Boys and Girls, Part II: Prince Charming
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Romance › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
16
Views:
4,579
Reviews:
15
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Romance › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
16
Views:
4,579
Reviews:
15
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Chapter 3 - And So Our Story Begins
Chapter 3 - And So Our Story Begins
It was weird beginning work on a Wednesday, but after meeting Stephen Kaelin, Joe was pretty sure that nothing was too unusual where that man was concerned. Kaelin had already started Joe on filing some important court documents. Joe had also had to be the one to get the coffee and bagels for the entire team, but he didn’t mind. It was a peaceful respite from work that he actually thought was pretty stressful. Joe was prepared to work for Kaelin, and he didn’t mind Hugo Bracken, who was just as easygoing as Kaelin was. But Peter Garnett was about the biggest son-of-a-bitch that lived in the world. He was a damn good lawyer from what Joe had heard, but if an individual could be judged by how they treat their alleged “inferiors,” then Garnett was no better than dirt.
Peter Garnett was the youngest of the partners, yet even at thirty-seven years of age, his jet-black hair was beginning to gray at the temples. You could tell that he was stressed out a lot of the time, and Joe was pretty sure that Garnett made others hear about it too.
Joe had met Garnett accidentally when he was asked by Bracken to retrieve some case files from Garnett’s office. Garnett had opened his door, and instead of introducing himself, he asked Joe, “Who the hell are you?” Joe had decided to give the seasoned attorney the benefit of the doubt, but whether it was complaining that his coffee was not the right temperature (three times) or that Joe had been wearing “too much cologne” (Joe didn’t wear cologne), by the end of the day, Joe was simply worn out by this one man’s endless orders and complaints.
Joe walked into the break room, which was nicely furnished with black leather couches, a large cylindrical glass coffee table topped off with a beautiful vase of calla lilies, and a huge plasma television set to – what else – ESPN. He took the coffeemaker and poured himself a hulking hot cup of coffee; he never drank this stuff, but today was a special occasion. As he brought the cup to his mouth, he heard the sound of a complaining female just outside of the break room.
“Daddy! You have got to go to this thing on Friday, I’m telling you. I have plans!”
Shit, Joe thought. He was not in the mood to hear the squawking of some rich little princess. He sipped on his coffee and hoped to God, father and daughter would just pass by. Unfortunately, the sound of Kaelin’s deep, resonating voice increased and Joe heard the doorknob turn.
“…get something to drink, and we’ll talk about this a little later, Steph.”
Joe stared at the door and witnessed a tiny blonde pixie being pushed into the room. She didn’t realize Joe’s presence right away, so he took the time to study her. As expected, Daddy’s Little Girl was a hot little number. She was definitely more than a foot shorter than Joe. Her long, wavy blonde hair created an ethereal glow around her small, round face, which housed chartreuse green eyes, a pert little nose, and Kewpie Doll lips. She was wearing a white sundress that looked good on her, despite her lack of curves. She was skinny, and even though Joe usually liked his girls with some meat on their bones, he could definitely see himself going for this one, and…wait. He wasn’t supposed to think about the boss’s daughter in that way.
As if she could read his mind, she turned to face him, and realization dawned on Joe. He mouthed the word inadvertently…”poo.”
Stephanie’s look of shock morphed into pure horror when she recognized who was standing in front of her. “Oh my God.”
“Y-you’re Kaelin’s daughter?”
She looked just as surprised as he did. “What are you doing here?”
Joe set his coffee down. “I work here.”
Stephanie still looked mortified. “Please don’t tell me you remember that.”
Joe wished he could have, but he would never forget the time when the phrase “poo-poohead” had come from the mouth of such a pretty little girl. “I’m not telling you anything.”
She regarded him earnestly. “You really need to stop riding that one. It’s getting old.”
“I’m still laughing,” he answered with a smirk.
She blushed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you really working here?”
“No…” Joe answered sarcastically – not in a mean way, “…but your dad’s law office just has the best damn coffee in all of Southern California.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why are you working here?”
“I need to get used to working in a law firm,” he answered, leaning back against the counter and folding his own arms over his chest.
Hey eyebrows furrowed. “What about football?”
“What about it?”
“Isn’t it a waste of talent?”
Joe smiled. “I think playing football professionally would be a waste of a college education.”
“You’d make a lot more money playing football.”
“That’s probably true,” Joe began, “but just to be on the safe side, I’m gonna bank on this,” he finished, pointing to his head. He paused. “There’s a lot of good stuff inside.”
