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I licked my lips, riffling through my emails. “I’ve been happy here for a long time.”
“Not like I wanted you to be,” she said softly.
I sat up straight in my chair, all humor and positivity draining from my body in one sweep. “I’m good, Ma. Really. What was the other question you had?”
“I was wondering…” Her voice trailed off. Instantly I leaned forward in my office chair. “Did you have a chance to pay that bill we talked about?”
My anxiety eased. This was an easier answer, at least for me. I knew that my mother stressed about every bill she sent to me. But there was no way around it. And it was my duty as well, my role in the family. One I could take pride in. “Yes, it’s all taken care of. I sent it myself this morning.”
“Thank you, Brady.”
“It was nothing. I’m happy to help…where I can.” Silence fell, and tension grew thick around the two of us. I suddenly craved a meeting, a reason, anything to be able to break this moment between my parent and me.
“I’ve told her this is the last.” Her voice wobbled, and immediately I felt guilty for the coarse words earlier in our call.
“I know, Ma.”
The voice on the other end was silent for a long moment. Long enough that I pulled my phone away to assure myself we were still connected. We were. There was just nothing more to be said.
“Ma?”
“I’ll let you go. I know you have meetings.”
“I do,” I said begrudgingly. I hated the way this conversation was ending. My shoulders were stiff as I scrambled to think of something. “I’ll talk to Cecelia, see if she wants to come down for Lyla’s birthday.”
“Really?”
I couldn’t ignore the flutter in my heart at both my mother’s excitement and my traitorous heart, which beat double time at the possibility. After all, asking her wouldn’t hurt anything. “Really. Don’t get your hopes up yet though.”
“We’d love that. Thank you, Brady.”
“Say hi to Katie for me.” I swiped a thumb across the screen, ending the call. And then I sat there, my knees bouncing as I stared down at the phone like a nervous teenager at the principal’s office. Frankly, it was embarrassing. But that’s what family did to me: tore me straight down from my director position to a sad, scared kid who constantly struggled to measure up.
I spent all of yesterday staring at the device just like this. Pretty much from the moment Cici left my house until the time I went to bed that night, I’d wanted to text her, to ask how her day went. To see if she was visiting her mother or sister while they were in town.
But I didn’t.
I had no fucking clue what she was thinking. We’d spent the night tasting, touching, and reveling in each other. I’d lost myself in her and the way she said my name when she came around me. The second I woke up staring into that tumble of golden hair, I knew I was in way over my head with this woman. I had thought she was beautiful from the first moment I met her.
I was craving her. Her laughter, the sweetness of her mouth. All of her. She had wound herself around my heart and soul during the night. And now, that string drew tight, making my rib ache with an unfamiliar pain and awareness.
I wanted her.
Groaning aloud, I rubbed a hand over my face, physically forcing my thoughts from her. I had over an hour before she would be at Leden for our meetings. I couldn’t just sit here staring at my phone, waiting for her to call, half-hard and decidedly clingy.
I glanced down, grinning at my reflection on the phone. I probably would anyway. But at least I could make an effort. For the next sixty minutes, I sat there, my email open, flipping over the unread messages and flagging the ones that I needed to come back to. It wasn’t productive in the long run, but damn, it felt good.
Five minutes before Cici would arrive, I gave up on waiting. I stood, straightening my suit and running a calm hand through my inky curls. They’d overgrown their usual haircut and curled down past my ears.
A quick, sharp knock sounded against my door. “Yes?” I called.
“You ready, Brady?”
I turned to face one of my employees, Peyton Sprawling, standing in the door. Her vibrant aquamarine blue hair matched the color her eyes, which were thickly lined in smoky makeup. She was only a few years out of school but had eagerly moved to San Francisco to work for Leden. I’d hired her myself and saw a wealth of potential in the young woman. Now that she’d gotten comfortable in her new office, I was more and more confidant that I’d made the right decision.
For all the ways I was conventional, she was unconventional. This week I’d decided to move her to the new Leden campaign. I was supposed to be managing an entire company’s marketing and strategic initiatives. I wasn’t supposed to be sitting in campaign meetings all day long.
I’d only changed things when I’d seen that Cici would be organizing much of the meetings. I’d had a hard time handing it off. With Peyton involved, I needed to start removing myself. After Saturday, I did feel a lot better giving up my face time with Cici now. I would eagerly trade my work time for personal time.
