Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Falling Away With You ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Froglady15 
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 07.17.2016 | Pages: 13 | Words: 8.5K | Visits: 281 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 07.17.2016 | Pages: 13 | Words: 8.5K | Visits: 281 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Just my Husband,
laptop, my 3 dogs and a very overactive imagination… Dragon
Ball Z and any songs mentioned in this fic DO NOT belong to me. I'm
just borrowing them for my own twisted amusement.
Chapter 6
Bulma finished getting herself ready for the day. She had an important boardroom meeting presentation to do today despite feeling down and lacking in confidence, she made sure she was done up to the nines and wearing only the sexiest of lingerie under a very feminine, well fitted cream suit. One of the few things her mother had taught her: never underestimate the power of gorgeous underwear. While no one else knew what she was wearing underneath, she did. And no matter how bad a day or week she was having, somehow knowing she was wearing something racy and gorgeous underneath made her stand taller and walk straighter. Sure it was silly, but it somehow helped.
Especially as of late.
She was still annoyed with Vegeta for blowing her off as he had about four weeks back.
Sure deep down she knew he was right. Things between them at the moment were better than ever. Why ruin it by adding a physical element into the equation?
That didn’t hurt her ego and make the rejection sting any less however. Bulma tried to keep telling herself that it was for the best but that didn’t seem to make it hurt any less.
So she did what any other self-respecting girl would do. She made sure she was done up to the nines everyday no matter what she was doing just to show Vegeta what he was missing out on. She didn’t flirt with him, nor did she strategically drop things in front of him to give him an excuse to look her over. No, she’d played that game with him years ago when he’d first came to stay at Capsule Corporation. Besides, she knew he wouldn’t fall for that. Not this time.
Instead, she was polite with him when she saw him. She only addressed him if she needed to and she refrained from saying anything rude to him or pushing his buttons. Their regular routine of watching tv together had dwindled because she had opted to remain at work later than she needed to in an effort to avoid Vegeta. When so did see him, she looked flawless and behaved professionally around him not giving him any cause for complaint.
She was done pursuing him but that didn’t mean that she didn’t want him to not realize what a mistake he had made. She wouldn’t embarrass herself by letting him know how much she really wanted him and she wouldn’t let him know how disappointed she was that he seemed to have no interest. At this point, she was just happy that he was still around and wasn’t opposed to spending time with Trunks.
That was what motivated her to keep up positive and polite relations with him.
Bulma rushed out of the house and drove straight to the office as quickly as she could, raced upstairs to her office and frantically began looking for her folder with all of her notes and figures.
“What the hell did I do with them?” she asked herself out loud, realizing she couldn’t find her presentation boards either. Her stomach dropped as soon as she realized none of it was here where she’d left it all.
She was about to storm out of her office to raise hell and find out who had been poking around in her office when she quite literally ran into Derek, spilling his coffee all down the front of her cream coloured designer suit.
“Oh shit!” he exclaimed. “I’m so sorry!”
Bulma took a deep breath to calm her nerves. It wasn’t his fault she was rushing around like a mad person. “It’s not your fault. Sorry, I’ll bring you a coffee tomorrow morning.”
“Actually, I got this one for you,” he said with a grin.
She sighed, “Awe, that’s nice of you. I really need one too. I’m late and I can’t find any of my presentation notes or boards. I don’t know where they are and I have like fifteen minutes to find them before my meeting starts and now I’m covered in coffee...” she rambled, taking off her suit jacket and tossing it onto one of the chairs in her office.
“Oh, sorry. I have them,” he said. “I was a little earlier than I meant to be this morning and figured I’d help you out and set up some of the presentation stuff in the boardroom since I know you’ve been working so hard on this and are a bit nervous about it. Sorry, I was only trying to help and here I made it worse. Typical.”
“Ohh,” she groaned. “Thank you! Now I feel even more like an ass! I was about to go out there and rip someone a new one for going into my office.”
“Sorry, I’ll ask first next time,” he said, still standing there awkwardly as he watched her inspect her skirt, which had a nice coffee stain on her crotch.
“That’s okay,” she said. “You were only trying to help. Shit, I can’t go out there like this,” she cursed, noticing that the receptionist was leading two men into the boardroom already.
They looked at the clock. Her presentation was to begin in ten minutes. It was approximately a ten minute drive back to her house, add on another ten minutes for her to choose something else and change, then another ten minutes for her to get back here. That was half an hour! This was a really important meeting. She and her father had been working on getting this company to only use Capsule Corporation products for months now. It was a potentially very lucrative account with a very prominent landscaping company interested in potentially purchasing vehicles for their employees through them. Problem was their chairman of the board was very cheap and not entirely convinced that he wanted to spend so much on something upfront despite the fact that the product would save them tons of money in the long run on maintenance and replacement costs, nor was he considering the longevity of Capsule Corporation's products and their excellent warranty when compared to any of their competitors. To Bulma it was a no brainer. You get what you pay for. Sure their products were expensive, but they were worth it in the long run.
“Would you like to start the presentation?” she asked him, weighing in her mind what would look worse, her showing up half an hour late into a presentation that had already been started or showing up half an hour late and then starting? Starting on time and sneaking in half way through was definitely the better option she decided. “Just tell them I had an emergency and rather than making them wait, I’ll be about twenty minutes behind.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yea,” she nodded. “I trust you. You know everything about the products and what their main objections are to signing with us. I’m sure you can close them without my help. I was going to ask if you wanted to join me in there anyway seeing as you worked so hard with helping me put this presentation together for these guys.”
“Sure, I don’t mind starting for you, but what if they aren’t?” he asked nervously. He was flattered that she trusted him enough to kick off this meeting.
“Just tell them you are going to start because I had a bit of an emergency to tend to and rather than let them wait for twenty minutes, I wanted to respect the time they took from their day to be here and still start on time,” she explained. “If they are that insistent on me starting then that’s fine. That’s their call, make sure they get some coffee, try to entertain them while they wait and I’ll start as soon as I get back.”
He sighed deeply in nervousness. “Alright, I’ll start.”
“Thanks! You can do this! I’ll be right back!” she said confidently as she ducked out of her office and headed towards the stairs to take the back way out of the building so she wouldn’t risk running into any of the business men that would be present in the boardroom.
She decapsulated her air car and drove like a wild woman back to the compound, thanking her lucky stars that she didn’t get pulled over. That was all she needed.
She parked and ran into the house, not even greeting Trunks or her mother as she ran up the stairs and into her bedroom to choose another suit.
Choosing a sharp, royal blue suit, she tossed it onto her bed and whipped off her skirt and ran to her dresser to change her camisole top as well. She was in such a hurry, she’d left her bedroom door wide open.
Vegeta stopped clean in his tracks just outside her bedroom door on his way for breakfast. He frowned as he watched her rifle through her drawer like a crazy person, clad in nothing but a very sexy pair of baby pink lace panties and matching bra, stay up nude fishnet stockings and high heel cream pumps the same colour her suit had been.
“God dammit!” she cursed as she couldn’t find the top she was looking for and began to rummage frantically through another drawer. “This’ll have to do,” she muttered, holding up a white v-neck tank top with white lace around the neckline. It wasn’t as modest as the one she was looking for, and it would display a bit more cleavage than what she would like but she didn’t have time to be fussy. Her other two suits needed to go to the cleaners and her only other clean one was rumpled up because she’d tossed it onto the floor the last time she had worn it so it needed a good steaming and she didn’t have time for that.
Bulma closed her drawer and turned around gasped as she saw Vegeta standing in her doorway looking at her. “Do you mind!” she shrieked at him. “I’m changing here!”
“You are the one who left the door wide open,” he pointed out calmly, crossing his arms and leaning casually against the doorframe, looking her up and down appreciatively, not attempting to hide it from her that he was checking her out, as he usually did. She looked exceptionally gorgeous with her hair and makeup done just perfect and the underwear and heels just finished off the look. She looked like she’d stepped out of one of those magazine spreads the Weakling used to leave around the house. The fact that she was frazzled and obviously annoyed only added to her appeal and he was hard pressed to walk away as he knew he should have.
She felt the heat and redness of her flush spread from her chest and bloom up her neck and to her cheeks as she watched Vegeta eye her up and down like a wolf sizing up its prey before pouncing on it. Oh god, I don’t have time for this. Not right now! She lamented and immediately she felt a tingling between her thighs and in her frustration over the way the morning had started and still hurting over Vegeta rejecting her, she glared at him, placing her hands on her hips. “Ya, take a good look pal because that's all you get! Better yet, take an even better look because it’s the last look you’re going to be getting, ever! This one’s a freebie because I’m in a hurry and you’re right, it’s my fault for leaving my door open,” she snapped at him, slipping the new top on as she walked back to her bed and picked up the new replacement skirt.
