Page 41 of In Love and War
“Oh yeah?” He chuckled, his entire face lighting up in amusement. “Let’s hear some of them.”
“I asked first,” I laughed along with him. It was kind of hard not to. His energy was infectious.
“Fine,” he sighed, putting down his drink. “The management at Emerson is very…particular.They’re by far the toughest of my accounts to please.” He was still smiling, but he rubbed his forehead with his index finger, as if he could feel a headache coming on.
“Honestly, when they told me they wanted to bring a second firm in, a local one, to deal with the expansion, I was just bracing myself for the fucking nightmare it would inevitably be. Then, as luck would have it, the proposal they were completely blown away by was Bloom’s.” He paused and took a sip of his drink.
“I gotta admit, Mills, that new boss of yours knows what he’s doing. I’ve never seen anyone pull off what he did in the short amount of time that was granted for something that big. We were all real fucking impressed.”
I nodded, a little reluctantly. But I knew he was right.
“Anyways, I was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief when Bloom won. You never know who you’re going to get in partnerships like this, and while it’s true that I didn’t know Zac, I knewyou. I knew how you worked, and how intelligent and reliable you are. It was a no-brainer, and absolutely nonnegotiable to have you on the account. The deal is fucking huge, and these guys aren’t easy to please. Bringing someone else on that I wasn’t familiar with wasn’t a risk I wanted to take.”
“Yeah, okay. That makes sense.” I sat back in my chair as the bartender brought me a glass of water.
“Honestly though, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal on your end, since your dad owns the company. I figured you would be put on bigger accounts just based off of that.”
“That’s definitely not how it works,” I laughed.
“So, you’renothappy, then?” he asked, circling back to when he’d brought it up at dinner last night.
“No, that’s not true. I’m just… adjusting.”
“Alright, you do all the adjusting you need to do, kid. But door’s open if you want to come back. You made my life a shit ton easier.”
“… it wouldn’t be the worst thing.”Zac’s voice echoed in my head, and I began to feel the familiar feeling of confusion and anger rise on the back of my neck.
“Noted,” I said. “Anyways, enough about me. How are you? How’s Matt?”
“We broke up,” he admitted, finishing off the rest of his drink and signaling for another.
“Wow, I’m so sorry… What happened?” The day was full of surprises, apparently.
“It just… stopped working. That’s the best explanation I got.”
“Yeah, I get it.” I offered him a sympathetic squeeze on the hand. “I’m sorry, I guess it really has been a while since we caught up.”
I felt bad having not known something so big.
“It is what it is. Dating in New York isn’t easy, but I don’t have to tell you that.”
“No kidding,” I agreed. My experience with dating in New York had definitely been… interesting. I would give it that.
“What about you? You seeing anyone up north?”
An unwanted image of Zac popped up in my mind, and I pushed it away immediately. Maybe I did need a drink.
“Nope,” I answered, “it’s barely any better in Toronto.”
“Really? No one?”He gave me a smirk, as if he didn’t believe me or knew something I should already be aware of.
“I’m not. What’s with the look?” I eyed him suspiciously.
“Nothing.” He was trying to hold back a full smile now, disguising it behind the glass as he took a deliberately long sip.
“You’re honestly so fucking weird, Dave,” I sighed.
He choked on his drink, laughing.