That elicited a giggle from Stephanie. She slowly walked over to the leather couch and sat. Picking up the remote, she clicked the mute button. “Sportscenter” was no more.
“So…Delaney and Jason –
“Are engaged,” Joe interrupted. “I was there for the celebration.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Stephanie realized with a smile. “You were, weren’t you?” Stephanie’s smile soon faded, as she stared off into space and sighed. “Delaney’s so lucky.”
Oh great, Joe thought – here was another female complaining about how her friend was going to get married and how she wasn’t. Oh well, he decided to humor her anyway. “Why?”
Stephanie brought her eyes back to his. “She found a prince who loves her.”
It wasn’t the answer Joe was expecting, but he had to suppress an urge to laugh. Jason Kent, a prince? Hardly. That guy was moody as hell and swore like a sailor, but Joe accepted that girls probably saw something in Jason that he didn’t.
“Are you into princes?”
“Oh yes,” Stephanie answered like she really meant it.
“White horses and big castles?”
“Horses smell funny. I prefer a Porsche and a mansion in the Hills, but…I could live in a castle.” She paused. “As long as it has plumbing, electricity, heating, and a plasma TV.”
Joe chuckled at that, and Stephanie joined in. Joe remembered how much he had laughed during their first meeting and realized that Stephanie Kaelin was a genuinely fun person to be around.
Stephanie got up from the couch as she finished laughing and walked over to the coffeemaker. She grabbed a tea bag from a box and then pulled out a big pink mug from the cupboard with STEPHANIE written across it in baby blue bubble letters.
“You must come here often.”
Stephanie turned to him and grinned coquettishly. “Only when I need to ask my dad for something.”
“Ah,” Joe answered. He turned and leaned his hip against the counter, so that he could face Stephanie while he talked to her. “And do you get everything you ask for?”
“Almost,” she answered immediately. “When I don’t, I guilt him into getting me something else.”
“So if he makes you go to that thing you have on Friday, then you’re going to ask for a pony?” he asked coyly.
“Did I not mention the smell? No. I don’t ask for animals.”
“You prefer them on your clothes and purses?” Joe asked.
Stephanie looked horrified. “That’s awful! I don’t wear real animals – ever.”
“Next, you’re going to tell me you don’t eat meat.”
Stephanie turned her pert little nose upwards. “So what?”
Joe cracked up. “Jesus! You’ve really got it all figured out, don’t you?”
Stephanie frowned. “You must think I’m a total West Coast cliché.”
“In your own special way,” Joe answered with a smirk.
That got a smile out of Stephanie. Her white teeth sparkled, along with her green eyes.
“Thanks, friend.”
****
Due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Stephanie’s first encounter with Joe, she hadn’t been able to get the full effect of his presence. He was a huge guy – well over a foot taller than she was and probably outweighing her by nearly 150 pounds. Then again, almost everyone outweighed Stephanie because she was so tiny at 5’ and 95 lbs. All Stephanie knew about Joe’s position on the NMU football team was that he was the star linebacker for the Hawks, whatever that meant.
Joe had dark brown hair and matching eyes, which gave him a very ‘dark and brooding’ mystique that Stephanie found somewhat sexy. The shape of his large brown eyes was slightly unique, and Stephanie wondered what nationality Joe was; his last name sounded Spanish, but he looked like he had Pan-European ancestry in his family history. He had a very square jaw – probably more so than Jack – and a slightly crooked nose from all those tough days on the gridiron, she suspected. His mouth was thin and straight, and although he was conversing liberally with her right now, sure, Stephanie sensed that he was the type that never really said what was on his mind.
He definitely wasn’t as good-looking as Jason or his friend, Ryan, but Joe did have a very imposing presence nevertheless, and as much as Stephanie loved pretty boys, she loved men who looked like they could save her from a fire-breathing dragon even more.
He was wearing a powder blue dress shirt with a red necktie, gray-black slacks, and polished black dress shoes. Stephanie had attended one or two football games at NMU, and although she was a big fan of the butt-hugging football uniforms, she though Mr. Lawyer-to-be looked pretty good in the standard professional man attire.
Stephanie began to sip on her tea as Joe bent over slightly to discard his empty coffee cup. She shamelessly stole a glance at his tight butt and wondered what it looked like underneath the black pants. Joe turned around and Stephanie’s eyes lingered a little too long; he caught her, and when she quickly brought her eyes up to his face, he was smiling.
“Can I help you?”
Stephanie panicked. “I was just thinking how your day’s been? When did you start working here?”
“Today,” he answered. “It’s been a good experience for the most part. Your dad’s pretty cool. So is Bracken.”