Vegeta took a step into her room and closed the door behind him, still watching her dress herself. What had he been thinking a few weeks back by not taking her? He found himself regretting that decision almost immediately and he had wanted to possibly change his mind, only she avoided him and since he refused to chase her, things kept on as they were. However he had not missed the obvious fact that she put great effort into looking nothing short of amazing whenever he saw her and it was bothering him. Hell the other day she had been done up and was doing nothing more than helping her mother with housework. He knew exactly what she was doing, so he ignored her and only looked at her when he knew she wasn’t looking so that she wouldn’t know. He did not want her to know how desirable he still found her.
Today was the first time he decided he wanted to let her know and apparently he had chosen badly.
“What are you doing? Get out!” she shrieked at him.
“Why? It is nothing that I have not seen before,” he said with a smirk.
“Oh please, Vegeta,” she snorted. “I don’t have time for your cryptic bullshit right now. I’m having a shitty day and I have a very important presentation today that I needed to be there for like fifteen minutes ago.”
Vegeta frowned. “Then what are you doing here?”
“I couldn't find my presentation notes and then spilled coffee all over myself like fifteen minutes before my meeting and its super important and I’m just... Awe shit, I have to change my shoes now too-” she rambled as she got dressed and he could tell she was trying not to get emotional over the bad day she was having.
As she darted back into her closet to look for different shoes, he felt somewhat bad for teasing her. He wasn’t sure exactly what she had going on with work but he knew from listening to her speaking on the phone or with her father in recent weeks that there was some kind of important deal that was pending.
“Do these shoes go okay with this?” she asked, stepping out of the closet wearing a pair of black pumps.
Vegeta shrugged. Why is she asking me, he wondered. “How should I know?”
“Thanks Vegeta, you’re soo helpful,” she sighed in exasperation. “Or should I wear these white ones?” she asked, kicking off one of the black shoes and stepping her foot into a white shoe with a decent heel and a peep toe.
“Wear the white ones,” he said after a moment when it was clear that she was apparently expecting him to weigh in his opinion. He didn’t really have a preference, however she was wearing a white top under the jacket. So he thought the white shoes were a good choice seeing as he always wore white gloves and boots with his blue flight suit and her suit was near enough the same shade of blue. All in all, he thought she looked really good. “They match with the shirt.”
Bulma looked at him a moment and smiled as she kicked off the other black shoe and slipping her feet into both white shoes. She went to the mirror on the wall to give herself a once over. “The skirt isn’t too short?” she asked. It came to just slightly above her knees; it was nicely tailored and was very flattering to her bum. Most of her professional suit skirts came down to her calves or were ankle length and were pencil skirts.
“Your cleavage is showing and you’re worried about your legs?” he snorted.
“Well, show off one or the other, not both.” she said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t look unprofessional, do I?”
Vegeta shrugged. Truthfully he had no idea and was regretting coming in here now. He had only done it in hopes of flirting a little with her and rattling her cage, not give her fashion advice. “I have no idea what that means but if you were a planetary dignitary, I think you look respectable.”
She turned and smiled at him. “Thank you, Vegeta.”
“Hmmmn,” he grunted, feeling very out of place. This scenario was becoming weirder by the minute as he stood there looking at her.
“Shit! I gotta go!” she shrieked, turning away from him and racing to grab her purse. “Thanks for the input, Vegeta.”
He didn’t say anything as he followed her out of her room and down the stairs. Her heels were so high and she was hurrying so quickly he was surprised she didn’t fall down the stairs or twist her ankle.
“Ugh, I’m so late and traffic is going to be ridiculous at this hour,” she muttered.
“I could get you there in a few minutes,” Vegeta said before he could think better of it. He had been thinking it and for some reason he had verbalized it.
“Would you mind?” she asked. Her hair was down anyway so it wasn’t like she couldn’t fix it really quickly.
Vegeta snorted but walked up to her and effortlessly scooped her up after she encapsulated her air car and took her shoes off to carry them or she’d lose them for sure.
Bulma gladly let him pick her up and she wrapped an arm around his neck and tucked her head under his chin, resting her cheek against him as he flew at nearly break neck speed towards Capsule Corporation’s head office.
She closed her eyes, enjoying the moment of being in his arms. What was it about him that the moment he touched her, no matter how innocent, she felt desire ignite through her almost immediately. It was embarrassing! Especially since she knew he would notice with his heightened senses. It wasn’t fair that she was an open book to him no matter how hard she tried to keep herself in check around him and he was so closed off from her and she had no indication to go off of to know if she affected him in a similar way that she was affected by him. Probably not, she thought dejectedly.
Why was she still hoping for something that so obviously wasn’t meant to be? It was time for her to give it up and move on. Start seeing other people. She was still young and attractive and sure she was technically a single mom but that didn’t mean she had to spend the rest of her life being an old maid. After the last rejection, she told herself she would set her feelings for him aside for the good of their son and look elsewhere for what she needed. She closed her eyes and relaxed as she felt him tighten his hold on her for some reason. If this was the last time to be close to him like this, she didn’t want to spoil it dwelling on all the what ifs and why nots.
Vegeta tightened his hold on her as he felt a gust of wind and noticed how she relaxed in his arms. He didn’t know why he had stuck around. He should not have stopped in the hallway, he should not have gone into her bedroom, he should not have followed her down the stairs and outside and he should not have offered to bring her to work.
Now here he was. Taking her to work like he was her own personal chauffeur. Sure, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do with his time, but that wasn’t the point. The point was he never put someone else before himself. It wasn’t his problem she was late because she’d clumsily spilt coffee all over herself.
Before they both knew it, Vegeta landed in front of the building in front of several pedestrians who gasped in surprise and shock of what they’d just witnessed. Was that the Capsule Corporation Heiress who was in the arms of a man who looked as though he had been flying and simply landed on the street?
A couple passers-by snapped a picture of them with their cell phones.
“Thanks, Vegeta,” she said, stepping away from him as soon as he landed instead of lingering like she would have liked to if there hadn’t been several people gawking and taking pictures of them.
“Hmmn,” he grunted and shot off into the air without a further word.
Some of the pedestrians gasped at his sudden retreat into the sky and Bulma snorted and shook her head as she hurried into the building. God forbid anyone catches Vegeta in the act of doing something nice or considerate for someone other than himself, she thought to herself as she raced up the stairs to the fifth floor.
She ran to the washroom once she made it to the correct floor to quickly check her hair. It was a tad windblown, but it looked like she had purposely volumized it and decided it looked really good. She slipped on her shoes and knocked on the door of the boardroom before walking in.
“There she is,” Derek greeted her with a smile. Apparently they had been alright with him starting without her.
“Hi, my deepest apologies for my lateness,” she said to the several board members of the company. “Something beyond my control came up unexpectedly and I needed to see to it immediately. I hope my colleague was able to kick things off to your satisfaction.”
“It’s quite alright, Miss Briefs,” the chairman nodded, standing up to greet her respectfully. “In fact, he is quite persuasive, explained things extremely well and we’ve decided to come on board and sign on with an exclusive contract with Capsule Corporation.”
“Excellent!” Bulma exclaimed, shooting Derek a smile. She’d known leaving him to do this would work out just fine. “Well Derek is a far better speaker than I am. I’m so glad that you were alright with him suddenly jumping in in my stead.”
“I’ve heard you speak at conventions and other events, you are a fine speaker, Miss Briefs,” the chairman commended her. “However, and do not take this the hard way, Derek is an excellent salesman.”
“Oh,” she nodded, unsure how to take that. “Well yes, he is a very important member of our team here at Capsule Corp. Thank you. I’m very excited to open this account with you and your team. Which line did you decide to go with?”
“All of them,” he said.
“All of them?” she repeated. “Like all of the serving bots or all of the vehicles?”
“Everything,” he repeated. “Derek here showed us not only how much we would save giving our employees leased vehicles through Capsule Corporation but the discounts we get by adding all of the house and home bots too. We can cut costs and salaries by having janitorial bots and be much more efficient with less people taking sick days and we can offer more evening and weekend services as well without the headache of worrying about paying overtime. We will be able to potentially increase our earnings by double by the end of this calendar year depending on how soon you can deliver.”
