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They entered the conference room and Josh leaned on the table with both hands and focused anything and everything on Mark. He wanted the guy to see exactly how he was feeling which was beyond pissed off. “Sit down. We have a few things to discuss.”
Mark pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat, and Josh realized that this could turn into an ugly power play. Mark wasn’t the kind of guy to take orders lightly and for a little while he didn’t move. He just folded his arms and stared.
“We’re going to discuss two things, Mr. Strickland.” He didn’t even give Mark a chance to respond. “You’re going to tell me why Campbell Holdings shouldn’t kick this firm to the curb for the poorly executed site assessment you provided us.”
“That was a good report. You got what you needed to move forward.”
“No, we didn’t. You only did soil samples. That doesn’t tell me the whole story and I need that so I’m not facing millions of dollars in fees and fines to clean up the land.”
“I’m sure you’re worried for nothing.”
“Really? I had someone go and pull historical records. Something your people should have done.” Thank you, Caroline, for that bit of advice. “There was a foundry there, which means there could be all kinds of things buried on that site.”
Mark’s eyes narrowed. This guy was a bastard and he didn’t like to be challenged, even by the people who held the checkbook. It was a good thing Josh didn’t give a shit; he didn’t like people who did a half-assed job. “You get me a good survey. Find out what’s under all those fucking trees,” he said.
Josh pushed himself from the table and walked to the other side of the room, leaning his shoulder into the wall while keeping his eyes trained on Mark.
The older man glared at Josh. “What’s the second thing we have to talk about?”
“Caroline Rossi.”
9
Caroline never understood why women she knew would eat whole pints of ice cream or bags of chocolate when something went wrong in their love lives. How was food going to fix anything? She thought this, of course, while scooping the last bit of Ben and Jerry’s out of the container. She still had three more pints in the freezer and there was no doubt in her mind she’d eat every bite.
Caroline, however, wasn’t mourning a broken heart. Well, she was in a way. Her book, the one she’d poured her heart and soul into, had gotten its first rejection.
And it hurt. Caroline was so sure the book was good that after entering the contest she’d told Josh about, she decided to submit it to a small publisher. But the publisher wasn’t interested and the rejection had been nothing short of dismissive. Now the thought of facing the other rejections or crappy contest scores, which were bound to come any day, was depressing her.
Tessa came through the living room and stopped short. Caroline knew the whole scene looked bad. But considering she’d come home to her roommate doing the same thing on more than one occasion, Caroline figured she got a pass. It was her turn.
“Oh, boy,” Tessa said.
“What?”
“Did you go out like that?”
And what if she did? She wore a pair of worn flannel pajama bottoms with “Cornell” emblazoned on her ass, a gray hoodie—okay, so there was a big stain on one boob, whatever—and her oldest, comfiest pair of socks. She knew she was a mess. She didn’t care. What did it matter anyway? It’s not like she had to impress anyone. She obviously wasn’t cut out for relationships.
She’d pretty much resigned herself to the fact that she could just write about relationships since she sucked at them in real life. Oh, wait... she didn’t have any talent for that either. Her writing sucked too. So no one should care that she wore crappy clothes, ate pints of ice cream and her hair resembled a rat’s nest.
When the buzzer sounded, Caroline didn’t move to answer. Instead, she went into the kitchen to figure out which pint of ice cream would be consumed next; Tessa could deal with whoever was at the door. More than likely it was for her anyway. It’s not like anyone was going to stop by and see Caroline. No, today was about her and the next victim…a pint of Half Baked.
Flipping off the lid and grabbing a clean spoon, Caroline took her ice cream and a bottle of water and figured she could always hang out in her room if Tessa had company.
That wasn’t a bad idea anyway. She’d settle into her bed with her ice cream and a romance novel she’d wanted to read. No stress, just a good healthy dose of self-pity. She’d wallow for the weekend and then get back to life on Monday.
It was a good plan, a really good plan that was foiled by Josh standing in her living room.Shit.
“I only need to talk to her for a minute,” he said to Tessa, who obviously wanted to protect her from further embarrassment. “Just for... oh,” he said, spotting her. “Hi.”
“What do you want, Josh?” Caroline felt like she should be embarrassed because of her appearance, but she wasn’t. It wasn’t like she was expecting company. She wanted to live with her failure on her own. Josh stood before her, simply dressed in jeans and an untucked navy-blue button-down shirt, and seemingly taking up every inch of space in the room. His hair, which was always carefully combed into place, fell naturally, and his day-old beard made her want to touch his face. His smile made his blue eyes flash, but in reality he looked pretty annoyed. Why was he annoyed?
“Hey,” he said again. “I know I should have called first, but if you don’t want friends to come running, don’t tweet things like ‘Worst day of my life.’”
Fucking social media, she thought. Next time she’d go on radio silence.
“Calling would have been a good idea,” she said, dropping into an armchair. “I could have told you to save yourself a trip.”