“And Peter?”
Joe rubbed his face and sighed. “Two out of three ain’t bad.”
Stephanie nodded. She hadn’t liked the idea of her dad becoming partners with the younger, brash, and very rude lawyer. One day when her dad had slipped out for lunch, she had asked Peter Garnett where he was. He angrily lashed out at Stephanie for having interrupted his work and dismissed her without an answer. When Stephanie had told her father, he simply told her to ‘ignore Garnett.’ Stephanie hated passive retaliation; she preferred to meet conflict head-on.
“He joined the partnership days after his thirtieth, so he has a total Napoleon complex.”
Joe regarded her seriously. “As much as I dislike the guy, I can’t say that I wouldn’t want what he’s got going for him as well.”
“You want to be a cranky-assed workaholic?” she asked disbelievingly. She continued without giving Joe a chance to answer. “He’s not married…well, he’s intimately connected to his work, but that’s about it. It’s actually kinda sad.”
“He makes seven figures, owns several pieces of property, and drives a different car every day of the week,” he retorted. “I wouldn’t mind that kind of sad.”
Stephanie sighed. “I guess we all have different definitions of what success entails.”
“Guess so.”
The spark that had burned so rampantly during their earlier exchange seemed to be gradually extinguishing. Stephanie didn’t understand why Joe had such a one-track mind. It made her sad to think that he measured success in dollars and cents. Sure, she had a lot of money, but she didn’t sit at home and count it. She had bigger things to pursue, like catching a prince who had all the things she had but didn’t feel the need to flaunt it or be consumed to see a fortune multiplied.
Just then, Stephanie remembered Jack, and her heart melted again. Jack was the prince of her dreams; she knew it. He was handsome, wealthy, and fun to be around, and that was exactly what she had been looking for in a guy. The only other person she considered to be within Jack’s league was Jason Kent, but he was already leg-shackled to Delaney; consequently, pursuing him would not be an option.
“Well…I gotta get goin,” Joe said, looking at his watch. “See ya around?”
Stephanie nodded, but she didn’t know if she really meant it. Joe nodded in response and turned to leave. As he left the room, Stephanie took one last naughty peek at Joe’s nice butt.
Maybe she would see Joe when Jason and Delaney hosted more get-togethers, or maybe she would run into him should she need to ask a favor of or complain to her father. But she wasn’t counting on it. Stephanie didn’t believe that a future meeting with the hulking linebacker was in the stars.
It was weird beginning work on a Wednesday, but after meeting Stephen Kaelin, Joe was pretty sure that nothing was too unusual where that man was concerned. Kaelin had already started Joe on filing some important court documents. Joe had also had to be the one to get the coffee and bagels for the entire team, but he didn’t mind. It was a peaceful respite from work that he actually thought was pretty stressful. Joe was prepared to work for Kaelin, and he didn’t mind Hugo Bracken, who was just as easygoing as Kaelin was. But Peter Garnett was about the biggest son-of-a-bitch that lived in the world. He was a damn good lawyer from what Joe had heard, but if an individual could be judged by how they treat their alleged “inferiors,” then Garnett was no better than dirt.
Peter Garnett was the youngest of the partners, yet even at thirty-seven years of age, his jet-black hair was beginning to gray at the temples. You could tell that he was stressed out a lot of the time, and Joe was pretty sure that Garnett made others hear about it too.
Joe had met Garnett accidentally when he was asked by Bracken to retrieve some case files from Garnett’s office. Garnett had opened his door, and instead of introducing himself, he asked Joe, “Who the hell are you?” Joe had decided to give the seasoned attorney the benefit of the doubt, but whether it was complaining that his coffee was not the right temperature (three times) or that Joe had been wearing “too much cologne” (Joe didn’t wear cologne), by the end of the day, Joe was simply worn out by this one man’s endless orders and complaints.
Joe walked into the break room, which was nicely furnished with black leather couches, a large cylindrical glass coffee table topped off with a beautiful vase of calla lilies, and a huge plasma television set to – what else – ESPN. He took the coffeemaker and poured himself a hulking hot cup of coffee; he never drank this stuff, but today was a special occasion. As he brought the cup to his mouth, he heard the sound of a complaining female just outside of the break room.
“Daddy! You have got to go to this thing on Friday, I’m telling you. I have plans!”
Shit, Joe thought. He was not in the mood to hear the squawking of some rich little princess. He sipped on his coffee and hoped to God, father and daughter would just pass by. Unfortunately, the sound of Kaelin’s deep, resonating voice increased and Joe heard the doorknob turn.
