it?” Sophie said.

  “For now,” Mark said. “Yeah. That’s it.”

  Sophie nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks. “And if you don’t figure things out?” she whispered. “Or…you figure out that we were a mistake?”

  Mark didn’t know what to say. So he didn’t say anything. Instead, he left.

  “YOU’VE BEEN AWFULLY QUIET.”

  Mark was watching the sun set from his parents’ porch in Knoxville. He turned to look at his brother Jeff, standing framed in the front doorway. “Just relaxing.”

  “It’s been great to have you down,” Jeff said. “The kids love visiting with Uncle Mark.”

  Mark felt a stab of guilt. “I’m sorry I haven’t gotten down here more often, Jeff.”

  “We know how important your job was to you,” Jeff said, compounding the problem. “And I’m really sorry about what happened.”

  Mark nodded. Of course, he hadn’t gone into the full, ugly details of what had happened. They knew that he’d lost his job, but to their credit, they hadn’t pried. His family had welcomed him as always, with open arms.

  After his troubles with Trimera, it was a reassuring balm. If only his troubles with Sophie could be soothed away as easily.

  Jeff sat down on the other bench, looking at him intently. “So what will you do next?”

  “I’m not sure.” Mark picked up his glass of iced tea. “Get another job, obviously.”

  “Yeah,” Jeff said. “Keeping that fancy place in New York can’t be cheap.”

  Mark grimaced. “Don’t put it that way. You and Margo and the kids have a great house, you know.”

  “I’m not judging,” Jeff replied. “And yes, we do have a great house. I earn a good living. But…” He let the sentence peter off, frowning.

  Mark glanced at him. “Just spit it out.”

  “Mom and Dad won’t bring it up, they’re just glad to see you,” Jeff said thoughtfully. “But they’re thinking it, all the same.”

  “Thinking what?”

  “Ever since you were a model, things went a little screwy for you.”

  Mark groaned. “Jeez, we’re going to go that far back? I know nobody liked the idea of me modeling. I know a lot of people around here thought that it wasn’t a man’s job. And then getting a job with a cosmetics company…”

  “Mom and Dad didn’t give a damn about that, and you know it,” Jeff scoffed. “It was when you started making a lot of money. People were treating you differently. You went to New York, and you lost your head. Suddenly you had something to prove. You were successful as a model because of your looks, so suddenly you had to show everybody how smart you are. You were successful as a salesman because you’re friendly, and suddenly you’ve got to show everybody that you can be a cutthroat businessman, just like anybody else.” Jeff shook his head. “Honestly, you’ve been the biggest jackass for the past few years, but you haven’t been around enough for me to get the chance to tell you so. So now I am.”

  Mark stared at his brother, shocked. “I thought you were proud of how I was doing at my job!”

  Jeff laughed. “Damn, Mark, we all knew you were smart before you left. The fact that people thought you were just a pretty boy was funny. But you seemed to buy into it. It’s like you forgot how smart you were.”

  Mark stood up and started pacing, feeling embarrassment start to course through him.

  “Next thing I knew, you were telling me about how many hours you were working and all of your travel,” Jeff continued relentlessly. “You never talked about anybody else.”

  “I dated,” Mark protested…until he saw Jeff’s knowing smirk
. “Okay. So I didn’t have a lot of time for a relationship.”

  “You didn’t have a lot of time for anything,” Jeff said. “Now, you’ll have plenty of time. My question is—are you dumb enough to jump right back on that treadmill, or will you begin figuring out what’s really important in your life?”

  Mark felt like an idiot. “What if I told you I have started seeing someone?”

  Jeff grinned broadly. “I’d say it’s about time, and why isn’t she here?”

  “We sort of had a falling out.”

  “Already?” Jeff shook his head. “What happened?”

  “It sort of had to do with my job.”

  “Ah. You put your job before your relationship with her, I’ll bet,” Jeff said sagely.

  “No.” Then Mark thought about it…about all the conversations they’d had, about keeping business and personal separate. “Well, maybe. But it was more like she put her job before me.”

