Side Effects

If I told you that the event that kick started my major life change was having over a dozen hot college sorority girls staring at my naked body after I got out of a shower, you’d probably think that it meant that it led to an orgy, or something similar, right? But what if I told you that I didn’t know them? Or that I was supposed to have been alone in my house, and that I had no idea where these girls came from or how they got in?

Yeah, you’re probably still thinking of an orgy. I get it. If someone told me that in a bar, I’d think the same thing.

Let me back up just a little bit. It was the first day of what was supposed to be a three week vacation, my first in all too many years, and I was ready to relax. Normally my job takes me all over the world, and I’m lucky to see my house for a few days a month, so having so long to myself without dealing with jetlag and hotels was a good thing.

I’d scheduled my vacation to coincide with Spring Break because the airports were a mess during that time, even with a private jet, and that made it a pain to do my job. But I never expected that Spring Break would come to my bedroom. I had a good day too. Had a good workout, and a self-defense class that was quite vigorous. I’d never needed to use any of it, but my father had been kidnapped years ago in Brazil, and he insisted I take the lessons since I would be going out and about. So, the shower was nice and relaxing, and my muscles were pleasantly sore when the girls interrupted my day.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?” I asked while quickly tying the towel that I’d been drying my hair off with around my waist. My voice was loud, and half of them jumped because their eyes were a lot lower than they should have been!

“Your house?” asked the blonde in front, who was still staring shamelessly. “Do you come with the rental? Or do we have to pay extra?” She was wearing nothing but jean shorts and a bikini top, and had her hip cocked in a way that was probably supposed to make me want her.

In that, she succeeded. I did want her. To leave.

“Kian?” came the sound of a voice I knew. Another blonde, this one in a power suit and her hair pulled back in a bun made her way through the bikini convention. “What are you doing here?”

Jodie Kelly, my sister’s personal assistant, was about the last person I’d expect to be here, other than the other girls who were already there. They seemed like an odd pairing. “Jodie, I live here. Where the hell else would I be when I’m on vacation? What are you doing here? And why are you with them? What the fuck is happening right now?”

“Vacation?” Her voice rose into a high pitch. “You’re on vacation? Oh no!” She turned tail and walked quickly back towards the main part of the house, leaving me alone with the girls, who showed no signs of leaving.

I stood and stared at the girls, and they stared right back. It took almost half a minute before they started to get uncomfortable and started looking among themselves. “Get out of my room.” I walked towards them waving my hands to shoo them along. “Go bug Jodie, it sounds like she might know what’s going on.”

The blonde in front was the last to leave, flashing me a wink and a smirk as she finally left. Hopefully the door slamming as she left expressed my thoughts on that. This wasn’t at all how I wanted my vacation to start! Locking the door, I headed back to the master bathroom, where I hung up the damp towel before going to get dressed.

What does one wear to kick women out of their house? In my case, a pair of lightweight shorts and an open neck tee shirt. There was no point in putting my shoes on, I wasn’t planning on going anywhere! I was finally ready to go find out what was happening, when my phone rang. I wasn’t the least bit surprised that it was my sister Anna, and I picked it up quickly, hoping for some answers.

“Anna, so nice of you to send the housewarming present, but my birthday isn’t for a few months still, and I don’t think I need that many women.”

“Why are you home?” she quickly demanded.

“Why is your assistant here with a dozen women?”

“You’re supposed to be in Paris!” she finally screamed.

“Why would I be in Paris on my vacation? I travel all damn year, so on my vacation I’m finally staying home!” I told her flatly. “Now why the fuck is my house full of women and your assistant?”

“You can’t be on vacation. You need to be in Paris for a meeting with the French Ministry of Health!”

“Anna, I’m on vacation. I told you at Christmas I was taking the time off, you approved the time off in the HR system, and my calendar is blocked off. I’m not going to France or anywhere else for the next three weeks,” I explained while getting Advil out of my medicine cabinet. I already had a headache, and it was getting progressively worse.

“Kian, you can’t just abandon your responsibilities!”

I took a deep breath, doing my best not to lash out at my sister. “I’m not abandoning them, Anna, I’m just taking a vacation. You get to do that every year. This is the first one I’ve had in ages. There is no reason I can’t do this. You can cope without me for a few weeks.”

