Page 26 of Drunk on You

“That’s not true,” he argues.

“Oh, really? Let’s see here. CEO: man,” I start, ticking it off, using my pointer finger. “COO: man.” My middle finger goes up. “CFO: man, CMO: man, and CTO: also a man.” With all five fingers in the air, I give him a condescending wave and a matching smile. “When I get the CEO position, I don’t know how all you men are going to handle taking orders from a woman in charge.”

“You know, Red,” he says, annoyance and anger dripping with every word, “if you bow out now, I can assure you that you’ll have the spot as the COO, and then there’ll be a woman with three letters.”

“Ha!” I bark out a laugh. “That sounds to me like you’re scared. As you should be,” I say, taking a sip of my wine and locking eyes with him. “And unlike your false promises, when I become CEO, I’ll consider keeping you in your position.”

I stand despite wanting so badly to eat my delicious food. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

I walk by him, stopping when I’m right next to him.

“One thing about working with men is that you have no idea how crazy a woman can be when she wants something,” I say, leaning down and using the table to hold myself up so I don’t touch him. “The thing about spiders is that they’re quiet, so you never see them coming. And before you realize they’re there, they’ve already attacked and left you for dead. Be careful, Julian. Like you said, I’m venomous. Let this be your warning. I’m coming after you, and I’m not going to hold back.”

“Knock, knock.”

I glance up and find my dad standing in the doorway of my office. I was so lost in what I was doing that I didn’t even hear him approach.

“Hey, Dad,” I say, smiling through my annoyance at my concentration being broken. “What’s up?”

“I, uh …” He clears his throat, and I can’t help noticing he looks nervous. A million thoughts go through my head, but when he speaks, I’m a bit confused. “I was wondering if you might want to have lunch with me.”

He wants to eat with me?

I look at the time and see it’s noon. Technically, I can take a lunch, but …

“I’m in the middle of working on my pitch,” I tell him.

With us only having a couple of days before the meeting, he must know we’re going to spend every second possible on it. Yet he pretty much demanded I go home early last night, and now, he wants me to take a break to have lunch.

His face falls, but he nods in understanding.

“No worries,” he says. “Another day.”

He forces a smile and then retreats, leaving me alone.

I turn back to my laptop screen and continue to work, but I can’t get the sad look on my dad’s face out of my head. And the way he was nervous to ask me to eat with him …

And then Julian’s words come back to me. “But every Wednesday, she came to the office and brought him lunch, and every week, he told her he was too busy. Eventually, she stopped coming.”

And it hits me. Today is Wednesday, and I just did the same thing to my dad that he had done to my mom. He’s trying to right his wrongs, but he’s right. Instead of doing the opposite of the man I resented, I’ve become him. Only I justify it because I refuse to get married and have kids, so I’m not hurting anyone but myself—and now him.

Grabbing my card and phone, I rush out of the office and over to the sub shop we used to frequent when I was little and order our favorites, hoping it’s still his. Then, I go straight to his office, hoping to find him there. When I find his office empty, my heart sinks. But then he steps out of his private bathroom, and our eyes meet.

“I bought us subs,” I tell him, lifting the bag as proof. “If you’d still like to have lunch with me.”

His eyes turn glassy, and a beautiful smile spreads across his face that makes me hate myself for going six years without seeing him. Yeah, he fucked up. But he’s human, and after we lost Mom, we only had each other. But instead, I left, thinking I was punishing him—without realizing I was punishing us both.

“That would be wonderful. How about in the conference room?” he suggests despite him having a table in his office.

“That sounds perfect.”

chapter eleven

JULIAN

“Hey, Josie, have you seen Samuel?” I ask after not finding him in his office.

I have a bunch of contracts that need his approval and signature, and I want to get them back to our legal team so I can work on this damn pitch.

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