  “No kidding.” Jeff rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully. “What happened?”

  In bits and pieces, Mark relayed the whole ugly scenario to him. He’d always been able to talk to Jeff, and now that the story was off his chest, he wondered why he hadn’t talked to his family sooner. He felt better—still hurting from the loss, but a little more comfortable with it.

  “Now let me get this straight,” Jeff said. “She took your job?”

  “Yes.”

  “Because her mom’s retirement depended on it?”

  Mark frowned. “It didn’t…at least, not at first. Her mom pulled a power play and made it necessary for Sophie to take the job, or she’d walk away from the sale. See, I said it was complicated.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Jeff protested. “Was it Sophie’s idea to take your job?”

  “Well, no.”

  “And if she didn’t take the job, her mom would’ve walked and then lost her house and all her money, right?”

  “It was her own choice, though—”

  “Boy, I take back what I said. Nobody smart would say something like that.” Jeff crossed his arms. “I’m not saying the mom was right for doing what she did, but you can’t blame that girl for taking the job and standing up for her family. Sounds like she did the right thing, and she wanted you to understand. But you let the whole thing get all twisted, and then you walked away.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “It’s not easy,” Jeff said. “But do you love her?”

  Mark had been twisted in knots over that very question since the day he’d been fired. Longer than that, if he thought about it. “I love her,” he said. “But…”

  “No buts,” Jeff countered. “If you love her, then this is a problem, but it’s not the end of it. You need to talk this out with her.”

  “I need to get my career in place first,” Mark said sharply.

  “Mark, there are more important things than a career,” Jeff said.

  “I know that!” Mark didn’t mean to yell and was surprised to hear his own voice sounding so sharp. “You think I don’t know that? This isn’t just about the job, though. You said that you knew I was smart. Well…I guess I didn’t. I wasn’t trying to prove something to those jerks over in New York. I wasn’t even trying to prove something to the woman I love. I was trying to prove something to me, that I could make it on my own. Not because of my looks, but because of who I was.”

  Jeff was quiet for a long moment. “I’m sorry,” he said, and his voice sounded sincere. “I really didn’t know you felt that way.”

  “Yeah, well, you were always the smart one,” Mark said, knowing that it was true. “And Mom and Dad were good businesspeople. And there I was, making money by getting my picture taken, and everybody thought it was a big joke. Thought I was a big joke.”

  “Does this woman love you?”

  “She says she does,” Mark said. “No. I’m sure she does. And maybe it’s dumb to need to prove myself. But if I don’t do this…I’ll always wonder, and it’ll always stand between us.”

  His brother clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Do what you have to do, Mark,” Jeff said. “But I will say this—don’t wait forever to figure this out. Don’t wait until you make your first million. Otherwise, you’re going to find out that as proud as you are of yourself, she’s moved on while you were out proving yourself.”

  Mark felt a cold chill wash over him. “I’m praying it doesn’t get to that point,” he said vehemently.

  Jeff sighed. “I’ll pray for both of you.”

  12

  “SOPHIE,” HER MOTHER SAID, when she opened the door of her mom’s home. “You look terrible!”

  “Hi to you, too, Mom,” Sophie said, putting her laptop case and purse on the kitchen table.

  Her mother reddened. “I’m sorry. It’s that…I haven’t seen you in a few months.” She bit her lip. “You’ve lost weight.”

  “I’ve been busy,” Sophie said.

  “I know,” her mother said, and her voice was shaded with tones of pride. “I’ve been reading about Diva Nation in the trade mags, and when I saw the display they put out in the Marion & Co. over in Santa Monica—oh, Sophie, it was everything I could’ve dreamed of. And then some.”

  “You’ve got Lydia to thank for that,” Sophie said. “The launch went better than we’d hoped. Orders are pouring in. You should have your retirement covered, and then some.”

  “And how is working with Trimera?” her mother asked eagerly. “I’ll bet they’re choking on it, having to work with you.”

