Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
My phone rang in the office and I answered as I perused the contracts in my hands.
“Yes Marsha.”
“Mrs. Stryker on line one for you sir.”
“Thank you; Nadia what is it?”
“Gabe you can’t leave me here like this, I’m a prisoner in my own home.”
“My name is Stryker.”
“What?”
“My name, only family and on the rare occasion a few close friends call me Gabe.”
“But I’m your wife I always call you Gabe.”
“Are you? A wife wouldn’t have snuck out of my bed like a fucking thief in the night and disappeared for weeks, leaving me to worry if she was dead in a fucking ditch somewhere. Look I told you before I left that I wasn’t doing this right now. I waited two weeks you can wait a few hours; unless there’s something else I really need to be going.” The line was silent for ten seconds so I hung up. I sat with my head in my hands as I tried not to think of the mess my life had become.
Marsha came into the room five minutes later with a stack of files in her hand and a cup of coffee for me.
“Don’t forget you have that business dinner this evening at the Palace.”
“Shit I forgot; there’s no chance of rescheduling is there?”
“You’ve already done that once last week.”
“Fine, thanks for the reminder.” I really wasn’t looking forward to tonight. This guy was going to beg me to save his ass again and there was no way to do it. He’s one of those types who asks for advice and then totally ignores it to do as he pleases, only to be back later with the same story. I have very little patience for such things; but we’d been friends in college, and I knew that this was his last chance to get out of the hole he’d dug himself before his old man gave him the boot. I warned him years ago that slacking off and paying others to do his shit would catch up with him. Now I guess he was reaping the rewards of his laziness. I have nothing against Jonas he’s an okay guy. But somewhere along the way I’d lost all respect for the other man. Had I been born with the opportunities he had been I’d hope I would do much better with my life. But instead of applying himself and getting himself ready to take over the company his great grandfather had built, he’d drank and snorted his way through school. Now for the last three months he’s been after me for loans and or business advice. I’d given him one loan on the basis of our past friendship but that wasn’t going to happen again. I wasn’t in the habit of supporting other people’s bullshit. Not to mention I don’t like the way he looks at my wife. The loan I knew was a write off. I was never going to see that quarter of a mil again. It was no big deal to me, just a drop in the bucket. But just because I had the means did not entail me being an ass and rolling over for every asshole that thought I had wet ears. Tonight could very well be the end of a twelve-year friendship; because I was sure I was going to be disappointing him, whatever it was he was after. I wasn’t interested in getting tangled up in the muck and mire that was his family’s business. There was nothing in it for me and as a businessman I’m all about the bottom line. He will be well served to sell it off and take the profits now before it was too late and there was nothing left to sell. Even now, a mere three months since he first contacted me things had already changed, and not for the better. The price of the shares had been dropping steadily for a significant loss. I’m afraid it was too late to stick a Band-Aid on it and make it all better.
I had one other issue for the coming evening. Picking up the phone I called her cell, which I’d had deprogrammed as well. It’s amazing what having money can do. She could only make calls to a few select numbers just as with the home phone. And her contacts list had been terminated except for incomings from her parents and I.
“Nadia I have a business dinner this evening the car will be there at seven.”
“I’m not up to going out.”
“I could care less what you’re up to be ready or else. And Nadia you’re already skating on thin ice with me so I’d think very long and hard before pissing me off.” With that I hung up the phone. How dare she? Did she really think she was calling the shots? That she any longer had a say in what I did? How could she not know me at all? How could she think that I would shrug off her insult?