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PATTI PEEKED HER HEAD into my office. “Hey, Jenna. Just wanted to tell you that I talked to Tom and he loved your presentation.”
I smiled. “That’s great.”
“Be proud. Because Tom is a hard man to impress. If he’s impressed, then I am. I think you should work with him on this one. You guys make a great team.”
I pasted on a big, fake smile. “Yes, we do.”
She left and I glanced down at my watch. I had to get to a meeting.
I walked into the board room, on the east side of the building, ten minutes before the meeting was going to start.
The meeting went well and we sat on opposite sides of the table. Tom never looked in my direction. And I was thankful for that so I could concentrate on my work. Afterward, I went back to my office and worked hard until break time.
I went into the break room and Tom was rinsing out his coffee cup in the sink. And that’s when I noticed through the fabric of his white dress shirt, I could see a massive back tattoo.
“Whoa!” I said.
He spun around to face me and smiled.
“When did you get a tattoo?” I asked.
He grinned. “I didn’t want to be a bore. So I went out with the guys, got drunk, and got one.”
I arched a brow. “Why did you get it?”
“To show the world that appearances alone don’t give a true picture of who a person really is.”
“Don’t listen to what Eric said. You’re not a bore. Far from it, actually. He was just trying to yank your chain.”
“Michael got one too.”
“What did you guys get?”
“We both got eagles, but for completely different reasons. Michael’s symbolizes ‘freedom’. And mine symbolizes soaring through the sky, going after my dreams.”
“Hey, can I see your new ink?”
“I can’t very well strip down in the break room now, can I?”
“Why not?”
His blue eyes twinkled in amusement.
“Maybe send me a pic,” I said.
“I would. Except you blocked me, remember? Your loss. Because it’s a gorgeous tat.”
I chuckled as he gracefully left the break room.
***
WEEKS PASSED.
There were no more confrontations like the angry one in the copy room. No more incidents like the staff meeting from hell where Eric creamed Tom. Generally speaking, Tom and I managed to steer clear of each other. I stayed on my floor and he stayed on his. By random coincidence, Jamie’s department took over most of my briefings, so aside from the occasional email, I was Tom Larchwood free.
Of course, whenever he did come down, I had my handy new boyfriend to distract me.
“I think we should just take the plunge and commit to each other already,” Eric teased during one of these such scenarios.
Tom had wandered down to the seventieth floor under the guise of going over a list of portfolios with Macer, only to spend most of the time discreetly spying on me in my office. To be honest, it kind of baffled me that after six weeks, he was just as diligent in his attentions as day one. I would have thought that by now, the heat would have faded for him. If I was a girl who came in second place to work, surely that didn’t warrant this much time spent pining after our so called ‘relationship.’ He’d been silently fuming almost as long as we’d been together.
The second I saw him walk down, I dialed Eric’s office from my desk phone.
“Street,” he answered on the second ring.
“We’ve got a Code 4.”
He chuckled. “On my way.”
A moment later, he slid inside my office and shut the door. Then, maintaining direct eye contact with Tom, he slowly shut the blinds. It cracked me up to think of what it must look like to have a control freak like Tom quietly raging on the other side of the wall, but it broke my heart too. It wasn’t that long ago that I was with Tom in his office, slowly shutting the blinds.
But I tried not to think about things like that. They would only derail me. And so far, with the occasional assistance of Eric, I was getting slowly back on my feet.
“Take the plunge, huh?” I teased back, returning to my emails. Eric had set up his own computer and was already spreading out to work in my office for the day. “Is that what you’d call it? What would that take?”
He grinned. “A lot of alcohol. Maybe some ecstasy.”
I held my hand to my chest in mock offense. “I’m hurt. That much?”
“Aw, you know I love you, gorgeous. Why else would I do this?” He kicked his feet up on my sofa and started working.
But something about his last words caught my attention, and instead of getting back to work myself, I found myself staring at him curiously. Why was he doing this? I mean, by now, I almost understood. We’d been friends for a little over two months and had gotten very close. We went to theater shows, movies, restaurants, and did lots of shopping. There was probably very little that we wouldn’t do for each other. But what about in the beginning? He saw me fall one time at the gym and decided to take me up as a special project? Risk his job? And then there was the now infamous staff meeting. I remembered the glint in his eye as he’d stood toe to toe with Tom. It had shaken him, that much was obvious, but he’d almost enjoyed it.
“Eric?”
His fingers flew across the keyboard as he frowned at his monitor. “Yes, dear?”
“Why did you agree to do this in the first place?”
His lips turned up in a smile. “I was drunk, remember? And already bored from my purgatory in finance.”
“I’m serious,” I tossed a paperclip at him, and he turned my way, “what made you say yes? And don’t lie to me—I can see through you by now.”
His carefree, sunny smile slowly faded the longer we looked at each other, until finally, he turned back to his computer. “Do you remember I told you I slept with my boss?”
My mind raced back to that blurry day at the bar. “Derek?” I scrunched up my face as I tried to remember. As far as I knew, Derek didn’t work here anymore.
“Yeah, him.” Only someone who knew him very well would have been able to detect the pained grimace beneath Eric’s otherwise expressionless face. “Well, Derek was discovered having an office affair. They didn’t know with who, of course, and he didn’t tell him. But Abe Larchwood came down and personally fired him the next day.”
