Page 113 of Ask Me Something

“Vanessa doesn’t have that kind of authorization, which only proves it was an excuse to see you. Bottom line is that you left my place last night to go have drinks with another woman who’d like to sleep with you. Who also happens to be my very difficult client who’d like nothing more than to cut me out completely from being her contact.”

“Ask yourself this question: if she’d called Josh and he’d met her for drinks in order to put the client first, would you be as upset?”

I hated the fact that my answer was no. Shit, maybe my personal feelings were clouding my professional judgement. “You didn’t mention you were traveling to Dubai next week.”

He sighed. “I had a meeting with Josh this morning, which is where the travel got brought up. That’s why I was too late to tell you this morning.”

“I warned you after the Jamie thing that I don’t like having things kept from me.” Under my desk, my fingernails bit into the palms of my hands, trying to keep me calm. The fact that I’d received the call about my birth mother this morning wasn’t helping my mental state regarding this conversation. I’d been so convinced I was in the right, that his reasonable explanations were throwing me.

“I didn’t mean to keep things from you, Sasha. It was business and I made a decision.”

“So you think I’m overreacting?”

He took a moment before responding. “I think if the positions were reversed and I’d heard about a similar situation in the conference room like you did, I would’ve been pissed off too. I’m sorry it came out that way. I did have every intention of telling you. And any of the VPs would be irritated to find out that their client called me and not them. But I would hope they and you understand why I had to go.” His voice was quiet but sincere.

I looked at the time and realized I had a conference call in twenty minutes for which I needed to prepare. “I appreciate your apology and I do believe you were going to tell me. I’ll need to get over it.” Then something dawned on me. “Wait, if it’s true that you found out you’re traveling this morning from Josh, then how did Vanessa know about it?”

“Of course, it’s true,” he said, exasperated that I was questioning his honesty. “The reason she knew is because when we walked into the meeting together this morning, she wanted to know if I was heading back to Charlotte afterwards. I told her I was traveling internationally instead.”

“Oh, sorry.” My day was packed, and I couldn’t afford to let this eat at me any longer especially since I wasn’t thinking rationally. “When are you going?”

“I’m leaving in the next thirty minutes for the airport to get back to Charlotte. I didn’t want to get lumped into a flight with Vanessa. That’s why I told her I was flying directly to Dubai.”

I stood quiet appreciating that he’d done so.

He continued. “I won’t be back until the middle of next week. Look, I’m not trying cut you out. The only thing Vanessa and I discussed was the budget and phase two, with the television campaign. I was with her a half hour because I thought it was an excuse to get together and hope for something personal. I had texted Josh ahead of time to call and interrupt just in case.”

I hated hearing this and had to reach down deep to move on from it and trust him. The fact that he’d preempted the meeting with a rescue call gave me some satisfaction. “Okay. I’ll keep you updated on the shoot next week.”

He looked relieved for the change in conversation. “Good. Are you coming down to Charlotte the weekend after next?”

I shook my head. “My parents’ fortieth anniversary party is that Saturday. I’ll be home in Beaufort, but I could come down the following weekend.”

“We have a two-week rule.” His voice was quiet.

“You’re out of town this weekend, and I’m out of town the following one. You need to be more flexible.” Great, now my agitation was back.

“You could invite me to the party.”

Whoa. I was stunned. We didn’t do family things together. “You want to go to the party with me?”

He shrugged. “Why not?”

I could think of a lot of reasons, one of which was that I need more than five minutes to get over him meeting Vanessa last night. “What would we tell everyone?”

“We could simply say that I’m your date for the party. If they ask, we met at work and are friends. We wouldn’t be lying.”

“I didn’t RSVP to bring someone.” I knew the moment it left my mouth it was the lamest excuse in the book.

He arched a brow. “If you’re going to come up with a bogus reason, you should try harder for a good one. I’ll leave you to your conference call. Keep me updated on the campaign.” The intensity in his look let me know he was annoyed.

Well, I was, too. “All right. Safe travels.”

He stood up and crossed over toward me and then stopped.

I waited for him to come closer for a kiss or something, but when he didn’t, vast disappointment hit me. Considering I’d practically jumped down his throat the last time we’d crossed a personal boundary in this office, I knew I couldn’t have it both ways.

“You know I’ll miss you.” His face softened, but his clenched fists appeared to signify that he wanted to reach out but wouldn’t.

“I, um—I’m certain we’ll talk.” Damn my awkwardness. I would miss him too, even if I couldn’t bring myself to verbalize that yet.

He looked wounded for a moment, then was back to nothing bothers me Brian. “Sure, I’ll call you, or you can call me. Bye.” With one last look, he left out my door.

I let out the breath I’d been holding and thought about the idea of bringing a man home to meet my family. It was something I hadn’t done since high school, and it intimidated the shit out of me. Then again, the thought of having someone there on my side was appealing.

Shaking myself mentally, I brought up my calendar. My work day was absolutely packed, and I didn’t have the luxury of dealing with the personal aspect of my life. Some might call it avoidance; I called it my only way of coping when emotions threatened to overwhelm me.

---