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I nodded. Scott and I used to go fishing often when we were younger. He’d still been studying, and my company hadn’t been anything to speak of—getting away and doing something like this was easy. These days, it was getting harder and harder to break away.
There had been a time when we’d gone out to sea to do our fishing there, hiring charters to take us out and really making a sport of it. These days, we drove out to a farm where an old farmer had a private pond that he stocked, and we could sit in the boat all day. It wasn’t about fishing so much as it was about getting away.
“What’s up with you?” Scott asked from underneath his cap.
“Who says something’s up with me?” I asked.
Scott lifted his cap enough to peek through one eye at me. “You’re the one who suggested we go fishing. You haven’t done that in years, not since you broke up with your last dolly. I forget her name.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, me too.” I shook my head and checked the pole again as if it needed checking.
“You thinking about getting rid of Mackenzie? Or did she do the wise thing and get rid of you?”
“Ha, ha,” I said sarcastically.
“Seriously, man,” Scott said. “What’s eating you?”
I shrugged. “It’s going really well with her, actually. I’m starting to fall for her.”
Scott whistled through his teeth. “So, we’re not mourning the loss of a woman, we’re mourning the loss of your freedom?”
I snorted. “You’re so full of shit.”
Scott burst out laughing, pleased with his stupid jokes.
“Come on, talk to me. Falling for her isn’t a bad thing, is it?”
“Well, no,” I said hesitantly. “We have a lot in common—a lot more than I realized at first—and she could do wonders in my company if she decides to transfer—”
“You’re not seriously talking about her as an employee. If you do that, you’re going to fuck up any chance of being with her with that airtight HR you’ve got running the show.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, yeah, I know. That’s not how I meant it. I just think we could be a good team.”
“Then be a good team with her…outsideof work, you know?”
I nodded. I knew what Scott meant; it was just hard for me to wrap my mind around dating Mackenzie in the full sense of the word. The more time I spent with her, the more I wanted her at my side as my girlfriend, not just as someone to work with. The problem was, I’d already fucked that up before we’d even really gotten into it.
“I don’t know if I should,” I said. “I mean, having someone in my life like that… it wasn’t the plan.”
“What was the plan, then?” Scott asked. His cap was back on his head, and I had his full attention now, although he still sat slumped back in the boat, legs spread wide against the side of it.
“Creating a corporate giant and dominating the field,” I said. “It’s going so well, too.”
Scott narrowed his eyes at me. “And you can’t do anything like that with a woman at your side? Why does it have to be either or?”
I shrugged, not knowing how to answer him.
“Come on, asshole,” Scott said when I wouldn’t keep talking about it. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“She’s my rival, Scott. If she gets the contract for Griffin, then I won’t get it.”
“And?” Scott asked. “Don’t tell me this contract is what’s standing between you and the girl you like. Seriously, how many contracts have you gotten or lost in the past couple of years and it hasn’t killed your company?”
I hesitated before I spoke. “It’s not exactly about that.”
“Then what is it about?”
“I think I fucked up.” I glanced at Scott, who offered a level stare. He wasn’t going to let this go now, so I might as well talk to him about what was going on. I told him about the contract, about Marc Johnson letting me know that there were changes to be made and that I hadn’t made the effort to tell Mackenzie about it.