“Kian, you have multiple appointments over the next few weeks, I can’t just cancel them!” Anna protested with a groan. “You know how delicate things are these days!”

“How is that possible? Profits and stock prices have never been higher, we’ve got more countries using our prescription drugs than almost any other pharmaceutical company in the world! Things are going great!”

“You didn’t get us into Italy!” she protested. “That would have been huge!”

“That wasn’t my fault! You had no business telling the deputy minister that I’d sleep with her!” That was still one of the most embarrassing moments ever, my own sister promising my body as a part of a sale. I’d slept with a few people over the years as I travelled for my job, but never with anyone that made the decisions on our products. I had to wine and dine, sweet talk and cajole, but I never slept with anyone for the job.

“It was an erectile dysfunction drug! You had to give a demonstration! We’re still competing with Viagra!”

“Anna, we’re just going around in circles, and you’re obviously just trying to not answer the question of why your assistant is here with all those damned girls! If you want to talk any more about work, then you tell me the truth about what’s happening!”

“She was just showing them the area, they were looking for a house to buy!”

“Bullshit. One of them asked if I came with the rental. Are you renting my fucking house out?”

“Fine! Yes! We rent it out as a vacation rental while you’re on the road. You’re never there so why not make some money on it?” she finally admitted. “But we always had a professional cleaning crew come to clean and change the linens before you were back!”

I was ready to fucking explode at this point. She was renting out my damned house. I sure as hell know I wasn’t getting any money from that! “Are you serious? How long has that been happening? How much money did you make off my house?”

She was silent for a moment, and I knew she was preparing to lie.

“You might as well tell me, I’ll find out the truth,” I told her before she spun some story.

“We’ve been renting it since it was completed. I was renting it when it was still mom and dad’s place, and never stopped,” she finally told me.

“You’re unbelievable. How many billions do you need before you have enough? How much money did you make on something that wasn’t even yours?

“Kian, there is always money to be made! You should know that.” I could almost hear the sneer in her voice, and it made me sick. She should have known I didn’t want this. I never wanted anything to do with the company, but saying no to my parents was impossible. Anna was the one who wanted it, that lives for it. She had 35% of the stock shares, while I had 25%, so we had an easy majority. I just didn’t want it anymore. I couldn’t even have a simple and relaxing time at home without the company and her greed getting in the way of it.

“Fine. Then I’d like to make some money. Transfer me $3.5 Billion. Call it a corporate stock buyback. I’ll give you all my corporate stock shares, and you’ll be the majority owner on your own,” I told her. Yes, I know this sounds rash, but seriously it wasn’t. It was something that had been building over the last few years, and maybe this was just the nudge I needed. A big fucking nudge!

“You can’t be serious! Why would you do that?” Now her exasperation was showing, and I felt better because that was me almost every time that I dealt with her.

“Because I don’t want to be doing the job I’m doing. I didn’t want it when mom and dad retired, and I don’t want it now. If I’m a part owner, I should be doing something much different. Just give me my salary and I’ll keep doing what I do. I’ll even give you the damned house since you act like it’s yours already. You know I could get far more than that if I sold it to the public!”

She was quiet again, and I knew I’d won my freedom. “What about the yacht?”

“Fine, keep that too. I can’t remember the last time I used it,” I said. “But in one month I’m taking my vacation, so you better get someone else to cover any meetings you might try to stick me with.”

“Are you sure about this Kian?” she asked softly.

“Very. I think we might get along better if work wasn’t in the way. No offence, but I don’t like you much most days, and I really hate the company. You might need a replacement for me this time next year, so think about who I can train.”

“I’m sorry Kian, I always thought we’d do this together.”

I snorted in laughter. “Come on, you were never good at sharing. You’ll be happier this way. I’ll call Elliot and let him know you’ll be in touch about the stocks, and you can have Jodie give me my new schedule. I can fly tomorrow if need be.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Anna, I’m beyond mad. But I’ll live. I’m serious about my next vacation. I’m not going to let you do this again, I’ll just disappear.” With $3.5 billion, minus taxes of course, plus what I already had that would be easy enough. I was going to have to make some financial changes though, to make sure I was protected.

That I could do.