Of Kings and Aces

Rude Awakening

The incessant ringing of my phone awoke me from my slumber. My body was tired and my mind, muddled. Squinting, I blocked out the sun that was already shining through the blinds.

Dammit.

If the sun was already up, that meant I was already late for work. I turned my phone down to silence it but after a few moments, it started ringing again. Looking at the caller ID, I let it ring several more times before picking it up.

Bloody hell! I will never get past my hatred for Mondays and this persistent prick! I cursed him.

 “Jaxx, I’ll be there in thirty,” I groaned, foregoing with the morning niceties.

 “You’d better be!” he yelled and cut the call.

 Yup, like hell I will be. I smirked still with my eyes closed.

I didn't even know where I was. There was a rebellious part of me telling me to snooze for five more minutes but I immediately jolted wide awake when an arm wrapped around my waist and a warm, womanly body pressed against my back. The feeling of her hardened peaks sent shivers down my abdomen but I had no time for a morning quickie. I was late!

 “Morning, Ace,” purred whoever she was. I cursed silently and racked my brain for the name of the chick I went home with last night. I wasn’t even in the mood to get laid but it was always welcome. But how come I don’t remember actually coming?

 “Morning, babe,” I said as I untangled her arm around me. I got out of bed and started putting on my clothes. I searched for a sign of used protection and my heart raced when I could not find one. f**k! I’ve never been this careless!

Her eyes bore holes through my head. She sat up and covered herself with the blanket. I had to hurry before she’d start throwing curses and things at me.

 “Look, I’m sorry about this, but I got to go,” I sincerely said, looking her in the eye. I braced myself for curses but they never came. What I got however were tears, buckets of tears. I groaned internally. f**k, I’m going to be so late for work I might as well take half the day off.

 “Babe, don’t cry, come on. We talked about this,” I softly said as I sat on my side of the bed.

 “You don’t even remember my name!” she sobbed harder. I was a d**k and she was right. I quickly tried to replay the events that happened last night, which proved equally difficult.

Where did I go anyway? I c****d my head, she looked so damn familiar but for the love of god, I could not remember her name or where I first saw her! I was pretty sure it wasn’t just last night.

“Of course I do, err..” f**k, f**k, f**k! Why don’t I remember anything?

“It’s Mona, you jerk!” she screamed.

“Mona, of course. I’m sorry we both had a little too much, yeah?” I reached for her hand and she willingly gave it. “And we did agree that this would be just, you know…” I trailed off. I don’t know if we agreed on anything, to be honest. I don’t remember s**t after having too much to drink.

“I know, but it’s my first time to do something like this and I just feel awful. Could you at least stay for a little longer?” she asked tearfully. 

Oh, hell. Here we go.

“I wish I could, but my partner has been calling me since eight and I’m already two hours late,” I mentally prepared myself for more tears, and maybe now she’ll be throwing things at me. I wish she’d just throw me out. I slowly stood up and right on cue, my phone rang again.

 “Hey, look I can explain,” I started.

 “Are you sure you can? Because there better be a goddamn explanation for this!” he growled from the other end. I swear that guy was half bear with all his growling.

“Yes, sure, hon, I’ll be there,” I pretended to keep my voice low but still loud enough for the girl on the bed to hear the conversation.

 “f*****g bastard, you better get your ass here fast!” he snarled.

 “Yes, of course, I can make it. Seven P.M. Right, of course, hon. Got to go, love you,” I quickly cut the call pretending to be secretive.

“Hon? I love you? What the hell, Ace! You said you didn’t have a girlfriend! You asshole! Get out! Get out!” she screamed and quickly put on her dress from last night while I frantically looked for my wallet and keys. They must have slipped out of my pant pocket, s**t! 

The moment I found them, I felt a soft, fluffy thing hit my head. I stuffed both things in my pockets and backed up.

“You boys are all the same! You cheat and tell us girls f*****g lies just to get into our pants!” she continued to rant and this time picked up her handbag. Now that thing was going to hurt with the spiky studs adorning it. So I did what a sensible guy would do: I ran for the door.

“Mona, I’m sorry! But I’m not lying, that really was not my girlfriend!” I said honestly just to cement that fact that I’m an asshole so she would never want to see me again. After all, that is the point of a one-night stand, right?

 “Asshole! Get out!”