  “Some of them are,” Sophie admitted, “but only because they worked so hard internally, and they didn’t want to see somebody on the outside taking over and messing stuff up. I showed them I knew what I was doing, we figured out how to work together. Problem solved, drama over.”

  Her mother blinked. “You sound angry.”

  “I’m tired,” Sophie said. Then she sat down. “No, you’re right. I’m angry.”

  “What did they do?” her mother said, sitting down, her face concerned.

  “It’s not what they did,” Sophie said. “It’s what you did.”

  “What I did?” Her mother sighed. “Sophie, you knew what this meant to me. You knew…”

  “I knew what it meant to you,” Sophie replied. “Did it ever occur to you what this would mean to me?”

  Her mother was quiet for a long moment. “Is this about that man again?”

  Sophie winced. Just thinking about Mark…it had been six long months, and she hadn’t heard from him. Hadn’t even heard of him. Apparently, he’d disappeared from the cosmetics industry altogether. “This isn’t about him,” Sophie continued. “That’s over, anyway. I don’t even know where he is.”

  “I said I was sorry about that,” her mother said defensively.

  “I know. But your company was more important.”

  Her mother sat up straighter in her chair. “All my future and my finances were tied up in it,” she said. “I suppose you wanted me to be a bag lady?”

  “Here’s the thing,” Sophie said. “You didn’t have to be. You could have sold Diva Nation without any stipulations, and still been set for life. But you had to make sure that I was running it.”

  “I had to make sure that they didn’t drive the company that I’d created into the ground with crappy products and stupid management decisions,” she replied. “I had to make sure that it was in the hands of someone I trusted!”

  “No, actually, you didn’t,” Sophie said. “And the worst part is, I let you. I knew that you’d be stubborn enough to sabotage your own welfare out of spite.”

  “You make me sound like a six-year-old.”

  “You’ve been acting like one,” Sophie said. “I love you, Mom. But this has got to stop.”

  Her mother stood up and started pacing. “Is this the conversation we have, where I’m Mommy Dearest, and I don’t let you—”

  “I’ve got an ulcer, Mom.”

  Her mother stopped cold. “What? When did you find out about this?”

/>   “I’ve been working my butt off, trying to make Diva Nation everything you wanted it to be,” Sophie said. “I was working ninety-hour weeks. I didn’t have Mark in my life or anybody else.”

  “You can’t blame that on me,” her mother said, obviously sounding shaken.

  “I don’t,” Sophie said. “I blame that on me. I was working too hard and for the wrong reasons.” She took a deep breath. “Diva Nation is doing fine. I’ve got a team in place that will make sure it continues producing the quality products we’re known for. And now that it’s on its way…I’m quitting. I wanted to tell you myself, before I announced anything official.”

  Her mother continued pacing. “You shouldn’t have worked so hard,” she chided.

  Sophie smiled gently. “I know. I’ve been trying to prove myself to you, and trying to do what I keep thinking you want. That’s dumb.”

  “I never…” Her mother couldn’t even continue the sentence. “I didn’t do this to you,” she repeated.

  “No. I did this to me,” Sophie said, getting up and standing next to her mother. “And now I’m not going to do that anymore.”

  She hugged her mother, and to her surprise, her mother started to cry.

  “I know…I know I put you in a bad position,” she said against Sophie’s shoulder. “I just wanted to get even with those bastards so badly! They ruined me. I wasn’t going to let them win.”

  “So you kept control,” Sophie said.

  “And you paid for it.” Her mother took a deep breath. “I made my point, and you made yours. I’m sorry for that.” She paused. “So you’ll walk away from it, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “There’s no way you could maybe take a break, and go back?”

  Sophie stared at her mother, then shook her head. “I’m done,” she said softly. “I want to get my own job and live my own life from now on.”

  Her mother frowned, but nodded. “I can understand that.”

  They stood there for a moment, silently taking the situation in. Then her mother wiped at her eyes and stepped away.

  “Do you know what you’re going to be doing?”