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Annoyed with herself, she pushed away from the door and placed her bags on the desk. There was no use in sitting around feeling sorry for herself. She and James had worked too hard to build their business over the past few years for her to throw it all away just because her marriage had hit a rough patch. Dropping into her chair, she stared at the blank monitors on her desk and willed her system to settle.
A familiar, firm knock rapped on the door before it swung open without waiting for her to acknowledge him. She tensed, bracing for a fight when James stepped inside and shut the door behind him again with an audible, ominousclick.
He stood just in front of it, his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze steady and unwavering. The seconds ticked by with the two of them locked in a silent battle of wills before he finally spoke.
“What was that all about, Olivia Jane?”
Her full name. Oh, god. Despite the hurt and anger, heat flooded her pussy, soaking through the sensible underwear beneath her practical business skirt. Outwardly, she gave him only a slight tilt of the head and a confused expression, determined not to let him see how he affected her. “What exactly are you asking about, James?”
When his eyes narrowed, she had to force herself to keep her head lifted. Years of training, coupled with her naturally submissive nature, urged her to lower her gaze to the desk. But she kept her head high, refusing to give him even the slightest bit of acquiescence.
“You were reading MaryAnn the riot act when I walked in, and as soon as I asked about it, everything was fine. What aren’t you telling me?”
Oh, how she wanted to confide in him. To simply lay all of her cares and worries at his feet, the way she once had. But that wasn’t the relationship they had anymore, it seemed. “It’s being handled.”
Frustration radiated from him as he took a step forward, and then another, until he was directly in front of her desk. Eyes locked on hers, he uncrossed his arms and lowered his hands, pressing his palms against the smooth solid wood.
“You and I are going to talk. Tonight.” With that pronouncement, he stood and straightened the flawlessly cut jacket of his suit. “You will be home no later than six-thirty. I will take care of dinner.” His eyes met hers once more, and the resolve in them would have brought her to her knees if she hadn’t already been sitting. “I suggest you take some time over the next few hours to think about what you want. From our business, as well as our marriage. I’ll see you at home.”
Without another word, he turned and left her office. The sound of the door clicking shut behind him might as well have been a gunshot. Olivia jumped at the noise, nearly knocking over the half empty can of soda sitting next to her docking station.
Tears burned behind her eyes, blurring her vision as she tried to focus. How the hell was she supposed to get any work done after a bomb like that? Months had passed with little more than a disapproving look here and there, and all of a sudden, he wanted to talk?
Fighting back her growing panic, she grabbed her purse and laptop bag. There was no way she would be getting any work done now. Walking out with her head down to avoid talking to or alarming anyone, she pulled her phone from her purse and sent out an SOS message to her closest friend.
Need coffee. James is being super weird.
Halfway to her car, her phone vibrated with an incoming message. Some of the panic ebbed when she read the response.
Be there in ten.
Without her usual care, she tossed the laptop bag in the backseat and slid behind the wheel of her SUV. She only just remembered to buckle her seatbelt before peeling out of the parking lot.
There wasn’t, thankfully, much time to think on the short drive to the coffee house she and Shannon had adopted at the start of their friendship. Olivia didn’t even like coffee; she only went to humor Shannon, though the shop did have the best hot chocolate in Baltimore—possibly all of Central Maryland.
She snagged herself a cup of said hot chocolate with extra whipped cream, and debated briefly over the extra calories in the huge chocolate chip cookies beneath the glass before ordering one of those as well. Thankfully, the shop was relatively empty at three in the afternoon, and she was able to find a pair of chairs away from the other patrons.
Shannon walked in just as Olivia was settling into one of the oversized armchairs. Tall, blonde, and thin as a rail, Shannon Wright always looked as though she’d just walked off the cover of one of those fashion magazines MaryAnn was always sighing over. Stopping just inside the shop, she paused, and Olivia wondered if she even knew she was striking a pose.
When her gaze landed on Olivia, she sent her a saucy wink and a wave, then strolled up to the counter and placed her order. Large medium roast, with just a splash of cream. Olivia didn’t even need to hear her placing it to know what she was ordering, since it hadn’t changed in all the years they’d known each other.
Coffee in hand, Shannon glided across the shop and plunked her skinny ass down into the chair beside Olivia. “So, what’s going on with you and Mr. Sexy?”
Sipping her hot chocolate, Olivia debated on how much to share. She and James had met Shannon at a play party not long after they’d married. And despite Shannon opting to work for one of James’s biggest competitors, she was still Olivia’s best friend in the whole world. So there wasn’t much about her personal life Olivia hadn’t shared with the bombshell blonde across from her. But for some reason, telling her best friend that she was worried her marriage was ending had seemed too big, too scary to share. “Things are… weird lately. With me and James.”
“Mr. Sexy getting handsy at work?” Shannon asked with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.
With a roll of her eyes, Olivia snorted. “No.” She broke off a piece of her cookie and shoved it in her mouth, as much to give her a moment to gather the courage to say the words out loud as a desire to enjoy the yummy treat. “Just the opposite, actually. It’s like we can’t switch that work mode off when we get home anymore.” Another bite of cookie to delay the inevitable just a few more seconds. “He says we need to talk tonight.”
Shannon’s eyes widened, a mix of sympathy and surprise shimmering in the bright blue. “Just talk ortalk?”
“I don’t know. We haven’ttalkedin months.”
“What? Why?”
Unable to meet her friend’s earnest gaze, Olivia studied her cup as she swirled the hot chocolate around. “I don’t know, really. We’ve just been drifting apart, and I don’t know how to fix it.”
There was a long, heavy silence before Shannon spoke again. “I’ll tell you what you’re going to do.”