Bulma looked at Derek in shock. She’d placed all her trust in him and had known that he would be just fine on his own but he had exceeded even her expectations. “Okay, well did Derek give you the catalogue of all our products?”
“He did,”
“Alright, at the back is a sheet with everything on it. Check off what you want and how many and fax or email it to the correct number or address on the bottom and usually someone will get back to you within twenty four hours to get what specific options you want and to let you know when you’ll receive your order and if we don’t have something in stock, we will process your order usually that same day, send a request to the factory for it to be built, and then let you know how long the wait will be. Right now I do believe we should have almost a full inventory. You could have most of your order at your front door and ready to go in less than a week.”
“Wow, you are efficient,” he nodded. “Alright, I will take the catalogue back with us and we will decide what we need first. We will send our order in by the end of the day.”
“Alright! In that case, expect a call sometime tomorrow morning to confirm everything and all that fun stuff,” she nodded, barely able to contain her excitement. “Make sure you call our credit department to get that ball rolling so there is no delay in getting your order processed and delivered.”
“We already completed the credit application for the company. I got it auto approved already and he gave us a certified cheque with a down payment.” Derek said to her.
“Well, look at you go,” she grinned. “And here I felt bad that I was absent. You guys didn’t need me at all.”
“Sometimes better that way,” the chairman chuckled. “You women talk too much. Derek here is quick and to the point. I like that.”
“Right,” she nodded. “Well thank you so much for coming in today and giving us a chance to improve your business needs and such.” she said, extending her hand out to the four board members and shaking their hands as they began to file out of the boardroom.
They shook hands with Derek and Bulma allowed him to lead them out and towards the elevators as she began collecting all her notes and stuff.
As soon as they were gone, Derek came into the boardroom with a big grin on his face. “Now that was fun,” he said, leaning against the doorframe.
“Good job!” she commended him. “I honestly didn’t think they’d be interested in anything more than the vehicles, wow. Make sure you send a commission chit upstairs to accounting. You deserve that.”
“Thanks!” he beamed.
“And if you like, since you seem to have built up such a good rapport with them, I’ll assign that account to you to handle from here on out if you’d like,”
“Sure!” he exclaimed, smiling even brighter if that was possible. “Thank you!”
“No problem, you deserve it,” she said, picking up the rest of her things from the boardroom. “Truthfully, I don’t really want to deal with him.”
“Yea, he’s a bit of a sexist,”
“Big time!” she snorted. “That’s alright. He can be as much a sexist as he wants, I’ll still take his money. Just make sure you give them special attention that nothing goes wrong with this deal. It was extremely difficult getting him in here in the first place.”
“I’ll make sure that it goes off without any issues. It’s my only corporate account. How difficult could it be?” he said, taking some of the boards from her so she didn’t have to carry it all back to her office.
“That’s right! This is your first corporate account, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he nodded, following her into her office.
“Well congratulations!” she said. “Let me take you out for lunch and we’ll celebrate.”
“No, let me take you to lunch,” he countered. “It’s because of you that I scored this huge account. This is the best thing that could have happened to me!”
“Hmmm, you sure you didn’t spill that coffee all over me intentionally?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and mock frowning at him.
“What? No!” he exclaimed, his big grin fading immediately. “That was an accident, I swear!”
“I know, I’m bugging you,” she snorted. “It’s probably better that things happened the way that they did anyway. I’m not a sales person, I hate this department and cannot wait until I can go back into the lab and just go back to what I enjoy doing. Inventing and building things.”
“Well if you go back to that department then I won’t get to see to anymore,” he said. “I forbid it.” He added jokingly.
“Do you now?” she teased.
“If you leave this department then I’d insist that you need to go out on an actual proper date with me,” he said.
“I’m serious,” she sighed, deliberately ignoring him and his request for her to go out with him. “I hate sales. I can tell you every single detail of every product we offer and all the benefits of it. If you are interested, then buy it. If you aren’t, fuck off and get out of my office. I have better things to do with my time and about ten other people who will be interested with a lot less headache and hassle.”
“Ya, you are so not a sales person,” he chuckled. “I can just picture you saying that to Mr. Akira and how well that would have gone down.”
“I’m serious,” she said.
“Oh, I know you are!” he laughed. “I’m almost sorry that it didn’t happen.”
“Oh god, not good. My dad would have had a fit,” she giggled. “I’m serious though, I need to get out of this department.”
“Speaking of which, I know it’s early, but wanna get brunch instead of lunch?” he asked her.
“Hmmm, you know what? I do,” she said after considering it a moment. “I didn’t get breakfast this morning so I’m starving already and I have nothing left on my schedule for the day. I cleared everything because I didn’t know how much time those guys would take.”
“I don’t have any appointments either,” he nodded.
“Well, let’s go celebrate then!” she said, grabbing her purse and closing her office door and walking to the reception desk. “Derek and I are taking an early lunch. I’m not sure if I’ll be back but if there are any calls for me, just transfer them straight through to my cell phone, I’ll still take them.” she said to the receptionist.
“Um, me too if anyone calls for me,” Derek said to her as well. She gave him a knowing smirk and nodded. She knew he had been dying to get Bulma to go out with her for some time now.
“Absolutely!” she said cheerfully and mouthed good luck to him so Bulma wouldn’t hear.
Derek nodded and gave her a discreet thumbs up sign before stepping into the elevator after Bulma.
They made it out to the street and she began rifling through her purse to find her air car.
“I’ll drive,” he said quickly.
“You sure?” she asked. “I don’t mind,”
“I insist,” he nodded. “I’m just parked over here,”
Bulma nodded and followed him around the corner where the staff parking was. She had to hold back a snicker as she noticed that her reserved parking spot was empty. It was always empty. She never parked. Ever. She simply capsulated her car and then decapitated it on the street when she wanted to go.
Derek rushed in front of her and opened the passenger side door for Bulma.
“Thanks!” she said in surprise. She hadn’t expected that. Even Yamcha very rarely opened doors for her when they were together. The only time he did it was when he was trying to get back into her good books or if it was a special occasion like their anniversary. This wasn’t even a date and Derek had gone and done that.
“Where would you like to go?” Bulma asked him once he got in the car and started it.
“Where would you like to go?” he countered. “It’s up to you.”
“Well no, we’re out celebrating your success this morning so you get to decide where we go.”
“Nope. You get to decide because you did all the groundwork for the deal. I just walked in and closed them,” he insisted. “And I’m getting hungry, but we’re not leaving this parking lot until you decide where we’re going.”
“Fine, be that way,” she sighed. “But I’m only going to choose because I’m hungry. If I wasn’t, we’d be sitting here a loooong time, buddy.”
He chuckled. “I don’t doubt it,”
Bulma chose a mainstream restaurant for them that wasn’t too expensive or dressy but not so casual that they wouldn’t blend in.
When they arrived, Derek was very prompt about closing the passenger side door of his car for her and opening the door to the restaurant. Maybe I could get used to this, she thought and wondered if Vegeta would open doors for her too if they ever went out some place together. Yeah right, she huffed inwardly.
They were seated immediately. It seemed they had missed the breakfast crowd and were right in time before the lunch rush.
The waitress approached them, asking what they would like.
Bulma looked at her watch; it was just after eleven o’clock. Sure it was a bit early, but whatever. “I’ll have a glass of chilled chardonnay to start, please; and I’m still deciding what I’d like to eat.”
Derek snorted at her and her beverage of choice for so early in the day. “Make that a bottle,” he said cautiously, unsure if she’d disapprove or not.
“Right,” the waitress said. “I’ll be back with that and you both can decide what you’d like to eat.”
Bulma chuckled at the look Derek was giving her. “Oh don’t judge me after the morning I had, I need a drink,” she ranted. “Besides, it’s five o’clock somewhere and you’re one to talk. I ordered a glass, you ordered an entire bottle.”
“For us to share!” he countered in his own defence.
“Whatever, we’re both alcoholics I guess,” she sighed, looking through the menu, unsure of what she felt like. “I’ll keep it under my hat if you do.”
He laughed at her and started going through his menu as well.
They both ordered and ate their lunch, chatting with each other over work stuff and such. When the meal was winding down, Derek excused himself a moment and Bulma pulled out a compact mirror to check her appearance. Surprisingly enough, she was really enjoying hanging out with him outside of work.
“I’m so glad we did this,” he said when he sat back down. “And I’m even more glad to have gotten that contract now because it finally forced you to come out on a date with me.”
