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“I’M FINE.”
I’d said the words so many times, they stuck in my throat, like a knife in honey. It had gotten to the point where they no longer held any meaning. There was no force or emotion behind them. They were an automatic response. Like a glitching robot. Nothing more.
Rose wasn’t fooled. Then again, she didn’t know what to say to me either.
“Well...Michael’s here,” she held up her phone, “he just texted. We’re just going out for a quick dinner, and then I’ll be right back.”
I nodded distractedly, reading through a brief on corporate holdings in Shanghai. In the two weeks since our Maryland trip, our living room had been transformed into a temporary office. When I was at work, I worked. When I was at home, I worked. And although my eyes had started throbbing from overuse to the point where I was worried I’d soon need glasses, I preferred it that way. It didn’t give me time to think. It didn’t give me time to feel. Not to mention, I think my supervisor, Patti Macer, was seriously considering adopting me for all the ‘honor’ I was bringing to the Larchwood family name.
All in all, things were...well, fine.
Unfortunately, Rose didn’t see it that way.
Her eyes tightened as she glanced around my work station. More than once she’d tried to put it all away. More than once she’d actually hidden my computer. But there were limited places to hide things in a Manhattan-sized apartment, and within an hour or two, I was back to the grindstone. These days, she didn’t question it except to worry.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” she asked again. “Because I don’t have to go. I can call him right now and stay in, it’s no big—”
“Go!” I finally looked up at her with a forced smile. “I’m telling you Rose, I’m...I’m fine.” A car honked from downstairs and I beckoned to the window. “Your knight in shining armor awaits.”
She flashed me another pained expression before gathering up her coat. “We’re just going to dinner and coming straight back,” she assured me unnecessarily. “I’ll be home before you know it. Then maybe you and I can put in a movie and—”
“Rosalie Bell,” I commanded, “you go and enjoy yourself! Don’t keep Michael waiting out there in the street—you and I both know he doesn’t know how to parallel park.”
“That’s a fair point...” She rushed out the door, blowing me a quick kiss as she held up her phone. “I’m on my cell if you need me!”
I rolled my eyes and saluted. “Understood. But we both know I’m—”
The door shut before I could finish.
“—fine.”
All at once, the pile of papers around me seemed daunting, and I pushed it away. The apartment was abruptly quiet without Rose’s nervous chatter, and I actually wandered to the window to watch them pull away.
They were a beautiful couple; there was no doubt about it. Michael was tall and muscularly lean, with a halo of light brown curls and warm chocolate eyes that melted you when he smiled. Rose, my best friend and roommate, was a Persian bombshell. Jet black hair, creamy olive skin, wide blue eyes, and legs for days. On their own, both of them could stop traffic. When you put them together, it was a little ridiculous.
As I watched through the curtains on the third story, a bike messenger peddled straight into a trash can as he distractedly watched them kiss. I rolled my eyes and dropped the curtain, heading back inside and collapsing on the couch.
People said the same thing about Tom and me. Both beautiful. Distractingly so. They would have said that we made a beautiful couple too, had anyone known that’s what we were. But according to our strict company rules, the relationship was not allowed to exist. Of course, that didn’t matter at first. In fact, it didn’t matter long enough for me to fall head over heels for the man. But that was the very moment he’d decided the stakes were too high and bailed.
Leaving him a rising billionaire competing to take over his father’s company.
And leaving me...fine.
As the heavy reality threatened to settle on me once more, I jumped to my feet and abruptly exited the apartment, unable to stay there a minute longer. The second I got downstairs, I hopped in a cab and headed for the gym—those emotions were getting the better of me again, I’d have to run them out.
Rose would be proud, I thought with a wry smile. The gym. It was so social of me.
Considering it was a Wednesday night, the place was packed. I was actually glad I decided as I slipped on my usual yoga pants and sports bra in the locker room. More people, more distractions. Less time to think.
