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I don’t understand what’s happening to me anymore. I’ve had a few crushes in my lifetime, but this is more than just an ordinary crush, not even factoring in the fact that he took my virginity. He’s ruined me for other men. Branded me. I’m bothered by my visceral reactions to him. I hate how thoughts of him keep me up at night. I hate that I even see him in my dreams and I remember the smell of his skin.
There’s something nagging at my chest about Harrison Bridges.
He’s not like any other man I’ve ever met. He’s different. He appears a certain way on the outside, like he doesn’t care about anything other than just moving with the flow. But there’s a mysterious depth to him that people don’t see. He does a good job of hiding so many facets of his personality.
I’m terrified and intrigued at the same time. The man is a walking red alert, and for some reason, the mere mention of his name turns me on.
I walk into my office and start gathering my stuff to head home. Tyler walks by the next minute.
“Hey, Charlee,” he says, and I look up to catch him making weird motions with his eyes. His brows are raised and he’s staring at me quizzically, looking from my face to the staircase where Harrison had just breezed down, and then back to my face. Tyler may be a young intern, but he and I get along pretty well.
I realize Tyler’s asking a question with his eyes.
“Tyler, don’t even think about it. It’s not what you think.”
Relaxing his face into a funny grin, Tyler spreads his hands and shrugs. “Uh, why not? You’re a ten and he’s a ten. You both fit.”
I almost laugh at his words. “Me? A ten? You have got to be kidding me. And have you seen him? Besides, I’m certainly not his type. Not in any remotely close universe.”
I shut my door and walk past Tyler, getting confused as his eyes grow twice as big in his head.
“Charlee. I don’t think you give yourself enough credit at all. I don’t even think you see yourself in the mirror every day. But it’s cool. I’m just gonna go.” Turning briskly, he walks away, back to the general office.
I’m standing in front of the staircase, watching him, and my mind flashes back to that night at the party with Harrison. He’d silently muttered that there was no way in hell I should be single. He’d also said, later, that he couldn’t believe I was a virgin up until that night. And now, Tyler is here saying I’m Harrison-level gorgeous.
Yeah, I genuinely refuse to believe any of that.
6
HARRISON
“Mr. Bridges! Mr. Bridges! Are you still with us?”
The whole room is watching me.
Every single pair of eyes.
Wade is making an important presentation on intricate fund management and all divisional leads are present with their executive assistants. And yes, my mind is with him, but it is also on the fifty other things that are fighting for my attention at the same time. Doodling on my notepad keeps my head a little less full of competing thoughts and grounds me for a few seconds, so that’s what I’m doing instead of looking at the man.
“Yes, I am, carry on…” My hands are sweating, my breathing is rash and anyone close to me can probably hear it. I can’t stop my feet from tapping involuntarily. My emotions are in a cocktail and I don’t know what or how to feel.
“There are a few non-American businesses reaching out from overseas to connect remotely with us and get a loan,” Wade continues, commanding the attention of the entire room. “These are very delicate paths to tread because these people are not within our reach. We do not have direct access to their market resources. Most local loan companies don’t dabble in these waters, and we have to be faster than everyone else. Flynn, I assume you’ve concluded the calls with the French estate guys?”
Flynn is the communications division lead, and he looks up, entirely confused.
“French estate guys? Nobody told me about that.”
Shit.
Shit times one hundred.
I totally forgot to tell Flynn about those guys. Last week, a personal friend of mine linked me up with these big time French millionaires who wanted to piggyback off our company’s services as “charity” for businesses in their locale. They’ll pay fifty percent of the loan on behalf of chosen entrepreneurs. We are supposed to use them as a break-in strategy for the Parisian realtor sector.
I forgot to tell Flynn to follow up with them. Just like I’d forgotten my gym bag on the park bench the other day, and even left my car remote on the coffee shop counter.
“Uh, yeah, that’s on me,” I speak up, nodding casually and thinking quickly for a cover-up. “It’s totally fine. I didn’t tell Flynn because I was going to correspond with the French guys on my own. I speak their language better than Flynn ever could anyway.”
Everyone laughs and Wade moves on to the next point on the agenda.