“This isn’t a date,” she scoffed. “It’s a celebratory lunch brunch very early happy hour… thing.”
“Uh huh,” he nodded slowly. “Well I’m counting it as a lunch date, the first of many; especially if you’re wanting to transfer out of the sales department.”
“Look Derek, you’re a really nice guy and I like you,” she sighed, wishing he would drop the subject. She did really like him but she wasn’t sure she was ready to move on. Sure she’d been telling herself she was ready and willing to start dating but was she really?
“I know you do,” he cut her off.
Bulma shot him a look as she finished her glass of wine.
“Come on. You’re always flirting with me.”
“I do not!”
“Yes you do! You’re terrible as a matter of fact!” he insisted, amused by her denial.
“Alright, fine. Maybe I do a little,” she admitted. “But I flirt with everyone!”
“Not the way you flirt with me,” he countered and she knew he had her there. “Can we get another bottle of wine, please?” he asked the waitress as she stepped up to their table.
“Look at you go,” she chuckled at him.
“It is Friday,” he shrugged. “And I’m off tomorrow. That is, unless you have an objection.”
“Nope,” she shook her head at him. “I never have an objection to wine.”
He laughed at her.
“Just so long as this isn’t a ploy to take advantage of me,” she joked.
“I wouldn’t dare,” he smiled. “In all seriousness though, why won’t you consider going out with me? I’m a nice guy, which is probably why I'm still single because nice guys finish last,” he sighed and paused as the waitress returned with another bottle of wine. He poured Bulma’s glass first before filling his own.
“So what’s wrong with you then that you’re such a nice guy and still single?” she asked. “In my experience, the nice guys start out nice but then turn out to be assholes in disguise.”
“Uh ohh,” he said, taking a sip of wine. “Is that what happened with your son’s father?”
“Ha haa! No no, oh no,” she snorted. “Vegeta was an asshole from the get go. I knew that going in.”
“Oh, so you’re one of those girls,” he smirked at her.
“What do you mean I’m ‘one of those girls’?” she asked in offense.
“You know, those girls who always go for that exciting bad boy in hopes of saving him from himself,” he clarified. “You’re a nice girl with a heart of gold; I could definitely see you getting into something like that. You also have kind of a wild streak as well so you like the thrill of it until you realize that he’s never going to change.”
“Under normal circumstances, I’d agree with you, but Vegeta is different,” she sighed. “I don’t know what I was thinking when we got together. He practically gave me a list of all of his bad qualities before anything happened between us. It’s not like he hid who he is, or was. He has changed a lot over the years. Like right when things got hot and heavy between us he basically told me he was a selfish pick only out for his own interests and us fucking meant nothing. Like as we were making out, before we hooked up. He gave me an out, and I chose to still pursue him. Now we have a child and I won’t say it’s terrible but it’s not always easy. I get lonely. Yes he helps me out now that Trunks isn’t a baby and I appreciate it so much. He’s not the relationship type, but he is a great father to our son and that’s good enough for me.”
“And he lives with you, correct?”
“Yes, he lives with us,” she nodded beginning to feel like maybe she’d had a little too much wine. She wasn’t drunk or even tipsy but when she was close to tipsy, she was usually chattier than she should be about her personal life.
“So were you guys married or...?”
“No,” she answered. “It was just a really brief fling, one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time but then later on realized it was a mistake. But I have Trunks out of it so it wasn’t all bad. How about you? Have you ever been married?” she asked, wanting to steer the direction of the conversation away from anything to do with Vegeta. She still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do concerning him. Should she continue to wait for him in hopes that maybe they had a future together as a real family or give up and see what else was out there?
“No, never married. I was close once though,” he said. “We were together for three years, moved in together, got engaged and then about three months before the wedding she decided that she was still in love with an ex-boyfriend of hers and wanted to go back to him because if she married me and didn’t pursue that, she’d always wonder what if.”
“Oh,” she said, taking a long sip of her wine. That was why she was so afraid of giving someone else a chance. What if all Vegeta needed was more time to get used to the idea of a relationship and living as a normal family unit? But again what if he didn’t and she spent the best years of her life single and alone? She didn’t want that either. “I’m sorry that happened to you. Did she cheat?”
“No, not that I know of anyway,” he shook his head. “I have friends that think she had to have and maybe she did, but I’m alright with giving her the benefit of the doubt. We both had a lot of respect for each other despite breaking up.”
“Well that’s good. Sad that it happened, but really good of you to not be bitter over it.”
“What’s the point?” he said.
“None, really,” she agreed. “I was bitter over how things with Vegeta and I ended for a long time and it just got to the point where it took far too much energy than it was worth.”
“Exactly!” he said raising his glass to her before taking another sip.
“Did you date anyone else after that?” she asked.
“Not really,” he shook his head. “A few girls here and there but nothing serious. Not recently anyway. Three years ago, I started a very demanding position at this very prominent family owned and operated company you see, and so I have little time for a social life. There is, however, this striking woman who works there and she’s technically my boss, but I’m so taken with her that I keep trying to think up ways to get her to go out with me but I’m having no luck. Any suggestions?”
Bulma laughed at him. “Well I think I know who you’re talking about. I have it on good authority that she likes you too, but her personal life is so complicated, she’d rather not drag some poor nice guy into it.”
“I see, so I keep hearing,” he nodded. “How about you? Did you date anyone after Trunks’ father?”
“No,” she answered and suddenly she found herself embarrassed at that admission. “I was really hurt after that and I was busy with Trunks and my dad is handing off more responsibilities within the company to me in recent years so I haven’t had the time to even think of dating.”
“Do you think that you and he might get back together?” Derek asked. “I mean you both still live together.”
Bulma took a decent sip of her wine as she thought of it seriously before answering. “No,” she said, looking him in the eye. “We do live together and that’s because of Trunks. But there’s too much history there between us; things that have been said and done on both sides that I can’t see us ever coming back from. We’re just friends now.”
“Friends with benefits?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No,” she replied immediately, though she thought of that night in her den when she’d fallen asleep in his lap. He had allowed it and she had woken up to him stroking her hair. How she wished now that she had been more aggressive and had at least tried to instigate something more. “We haven’t been together like that in years.”
“I see,” he nodded.
“When is the cheque coming?” she asked suddenly, looking around for the waitress.
“I took care of it already,” Derek grinned.
“That’s where you want when you’d left?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Guilty as charged,” he chuckled.
“Well this won’t do,” she sighed.
“I know, it’s officially a date now,” he teased her.
“You’re an ass,” she said, trying not to laugh. For all her objections, deep down she was flattered that he was so persistent.
“Oh, if I’m an ass, maybe I’ll qualify as worthy?” he teased her.
Bulma gaped at him a moment. “Wow, tell me how you really feel?”
Derek laughed at her. “I didn’t mean it,”
“Yes, you did,” she countered. “Though from where you’re sitting, I kind of get it I guess.”
Derek shrugged. “So now that we’re done here, what do you think we should do?”
“Not sure,” she shrugged. “I might just go back to the office. You?”
“I was thinking we should go do something impulsive and stupid,” he suggested.
“Oh, really,” she laughed. “What did you have in mind?”
“Not sure, when was the last time you did something stupid and irresponsible?”
Bulma thought for a moment. The last time she’d done something irresponsible was when the androids had appeared and she’d nearly gotten herself and Trunks killed. However she didn’t feel like telling that story. “Uhm, I hooked up with my son’s father and became a mother?”
“Okay, I didn’t quite have anything like that in mind,” he laughed. “I was more thinking of going to see an afternoon movie and sneaking alcohol in with us or taking a walk barefoot at the beach.”
“Ha! Oh, my,” she chuckled. “You, my friend, have got to get another definition of irresponsible, impulsive and stupid if that’s what you had in mind.”
“Enlighten me,” he said.
“One of these days,” she said with a smile. “You’d not believe some of the things I’ve done and adventures I’ve had. Trust me, sneaking alcohol into a theatre isn’t one of them.”
“Then let’s do it!” he said cheerfully. “You pretty much told everyone you were blowing off the afternoon anyway,”
Bulma thought about it a moment before deciding that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. So far, she was having a good time, and it wasn’t like she needed to be back at work so why not? “Alright, mister. You’ve got yourself a date.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he chuckled, standing up. “Let’s go hit a liquor store and decide what we’re seeing once we get there.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” she smiled, following him out of the restaurant, actually feeling excited to see what the afternoon had in store. She hadn’t felt this giddy in ages. As tame as it was to some of the other things she had done in her youth, she actually felt like she was in high school again and skipping school to do something she probably shouldn’t. However, sneaking alcohol into a theatre hadn’t been crossed off her bucket list.