I headed to the back room and hopped on the nearest treadmill, hiking up the speed and closing my eyes as it all came flooding back.
I hadn’t returned to the banquet that night. I’d gone straight from the beach to the airport. The company shuttle took me directly there, and I didn’t look back. I’d never gone to an airport without having a reservation before, and it was by far the most expensive ticket that I’d ever purchased. But I didn’t care. I was just glad the flight attendant had been able to squeeze me onto a plane. I think my tear-streaked face and ball gown might have worked in my favor.
I remembered texting Rose as we taxied down the runway. She was horrified by what had happened and assured me that she’d pack up my things and bring them with her when she flew out the next day. She also assured me that Michael would take care of the lost convertible with the rental company.
“Don’t worry about a thing,” she’d said. “Just get home safe. We’ll deal with everything there. But seriously Jenna, are you going to be alright?”
“I’m fine,” I’d replied.
It was the first time I had said it, soon to be followed by about a million more.
I punched up the speed on the treadmill and broke into a run.
Initially, I had understood. I’d realized right away what Tom was going to say and why he was going to say it. It made sense. It was logical. And Tom was nothing if not logical. For that matter, so was I. Earlier that very night I’d been thinking about how our relationship was doomed to fail from the start. How the only possible way it could end was with me getting fired, how that wasn’t something I was willing to do.
But that’s when it hit me...I’d done it anyway.
I’d stayed with him. I’m taken the risk—the same risk that he never had himself. What was the worst that would happen to him if we were caught? He’d get a reprimand? A corporate slap on the wrist? Something he and Michael would laugh about later over drinks. But me? Not only would I get fired from Larchwood, but I’d be finished in the world of finance. No company would hire me back with such a mark on my record. I’d have to start completely over.
That’s the risk I was taking. And I did it anyway.
I went to that beach that night to save us. Tom went to throw it all away.
Gasping for breath, I hit the machine up another two levels and began to sprint.
It was karma, that’s what it was. Comeuppance for all those lower on the corporate ladder. It was the Katie McGill curse all over again.
For at this moment in the gym, running myself to death on a treadmill, it was very easy to say the words out loud.
I had fallen in love with Tom Larchwood.
Like a moron...
My knee twisted beneath me and I stumbled to the side, catching onto the railing as I slammed on the button to stop. As the machine stopped rolling, I hopped off to examine the damage, almost falling to the floor before two cool hands reached out and caught me.
Tom?
I knew I was mistaken before I even looked up. Tom didn’t come here anymore. He didn’t go anywhere he might risk seeing me. And he certainly wouldn’t have caught me.
“Hey, are you alright?”
I peered up into a pair of lovely green eyes. When I pulled back an inch or two, I saw the rest of the package. A stunning man in a pair of workout clothes—mid-twenties, shaggy blonde hair, and about the cutest smile I’d ever seen.
“I’m...” I caught myself before I could say the word—it suddenly didn’t apply. “Yeah. Thanks for catching me.”
“You looked like you were going pretty hard there,” he teased, as he steadied me on my feet. “I’m surprised you didn’t run through the machine.”
I winced as he set me back upright. My knee buckled again, and he caught me quickly and half-carried me over to a bench.
“Thanks,” I said for the second time, a little breathless with the pain. “I guess I wasn’t really paying attention.”
He smiled good-naturedly and examined my knee. “Well, I don’t think anything’s broken or even sprained. You probably just knocked it pretty hard on the side there.”
“Are you a doctor?” I asked, looking up.
He shook his head. “Both parents were. I took a less noble profession.” I was about to ask what it was when a guy called to him from the other room and he stood up. “Gotta go. You sure you’re going to be alright?”
He cocked his head contemplatively to the side, and I suddenly realized he was asking about much more than my knee. I must have been quite a sight on that treadmill.
For the first time in what felt like a long time, my face softened into a genuine smile.
“Yeah, I will.”