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Nicole clears her throat. “Derek, this is—”
“Nora Mackenzie,” I say at the same moment he does in order to hide his voice. I stick out my hand with a bright, pleading smile and resist fainting from my sudden peak of adrenaline. “It’s nice to meet you, Derek.”
Nicole can’t see me. Derek’s massive frame is blocking her view. His cool gaze sweeps down to my hand extended toward him and hisfrown etches deeper. I silently beg him to accept it. To go along with my charade just until Nicole leaves. But I don’t think he’s going to.
Just as Derek opens his mouth to say something, the conference room door opens behind me, and our receptionist peeks her head in. “Nicole, sorry to interrupt you but you have an urgent call. I have him on hold in your office.”
Nicole rounds the conference table and looks from Derek’s stormy face to my bright and peppy expression that’s clearly trying to compensate for his. “If you will both excuse me,” she says, hesitation marking her tone. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
Yep. Take your time, ma’am! All day if you need!
Nicole leaves the room and graciously shuts the door behind her. I’m left alone staring into Derek’s chilling eyes. He wastes no time before shaking his head and turning away from me to retrieve his keys from the table. “Nope. Not happening.”
Wait, what?
I’m shocked. Stunned and blinking like someone just shined a bright spotlight in my eyes. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other, and that’s all he’s going to say?
“Derek, wait!” I round him to stand in his path before he makes it to the door.
He eyes me, jaws flexing. “I was told your name is Mac.” He scoffs—disgust clouding his vision. “Congrats. If your aim was to epically play me, you hit your mark. You won.”
Even his voice is different now. Deeper.
I’m struggling to find my footing because I severely underestimated what it would feel like to stand face-to-face with Derek again. Every cell in my body is humming like they’re coming back to life. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t imagined running into him before. I’ve always known that Derek was Bill’s client—but I didn’t think we would actually have a chance to see each other because Bill alwaysmet with Derek offsite, and I had no reason to reach out to Derek and announce my presence within the agency.
But still, I imagined it. Imagined bumping into him in the hallway one random afternoon and sharing a second glance. However, in my fantasies, it always started with a slow mischievous smile spreading over his mouth and ended with us making out in a supply closet.
His reaction now is justified, though. I hurt him—and I need to apologize for it. But this is definitely not the time.
“No—please listen. I wasn’t trying to play you. In fact, I was afraid you didn’t know who I was when I heard that Nicole presented the idea to you. Everyone in the office calls me Mac. It’s short for—”
“Mackenzie,” he says thunderously as if he can’t believe I have the audacity to insinuate he didn’t already know. “Yeah, I damn well remember, Nora.” And then he lets out a short disdainful laugh. “And I also remember how easily you can drop a person out of nowhere, which is why I will never sign with you. I prefer my agent to be trustworthy and dedicated.”
Ouch.
Without a backward glance, Derek walks by me, careful not to touch any part of me lest he catch the cooties I’m carrying before he storms out the conference room door.
“Well, that certainly could have gone better,” I tell the empty chairs.
So it turns out Derek does remember me. And he hates me. Which, I can’t say I blame him for, even if it confuses me.
It seems I have two options here. (1) I tell Nicole about how I already lost the first client she practically spoon-fed me.Embarrassing.(2) Rip this knife out of my chest and use it as a dart to hit my career goals instead.
I’m going with option 2, which means it’s time to clear the air with my ex-boyfriend.
“Derek! Derek! Wait!”
This cannot be happening. I’m on the sidewalk outside the agency, trying to get away from this place and that woman as quickly as possible.Mac.I should have asked for more details. But how was I supposed to know that my ex-girlfriend got a job with the sports agency that represents me?Oh god—how long has she worked there?How long has she known that there was always only one degree of separation between us but never chose to enlighten me about it?
There’s no way in hell I’ll let her represent me.
“Derek! Please—ugh.Will you slow down a minute? Jeez, your legs are huge now. You’re like one of those giant trees inLord of the Rings.” She’s running after me yelling this for the whole city to hear. My SUV is just around the corner in the private parking lot, and I plan on getting to it before she gets to me. Am I being petty? Yeah. Do I care? Hell no.
“You’re not my agent, and never will be, so stop chasing me,” I tell her over my shoulder. I get a glimpse of her rosy cheeks and her deepauburn hair blowing around her face as she jogs to catch up. The wind keeps whipping up her skirt and showing more of her legs than she wants, judging by the way she’s trying to keep a hand pressed to the front of it like a Marilyn Monroe poster. Looks like I finally have the answer to my question: She did become a sports agent.
She overtakes me quickly and does this little hop-skip maneuver to walk backward while looking at my face. “Will you just give me a second to explain?”
“Pole.”
