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I left the ladies’ room, walking back to my office so that I could collect my things for the presentation. As soon as it was over and I knew what was next, I could focus on other things.
Like a promotion.
Like what was going between me and Troy.
Like if I was going to have a baby.
23
TROY
Thecloseritcameto the presentation, the worse I felt. I pressed my hand against my neck and twisted it, trying to release some tension. My hands were clammy with sweat, and I rubbed one palm against my pants while I drove, and then the other, swapping hands on the wheel.
My mind spun. Maybe that could be attributed to the alcohol I’d just consumed. It had been stupid of me to drink at all—I was on the road now and about to deliver a presentation that would dictate the future of my company—but my emotions had been all over the show, and it had been the only way I could curb them.
Alcohol had been my crutch for a long time. Not so much that it was a problem, but it was safe to say that I didn’t have a healthy way of dealing with events I couldn’t control. Between drinking and work, I could balance myself out, but without it, I was lost.
I glanced at my phone against the dash in the dock where I always put it while I drove. I hadn’t had a call or message from Mackenzie since we’d talked this morning. I’d hoped she would call me so that we could talk. I’d tried to reach her twice already, but her phone had been off both times. Probably that meeting she’d been in.
I’d expected she would call me back once she powered it up and saw my missed calls, but there was nothing.
I didn’t want to be that guy and call her a third time. I didn’t want to seem needy or clingy. Besides, with what I felt like now, it was probably better we didn’t talk. What the fuck would I even say? It was too close to the presentation to come clean.
I could either let her have the contract or carry on with the plan the way I’d had it before I’d started caring about her.
You always have a choice.
Damn it, if only it were that simple. The problem was that it really wasn’t that simple at all, and I didn’t know how I was supposed to give up on something that had been the only constant in my life when I hadn’t been willing to turn to anyone or anything else.
Scott made it sound like giving it all up for a girl was totally worth it—and Mackenzie was worth it in so many ways—but it was hard to give up something when it was the only thing I’d ever known. My company, my work, had been the only constant thing in my life, and I’d meant it when I’d said that relationships and people were fleeting.
I parked at the Elecoms building and got out. I looked around for Mackenzie’s car but didn’t spot it.
Was she still on her way?
When I walked into the building and announced myself, the secretary sent me straight up to Johnson’s floor, and I found him in the boardroom.
When I walked in, my steps faltered. Johnson was already there, upright and stern in his gray suit, his mouth pressed into a thin line.
Mackenzie already sat at the boardroom table. She wore a dress suit, which didn’t look like her usual style but she was still sexy as hell.
And beautiful. Her beauty always struck me, especially now that I’d gotten to know her so much better. She had an inner beauty to her that shone through and added a whole new level to her already incredible looks.
When Mackenzie looked at me, her eyes were guarded. She looked like she hadn’t slept well in a while, with dark circles under her eyes. They were carefully patched up with makeup, but I’d come to know her well enough to know what she looked like when she was tired.
She looked frayed.
Everything about her was perfectly in place, though, and I doubted Johnson saw through her mask the way I did.
“Ah, you made it, Larson,” Johnson said.
I nodded. “I’m here and ready to rumble.”
“We’re just waiting on Toussaint,” Johnson said, checking the time. “He should be here any moment.”
We waited for a while.
“I don’t know what’s keeping him,” Johnson said, getting more and more irritated. “I’ll have to get my secretary to call him. In the meantime, why don’t we just—”
