The Billionaire's Fortunate Accident

Chapter One

Chapter One

Stone

The powerful beat of Lil Jon and DJ Snake’s “Turn Down for What” moved through the nightclub like an invisible wave on an ever-moving ocean. And there I was, right in the middle of it all, fists pounding the air above my head, shoulders bumping against those of my buddies, mouth wide open and shouting the words along with the tracks the DJ was playing for us.

Not a care in the world.

I’d just turned twenty-seven. The number sounded magical to me. No longer a young man in his early twenties, I was now considered to be in my mid- to late-twenties. Somehow, that just sounded cooler to me, more mature.

But this was no typical birthday for me. The day had started with me spending time at the resort my older brothers and I owned in Austin, Texas. I’d been pampered by the spa staff — a pedi and mani, of course, plus a deep tissue massage that left me feeling like I was lying on a bed made of clouds.

A perfect way to start my birthday.

Whispers Resort and Spa was the best thing that had ever happened to my brothers and me. It had opened up all five of our lives in ways we’d never expected. Only, my brother all had found their callings relatively easily, while I was still working on finding mine.

As a trained chef, my brother expected me to open a restaurant within the resort. But I still hadn’t found the type of food I wanted to serve to our esteemed guests.

In my defense, coming up with a menu wasn’t easy when we served food to such distinguished clientele. People came from around the world to check out the resort. Important people. Dignitaries, famous singers and musicians, actors and actresses, senators, congressmen, and even the president himself had visited our resort.

Anyone would’ve felt the pressure to be perfect — to serve only the most perfect food. We already had one restaurant, Essence, which had garnered a Micheline star. We’d also had one restaurant fail, while one other one was doing just okay.

I didn’t want to fail or be just okay. I wanted to give Essence a run for its money. The only problem with doing something like that was that my brothers thought that might not be the best for business. So, I had to design a menu that did not have a single thing similar to anything on Essence’s diverse menu.

Complicated, I know.

One of the guys in our group came bouncing in with another round of beers. “You got the next round, Stone.”

Nodding, I took one of the beers and gulped down the first half. “You bet, Terry.”

Mike looked in one direction as a group of ladies danced their way toward us. “Incoming. I got the redhead.”

“I’ll take any of the blondes,” Terry informed us.

“Five of them, five of us,” Monty added.

One of the lovely ladies had her dark eyes on me. Long, dark hair cascaded down to a teeny tiny waist. I was sure she must have had worn a waist-trainer for her to be that thin. Her v-neck cropped sweater made her huge breasts stand out. They were too full, too perfect, and that meant they were completely fake.

She wiggled her extremely round a*s in front of me as if to entice me to grind on it, so I did as she expected, finding it as firm as concrete. Geeze, this is fake, too!

My generation — one of supreme fakery — wasn’t to my liking. I’d take a natural waist, bust, and a*s any day over a bunch of fake s**t.

Turning her head, she looked back at me with the longest, lushest, darkest eyelashes that I’d ever seen. “You’re good, boy.”

A nod was the best I could do as I took her waist in my hands, pulling her closer to me. Grinding her fake a*s harder, I felt the wet heat coming from underneath her extremely short skirt. Her six-inch heels compensated for her short stature, making her a*s level with my groin area.

Again, I started thinking about my generation and the utter lack of any real dance moves. We jumped up and down. We simulated s*x on the dancefloor. We even swayed back and forth in unison. But we never made any graceful moves. We never actually danced.

Maybe it was because it was my birthday and I’d become another year older — I didn’t know for sure — but I wasn’t feeling the same vibes I usually felt when I was out with my friends. I didn’t usually fall into existential contemplation while dancing groin to a*s with a complete stranger.

Whatever my problem was, I knew one sure way of curing it. “I’m going for another round.” Letting go of the girl’s waist, I left her a*s swinging on its own — I don’t think she even realized I’d walked away.

Moving through the thick crowd, I finally made it to one of the bars and found a free seat, a rare accomplishment. Taking it, I held up one finger to signal to the bartender.

