This was the second time in as many days that I was out of the office. I normally lived at the building where I worked, with a one-track mind about projects and what needed to be done.

Today marked a new shift, though. Loren seemed ready to welcome a long-term commitment with me, and I wanted to propose that we make it a forever one.

And I couldn’t wait to start it now.

I hated that she’d been struggling with her pregnancy without me. She wouldn’t be alone anymore. I would be with her every step of the way. All the appointments. All the baby shopping.

I chuckled on the walk, amused at the coincidence that she and I would now be buying products just like what we were planning to market for the Gammon staff. We both laughed at our mutual confusion and cluelessness about baby things and parenthood as we researched and analyzed for this pitch.

Now, we’d be planning for our own little one. To be clueless together and figure it out as partners.

A wide smile crossed my face again.

25

LOREN

Icame into the office later than usual. Matt hadn’t given me any length of time that he wanted me to sleep in for, but I figured I couldn’t take off the whole day.

Despite how our personal lives were changing and things seemed to me fitting and making sense between us in the wake of my pregnancy news, I had a job to focus on.

I hadn’t planned on this baby. Neither had he, but I knew without a doubt that I wanted to ensure I tried for a balance of being a career woman because it would fulfill me and also be a present mother.

“I wonder when we might get word from Gammon,” I wondered aloud as I later walked into the office.

The day after a meeting was just as important as all the others leading up to it. Even if it was a waiting game for word from the prospective client we’d been focusing on, it would be good to wait with the team. Rupert, Brad, and Eli would be anticipating feedback.

But I hope Tom calls off sick again.I doubted he was sick at all, actually, but that didn’t matter. He’d become a source of contention at the office. And I held on to hope that Matt talkingwith his grandmother and explaining that we were together would help allay any issues from that insistent flirt.

It was different, walking into the building and waiting for an elevator. I wasn’t Loren, the new employee anymore. I’d been here for a while and my feet were wet. I wasn’t Loren, the staff member everyone gossiped about because I argued with Matt. I’d come to learn that bickering was just our love language as we figured out we belonged together. And I wouldn’t be Loren, Matt’s woman. I would be my own woman, hopefully the one who led the team to acquire the client Wendy Richards had wanted for so long.

She was there, in fact, in my office when I walked into it. I hadn’t met the woman who led the company yet. But it seemed the time had come.

“Hello?” I asked.

I didn’t want to ask who she was. I knew. I saw her portrait hanging downstairs in the lobby. Besides, now that we were in the same room, I saw the family resemblance. Matt had the same shrewd eyes that she did, calculating and at times cold. I’d been blessed to see Matt’s light up with love and laughter, but I was familiar with them burning with impatience and arrogance too.

Hers were just… icy as she watched me enter my office.

“You are Loren Amita, correct?” She lifted her chin as though she wanted to affect a feeling of superiority, looking down her nose at me.

Trust me, lady, it’s not that hard to lord over me. I’m too short as it is.

“Yes. Ms. Richards?” I guessed, holding out my hand for her to shake.

She nodded, eyeing my hand as though she wouldn’t take it. Then she did, giving me a firm shake that surprised me. She was older, but she wasn’t a trembling weakling.

Before I could ask what she wanted or why she was here in my office when I hadn’t been, she cleared her throat. “What are your intentions here?”

I raised my brows. “I… work here?”

“That is it?” She clasped her hands together in front of her, letting her arms hang low as if she were completely at ease.

I, however, was starting to sweat bullets. My nerves messed with my mind, and I felt the threat of panic creeping close.

Matt said he’d talk to her. Maybe it hadn’t gone well?

“I am here to work. I am excited about my future as a marketing specialist at Richards Consultation.”