And so off they went…
-0-0-0-
Chapter 6
Bulma finished getting herself ready for the day. She had an important boardroom meeting presentation to do today despite feeling down and lacking in confidence, she made sure she was done up to the nines and wearing only the sexiest of lingerie under a very feminine, well fitted cream suit. One of the few things her mother had taught her: never underestimate the power of gorgeous underwear. While no one else knew what she was wearing underneath, she did. And no matter how bad a day or week she was having, somehow knowing she was wearing something racy and gorgeous underneath made her stand taller and walk straighter. Sure it was silly, but it somehow helped.
Especially as of late.
She was still annoyed with Vegeta for blowing her off as he had about four weeks back.
Sure deep down she knew he was right. Things between them at the moment were better than ever. Why ruin it by adding a physical element into the equation?
That didn’t hurt her ego and make the rejection sting any less however. Bulma tried to keep telling herself that it was for the best but that didn’t seem to make it hurt any less.
So she did what any other self-respecting girl would do. She made sure she was done up to the nines everyday no matter what she was doing just to show Vegeta what he was missing out on. She didn’t flirt with him, nor did she strategically drop things in front of him to give him an excuse to look her over. No, she’d played that game with him years ago when he’d first came to stay at Capsule Corporation. Besides, she knew he wouldn’t fall for that. Not this time.
Instead, she was polite with him when she saw him. She only addressed him if she needed to and she refrained from saying anything rude to him or pushing his buttons. Their regular routine of watching tv together had dwindled because she had opted to remain at work later than she needed to in an effort to avoid Vegeta. When so did see him, she looked flawless and behaved professionally around him not giving him any cause for complaint.
She was done pursuing him but that didn’t mean that she didn’t want him to not realize what a mistake he had made. She wouldn’t embarrass herself by letting him know how much she really wanted him and she wouldn’t let him know how disappointed she was that he seemed to have no interest. At this point, she was just happy that he was still around and wasn’t opposed to spending time with Trunks.
That was what motivated her to keep up positive and polite relations with him.
Bulma rushed out of the house and drove straight to the office as quickly as she could, raced upstairs to her office and frantically began looking for her folder with all of her notes and figures.
“What the hell did I do with them?” she asked herself out loud, realizing she couldn’t find her presentation boards either. Her stomach dropped as soon as she realized none of it was here where she’d left it all.
She was about to storm out of her office to raise hell and find out who had been poking around in her office when she quite literally ran into Derek, spilling his coffee all down the front of her cream coloured designer suit.
“Oh shit!” he exclaimed. “I’m so sorry!”
Bulma took a deep breath to calm her nerves. It wasn’t his fault she was rushing around like a mad person. “It’s not your fault. Sorry, I’ll bring you a coffee tomorrow morning.”
“Actually, I got this one for you,” he said with a grin.
She sighed, “Awe, that’s nice of you. I really need one too. I’m late and I can’t find any of my presentation notes or boards. I don’t know where they are and I have like fifteen minutes to find them before my meeting starts and now I’m covered in coffee...” she rambled, taking off her suit jacket and tossing it onto one of the chairs in her office.
“Oh, sorry. I have them,” he said. “I was a little earlier than I meant to be this morning and figured I’d help you out and set up some of the presentation stuff in the boardroom since I know you’ve been working so hard on this and are a bit nervous about it. Sorry, I was only trying to help and here I made it worse. Typical.”
“Ohh,” she groaned. “Thank you! Now I feel even more like an ass! I was about to go out there and rip someone a new one for going into my office.”
“Sorry, I’ll ask first next time,” he said, still standing there awkwardly as he watched her inspect her skirt, which had a nice coffee stain on her crotch.
“That’s okay,” she said. “You were only trying to help. Shit, I can’t go out there like this,” she cursed, noticing that the receptionist was leading two men into the boardroom already.
They looked at the clock. Her presentation was to begin in ten minutes. It was approximately a ten minute drive back to her house, add on another ten minutes for her to choose something else and change, then another ten minutes for her to get back here. That was half an hour! This was a really important meeting. She and her father had been working on getting this company to only use Capsule Corporation products for months now. It was a potentially very lucrative account with a very prominent landscaping company interested in potentially purchasing vehicles for their employees through them. Problem was their chairman of the board was very cheap and not entirely convinced that he wanted to spend so much on something upfront despite the fact that the product would save them tons of money in the long run on maintenance and replacement costs, nor was he considering the longevity of Capsule Corporation's products and their excellent warranty when compared to any of their competitors. To Bulma it was a no brainer. You get what you pay for. Sure their products were expensive, but they were worth it in the long run.
“Would you like to start the presentation?” she asked him, weighing in her mind what would look worse, her showing up half an hour late into a presentation that had already been started or showing up half an hour late and then starting? Starting on time and sneaking in half way through was definitely the better option she decided. “Just tell them I had an emergency and rather than making them wait, I’ll be about twenty minutes behind.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yea,” she nodded. “I trust you. You know everything about the products and what their main objections are to signing with us. I’m sure you can close them without my help. I was going to ask if you wanted to join me in there anyway seeing as you worked so hard with helping me put this presentation together for these guys.”
“Sure, I don’t mind starting for you, but what if they aren’t?” he asked nervously. He was flattered that she trusted him enough to kick off this meeting.
“Just tell them you are going to start because I had a bit of an emergency to tend to and rather than let them wait for twenty minutes, I wanted to respect the time they took from their day to be here and still start on time,” she explained. “If they are that insistent on me starting then that’s fine. That’s their call, make sure they get some coffee, try to entertain them while they wait and I’ll start as soon as I get back.”
He sighed deeply in nervousness. “Alright, I’ll start.”
“Thanks! You can do this! I’ll be right back!” she said confidently as she ducked out of her office and headed towards the stairs to take the back way out of the building so she wouldn’t risk running into any of the business men that would be present in the boardroom.
She decapsulated her air car and drove like a wild woman back to the compound, thanking her lucky stars that she didn’t get pulled over. That was all she needed.
She parked and ran into the house, not even greeting Trunks or her mother as she ran up the stairs and into her bedroom to choose another suit.
Choosing a sharp, royal blue suit, she tossed it onto her bed and whipped off her skirt and ran to her dresser to change her camisole top as well. She was in such a hurry, she’d left her bedroom door wide open.
Vegeta stopped clean in his tracks just outside her bedroom door on his way for breakfast. He frowned as he watched her rifle through her drawer like a crazy person, clad in nothing but a very sexy pair of baby pink lace panties and matching bra, stay up nude fishnet stockings and high heel cream pumps the same colour her suit had been.
“God dammit!” she cursed as she couldn’t find the top she was looking for and began to rummage frantically through another drawer. “This’ll have to do,” she muttered, holding up a white v-neck tank top with white lace around the neckline. It wasn’t as modest as the one she was looking for, and it would display a bit more cleavage than what she would like but she didn’t have time to be fussy. Her other two suits needed to go to the cleaners and her only other clean one was rumpled up because she’d tossed it onto the floor the last time she had worn it so it needed a good steaming and she didn’t have time for that.
Bulma closed her drawer and turned around gasped as she saw Vegeta standing in her doorway looking at her. “Do you mind!” she shrieked at him. “I’m changing here!”
“You are the one who left the door wide open,” he pointed out calmly, crossing his arms and leaning casually against the doorframe, looking her up and down appreciatively, not attempting to hide it from her that he was checking her out, as he usually did. She looked exceptionally gorgeous with her hair and makeup done just perfect and the underwear and heels just finished off the look. She looked like she’d stepped out of one of those magazine spreads the Weakling used to leave around the house. The fact that she was frazzled and obviously annoyed only added to her appeal and he was hard pressed to walk away as he knew he should have.
She felt the heat and redness of her flush spread from her chest and bloom up her neck and to her cheeks as she watched Vegeta eye her up and down like a wolf sizing up its prey before pouncing on it. Oh god, I don’t have time for this. Not right now! She lamented and immediately she felt a tingling between her thighs and in her frustration over the way the morning had started and still hurting over Vegeta rejecting her, she glared at him, placing her hands on her hips. “Ya, take a good look pal because that's all you get! Better yet, take an even better look because it’s the last look you’re going to be getting, ever! This one’s a freebie because I’m in a hurry and you’re right, it’s my fault for leaving my door open,” she snapped at him, slipping the new top on as she walked back to her bed and picked up the new replacement skirt.