Bouncing over to me, the sassy young woman asked, “What can I get ya, handsome?”

“Drunk,” I let her know.

“Got ya.” She turned around, grabbed a short glass then filled it up with various alcohols. Placing it in front of me, she said, “Texas Tea, sans ice. It’s strong and dangerous. But I’m sure a man of your muscular stature can handle this little ol’ drink.”

I took it like it was a shot. “Another one, please.”

“Holy s**t!” She made me another one, but this time offered me some sage advice, “Don’t drive home.”

“I got here in an Uber, and I’ll leave in one too.” I drank this one a bit slower as I turned to scan the room. It was filled with people jumping up and down to the bouncy beat of the Jonas Brothers’ song, “It’s Only Human.”

It’s only human, you know that it’s real

So why would you fight or try to deny the way that you feel?

Oh, babe, you can’t fool me, your body’s got other plans

So stop pretending you’re shy, just come on and

Dance, dance, dance, dance…

Lost in the lyrics, I wondered if anyone was really shy anymore. No one in this club seemed shy in the least. I saw no wallflowers hanging out along the outer edges of the crowd.

Early morning la-la-light

Only getting up to close the blinds, oh

I’m praying you don’t change your mind

Cause leaving now just don’t feel right

Let’s do it one more time, oh babe…

I had to wonder why there were so many songs about s*x. This particular song was about s*x with a stranger. Two people meet in a bar or a nightclub, just like this one, go home together, and get right down to the nitty-gritty. The dirty deed. The horizontal mambo. Whatever you wanted to call it, it was one thing, and that thing was human. Being human. Needing another human to make things seem as if they were okay.

Scratching that itch alone could be alright and was certainly great for giving a person some relief. But having s*x with a partner is a whole different story — a much better one. For a long time in my life, I hadn’t even cared what partner I had — just as long as I had one.

Staring at all the jumping, humping strangers, it suddenly hit me that something had changed inside my brain with this birthday. There had to be more to life than just partying.

What would that be? I don’t know yet.

My brothers had all found their soulmates and produced some offspring. While I enjoyed playing with my nieces and nephews, I hadn't really wanted one a kid of my own. And I hadn’t wanted a woman of my own either.

I preferred playing the field. The bachelor lifestyle had suited me just fine. But as I looked around, I couldn’t find a single woman who turned me on. Gyrating females usually did the trick for me, but not on this night.

Downing the remainder of my drink, I turned back to find the bartender shaking her head at me. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. Something is, though. Maybe another one of these will help me understand better.” I slid the empty glass across the bar.

Even though she took the glass to refill it, she wasn’t going to do it without giving me her input first. “I’ve never seen a single incident where alcohol helped someone understand anything any better. But here you go anyway.” She placed the drink in front of me. “If I start to see you wobbling on that barstool, I’m calling you a cab.”

“You’re a very mindful person.” I took a sip of the drink, which burned as it went down my throat.

“I am that.” She left me to tend to her other customers, probably offering them more of her wise words as well.

Terry’s tall form emerged from the dancers, his eyes on me. “There you are. You’ve got this round, Stone.”

“I forgot.” Signaling the bartender, who only shook her head at me, I shrugged. “She’s not gonna hurry to get me anything. This is my third Texas Tea.”

“What’s up, Stone?” Terry leaned on the bar between me and another guy who was sitting on the next stool. “Is turning twenty-seven getting to ya or what?”

“I don’t know, man. Like, I really don’t know. I’m just not feeling this right now. I’m trying to.” I held up the drink. “Hence this strong concoction that I’m pouring down my gullet. But it hasn’t changed anything thus far.”

“Four beers,” he shouted to the bartender and then looked back at me. “I’m thirty. I know the kinds of things that go through a man’s head after getting to the end of their twenties. Things like, ‘Will I be expected to settle down with some woman and end the best days of my life now?’”

“Well, is it expected of me?” I didn’t want that at all.

“How should I know? All I do know is that it went through my mind. Other things did too. Such as having kids before it was too late.”

“Men can have kids forever. I’m not even worried about that.”

