“It doesn’t matter what’s true, Colin! And clearly, your actions are those of a rich man in a rich man’s world. You’ve locked us both in a fucking bathroom, Colin. Do you know how much worse that’s going to look for me!?”
She was right, so I reached behind me to quickly unlock the door.
“Just come with me. I’ll get you out the back and into your hotel room. Rohan’s going to help me conceal you so no one bothers you,” I said.
“Holy hell, I’m going to lose my job,” she said, breathlessly.
“No one is going to fire you over this.”
“Hadley’s going to hate me,” she said, groaning.
“Hadley’s confused, yes. She’s wondering how the hell we’re going to spin this, but she’s not firing you. Not on my watch.”
“That’s the problem, Colin. You can’t just step in and fix this for me. Now that they know we’ve been together—on a date or whatever—all of it will look like favoritism. Anything you do for me from this point on will be tainted by whispers of whether or not I sucked your dick to get here!”
“Abby, look at me,” I said.
Her entire body was shaking as she lifted her eyes to meet mine once again.
“Right now, the weather’s getting bad. The ice is raining down and the snow is gathering. It’s dark, and it’s dank, and you’re not in control of the vehicle.”
“You’re not really using this analogy after you crashed the damn rental car, are you?” she asked.
“I’m going to ask you to do the one thing you needed to do during that moment. Because I might not understand harsh weather, but I understand this. This is my world, and this is my terrain, and they are dancing on my homeland. I didn’t understand severe weather the way you did, and I didn’t trust you. And I crashed us because I didn’t listen. Now, you are in a position where the territory and the weather is foreign to you, but I’m not.”
Abby grabbed a paper towel and began to wipe her face dry before she sighed and turned back towards me.
“Now, I’m asking you to trust me,” I said. “Do what I couldn’t do. What I was too prideful to do. Trust me, Abby. Don’t crash this car when you know I fix this.”
I held out my hand for her and she looked at it hesitantly. My heart was thundering in my chest and I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I knew people were wondering where I was. Wondering if I had found Abby, waiting for their next commands. I knew things were crumbling around us, but my focus was solely on Abby.
All I needed her to do was take my hand.
“What if you can’t fix it?” she asked desperately. “What if this is it?”
“If this is it—even though I can assure you it’s not—we go down together.”
“You can’t do that, Colin. You’ve got too much riding on your reputation,” she said.
“Just—trust—me.”
Her eyes flickered down towards my hand before she slowly reached for me. I wrapped my hand around hers and pulled her into me, feeling her fall into my chest as I wrapped my arms around her. She sobbed into my suit, her tears soaking my shirt while her entire body shivered in my grasp.
I placed kiss after kiss on top of her head as I tried to choke back my own tears.
“On my count,” I said, whispering.
I felt her nod into my chest before she sniffled.
“One—two—three—”
Then, whipping the door open, Abby and I stepped out into the entourage of people I’d told to gather outside the bathroom door.
Chapter 20
Abby
I couldn’t believe this was happening. I followed Colin as he held me close to him. We stepped out of the bathroom and into a crowd of people, and they moved with us as Colin headed back into the conference room. We took a couple of back hallways that led us backstage, then Rohan sealed off the door and shrouded us from the press that was trying to follow us everywhere.
And no matter what I did, the tears wouldn’t stop.
“What do you want us to do?” Rohan asked. “Hadley’s blowing up my phone.”
“Ted sent me to help,” Maggie said. “He’s gonna be here in a second.”
“You tell him to come with a different attitude than the one he showed me via text message. Then, we’ll talk,” Colin said.
I had no idea what that meant and I didn’t want to. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as I pressed myself into Colin, but I no longer cared what they thought. Well, I did. But I was more concerned about the media that was hounding to get back here and talk to us.
Talk to me.
“Colin, I need to know how you want to approach this,” Rohan said.
“It’s a good question,” Ted said. “I’ll give you my apology later. Is she okay?”
“No,” I said, sniffling. “I’m not.”
“In her defense, she was concerned we would get caught. I was the one who told her we would be fine. This is my mess to clean up,” Colin said.
“She doesn’t need a defense,” Maggie said. “Not if she enjoyed the date. Did you enjoy it, Abby?”
I peeked out from Colin’s chest and I nodded lightly. I knew what she was insinuating and I needed to thank her later for it. She’d been around businessmen long enough to know that sometimes men in Colin’s position propositioned women like myself. Held our careers over our heads or used some other means to get women in their companies to, well, keep them company. She was trying to make sure I hadn’t been pushed into a situation like that, and I wanted her to know that I hadn’t
