Page 56 of Boss's Baby Surprise

I couldn’t answer her. It all felt like a mistake. Letting her back in my life had been a rookie move.

I should have known better, but there was just something about her. I would always be drawn to her no matter where we were. She was a flame, and I was a fucking helpless moth when it came to being attracted to her light.

“I see,” she said.

I didn’t know what she was responding to because I hadn’t said anything. Maybe that was her problem. I wasn't talking.

“I think we're done here, Kyle. I will make sure to get you those test results as soon as they come in. Thank you for the wine. I think it's best if this evening ends now.”

I stayed there, completely numb and unresponsive, as she walked away. How could she be so decisive?

I paid our waitress for our drinks and tipped her heavily for the inconvenience of taking over a table during dinner hours without actually ordering a meal.

At home, unable to relax, I decided to check in with the Hong Kong office. Was there anything interesting going on that might need my attention? Typically, this information would come to me through Alayna, but at the moment, I didn’t see how getting her involved would be helpful.

I didn't expect anything to come from my email since Hong Kong was thirteen hours ahead of Chicago, and it was Sunday morning their time.

But I did get a response from Sullivan, who was the head of that office. That had me curious. I sent another quick message.Are you open to a video call?The video call that I assumed would only take a few moments lasted several hours. And by the end of it, I knew what I had to do next.

Monday morning, instead of going to the office, I contacted Alayna directly to have her coordinate my travel schedule, and then I followed up with James to make sure that he could continue working with the local clients while I needed to go do some serious hand holding of several clients in Hong Kong.

By that evening, I was on a flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. By the time the plane was over the Pacific, I was second-guessing my real motivation.

I had just left Clarissa and Leo behind again without saying anything. I had to accept that there might not be a way back from this. Clarissa was already having a hard time forgiving me for the first time I left her.

I lost a complete day to travel and didn't feel the necessity to hurry along to my hotel once I arrived in Hong Kong. I knew I should get some sleep because in the morning, I had to be in the local office as a functional presence to help belay the fears of a client for a smaller project. Instead, while still at the airport, I found a lounge with a bar. I needed a drink to take the edge off everything that I felt was coming at me.

“You look like you’ve had a very long flight,” an older businessman said after I dropped my carry-on bag to the floor and let gravity pull me down onto a barstool.

I simply nodded with an affirmative grunt, not in the mood for conversation.

“I know that feeling too.” He already had a drink in front of him and took a sip from it. “It’s always so much harder when you feel like you've left a mess at home.”

For a moment, I stared at him bleary eyed. Jet lag was catching up to me fast. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Traveling like this for work, it always seems harder when it feels like I’m running away from a problem at home. Half of all meetings can be taken care of with a conference call, a video meeting, or an email anymore these days. I guess I’m just getting tired of sitting in an airplane only to realize that I could have spent the past fourteen hours fixing whatever it was my wife has been bitching at me about. And now I’ve gone and left her with the same problem, forcing her to either live with the issue until I get back or she has to find a way to take care of it on her own.”

“Sounds like you have a situation on your hands,” I said.

“I was willing to fly halfway around the world to solve some problem like a hero, but I left my wife stuck with something I should have already fixed. We run away so we can play hero for somebody else when the person we need to be a hero for the most is the one we just leave behind.” He threw his drink back, draining it completely before getting up and leaving.

I stared after him. Did he have problems at home? Or did he somehow know that I had walked away from Clarissa yet again?

27

CLARISSA

Ididn't see him all the next week. When Kyle didn’t come into the office again on Monday after not being around, I expected it was because he had more client meetings I wasn’t aware of. I knew he could get busy and forget to reply to texts. I tried to not take it personally, even though I really did. I knew things would be fine once I saw him again, so I tried not to think anything of it. And I didn’t, not until later that morning when James called everyone into the conference room.

“Clarissa, I need you to join us,” he said as he tapped on my desk.

“My backup receptionist isn’t here until after lunch.”

James made an affirmative noise in his throat, nodded, turned around, and crossed the small lobby area before locking the front door. “It’s not like we’re expecting anyone to come, and the phones can go to voicemail.”

“Okay,” I said a little nervously as I followed him to the conference room.

When I got there, I expected everyone to be gathered around the table looking over the final plans for the upstairs remodel.Everything had been signed off on, and building was underway. The plans were to not knock a hole in James’s current office until his upstairs office was finished. I automatically assumed this impromptu meeting was about the timeline for that.

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