Something was off.
“It would be terrible if this entire transaction was ruined because of someone’s misconduct and poor decisions.” The words made me freeze. I looked at Mark, and without a doubt in my mind, it became clear to me that he knew the truth. My heart was burning like a wildfire, and I reached out and gripped the edge of the desk where nobody could see.
Now, my answer was concrete as if it had been written in the stars. Cat and I had to stop seeing each other. My eyes glanced down, and I saw that Mark had already signed the paper. But, that wasn’t the only way that he could rip us off. It seemed like he was only mad at me. None of his anger was directed at Cat, and that was fine.
All of this was my fault, and I was more than prepared to take responsibility for it. But that meant never seeing Cat again unless it was strictly for business.
18
Cat
I quickly learned that nothing made me friskier than closing a deal as big as Heartstring. The papers were signed, and all that was left now was to bask in our success. And I knew just how I wanted to celebrate.
We shook hands with my dad and sent him off on his way, so the two of us could finally be alone. Well, we were sort of alone—if it wasn’t for all of the other pesky workers scrambling around the building. Even the inconvenience of that didn’t get to me too much. Because now I got to look at them knowing that they worked for me, and the feeling was good.
I stood on my tiptoes to purr in Jordan’s ear. “What do you say we get out of here?”
He seemed cold as he flicked back his sleeve and looked at his watch. “I’ve got some things to take care of. I need to go.”
“Oh, come on,” I laughed in disbelief. “You’re not really going to just take off like that after we signed the papers!? We did it, Jordan! We have to celebrate!”
He looked intent on refusing me again, but then something in his serious eyes changed. “You know what…you’re right. About needing to mark the occasion anyway. Let’s go around the corner and grab coffee.”
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind…but okay,” I answered slowly, still confused by his demeanor.
I followed him out, but there was a sick feeling growing in my gut as I studied him. Something about him had changed suddenly. Sure, he had been off for a few days now, and I knew he had plenty of doubts. But for some reason I thought he would feel better once the deal had actually gone through. Part of me still thought all of that before was just from nerves.
He was stern yet distracted as we ordered our drinks and sat down at a table by the window. The moment I took my seat across from him, I started to realize this wasn’t just a casual coffee. And there was nothing sexy about it either. No, sex was obviously the furthest thing from his mind, but he couldn’t blame a girl for trying. I didn’t know what was eating at him exactly, but I was still determined to keep riding my high of everything being closed and Heartstring officially being ours.
“Want to go back to your place after this?” I asked anyway.
I was met with a long, heavy and awkward silence.
“Look, Cat,” he said finally. His tone made something catch in my throat. This didn’t sound good.
“I think…now that everything is done with the Heartstring deal…Well, I was thinking about how things will look from here. We’re going to be working together every day, and…”
“Like we have been all this time,” I reminded him, feeling more worried and defensive with every word he said.
“But it’s different now,” he argued. “We’re going to be in the public eye. A lot of people will be looking to us for answers. We have to have clear heads and we can’t have any weirdness or tension between us throwing us off our game. We have to be a team.”
“Yeah, we are a team,” I snipped. “It seems like the only person who ever causes any weirdness or tension between us is you.”
“Maybe because I’m the only one being realistic here,” he barked. “Come on, Cat. Be realistic. How far can this thing really go before this blows up in our faces?”
I felt a crack in my heart that I wished I was immune to. I wished I didn’t feel the ache setting in, that I hadn’t let him get to me enough to be capable of that.
My throat tightened, and it took everything in me not to cry. Silly me. I thought that maybe it could go on forever. Why not?
Because apparently Jordan didn’t feel the same way. That was why.
“I’m sorry,” he offered, seeing the hurt in my face. “This has been fun, but…I really think we need to put our careers first. That’s more important than…”
“This thing,” I sneered. I leaned back and crossed my arms, looking out the window at the people walking by on the sidewalks. I had to look at anything that could distract me enough to keep me from crying in front of him.
I never cried in front of a man. As a woman in my field, I knew all too well that crying meant game over. Men were already waiting for any chance to say we proved them right—that we were too emotional or irrational to rise to their ranks in business. I never let myself give them that chance. My motto had always been to be just as ruthless as they liked to think they were themselves.
Maybe it was the excitement of closing the deal followed by such a downer from Jordan, or just all the stress and high emotions from the past couple of months. But something