Vegeta took a step into her room and closed the door behind him, still watching her dress herself. What had he been thinking a few weeks back by not taking her? He found himself regretting that decision almost immediately and he had wanted to possibly change his mind, only she avoided him and since he refused to chase her, things kept on as they were. However he had not missed the obvious fact that she put great effort into looking nothing short of amazing whenever he saw her and it was bothering him. Hell the other day she had been done up and was doing nothing more than helping her mother with housework. He knew exactly what she was doing, so he ignored her and only looked at her when he knew she wasn’t looking so that she wouldn’t know. He did not want her to know how desirable he still found her.
Today was the first time he decided he wanted to let her know and apparently he had chosen badly.
“What are you doing? Get out!” she shrieked at him.
“Why? It is nothing that I have not seen before,” he said with a smirk.
“Oh please, Vegeta,” she snorted. “I don’t have time for your cryptic bullshit right now. I’m having a shitty day and I have a very important presentation today that I needed to be there for like fifteen minutes ago.”
Vegeta frowned. “Then what are you doing here?”
“I couldn't find my presentation notes and then spilled coffee all over myself like fifteen minutes before my meeting and its super important and I’m just... Awe shit, I have to change my shoes now too-” she rambled as she got dressed and he could tell she was trying not to get emotional over the bad day she was having.
As she darted back into her closet to look for different shoes, he felt somewhat bad for teasing her. He wasn’t sure exactly what she had going on with work but he knew from listening to her speaking on the phone or with her father in recent weeks that there was some kind of important deal that was pending.
“Do these shoes go okay with this?” she asked, stepping out of the closet wearing a pair of black pumps.
Vegeta shrugged. Why is she asking me, he wondered. “How should I know?”
“Thanks Vegeta, you’re soo helpful,” she sighed in exasperation. “Or should I wear these white ones?” she asked, kicking off one of the black shoes and stepping her foot into a white shoe with a decent heel and a peep toe.
“Wear the white ones,” he said after a moment when it was clear that she was apparently expecting him to weigh in his opinion. He didn’t really have a preference, however she was wearing a white top under the jacket. So he thought the white shoes were a good choice seeing as he always wore white gloves and boots with his blue flight suit and her suit was near enough the same shade of blue. All in all, he thought she looked really good. “They match with the shirt.”
Bulma looked at him a moment and smiled as she kicked off the other black shoe and slipping her feet into both white shoes. She went to the mirror on the wall to give herself a once over. “The skirt isn’t too short?” she asked. It came to just slightly above her knees; it was nicely tailored and was very flattering to her bum. Most of her professional suit skirts came down to her calves or were ankle length and were pencil skirts.
“Your cleavage is showing and you’re worried about your legs?” he snorted.
“Well, show off one or the other, not both.” she said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t look unprofessional, do I?”
Vegeta shrugged. Truthfully he had no idea and was regretting coming in here now. He had only done it in hopes of flirting a little with her and rattling her cage, not give her fashion advice. “I have no idea what that means but if you were a planetary dignitary, I think you look respectable.”
She turned and smiled at him. “Thank you, Vegeta.”
“Hmmmn,” he grunted, feeling very out of place. This scenario was becoming weirder by the minute as he stood there looking at her.
“Shit! I gotta go!” she shrieked, turning away from him and racing to grab her purse. “Thanks for the input, Vegeta.”
He didn’t say anything as he followed her out of her room and down the stairs. Her heels were so high and she was hurrying so quickly he was surprised she didn’t fall down the stairs or twist her ankle.
“Ugh, I’m so late and traffic is going to be ridiculous at this hour,” she muttered.
“I could get you there in a few minutes,” Vegeta said before he could think better of it. He had been thinking it and for some reason he had verbalized it.
“Would you mind?” she asked. Her hair was down anyway so it wasn’t like she couldn’t fix it really quickly.
Vegeta snorted but walked up to her and effortlessly scooped her up after she encapsulated her air car and took her shoes off to carry them or she’d lose them for sure.
Bulma gladly let him pick her up and she wrapped an arm around his neck and tucked her head under his chin, resting her cheek against him as he flew at nearly break neck speed towards Capsule Corporation’s head office.
She closed her eyes, enjoying the moment of being in his arms. What was it about him that the moment he touched her, no matter how innocent, she felt desire ignite through her almost immediately. It was embarrassing! Especially since she knew he would notice with his heightened senses. It wasn’t fair that she was an open book to him no matter how hard she tried to keep herself in check around him and he was so closed off from her and she had no indication to go off of to know if she affected him in a similar way that she was affected by him. Probably not, she thought dejectedly.
Why was she still hoping for something that so obviously wasn’t meant to be? It was time for her to give it up and move on. Start seeing other people. She was still young and attractive and sure she was technically a single mom but that didn’t mean she had to spend the rest of her life being an old maid. After the last rejection, she told herself she would set her feelings for him aside for the good of their son and look elsewhere for what she needed. She closed her eyes and relaxed as she felt him tighten his hold on her for some reason. If this was the last time to be close to him like this, she didn’t want to spoil it dwelling on all the what ifs and why nots.
Vegeta tightened his hold on her as he felt a gust of wind and noticed how she relaxed in his arms. He didn’t know why he had stuck around. He should not have stopped in the hallway, he should not have gone into her bedroom, he should not have followed her down the stairs and outside and he should not have offered to bring her to work.
Now here he was. Taking her to work like he was her own personal chauffeur. Sure, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do with his time, but that wasn’t the point. The point was he never put someone else before himself. It wasn’t his problem she was late because she’d clumsily spilt coffee all over herself.
Before they both knew it, Vegeta landed in front of the building in front of several pedestrians who gasped in surprise and shock of what they’d just witnessed. Was that the Capsule Corporation Heiress who was in the arms of a man who looked as though he had been flying and simply landed on the street?
A couple passers-by snapped a picture of them with their cell phones.
“Thanks, Vegeta,” she said, stepping away from him as soon as he landed instead of lingering like she would have liked to if there hadn’t been several people gawking and taking pictures of them.
“Hmmn,” he grunted and shot off into the air without a further word.
Some of the pedestrians gasped at his sudden retreat into the sky and Bulma snorted and shook her head as she hurried into the building. God forbid anyone catches Vegeta in the act of doing something nice or considerate for someone other than himself, she thought to herself as she raced up the stairs to the fifth floor.
She ran to the washroom once she made it to the correct floor to quickly check her hair. It was a tad windblown, but it looked like she had purposely volumized it and decided it looked really good. She slipped on her shoes and knocked on the door of the boardroom before walking in.
“There she is,” Derek greeted her with a smile. Apparently they had been alright with him starting without her.
“Hi, my deepest apologies for my lateness,” she said to the several board members of the company. “Something beyond my control came up unexpectedly and I needed to see to it immediately. I hope my colleague was able to kick things off to your satisfaction.”
“It’s quite alright, Miss Briefs,” the chairman nodded, standing up to greet her respectfully. “In fact, he is quite persuasive, explained things extremely well and we’ve decided to come on board and sign on with an exclusive contract with Capsule Corporation.”
“Excellent!” Bulma exclaimed, shooting Derek a smile. She’d known leaving him to do this would work out just fine. “Well Derek is a far better speaker than I am. I’m so glad that you were alright with him suddenly jumping in in my stead.”
“I’ve heard you speak at conventions and other events, you are a fine speaker, Miss Briefs,” the chairman commended her. “However, and do not take this the hard way, Derek is an excellent salesman.”
“Oh,” she nodded, unsure how to take that. “Well yes, he is a very important member of our team here at Capsule Corp. Thank you. I’m very excited to open this account with you and your team. Which line did you decide to go with?”
“All of them,” he said.
“All of them?” she repeated. “Like all of the serving bots or all of the vehicles?”
“Everything,” he repeated. “Derek here showed us not only how much we would save giving our employees leased vehicles through Capsule Corporation but the discounts we get by adding all of the house and home bots too. We can cut costs and salaries by having janitorial bots and be much more efficient with less people taking sick days and we can offer more evening and weekend services as well without the headache of worrying about paying overtime. We will be able to potentially increase our earnings by double by the end of this calendar year depending on how soon you can deliver.”
Bulma looked at Derek in shock. She’d placed all her trust in him and had known that he would be just fine on his own but he had exceeded even her expectations. “Okay, well did Derek give you the catalogue of all our products?”
