Sweet Love - Mia Kayla Page 0,31

the marketing team on our brainstorming session,” I repeated.

He leaned back against his chair, running his hands through his hair again. Then, he placed both hands on the top of the table in a prayer-like motion.

“No. We need new blood for our revamp. That I’m sure of. Not saying that their ideas aren’t great, but they’re not stellar. It’s not good enough for what we need.”

He said we like we were one team and it was only us who could save this company. Honestly, it was too much pressure for me to handle. But I empathized with him because I knew how much was riding on this.

“How about we continue next week then? I mean, it’s late. It’s already …” I reached for my phone in front of me and nearly dropped it on the table. “It’s two a.m. It’s two o’clock in the morning.” I had to repeat it twice just to hear myself. “Oh, Colby, crapola, it’s over.” I stood.

Connor laughed, and it was a full-on body-shaking laugh.

He was laughing so much that it was like he had this contagious laughter. The more he cracked up, the bigger my smile became.

“What’s so funny?”

“I don’t know.” He swiped at his eyes. “I think I’m just going crazy, but you said, ‘Oh, Colby, crapola,’ and then I was just thinking about chocolate and melted chocolate and crap and …”

It wasn’t funny, but I blamed it on it being so early in the morning and that we were way past delirious.

I pointed and shook my finger at him. “It’s a thing, you know.” And then I began to laugh again. “My dad would use that, and I got the saying from him. When I was in a mood, he’d take a chocolate, chew it in his mouth, and open his mouth for me to see, which was kinda gross, but as a kid, I thought it was funny because chocolate and crap.”

We were at the point where we were all giddy and laughing for no reason, and practically anything could set the giggles off.

“Your dad sounds like he was a fun guy.”

“He is. You will love him.” Those words flew out of me so fast that it hit me directly in the chest, and I paused. “I mean …” My gaze dropped to the table, and my eyebrows pinched together. “I mean, you would have loved him. I did.”

All humor erased from the room, vanished as though a vacuum had sucked it up, sucked up all the laughter because of memories.

Sometimes, talking about him and reliving memories felt so real, so tangible that it was like he’d never left this earth.

Connor broke me from my thoughts when he leaned in and got into my line of sight. “Let’s go. We’ve worked hard enough, and it’s been a long night. I’m driving you home. No arguments.”

Chapter 10

Charlotte

As all cars went, Connor’s car was fancy. It was evident by the leather seat that warmed my butt. I pressed a button on the dashboard, and it pushed the seat forward. I pressed the back button and the forward again just because I was fascinated by the functions. Then, I amped up the seat warmer. I was acting like a little kid, but all we’d had when I was growing up was a rusted Toyota Camry until it died and we had to buy another beat-up car. And this car had not only its seat warmers, mini fridge built in the center console, the iPads built in the headrests for each passenger in the back row, but it also had a heated steering wheel.

A heated freaking steering wheel.

He laughed beside me, but I ignored him.

“Thanks again for driving me home.” I was undoubtedly thankful, given that it was raining—and not just pitter-patter rain, but typhoon rain.

“It’s not a problem, Charlie. Plus, you wouldn’t want to get caught up in this.”

His hands were on ten and two on the steering wheel, and I didn’t blame him because I could barely see through the windshield.

I thought of today, what had transpired by trying to help Connor figure out this new launch.

I wished I had gone to school for something I liked. I wished I’d trusted my dad and not listened to my mom’s nagging voice, spouting off about important career choices that made money because we didn’t have any.

Maybe if I had gone into marketing, I could have been some sort of help.

What a wasted day. What a wasted night for Connor.

“I think you need to bring