Page 122 of Love Is an Art
“That’s despicable.” She glares at our empty doorframe. “They are?” She high-fives me. “Though I shouldn’t be rooting for the bonus. What am I going to do without you?”
“Shh.”
“Don’t worry. My lips are sealed.”
I call Zeke and tell him. He’s outraged.
“That’s screwed up,” Zeke says. I feel better as he gets indignant on my behalf, saying he’s going to tell Brooke to blacklist Tom as outside counsel, and in fact, he’ll tell his other lawyer friends to do that too.
“Dinner at my apartment tonight at 8:30?” I ask. “We can order in because I have to work late.”
“See you there.”
My assistant walks in. “Taylor dropped this off as a thank-you.”
I smile and take the basket, opening up the note:
Thank you so much for everything. I sit in my grandma’s apartment, and I can feel her comforting embrace all around me. I don’t have the words to express my gratitude. But I’m hoping you and Zeke can come over for a dinner with Mrs. Humming on a Friday or Saturday. And please enjoy these oatmeal cookies (Grandma’s recipe).
I’m excited for Zeke to meet them.
I catch a glimpse of theWall Street Journalclipping framed on my wall. These cookies mean a lot more to me than that recognition. I’m tired of competing against Tom for this bonus.But what else will Tom do?
Chapter thirty-nine
Zeke
Myassistantbuzzestotell me that Arthur would like to see me in his office.Now.
I take the elevator up to Arthur’s office. He motions for me to enter but continues staring at his computer monitor, ignoring me. I sit in front of his desk and wait.
He turns to face me. “We heard whispers that Red Can may be looking for investors. As I recall, you and Paisley, their associate general counsel, dated. I thought you might have an in.”
It makes my skin crawl that he knows I dated Paisley.
And even worse that he probably knows I fell apart after we broke up and missed my flight to the venture capital conference in California, missing the morning pitch sessions. I tried to make up for it by listening to their pitches that night. But if I hadn’t found that unicorn at that conference, I might have been fired. I shudder.
“Datedwould be the operative word,” I say.
Arthur raises his eyebrows. “You can’t ask her facts about the company? I guess I can ask Winthrop to reach out to her.”
“No. We’re still on friendly terms.”Relatively.“I can ask her.” But I don’t want to.
“I was thinking today.” Arthur leans forward.
I’m not ready to see Paisley today. Tessa has her FLAFL award dinner tonight, and I’m swamped.
But Red Can might be a good investment opportunity, and it fits within our portfolio criteria. The irony.
He smiles slightly, but it’s more like a shark showing its teeth.
He knows how torturous this is for me.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I say.
“Maybe play on her sympathy that you need to bring in business to transfer,” Arthur says.
No way am I making some pity plea. The last thing I want is to be beholden to Paisley for transferring.
