“It means . . . I’ll see you on Saturday night.” She stands.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes.” She sighs.
I exhale heavily, annoyed with how our conversation has gone. “And cut ties with Melina, please. She’s my ex-girlfriend. It’s weird.”
“Tristan, I’m friends with all of your ex-girlfriends. I can’t just cut them off like you.”
I roll my eyes.
“I just don’t know how you can be so coldhearted to these women who love you. My heart breaks for them. Melina is absolutely devastated.”
“She’ll get over it.” I look my mother in the eye. “She doesn’t love me, Mom. She loves my money and my surname. Just like the rest of them did.” I shake my head in disgust.
“Why would you say that?” she snaps.
“Because it’s the truth. You be nice to Claire . . . she’s important to me.”
She marches to the door and then looks back. “I want my son to have his own family.”
“And I will,” I snap. “It just may not fit into your perfect little box.”
She shakes her head and leaves in a huff, and I stare at the door she’s disappeared through.
A knock sounds at the door. “Hello,” I call.
Fletcher pokes his head around the door. “Hi,” he says nervously. “I’ve got the tea you wanted.”
“Hey, buddy.” I fall into my seat, and I gesture to my desk. “Bring it in.”
He walks in and with shaky hands puts it down onto the desk. He lingers, as if waiting, and my eyes rise to meet his.
“I heard what your mother said,” he says softly.
I bite my bottom lip in anger. “I’m sorry. Ignore her.”
“She doesn’t want you to date my mom?” His eyes search mine.
I shrug.
“You don’t want your own kids?” he asks.
“I do.” I undo my tie with a sharp snap. “But I want your mother more.”
Chapter 19
Claire
I exhale heavily and stare at the spreadsheet on the computer screen in front of me.
I can’t believe I rejected Gabriel’s offer of help. What was I thinking?
Obviously . . . I clearly wasn’t.
God. I pinch the bridge of my nose. This is a nightmare. We just lost the biggest advertising campaign we had, and it’s not getting any better. I’m going to have to let more people go this month.
Fuck’s sake . . . we’re running on skeleton staff as it is.
I don’t know how we can possibly do what we have to do—and do it well—with the number of staff that we now have.
I put my head into my hands and let out a dejected sigh. This is hard. Harder than hard.
I don’t know what I’m doing. How the hell do I keep us above water for much longer? If only Wade were here. He would know what to do. He was the brains of our business. Give him a problem, and he could work out a way around it. He saw problems as challenges or learning curves. Nothing was too big an obstacle for him.
But he’s gone . . . and now it’s just me.
God, I feel so out of my depth. I sit and stare at the computer screen for a long time.
Maybe if I stare at it long enough, the answer will come to me like magic.
What do I do?
What direction should I move in? I know something has to change . . . but what?
Stop.
Stop being so negative. I can pull us out of this. I know I can.
Reconfigure a few processes, move a few accounts. Streamline the advertising again.
It will be okay . . . it has to be.
Giving up this company is not an option.
I won’t go down without a fight, and damn it, it will be okay.
I’ll make damn sure of it.
My office door opens in a rush. “Just this way,” Marley says to someone.
A man comes through the door with the biggest bunch of red roses I have ever seen.
“Delivery for Claire Anderson.”
“That’s me,” I reply.
The roses have huge heads with a deep perfume and are in the most beautiful crystal vase. He places them down on my desk. “Sign here, please.”
I sign in the allocated box. “Thank you.” I smile broadly.
“You’re welcome. Although I have an admission. I didn’t buy them.”
Marley and I laugh. The joke isn’t funny, but we are so excited that we would laugh at anything, it seems.
With a kind nod, he leaves us alone, and I open the card.
I’M A VERY HAPPY MAN TODAY.
#TOBELOVEDBYYOU
TRIS
xox
An over-the-top smile beams from my face, and Marley snatches the card from me.
She reads it, and her eyes rise to meet mine in confusion.