My jaw fell open in shock. “Oh my gosh...that’s horrible. I’m so sorry, Eric.” He nodded curtly but didn’t say anything. After a minute or two, I asked, “So...what did you do?”
“Me? I didn’t do anything. Derek absolutely forbids me to. He was already with someone, you see, so he didn’t want anyone to know the details of our little fling. However, when Abe’s son Tom turned out to be breaking the rules, and then stringing along the sweet little girl he’d slept with...” he tossed me a grin, “well, I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone? Help the girl—punish the son of the man who fired my boyfriend.” His computer beeped suddenly as if reaffirming his plan. “Win-win.”
I looked down at my desk as I silently absorbed this. Win-win... Yeah, I guess it certainly seemed that way. Even though I seriously doubted Tom would have fired Derek himself. Then again—who knew? The company obviously meant more to him than relationships. Finally, I just turned back to my computer with an almost wistful expression.
“Lucky for me.”
We continued silently working until lunch, at which point, Eric got up to coordinate with Jamie down the hall. I knocked on the door to Rose’s office, ready to head down to our usual sushi bar when she suddenly pulled me inside.
“Hey—so I can’t go to lunch today. There’s just too much to do to get ready for tonight.”
Ah yes. It was Michael’s birthday today, and Rose was throwing a very special party just for the two of them tonight. She’d commandeered our entire apartment just for the occasion, romantically prepping it to high heaven, and instructing me to find other accommodations for the evening. I’d have to remember to ask Eric if I could crash on his couch.
“Oh, that’s fine,” I said easily. “Do you want me to bring you something back?”
“California rolls!”
I grinned. “On it.”
Taking a rather longer lunch than usual, I not only picked up extra sushi for Rose, but had time to swing by the apartment and pack myself a big overnight purse for work tomorrow. Rose had stayed up all night working on the decorations, and I hadn’t really gotten a chance to see them until I stepped inside.
My jaw dropped open as my eyes welled up with instant tears.
It was the perfect set-up for the perfect evening. There were fresh flowers in every container, a million little tea-light candles set on every surface, and all the makings for a warm fire already set up beside the mantle. A huge poster reading ‘Happy Birthday Michael’ hung from the ceiling, and I saw that she already had the counter stocked with all his favorite types of liquor and beer.
I sighed to myself as I hurried into my room, snatching a dress off the rack to wear into work the next day. No matter how much it chipped away at me, I wasn’t going to let my personal rejection ruin my happiness for my friends. Michael and Rose were a perfect match, one I was coming to love more and more each day. They deserved something like this. It wasn’t their fault I didn’t have it anymore.
I packed up in a hurry and was almost out the door when the blinking light on the answering machine caught my eye. I was already late getting back to the office—what was another minute or two? I set my bag down and pressed the button, heating up a thermos of coffee in the microwave as I waited.
‘Ms. Harks, this is Sue Jennings from the Larchwood California office. Your supervisor, Ms. Macer, has been forwarding along all copies of your reports for the merger for the last twelve weeks. Needless to say, we’re all very impressed over here. I’m not sure whether you’ve considered making New York your permanent home, but in case you haven’t, we’d be very interested in discussing your future plans. We think you’d make a good fit for our west coast sister corporation. Call me back at your earliest convenience. You can reach me by dialing the main switchboard at extension 777.’
I froze with the thermos of coffee still in my hand. California? California wanted me?
Ask me at any other point in my life, and I’d turn it down without even thinking. But now...? I’d said it before, and I’d say it again: even in a city the size of New York, it was surprisingly difficult to avoid the influence of a Larchwood. For a moment, my mind drifted, and I was on the sunny shores of Los Angeles. Little sundresses, wind in my hair, a whole city full of places that weren’t tainted with the memory of some of the sweetest times in my life...
I scribbled down the extension and slipped it on a card into my purse. No harm in carrying it around and mulling it over for a while. A little change of scenery might be just what the doctor ordered.
By the time I got back to the office, things were already winding down. We’d all turned in our huge quarterly reports that morning, so there wasn’t much to do in the afternoon. Less than an hour later, I found myself wandering over to my old Starbucks. I’d bought a brand new book on the way from the office, and was looking forward to something ‘not finance’ for a change. An afternoon of light reading to kill some time before texting my fake lover to ask if I could crash on his couch. Just your ordinary New York day.
Until my phone rang.
“Jenna?!”
In all my years of knowing her, I’d rarely heard Rose so upset.
“Rose—what’s wrong? Are you okay? Do you want me to come and get you?”
Her voice cracked. “It’s Michael...”
My face paled. “What happened to Michael—is he alright?!”
“He’s fine, he’s just... Jen, they just arrested him for drunk driving. He’s in jail.”
I closed my eyes and held the phone tighter to my face. Of course, he was. Because that’s exactly the type of thing Michael would do just one week before his father’s big international decision was announced. He’d pre-game it up before his birthday party and drive drunk.
“Jen—are you there?”
I shook my head. “Just sit tight. I’m on my way.”
Slipping my new book back into my purse, I hailed down the nearest cab and said four words I’d hoped never to say in any city. “Take me to jail.”