“He did,”
“Alright, at the back is a sheet with everything on it. Check off what you want and how many and fax or email it to the correct number or address on the bottom and usually someone will get back to you within twenty four hours to get what specific options you want and to let you know when you’ll receive your order and if we don’t have something in stock, we will process your order usually that same day, send a request to the factory for it to be built, and then let you know how long the wait will be. Right now I do believe we should have almost a full inventory. You could have most of your order at your front door and ready to go in less than a week.”
“Wow, you are efficient,” he nodded. “Alright, I will take the catalogue back with us and we will decide what we need first. We will send our order in by the end of the day.”
“Alright! In that case, expect a call sometime tomorrow morning to confirm everything and all that fun stuff,” she nodded, barely able to contain her excitement. “Make sure you call our credit department to get that ball rolling so there is no delay in getting your order processed and delivered.”
“We already completed the credit application for the company. I got it auto approved already and he gave us a certified cheque with a down payment.” Derek said to her.
“Well, look at you go,” she grinned. “And here I felt bad that I was absent. You guys didn’t need me at all.”
“Sometimes better that way,” the chairman chuckled. “You women talk too much. Derek here is quick and to the point. I like that.”
“Right,” she nodded. “Well thank you so much for coming in today and giving us a chance to improve your business needs and such.” she said, extending her hand out to the four board members and shaking their hands as they began to file out of the boardroom.
They shook hands with Derek and Bulma allowed him to lead them out and towards the elevators as she began collecting all her notes and stuff.
As soon as they were gone, Derek came into the boardroom with a big grin on his face. “Now that was fun,” he said, leaning against the doorframe.
“Good job!” she commended him. “I honestly didn’t think they’d be interested in anything more than the vehicles, wow. Make sure you send a commission chit upstairs to accounting. You deserve that.”
“Thanks!” he beamed.
“And if you like, since you seem to have built up such a good rapport with them, I’ll assign that account to you to handle from here on out if you’d like,”
“Sure!” he exclaimed, smiling even brighter if that was possible. “Thank you!”
“No problem, you deserve it,” she said, picking up the rest of her things from the boardroom. “Truthfully, I don’t really want to deal with him.”
“Yea, he’s a bit of a sexist,”
“Big time!” she snorted. “That’s alright. He can be as much a sexist as he wants, I’ll still take his money. Just make sure you give them special attention that nothing goes wrong with this deal. It was extremely difficult getting him in here in the first place.”
“I’ll make sure that it goes off without any issues. It’s my only corporate account. How difficult could it be?” he said, taking some of the boards from her so she didn’t have to carry it all back to her office.
“That’s right! This is your first corporate account, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he nodded, following her into her office.
“Well congratulations!” she said. “Let me take you out for lunch and we’ll celebrate.”
“No, let me take you to lunch,” he countered. “It’s because of you that I scored this huge account. This is the best thing that could have happened to me!”
“Hmmm, you sure you didn’t spill that coffee all over me intentionally?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and mock frowning at him.
“What? No!” he exclaimed, his big grin fading immediately. “That was an accident, I swear!”
“I know, I’m bugging you,” she snorted. “It’s probably better that things happened the way that they did anyway. I’m not a sales person, I hate this department and cannot wait until I can go back into the lab and just go back to what I enjoy doing. Inventing and building things.”
“Well if you go back to that department then I won’t get to see to anymore,” he said. “I forbid it.” He added jokingly.
“Do you now?” she teased.
“If you leave this department then I’d insist that you need to go out on an actual proper date with me,” he said.
“I’m serious,” she sighed, deliberately ignoring him and his request for her to go out with him. “I hate sales. I can tell you every single detail of every product we offer and all the benefits of it. If you are interested, then buy it. If you aren’t, fuck off and get out of my office. I have better things to do with my time and about ten other people who will be interested with a lot less headache and hassle.”
“Ya, you are so not a sales person,” he chuckled. “I can just picture you saying that to Mr. Akira and how well that would have gone down.”
“I’m serious,” she said.
“Oh, I know you are!” he laughed. “I’m almost sorry that it didn’t happen.”
“Oh god, not good. My dad would have had a fit,” she giggled. “I’m serious though, I need to get out of this department.”
“Speaking of which, I know it’s early, but wanna get brunch instead of lunch?” he asked her.
“Hmmm, you know what? I do,” she said after considering it a moment. “I didn’t get breakfast this morning so I’m starving already and I have nothing left on my schedule for the day. I cleared everything because I didn’t know how much time those guys would take.”
“I don’t have any appointments either,” he nodded.
“Well, let’s go celebrate then!” she said, grabbing her purse and closing her office door and walking to the reception desk. “Derek and I are taking an early lunch. I’m not sure if I’ll be back but if there are any calls for me, just transfer them straight through to my cell phone, I’ll still take them.” she said to the receptionist.
“Um, me too if anyone calls for me,” Derek said to her as well. She gave him a knowing smirk and nodded. She knew he had been dying to get Bulma to go out with her for some time now.
“Absolutely!” she said cheerfully and mouthed good luck to him so Bulma wouldn’t hear.
Derek nodded and gave her a discreet thumbs up sign before stepping into the elevator after Bulma.
They made it out to the street and she began rifling through her purse to find her air car.
“I’ll drive,” he said quickly.
“You sure?” she asked. “I don’t mind,”
“I insist,” he nodded. “I’m just parked over here,”
Bulma nodded and followed him around the corner where the staff parking was. She had to hold back a snicker as she noticed that her reserved parking spot was empty. It was always empty. She never parked. Ever. She simply capsulated her car and then decapitated it on the street when she wanted to go.
Derek rushed in front of her and opened the passenger side door for Bulma.
“Thanks!” she said in surprise. She hadn’t expected that. Even Yamcha very rarely opened doors for her when they were together. The only time he did it was when he was trying to get back into her good books or if it was a special occasion like their anniversary. This wasn’t even a date and Derek had gone and done that.
“Where would you like to go?” Bulma asked him once he got in the car and started it.
“Where would you like to go?” he countered. “It’s up to you.”
“Well no, we’re out celebrating your success this morning so you get to decide where we go.”
“Nope. You get to decide because you did all the groundwork for the deal. I just walked in and closed them,” he insisted. “And I’m getting hungry, but we’re not leaving this parking lot until you decide where we’re going.”
“Fine, be that way,” she sighed. “But I’m only going to choose because I’m hungry. If I wasn’t, we’d be sitting here a loooong time, buddy.”
He chuckled. “I don’t doubt it,”
Bulma chose a mainstream restaurant for them that wasn’t too expensive or dressy but not so casual that they wouldn’t blend in.
When they arrived, Derek was very prompt about closing the passenger side door of his car for her and opening the door to the restaurant. Maybe I could get used to this, she thought and wondered if Vegeta would open doors for her too if they ever went out some place together. Yeah right, she huffed inwardly.
They were seated immediately. It seemed they had missed the breakfast crowd and were right in time before the lunch rush.
The waitress approached them, asking what they would like.
Bulma looked at her watch; it was just after eleven o’clock. Sure it was a bit early, but whatever. “I’ll have a glass of chilled chardonnay to start, please; and I’m still deciding what I’d like to eat.”
Derek snorted at her and her beverage of choice for so early in the day. “Make that a bottle,” he said cautiously, unsure if she’d disapprove or not.
“Right,” the waitress said. “I’ll be back with that and you both can decide what you’d like to eat.”
Bulma chuckled at the look Derek was giving her. “Oh don’t judge me after the morning I had, I need a drink,” she ranted. “Besides, it’s five o’clock somewhere and you’re one to talk. I ordered a glass, you ordered an entire bottle.”
“For us to share!” he countered in his own defence.
“Whatever, we’re both alcoholics I guess,” she sighed, looking through the menu, unsure of what she felt like. “I’ll keep it under my hat if you do.”
He laughed at her and started going through his menu as well.
They both ordered and ate their lunch, chatting with each other over work stuff and such. When the meal was winding down, Derek excused himself a moment and Bulma pulled out a compact mirror to check her appearance. Surprisingly enough, she was really enjoying hanging out with him outside of work.
“I’m so glad we did this,” he said when he sat back down. “And I’m even more glad to have gotten that contract now because it finally forced you to come out on a date with me.”
“This isn’t a date,” she scoffed. “It’s a celebratory lunch brunch very early happy hour… thing.”
“Uh huh,” he nodded slowly. “Well I’m counting it as a lunch date, the first of many; especially if you’re wanting to transfer out of the sales department.”