“…get something to drink, and we’ll talk about this a little later, Steph.”
Joe stared at the door and witnessed a tiny blonde pixie being pushed into the room. She didn’t realize Joe’s presence right away, so he took the time to study her. As expected, Daddy’s Little Girl was a hot little number. She was definitely more than a foot shorter than Joe. Her long, wavy blonde hair created an ethereal glow around her small, round face, which housed chartreuse green eyes, a pert little nose, and Kewpie Doll lips. She was wearing a white sundress that looked good on her, despite her lack of curves. She was skinny, and even though Joe usually liked his girls with some meat on their bones, he could definitely see himself going for this one, and…wait. He wasn’t supposed to think about the boss’s daughter in that way.
As if she could read his mind, she turned to face him, and realization dawned on Joe. He mouthed the word inadvertently…”poo.”
Stephanie’s look of shock morphed into pure horror when she recognized who was standing in front of her. “Oh my God.”
“Y-you’re Kaelin’s daughter?”
She looked just as surprised as he did. “What are you doing here?”
Joe set his coffee down. “I work here.”
Stephanie still looked mortified. “Please don’t tell me you remember that.”
Joe wished he could have, but he would never forget the time when the phrase “poo-poohead” had come from the mouth of such a pretty little girl. “I’m not telling you anything.”
She regarded him earnestly. “You really need to stop riding that one. It’s getting old.”
“I’m still laughing,” he answered with a smirk.
She blushed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you really working here?”
“No…” Joe answered sarcastically – not in a mean way, “…but your dad’s law office just has the best damn coffee in all of Southern California.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why are you working here?”
“I need to get used to working in a law firm,” he answered, leaning back against the counter and folding his own arms over his chest.
Hey eyebrows furrowed. “What about football?”
“What about it?”
“Isn’t it a waste of talent?”
Joe smiled. “I think playing football professionally would be a waste of a college education.”
“You’d make a lot more money playing football.”
“That’s probably true,” Joe began, “but just to be on the safe side, I’m gonna bank on this,” he finished, pointing to his head. He paused. “There’s a lot of good stuff inside.”
That elicited a giggle from Stephanie. She slowly walked over to the leather couch and sat. Picking up the remote, she clicked the mute button. “Sportscenter” was no more.
“So…Delaney and Jason –
“Are engaged,” Joe interrupted. “I was there for the celebration.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Stephanie realized with a smile. “You were, weren’t you?” Stephanie’s smile soon faded, as she stared off into space and sighed. “Delaney’s so lucky.”
Oh great, Joe thought – here was another female complaining about how her friend was going to get married and how she wasn’t. Oh well, he decided to humor her anyway. “Why?”
Stephanie brought her eyes back to his. “She found a prince who loves her.”
It wasn’t the answer Joe was expecting, but he had to suppress an urge to laugh. Jason Kent, a prince? Hardly. That guy was moody as hell and swore like a sailor, but Joe accepted that girls probably saw something in Jason that he didn’t.
“Are you into princes?”
“Oh yes,” Stephanie answered like she really meant it.
“White horses and big castles?”
“Horses smell funny. I prefer a Porsche and a mansion in the Hills, but…I could live in a castle.” She paused. “As long as it has plumbing, electricity, heating, and a plasma TV.”
Joe chuckled at that, and Stephanie joined in. Joe remembered how much he had laughed during their first meeting and realized that Stephanie Kaelin was a genuinely fun person to be around.
Stephanie got up from the couch as she finished laughing and walked over to the coffeemaker. She grabbed a tea bag from a box and then pulled out a big pink mug from the cupboard with STEPHANIE written across it in baby blue bubble letters.
“You must come here often.”
Stephanie turned to him and grinned coquettishly. “Only when I need to ask my dad for something.”
“Ah,” Joe answered. He turned and leaned his hip against the counter, so that he could face Stephanie while he talked to her. “And do you get everything you ask for?”
“Almost,” she answered immediately. “When I don’t, I guilt him into getting me something else.”
“So if he makes you go to that thing you have on Friday, then you’re going to ask for a pony?” he asked coyly.
“Did I not mention the smell? No. I don’t ask for animals.”
“You prefer them on your clothes and purses?” Joe asked.
Stephanie looked horrified. “That’s awful! I don’t wear real animals – ever.”
“Next, you’re going to tell me you don’t eat meat.”
Stephanie turned her pert little nose upwards. “So what?”
Joe cracked up. “Jesus! You’ve really got it all figured out, don’t you?”
Stephanie frowned. “You must think I’m a total West Coast cliché.”
