With my free arm, I reached over and pushed the woman off the bed. The warmth of the sun hit my skin, which meant she had long overstayed her welcome.
“Hey, what the fuck, Cassian?” She popped up from the cold marble floor and tried to rip the cover off me to wrap around her. I didn’t let it go.
“Get out, Monica,” I grumbled as I turned and tried to get a bit more comfortable in the bed. I should have known that wasn’t going to happen.
The splash of cold water caused me to jump out of bed.
“What the hell is your problem?”
“My name is Marcy!” She screamed in my direction.
“Oh, who gives a shit.” I ran a hand through my hair and wiped as much of the water from my body as I could before I stormed around my bed and grabbed onto her arm.
“You better get the hell off me.” Mandy or Monica said as I towed her behind me.
“Stop fucking talking.” I opened the door and pushed her out into the hallway.
“Wait! You can’t put me out! I’m naked!” She screamed as she tried to push her way back into my room.
I looked down at her plastic filled, surgically perfect body. “Eh, I’m sure no one will be tempted to look at all your recycled parts. Check the trash for something to wear.” I pushed her back a little further and slammed the door in her face.
I could hear her cursing and banging on the door, but the heavy wood door muffled the sound. The sound the wet sheets made as I ripped them off my bed and threw them in a pile on the floor almost made me cringe. The whiskey burned my throat as I swallowed down two sleeping pills. It wasn’t long before the euphoric wave swept me back into my favorite dream world.
A strong hand shook me. My arm swung out on autopilot to stop the motion. I was fucking sleeping, and I wasn’t trying to get up anytime soon.
“Cassian, get up. I don’t have time for this shit. You’re already more than an hour late for this meeting.” The hand shook me again, and I turned to look at Moses. He’d been working with my family for more than four decades and was older than dirt, but the man was still quick-witted and stern when he had to be.
I grumbled and rolled over on my California king bed. There was no more sunlight bathing my skin.
“Fucking hell, Moses, why are you always bothering me?”
“Because someone needs to. Come on, Cassian, a few board members are here and want to talk to you about the monthly meeting you missed.” Moses rushed over to my closet and pulled out some clothing for me to pull on. The man had been assigned to take care of me since my boarding school days. In fact, I was pretty sure he knew my sizes better than I did.
I put my feet into my fur-lined slippers and made my way to the bathroom. I wasn’t going to rush for those stuffed shirts downstairs. Besides, if it weren’t for me, most of them would be without a job. I washed my face and splashed a bit of water on my hair to get some of the glitter out of it. I had a large hickey on my neck, and for some reason, there was a scratch on my cheek. I walked out calmly as Moses impatiently waited for me to get my shit together and listen to what those old farts wanted to say to me.
I started on my journey to the sitting room, where most of the board would be waiting for me. Moses was right behind me every step of the way.
“Cassian, they’re upset about the loss of the Belize client. They were a good three percent of the yearly income, so just let them know that you’re…”
I turned to look at him, highly fucking confused. “When did we lose the Belize contract?”
“Cassian, don’t you remember?” Moses stopped in his tracks. “You cursed Mr. Lampada out and told him to shove his business up his ass, and that was the nicest of all your insults.”
My eyebrows nearly shot up to my hairline, “I did? Well, fuck me.” I wiped a hand down my face and tried to remember that conversation.
“Yeah, you’d just come back from your last three-day vacation.” Moses looked away.
The three-day vacation he was talking about was nothing more than a hazy memory. I fucked so many women, beat down so many men, and drank so much high-end liquor in those three days. No matter how many times I took a mini-vacation, I never felt relaxed afterward. All it did was make me want another vacation.
“Whatever, let’s just get this shit over with.” I walked faster into the main room. It didn’t matter if we lost every contract we had, I was Cassian Lejeune, and I was one rich motherfucker if I did say so myself. I would never have to worry about money for as long as I lived. Hell, even if I were dumb enough to have a few seeds running around later on in life, they’d never want for anything either.
As I walked in, I could see every person in the room had a scowl on their face. I didn’t want to deal with this shit, but it was written into the trust fund contract that once my father gave the company over to me, I would have a board to listen to for at least a decade.
“Mr. Lejeune, I really…”
I put my finger up so that I could stop the man from talking, not ready to hear what he had to say. Not yet. I made my way over to the decanter table and poured myself a double of Macallan scotch. The liquor slowly made its way down my throat, coating my insides with a silky fire, just enough to get me through the bullshit meeting.
“Alright, what’s the problem now?” I turned to look at the board members in attendance.
“Mr. Lejeune, as I was trying to say, I really think that you need to make your presence known at a board meeting. There is talk of a lock out.”
I glared at the man in front of me, “The hell you say? I wish someone would think about trying to lock me out of my own company. That’s illegal anyway.” I took another sip of my drink.
“It would be illegal if there was no validity in any of the concerns they were bringing to the table. But there is, and if we don’t act soon, this whole company is going to go up in flames.”
I shrugged my shoulders and took another long sip of my drink, “Oh well, if it burns, it burns.”
The man, I was sure his name was Davids, but it didn’t matter as he wasn’t important.
“How could you say something like that? The Lejeune family and all the companies it houses provide for tens of thousands of people. If we’re out of business, think of how many people would be homeless or be out of healthcare. Think about…”
I yawned loudly and let my head loll back against my chair; I was so tired of this song and wondered how long it would take him to shut up. If I didn’t employ them, then they would just need to find a new job. It wasn’t that serious and, again, not something that I would worry myself about.
I got up from my chair and walked over to the bottle of alcohol. I didn’t know when I’d finished the glass, but it was empty.
“It’s such a waste; your parents would be so disappointed in you.”
In the blink of an eye, I had the man up against the wall. I saw red. “Don’t you ever disrespect me again. I am running this fucking corporation, not my weak ass father or my degenerate ass mother. Me. Just in case you need further proof that it’s me who is paying everyone's bills in here, let me make it clear.” I let him go and could see he was one more push away from crying. His hands were balled up, and his bottom lip was trembling with emotion. “You’re fired,” I spoke softly but clearly.