“Look Derek, you’re a really nice guy and I like you,” she sighed, wishing he would drop the subject. She did really like him but she wasn’t sure she was ready to move on. Sure she’d been telling herself she was ready and willing to start dating but was she really?
“I know you do,” he cut her off.
Bulma shot him a look as she finished her glass of wine.
“Come on. You’re always flirting with me.”
“I do not!”
“Yes you do! You’re terrible as a matter of fact!” he insisted, amused by her denial.
“Alright, fine. Maybe I do a little,” she admitted. “But I flirt with everyone!”
“Not the way you flirt with me,” he countered and she knew he had her there. “Can we get another bottle of wine, please?” he asked the waitress as she stepped up to their table.
“Look at you go,” she chuckled at him.
“It is Friday,” he shrugged. “And I’m off tomorrow. That is, unless you have an objection.”
“Nope,” she shook her head at him. “I never have an objection to wine.”
He laughed at her.
“Just so long as this isn’t a ploy to take advantage of me,” she joked.
“I wouldn’t dare,” he smiled. “In all seriousness though, why won’t you consider going out with me? I’m a nice guy, which is probably why I'm still single because nice guys finish last,” he sighed and paused as the waitress returned with another bottle of wine. He poured Bulma’s glass first before filling his own.
“So what’s wrong with you then that you’re such a nice guy and still single?” she asked. “In my experience, the nice guys start out nice but then turn out to be assholes in disguise.”
“Uh ohh,” he said, taking a sip of wine. “Is that what happened with your son’s father?”
“Ha haa! No no, oh no,” she snorted. “Vegeta was an asshole from the get go. I knew that going in.”
“Oh, so you’re one of those girls,” he smirked at her.
“What do you mean I’m ‘one of those girls’?” she asked in offense.
“You know, those girls who always go for that exciting bad boy in hopes of saving him from himself,” he clarified. “You’re a nice girl with a heart of gold; I could definitely see you getting into something like that. You also have kind of a wild streak as well so you like the thrill of it until you realize that he’s never going to change.”
“Under normal circumstances, I’d agree with you, but Vegeta is different,” she sighed. “I don’t know what I was thinking when we got together. He practically gave me a list of all of his bad qualities before anything happened between us. It’s not like he hid who he is, or was. He has changed a lot over the years. Like right when things got hot and heavy between us he basically told me he was a selfish pick only out for his own interests and us fucking meant nothing. Like as we were making out, before we hooked up. He gave me an out, and I chose to still pursue him. Now we have a child and I won’t say it’s terrible but it’s not always easy. I get lonely. Yes he helps me out now that Trunks isn’t a baby and I appreciate it so much. He’s not the relationship type, but he is a great father to our son and that’s good enough for me.”
“And he lives with you, correct?”
“Yes, he lives with us,” she nodded beginning to feel like maybe she’d had a little too much wine. She wasn’t drunk or even tipsy but when she was close to tipsy, she was usually chattier than she should be about her personal life.
“So were you guys married or...?”
“No,” she answered. “It was just a really brief fling, one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time but then later on realized it was a mistake. But I have Trunks out of it so it wasn’t all bad. How about you? Have you ever been married?” she asked, wanting to steer the direction of the conversation away from anything to do with Vegeta. She still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do concerning him. Should she continue to wait for him in hopes that maybe they had a future together as a real family or give up and see what else was out there?
“No, never married. I was close once though,” he said. “We were together for three years, moved in together, got engaged and then about three months before the wedding she decided that she was still in love with an ex-boyfriend of hers and wanted to go back to him because if she married me and didn’t pursue that, she’d always wonder what if.”
“Oh,” she said, taking a long sip of her wine. That was why she was so afraid of giving someone else a chance. What if all Vegeta needed was more time to get used to the idea of a relationship and living as a normal family unit? But again what if he didn’t and she spent the best years of her life single and alone? She didn’t want that either. “I’m sorry that happened to you. Did she cheat?”
“No, not that I know of anyway,” he shook his head. “I have friends that think she had to have and maybe she did, but I’m alright with giving her the benefit of the doubt. We both had a lot of respect for each other despite breaking up.”
“Well that’s good. Sad that it happened, but really good of you to not be bitter over it.”
“What’s the point?” he said.
“None, really,” she agreed. “I was bitter over how things with Vegeta and I ended for a long time and it just got to the point where it took far too much energy than it was worth.”
“Exactly!” he said raising his glass to her before taking another sip.
“Did you date anyone else after that?” she asked.
“Not really,” he shook his head. “A few girls here and there but nothing serious. Not recently anyway. Three years ago, I started a very demanding position at this very prominent family owned and operated company you see, and so I have little time for a social life. There is, however, this striking woman who works there and she’s technically my boss, but I’m so taken with her that I keep trying to think up ways to get her to go out with me but I’m having no luck. Any suggestions?”
Bulma laughed at him. “Well I think I know who you’re talking about. I have it on good authority that she likes you too, but her personal life is so complicated, she’d rather not drag some poor nice guy into it.”
“I see, so I keep hearing,” he nodded. “How about you? Did you date anyone after Trunks’ father?”
“No,” she answered and suddenly she found herself embarrassed at that admission. “I was really hurt after that and I was busy with Trunks and my dad is handing off more responsibilities within the company to me in recent years so I haven’t had the time to even think of dating.”
“Do you think that you and he might get back together?” Derek asked. “I mean you both still live together.”
Bulma took a decent sip of her wine as she thought of it seriously before answering. “No,” she said, looking him in the eye. “We do live together and that’s because of Trunks. But there’s too much history there between us; things that have been said and done on both sides that I can’t see us ever coming back from. We’re just friends now.”
“Friends with benefits?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No,” she replied immediately, though she thought of that night in her den when she’d fallen asleep in his lap. He had allowed it and she had woken up to him stroking her hair. How she wished now that she had been more aggressive and had at least tried to instigate something more. “We haven’t been together like that in years.”
“I see,” he nodded.
“When is the cheque coming?” she asked suddenly, looking around for the waitress.
“I took care of it already,” Derek grinned.
“That’s where you want when you’d left?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Guilty as charged,” he chuckled.
“Well this won’t do,” she sighed.
“I know, it’s officially a date now,” he teased her.
“You’re an ass,” she said, trying not to laugh. For all her objections, deep down she was flattered that he was so persistent.
“Oh, if I’m an ass, maybe I’ll qualify as worthy?” he teased her.
Bulma gaped at him a moment. “Wow, tell me how you really feel?”
Derek laughed at her. “I didn’t mean it,”
“Yes, you did,” she countered. “Though from where you’re sitting, I kind of get it I guess.”
Derek shrugged. “So now that we’re done here, what do you think we should do?”
“Not sure,” she shrugged. “I might just go back to the office. You?”
“I was thinking we should go do something impulsive and stupid,” he suggested.
“Oh, really,” she laughed. “What did you have in mind?”
“Not sure, when was the last time you did something stupid and irresponsible?”
Bulma thought for a moment. The last time she’d done something irresponsible was when the androids had appeared and she’d nearly gotten herself and Trunks killed. However she didn’t feel like telling that story. “Uhm, I hooked up with my son’s father and became a mother?”
“Okay, I didn’t quite have anything like that in mind,” he laughed. “I was more thinking of going to see an afternoon movie and sneaking alcohol in with us or taking a walk barefoot at the beach.”
“Ha! Oh, my,” she chuckled. “You, my friend, have got to get another definition of irresponsible, impulsive and stupid if that’s what you had in mind.”
“Enlighten me,” he said.
“One of these days,” she said with a smile. “You’d not believe some of the things I’ve done and adventures I’ve had. Trust me, sneaking alcohol into a theatre isn’t one of them.”
“Then let’s do it!” he said cheerfully. “You pretty much told everyone you were blowing off the afternoon anyway,”
Bulma thought about it a moment before deciding that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. So far, she was having a good time, and it wasn’t like she needed to be back at work so why not? “Alright, mister. You’ve got yourself a date.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he chuckled, standing up. “Let’s go hit a liquor store and decide what we’re seeing once we get there.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” she smiled, following him out of the restaurant, actually feeling excited to see what the afternoon had in store. She hadn’t felt this giddy in ages. As tame as it was to some of the other things she had done in her youth, she actually felt like she was in high school again and skipping school to do something she probably shouldn’t. However, sneaking alcohol into a theatre hadn’t been crossed off her bucket list.
And so off they went…
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