Page 3 of His Perfect Woman

He started rattling off his impressive business resume, which I had already gone over with Camille when I called to set up our meeting. I was impressed with the staff and the modern aesthetic of the offices that I took in as I followed behind them. The black and white color schemes with touches of marble and gold...it was charming, looked expensive, and reminded me an awful lot of his tastes…

“Victoria,” he called out from behind us.

I knew his voice instantly and had kind of been dreading the likelihood of him spotting me while I was here. Perfect timing—we all stopped in a huddle in front of Camille’s door and turned to watch Lucas walking towards us.

His brow was slightly wrinkled and his mouth was still gaping. He was surprised to see me, and I was surprised to see how good he looked. He was aging well. His tall, muscular body marched toward us like he was in search of answers.

“What are you doing here?”

“She’s here to see me,” Camille snipped.

“Actually, Trent’s here to see her,” I explained. “I’m just the middle-woman.”

I brushed Trent’s arm, working my way up to an official introduction. I couldn’t help but notice the way his piercing gray eyes paused on my hand on the arm of Trent’s suit. Lucas always had been ridiculously overprotective of me and way too intrusive about my dating life. He wanted to be my protective big brother, or at least that’s how it felt. But I never wanted to submit to being protected by anyone—not even in a brotherly sort of way.

Lucas recovered from his obvious distaste for me being friendly and affectionate with this guy he didn’t know, and immediately shot out his hand for a firm, assertive shake.

“Lucas Meadows. CEO of Heartstring.”

“Trent Maddox,” he answered, slightly wrinkling his face in a way that told me Lucas’s grip was too hard. “Currently working on Wall Street, but hopefully soon to be the newest team member of your finance department.”

“Ah-ha.” Lucas darted his eyes over to Camille as if she should have asked permission.

“Right, well...Trent and I have things to discuss,” she told him firmly, ushering Trent into her office and slamming the door shut behind them.

I stood there awkwardly, avoiding Lucas’s studious gaze. He was looking me up and down—examining me with an expression that asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”—even though that had obviously just been explained.

“I guess I should have told you I was coming by,” I guessed out loud, but truthfully, I didn’t see any reason to. He had flaked out at the last minute the past few times I reached out to make plans to catch up. After a while, I’d just assumed he didn’t have any interest in maintaining our friendship. It was a shame, considering how close we used to be, but those things happened. People drifted apart.

“Yeah...It’s funny...I was, uh...I was just thinking about you.” He laughed under his breath. “So it was weird to come out and see you standing here all of a sudden.”

He was thrown, which wasn’t a state you could easily catch Lucas in. He was cool and calm in almost any situation. Why was he so different with me now? Had I done something wrong?

“I think about you a lot, too. I’ve been wanting to invite you to lunch or coffee or something, but…” I trailed off, blushing. I didn’t need to point out his obvious avoidance of me. It had been over a year since I had seen him last. “But I figured you were busy with everything around here. I’ve been following the company and all. You’ve done very well for yourself. Congratulations.”

I thought I’d save us both the discomfort of having to talk around him pulling away from me. I didn’t really want to be insulted with lame excuses anyway.

“Thanks.” He shook his head in long, slow sweeps before tilting his head towards Camille’s door. He hiked his thumb up in the same direction. “Boyfriend?”

“Trent? Oh, no!” I laughed. “Just a friend, and we’ve worked together a little here and there. He’s bored at his current company, and I heard through the grapevine that you were expanding your team.”

“You should have called me.”

“I was told Camille would be the one hiring for the finance department,” I defended, wondering why it mattered.

“Right. Of course.” His head dropped.

I wanted to shake him and ask why he was being so weird. That was the worst part about old friends losing touch. With some, you could meet up again and it was like no time passed at all. With others, it was excruciatingly weird with neither of you really wanting to admit the truth—that you didn’t have time or space for each other in your lives anymore. I never wanted that to be the case with Lucas, but apparently it was—whether I liked it or not.

“How have you been?” I asked finally, desperate to fill the heavy air between us with something...anything.

“Busy. I thought running my own company would give me more flexibility, but I guess that doesn’t apply to the founders of start-ups.” He smirked, rubbing his hand along the back of his neck.

His chiseled features had a new ruggedness to them—the kind of aging that men carry so well. It was strange to see that any trace of the once boyish Lucas I’d known had vanished and been replaced with nothing but pure, mature masculinity.

“You should have known better. Or reached out to me. I could have warned you.”

“I really should have,” he answered in a sincere, apologetic tone. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

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