“Yeah, they can make babies forever, but you only have a set number of good years in you. You’ll want to play with your kids, right? You’ll want to live to see them graduate high school, college, and get married, and have kids of their own. You won’t be able to do that if you don’t have kids until you’re old.”

“Sounds like you’ve thought a lot about this. But I should point out that you’re thirty and still single with no kids.” I smiled. “That we know about, anyway.”

“Hey,” he said as he took the four beers into his hands. “I always wear a slicker in a rainstorm. So, don’t even joke about me having a kid that I don’t know about. That’s like a nightmare to me.”

Standing up to go back to the dancefloor with him, I felt slightly woozy and sat back down. “I think I’m gonna head home, Terry.”

“K. I’ll let the guys know. Happy birthday.”

“Yeah.” As I looked over my shoulder to signal to the bartender that I was ready to settle my tab, she stood there with her hand held out. I already knew what she wanted — I unlocked my cell and handed it to her. “The address is saved. But I want to get something to eat before I go home. Can you type in the address of a nearby burger joint?”

The next thing I knew, I was in the back of a small Toyota Camry pulling up at an all-night fast food dive called Hamburger Hut. “Thanks, man. You don’t have to wait. I’ll call another driver when I’m done here.”

Heading inside, I found the place mostly empty. One old guy sat in a booth alone, talking to himself. A girl stood behind the counter, chewing gum and looking bored. “Welcome to Hamburger Hut, where the customer is number one and so are the burgers. What can I get you?”

“A cheeseburger, all the way with mustard, mayo, and ketchup.” I needed to fill my belly with something substantial to help soak up all the alcohol I’d put in it. Otherwise, I’d wake up with a horrendous hangover.

“Would you like the meal?” she asked. The bored tone in her voice made me certain that she’d asked the question a zillion times before. “You can have medium fries, onion rings, cheese sticks, hash brown potatoes, waffle fries.”

I had a sense that she would go on and on if I didn’t pick something fast. “Fries. Large, not medium. And do you have milk?”

She reached under the counter and pulled out a little milk carton. “We have this one that we use for the kid’s meals.”

“Give me ten of those.” I pulled out my wallet, digging through it to find some cash. Putting a twenty down on the counter, I decided was feeling generous. “You can keep the change.”

“Wow, thanks,” she said with lackluster enthusiasm. “A whole two bucks. You’re a real hero.”

“And you’re a ray of sunshine.” I went to find a seat. Looking at the plethora of empty tables, I chose one by a window that looked out at the nearly empty street.

Hookers, pimps, and partygoers were the only ones still out after midnight. I looked at my phone and realized it was nearly two in the morning. That’s when I noticed a text from my oldest brother, Baldwyn. He wanted to remind me of an early meeting we were having the next morning. f**k! This morning!

I had a meeting at eight and it was almost two now. Only six hours before I had to be at the resort, and there I was, sitting and waiting on food.

I needed to get some sleep. Even if it was only for a few hours. As soon as the smarmy chick brought me the food, I began scarfing down the fries and the milk. Once I unwrapped the burger from the yellow paper, I removed the top part of the bun so I could add some salt and pepper from the tiny packets she’d left on the tray.

What the f**k is this?

“Hey,” I shouted. “I need to see someone about this — right now. Where’s your manager?”

As I looked up at the counter, my vision blurred from the many spirits I’d consumed, but I saw someone hurrying my way. “What’s the problem, sir?” she asked with a worried tone to her sweet voice.

“A big fat roach is the problem.” I pointed at the thing, smack dab in the center of the meat patty. “I didn’t order one with the extra insect on it.”

“Oh, my gosh!” She leaned in, quickly wrapping the paper around the burger to hide the creepy, crawly thing. “I am so sorry. I’ll get you your money back. Order anything you want. It’s on the house.” She was wearing a nervous expression. Her cheeks were pink, her lips trembled — the lower one plumper than the one on top — and her green eyes were wide with worry. She ran one hand over her straight, ash blonde hair that hung all the way down her back.

“Nah, it’s okay.”