“In your own special way,” Joe answered with a smirk.
That got a smile out of Stephanie. Her white teeth sparkled, along with her green eyes.
“Thanks, friend.”
****
Due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Stephanie’s first encounter with Joe, she hadn’t been able to get the full effect of his presence. He was a huge guy – well over a foot taller than she was and probably outweighing her by nearly 150 pounds. Then again, almost everyone outweighed Stephanie because she was so tiny at 5’ and 95 lbs. All Stephanie knew about Joe’s position on the NMU football team was that he was the star linebacker for the Hawks, whatever that meant.
Joe had dark brown hair and matching eyes, which gave him a very ‘dark and brooding’ mystique that Stephanie found somewhat sexy. The shape of his large brown eyes was slightly unique, and Stephanie wondered what nationality Joe was; his last name sounded Spanish, but he looked like he had Pan-European ancestry in his family history. He had a very square jaw – probably more so than Jack – and a slightly crooked nose from all those tough days on the gridiron, she suspected. His mouth was thin and straight, and although he was conversing liberally with her right now, sure, Stephanie sensed that he was the type that never really said what was on his mind.
He definitely wasn’t as good-looking as Jason or his friend, Ryan, but Joe did have a very imposing presence nevertheless, and as much as Stephanie loved pretty boys, she loved men who looked like they could save her from a fire-breathing dragon even more.
He was wearing a powder blue dress shirt with a red necktie, gray-black slacks, and polished black dress shoes. Stephanie had attended one or two football games at NMU, and although she was a big fan of the butt-hugging football uniforms, she though Mr. Lawyer-to-be looked pretty good in the standard professional man attire.
Stephanie began to sip on her tea as Joe bent over slightly to discard his empty coffee cup. She shamelessly stole a glance at his tight butt and wondered what it looked like underneath the black pants. Joe turned around and Stephanie’s eyes lingered a little too long; he caught her, and when she quickly brought her eyes up to his face, he was smiling.
“Can I help you?”
Stephanie panicked. “I was just thinking how your day’s been? When did you start working here?”
“Today,” he answered. “It’s been a good experience for the most part. Your dad’s pretty cool. So is Bracken.”
“And Peter?”
Joe rubbed his face and sighed. “Two out of three ain’t bad.”
Stephanie nodded. She hadn’t liked the idea of her dad becoming partners with the younger, brash, and very rude lawyer. One day when her dad had slipped out for lunch, she had asked Peter Garnett where he was. He angrily lashed out at Stephanie for having interrupted his work and dismissed her without an answer. When Stephanie had told her father, he simply told her to ‘ignore Garnett.’ Stephanie hated passive retaliation; she preferred to meet conflict head-on.
“He joined the partnership days after his thirtieth, so he has a total Napoleon complex.”
Joe regarded her seriously. “As much as I dislike the guy, I can’t say that I wouldn’t want what he’s got going for him as well.”
“You want to be a cranky-assed workaholic?” she asked disbelievingly. She continued without giving Joe a chance to answer. “He’s not married…well, he’s intimately connected to his work, but that’s about it. It’s actually kinda sad.”
“He makes seven figures, owns several pieces of property, and drives a different car every day of the week,” he retorted. “I wouldn’t mind that kind of sad.”
Stephanie sighed. “I guess we all have different definitions of what success entails.”
“Guess so.”
The spark that had burned so rampantly during their earlier exchange seemed to be gradually extinguishing. Stephanie didn’t understand why Joe had such a one-track mind. It made her sad to think that he measured success in dollars and cents. Sure, she had a lot of money, but she didn’t sit at home and count it. She had bigger things to pursue, like catching a prince who had all the things she had but didn’t feel the need to flaunt it or be consumed to see a fortune multiplied.
Just then, Stephanie remembered Jack, and her heart melted again. Jack was the prince of her dreams; she knew it. He was handsome, wealthy, and fun to be around, and that was exactly what she had been looking for in a guy. The only other person she considered to be within Jack’s league was Jason Kent, but he was already leg-shackled to Delaney; consequently, pursuing him would not be an option.
“Well…I gotta get goin,” Joe said, looking at his watch. “See ya around?”
Stephanie nodded, but she didn’t know if she really meant it. Joe nodded in response and turned to leave. As he left the room, Stephanie took one last naughty peek at Joe’s nice butt.
Maybe she would see Joe when Jason and Delaney hosted more get-togethers, or maybe she would run into him should she need to ask a favor of or complain to her father. But she wasn’t counting on it. Stephanie didn’t believe that a future meeting with the hulking linebacker was in the stars.