Side Effects

Chapter 2

I don't make anything. I don't research the drugs that my family's company makes. I don't help get the patents or test them to make sure they're safe. The only thing I've done for the last ten years is to talk to other countries around the world and convince them to allow us to market our drugs to their citizens. I had a very convincing air about me, which is what my mother once said when I got a new high blood pressure medicine into Spain.

In most cases, my job meant that I had to assure that our drugs were better, or cheaper. More effective or had less side effects. Was any of this true? Honestly, I have no idea. In most cases, the differences between the options were negligible, and it was down to who did the best job trying to make whatever government official made the final decision feel important that got the win.

I was very good at that.

But I hated it.

Believe me, when I went to college, I wasn't planning on doing this for my profession. Yes, I knew I'd be working for my parents' company, but I thought I'd be running a division somewhere, keeping things organized and having people report to me. I didn't expect to be flying all over the world and sweet talking people into letting the citizens that lived there buy a yellow pill instead of a blue pill.

Yes, I made the company a lot of money by expanding the footprint we had around the world, but I felt like a leach. Hell, I didn't even see anything in the countries I visited other than the inside of hotels, bars and restaurants unless it was an accident. I saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance a few times on my way to meetings in Paris. I could say the same about Big Ben in London. I kind of saw the Pyramids, but it was so dark when we flew out that they were big shadows.

I wasn't going to do that anymore. This change was the start of something new. I may have told my sister she'd need to replace me in a year, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I'd be leaving much sooner. No, I didn't know where I'd go or what I'd do, but I was sure I could find something that made me feel better about myself.

My degree was in finance, and I could certainly get into an investment house with my background and contacts. I'd also be able to get into advertising too. I mean, I was able to sell medicines that had anal leakage as a side effect to countries around the world, so I was pretty sure I could convince people to buy a nice smelling fabric softener!

The first thing I did was to text Elliot. The Cunningham family had been our neighbors growing up, and it had been a very close family friendship. The Parents were some of my parent's earliest investors and had made a mint. I'd been best friends with Elliot, and his best man when he married his wife, Katie. My sister Anna had briefly married Elliot's older brother, Garry, yes, with two r's. I guess that since they were older, there was the natural inclination for Anna and Garry to pick on Elliot and me through our teen years, and they did a very good job in making us miserable. Of course, they made each other miserable too, and got a divorce in short order. It got better when college started, but Elliot still held a grudge, so warning him that my sister would be calling him had to be done so he could be mentally prepared. Luckily, when I told him my plans via text, he was all for it, because that meant no more dealing with her. Needless to say, he was thrilled, because it would minimize his contact with her.

With that taken care of, I still needed to find out what to do about the ladies in my house. I didn't think I had much chance to get them out, because they'd obviously rented it in good faith, but I still wanted to make sure that at least I could have a night without dealing with some sort of party. If I could pack up and get my stuff out in the morning, then they could have the whole damned house to themselves.

The house was an open floor plan, with a pool out back with a ton of glass to take in the view. Beyond that was a nice dock on the intercoastal waterway where the yacht was moored. Across the water were the many mansions on what was called the Hillsboro Mile. When I made it out to the great room, the girls were thankfully out of the house while all splashing around in the pool, and Jodie was furiously typing away on her phone.