Page 86 of Keep My Heart
‘What are you doing?’ I ask as Tim races in front of me, stopping me.
‘I need to show you something.’ He grins and nods toward the conference room. ‘It’s in there.’
‘What is it?’
‘Come on. I’ll show you.’ He starts heading to the conference room.
‘Tim, I don’t have time for this. I need to get back to work.’
‘Trust me, you have time for this.’
Sighing, I follow him to the conference room. He opens the door and I see all the partners standing there, big smiles on their faces.
‘Nick.’ Sal, one of the partners, walks up to me. ‘Let me be the first to congratulate you on making partner.’
I’m shocked, thinking this is some kind of joke. I didn’t expect to make partner until the end of the year at the earliest.
‘Say something,’ Tim mutters, nudging me.
‘Thank you,’ I blurt out. ‘This is great. And a surprise. I wasn’t expecting this today.’
Sal smiles and pats my shoulder. ‘It’s well deserved. You’ve done a fine job since joining the firm. You’re a hard worker. Dedicated to your clients. We look forward to having you here for a very long time.’
A very long time.This is my future. Here at this firm. It’s all planned out, and it’s exactly what I wanted. I should be happy, jumping for fucking joy. I worked my ass off for this. I sacrificed a personal life, a social life, and trips back home, all for this moment. I achieved my goal. So why don’t I feel happy? Why am I not excited?
‘Congratulations,’ the other partners say as they politely smile and shake my hand on their way out of the conference room.
‘We’ll get all the paperwork settled up tomorrow,’ Sal says, smiling at me. ‘Why don’t you get out of here and celebrate?’
‘I’ve got too much work to do, but maybe this weekend.’
He nods. ‘Good to have you on board, Nick.’ He pats my shoulder before leaving.
‘You don’t want to go out?’ Tim asks. ‘What the fuck, man? You just made partner.’
‘I can’t leave. I have shit that needs to be done by the morning.’
‘So we’ll go get a drink and you can come back here later.’
‘Sorry, but I’m going to have to pass. Maybe we could go out tomorrow.’
‘Can’t. Rach and I are going to a play, but maybe next week sometime.’ Rachel is his girlfriend. They’ve been living together for two years. ‘I need to get back to work, but let me know if you change your mind about that drink.’
We go back to our offices. I shut my door and sit at my desk, staring at my phone, wanting to call Lyndsay but not sure if I should. It’s Thursday and I haven’t talked to her all week. We keep missing each other and end up sending texts saying we’ll try to connect later, which never happens.
I want to call and tell her my news. She’s the first person I thought of calling when Sal said I made partner. I thought of Lyndsay even before my parents, or my brothers, or Matt. What does that say? That I miss her, or is it more than that?
Before I change my mind, I call her. The phone rings and rings and I almost hang up, not wanting to leave yet another message.
‘Hello?’
She actually answered. Shit. I’m not prepared.
I take a breath. ‘Hey, it’s me.’
‘Nick. Um, hey.’ She sounds as nervous as I do. Why are we nervous? We weren’t like this when we were together last weekend.
‘How are you doing?’
