tonight. I really have to go now. I have some accounts to go over if I’m going to make I to the house in time for dinner.”
“Okay, you go ahead but maybe you should consider moving in with me. It will be like old times. Like I said before, I’m in this big house all alone….”
“Or you might want to consider downsizing as I suggested before.”
“And what would everyone say? They’d think I was having financial issues. I couldn’t possibly suffer that indignity.”
“If anyone judges you based your chosen living arrangements their opinion probably doesn’t amount to much.”
“My reputation is really all I have left…besides you, of course, dear.”
“Of course.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll handle that little matter for us like a good son should. Later, sweetheart.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond before she hung up. “Like a good son.” How many times had I heard those words and felt inadequate. Not just as a son but a man.
That little matter that she brought up was at the forefront of my mind. Besides work it was all I thought about. It consumed me, kept me up at night and drove me to measures that probably would have made someone from the outside looking call me insane.
She made me insane.
I wanted to make her pay for what she’d done, for manipulating my brother and using him for financial gain. For breaking his heart. For hurting my mother. For…for making me want her.
I considered myself a pretty good judge of character and shrewd in general. I didn’t become one of the youngest partners in a Fortune 100 investment firm at 28. At 30 wanting to branch out on my own, I started my own firm with my best friend. I’d dated a bevy of beautiful woman, and I was in no rush to settle down until I met her.
It was completely by accident and to this I wished I’d never laid eyes on her.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Evans,” Cheri sniffed on the other end of the line. “I wanted to come in today especially since you have all those meetings today.”
“It’s fine. I can get one of the office assistants to take notes for me and field my calls. I’m sure the rest I can handle myself for a couple days while you’re recouping. Don’t want you coming to the office and getting everyone sick.”
“But I usually bring you coffee every morning.”
“I’m capable of getting my own coffee. In fact, I’m at the café right now.”
“Nick!” the barista shouted above the crowd.
“There it is now. Go back to bed. I’ll see you when you feel better.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
I turned toward the counter to get my order and immediately collided with someone.
“Aww!”
I back out to see a woman frantically dabbing the front of her scrubs with a napkin.
“My apologies, I didn’t see you there. Are you all right?” I eyed her now half empty cup”
“It’s fine. It’s my fault for not putting to top back on tight enough.”
“But I can at least pay for your dry cleaning,” I offered as her eyes collided with me. The second that happened, it literally felt as if time stood still. I wasn’t on chick flicks where the two protagonists fell helplessly in love at first sight, but this woman…I couldn’t quite explain it. The blood raced through my veins, and my heart pounded; my balls tightened. It was by some miracle that I didn’t get a hard on right then and there.
Her hair was a glorious cloud of curls that framed a gorgeous face. She couldn’t be categorized as a classic beauty; her nose was a little too round and wide; her lips, a little too full and naturally arched brows, a little too thick. But she was absolute perfection.
She smiled to reveal straight white teeth with a small gap in between the front two. It suited her. She was perfectly imperfect, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“It’s okay. I can just throw these in the wash.”
She attempted to turn away, but I couldn’t let her go. I reached out and caught her by the shoulder. “At least let me reimburse you for your coffee.”
She flinched away, her smile becoming a bit chillier. “It’s tea actually. Seriously, it’s no big deal. Look, I have to go, or I’ll be late. Don’t worry about the mess. It’s just as much my fault as yours but thank you for the offer.”
She was gone before I got a chance to ask her name.
I don’t know why I couldn’t