 I slammed the door behind me just in time to avoid further injuries from the murderous handbag. I let out a sigh of relief and triumph. What a way to start the week.

___

 “Noelle,” I strode into the office floor at almost eleven, still drying my hair from the shower.

I wss glad Jaxx insisted to install a shower in the Green Room. I was initially opposed because that was the music room. But because we used to sleep a lot in the office when we were starting up, he decided he wanted a shower on our floor and there was nowhere else to place it. It was really small since it was supposed to be just the toilet but there was enough space to install a shower. Of course, the rest of the tiny room would be flooded but what the hell. There were janitors to clean the place up after anyway.

 “Mr. Ace,” she breathed and followed me. Noelle was my PA and was eight years older than me. I found it awkward for her to call me “sir” or “boss” but she insisted on calling me mister, at least. “Mr. Jackson has been fuming since eight. Everyone’s been trying to steer clear of him.”

 “He’s always been a grouch since he returned from the States. What’s new?”

“I think he has his PMS today,” she chuckled as we continued on to Jaxx’s office.

 Jaxx and I have been best friends ever since I can recall. We grew up neighbors in El Valle and even if we didn’t go to the same schools, we hung out almost every day and we did a lot of dumb, childish things together. Those kinds of dumb, childish things that young boys do get them into various depths of trouble. I’ve been grounded, suspended, barred from driving for a month, and even ended up in a police precinct. Luckily, it was a Thursday so his grandfather bailed us out the very next day. Otherwise, we would have spent the entire weekend in those cells.

We started our data analyzing and programming company a few years after we graduated college, after taking some business courses and a few more adventures outside the country. Once we’ve brainstormed and made the company by-laws, we had to assign ourselves the top positions. If I should be honest, I had no experience how to run a company but I did have an idea of what a CEO or COO does. After much deliberation and discussion, he ended up the COO and I was CEO because I won eleven rounds of rock-paper-scissors. Chino, our then first year law student friend, was our witness.

In the third year of JAB, he decided to pursue an MBA in Wharton, leaving me to run the company physically by myself. He still helped a lot even when he was half the world away. It was not easy. In fact, it was hell. Not to mention we had a falling out because of some personal conflict of his. It was supposed to be personal but the s**t hit the fan we ended up estranged for most parts of the two years. I didn’t think he would return. He didn’t think I noticed, but he was slowly relegating his work to other people, spending less and less time with and for the firm. But I was more than happy that he decided to come back. I just know I would have folded and died if he didn’t.

Since then, we’ve grown bigger in the sense that we had more clients though our employee numbers still didn’t expand much because the applicants just didn’t deliver. Jaxx, however, added another programmer and analyst to the team when he came back. He recruited one of his friends from Pennsylvania to join us. I was surprised he even accepted the offer when he was working for bigger companies and getting so much more for salary. Now our IT team was headed by two “kings”: Jacob Kingston and Bart Quing.

 “Why? What happened?” I asked her as she opened the door, letting me walk ahead into the monster’s den. I combed my hand through my hair, hoping to tame it a little before the other employees see me.

“You’ll see,” she said and gently pushed me forward.

 “What, no warning?”

 “Ace! Get in here, you d**k!” the big, black bear roared from inside his cave. I know I should be afraid but this guy was my bestfriend. He still is, even if he didn’t think that way of me anymore. It stung a bit but he’ll come around. It wasn’t the first time we had a really huge argument because of an ex-girlfriend, though Cara is not just another ex that had him broken again. She was also our bandmates and one of our closest friends. She also grew up in El Valle, together with Chino, and two other friends of ours, Seb the Chef, and Val the Dermatologist.

“What on earth got your panties in a twist?” I kidded, sounding chirpy because let’s face it. I got laid last night and I escaped her this morning unscathed.

He stood from behind his desk and bore his cold, steely eyes on me. I think he was trying to kill me. I stopped in front of his desk, standing across from him still smiling even though I might meet another one of my certain deaths soon. If I lived through this, I guarantee that I have more lives than a cat.

 He was breathing hard, his nose flaring, with no trace of humor on his face. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. He took the folder on his table, opened it, and slammed his grizzly palm beside the paper that lay inside.

 “Explain.”

The smile on my face was completely wiped out when I read the first few lines and the signatory. I looked back to him, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights, speechless.