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“Cancel your meeting. This is a huge client. They have the remodel of the Royal Albert Hall, it’s potentially 30 million pounds in billing fees from one client alone. Whatever you’ve got to do can wait. Anyone who has a problem with it can talk to me. Come on. Now.”
Jack is a powerful partner. I do not hesitate again before I grab my phone and my ever present memo pad, and follow him out of the office. I turn to Taylor and tell her to cancel my calls and meetings for the morning and then continue swiftly down the hallway.
As we walk, my mind races. I didn’t know our firm has been chosen to represent the firm which had landed this deal. That is huge. London has not seen an architectural project of such scope and significance in over a century. The firm that won is not well-known, but their star has certainly risen. For me to get a chance to work on this will be amazing. I will be doing grunt work, no doubt, but it means all types of exposure. Project Finance is where I want to be, not white collar crime, which by some stupid twist of fate, is the department my last assignment was from.
As we walk, Jack starts telling all me the players who will be in the meeting. There will only be four lawyers from our firm attending, for me to be one of them is incredible. The client’s lead architects and their General Counsel will be present.
“I think you’ve shown tremendous initiative and potential, Adelaide. I want you to pay attention to the senior associates as they talk to the client. Just take notes and listen.”
This is the kind of opportunity I’ve worked so hard for. I follow Jack into the room and I am almost giddy,
As I walk to the seat next to Jack’s, my eyes move around the room and when they land on the man sitting to the left of the head of the table, I stumble and have to grab my chair to straighten myself. Jack’s hand shoots out to grab my elbow. “Adelaide, are you all right?” He asks, his voice heavy with concern.
“Yes, I am fine. I just tripped. I’m sorry.”
I sit down and close my eyes briefly. Of the swirl of emotions coursing through, the one that asserts itself most strongly is one of utter disbelief.
I cannot fucking believe it!
Simon is in this meeting. What the hell is he doing here? Am I having a nightmare? Please, let this be a nightmare. Please? I cannot deal with this reality.
I school my expression and glance around the room and see Simon staring at me with something akin to panic on his face. It makes me want to laugh. Does he think I am one of those women who can’t handle being dumped? Does he think I am going to scream at him? Or start crying and throw my phone at him? Yes, it is a shock to see him. Maybe he is the architect’s apprentice—is that still a thing? I don’t even care why he is here. I am going to act like he is not present from this point on.
I am here to work. I am here to win. This is my dream. Yes, last night I was willing to give Simon a chance, but he reminded me, with painful precision, why that is something I should never consider doing again. Dreams aren’t made of fairytales and romance, they are made of hard work and grit.
I open my notepad and turn my attention to Jack as he opens the meeting and makes introductions.
He goes around the room and starts with the man sitting right next to Simon. Turns out he is the firm’s General Counsel. He is young, no older than thirty-five, to be in such a senior position. And damn, he is handsome, if you are a fan of Jamie Dornan.
And then Simon is introduced—as the Senior Architect. On this project. And I feel like I have just been punched in the face. He is the senior architect on the biggest project London has seen in a century? Of course he is.
It doesn’t matter. He is a client, I will treat him with the respect he deserves and not a drop more.
With that resolve in place, I listen as the rest of the introductions are made and the meeting begins. I take notes and make my mind focus on the business at hand. Simon Phillips and his cheap words and even cheaper kisses, are the furthest thing from my mind.
September 2, 2014
When Addie walked into the room I instantly broke out into a sweat. I couldn’t believe she had tracked me down here. How the hell had she found me? I didn’t ask Louis if Cara’s friend was crazy; she seemed normal. But how else did I explain her walking into a meeting I was having with our new lawyers?
Then my brain tripped as I connected the dots. She is a lawyer. She must work here. Of all of the places in London, she would work at the law firm we just hired to guide us through our financing process. We’d won the bid, now we had to pay for the work. We were not just the architects, but the investors in the project as well. From design, to construction, we were doing it all. It was unusual and risky, but we could do it.
We needed to raise the money for it and so we were looking to these lawyers to help us structure the right deal. They were the best firm in the city. Addie working here meant she had to be a fucking genius. They only hired the very best.
I wonder how she will react when she sees me. My text had been a dick move, and then I’d blocked her number. God only knows how many times she’d tried to call and text me.
I watch her as I wait for her to notice me. Fuck me. This woman is beautiful. Her hair is pulled back completely in some tight looking thing I can only describe as knot, but it leaves her perfect face completely open to my gaze. Her eyes, so wide and clear. That freckle on her nose. Her mouth so lush it was almost obscene.
She is wearing this black suit that looks like it was made for her and her sexy little body looks so good, I feel a pang of regret I’ll never get to see what’s underneath it again. I remember how juicy and dark her nipples were and how hard they got from me just looking at them. As if she can hear my thoughts, at that very moment, she sees me and stumbles.
I panic
, fearing she is going to say my name or yell or something. But she rights herself, sits down, and doesn’t look in my direction again, except for when I am introduced. But, besides a small twitch in her eyebrow, she remains expressionless. Even when they announce their plan for her to spend the next few months working out of our office doing some document review for our due diligence, she looks like she was just told the sky is blue.
When the meeting ends, we all stand up and shake hands. Her eyes are the color of cold amber and her smile has all the warmth of the coffee that has been sitting in my mug for the last hour. Addie shakes my hands like I am someone she just met an hour ago. Like I’m not the man who had my tongue in her pussy less than twenty-four hours earlier. I grip her hand tighter than I should and whisper urgently, “Addie, I am sorry about yesterday.”
She only continues to give me that wintry smile. “Sorry for what, Simon?”
Then she pulls her hand out of my grasp and walks around me. I stand there stunned. It’s like she doesn’t even care.
