AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mr. Madden, I really think you’re going to want to speak with her.”
My ears perk up. Usually, when I have an unannounced guest, it’s a man. They feel much more entitled to my time. That’s why I prefer to have female investors. “Do I know this visitor?”
Suddenly, I notice Wendy’s expression. Deathly. Almost like she’s seen a ghost. She nods solemnly.
I frown. No. It couldn’t be. “Is it…”
She nods again, more vigorously this time. And that’s how I know who is on the other side of that door.
“Flynn.”
My eyes shoot to Colin. He knows, too. It’s clear by the look on his face.
“You don’t have to talk to her.”
Oh, but I do. It’s been two years since I’ve been in the same room with her. I tried for months to get her to speak with me, only to be brushed off continuously. Now she’s walked right into my office. No doubt wanting to talk. But, about what? I swallow so hard it’s audible. “Clear the room, please.”
Colin is already a step ahead of me. He knows me too well at this point to think I’mnotgoing to talk to the one woman who has been on my mind for two years. He collects his equipment and hustles Rickie out the door with one last look at me over his shoulder. “If you need anything, call. I’ll be headed out early to meet Stella, so –”
“I’ll be fine.”
Colin nods. “You got this.”
I try to smile but don’t know what I “got”. I don’t even know what she could possibly want to say to me. Or… what she might want from me.
“Send her in, Wendy,” I say softly.
“Right away, sir.”
Wendy disappears out the door. I have only a minute to decide where I will receive my guest. Should I sit at the desk, or is that too formal? At the edge of the desk, or is that too posed? At the windowsill, or is that… lame?
By the time I hear the door unlatch again, I haven’t moved an inch from the center of the room.
That is where I receive Adelaide Frazer. My ex-girlfriend.
And man, she looks fucking amazing.
Her blonde hair is pulled back into the most perfect, messy bun, strands of hair framing her face as if she’s some sort of fairy princess. Her green eyes pop against her slinky, sleeveless olive-colored dress, well-suited for July in NYC.
Every bit of loathing I’ve had for her since she left me disappears. I can’t deny how much I still want her in every way possible.
“Aren’t you going to say hello?” she asks, a smirk on her tawny-colored lips.
“Well, of course, I’m going to say…”Breathe, Flynn. “Hello, Adelaide. You look well.”
Her smirk turns into a grin. Adelaide closes the space between us and grabs my hand. My heart pounds. Fuck, I always hoped when I would see her, I wouldn’t care, and yet here I am, ready to fawn all over her. She kisses my cheek gingerly and then retreats. “So do you, Flynn.”
“Oh, I’m alright,” I say, absent-mindedly rubbing my chin, wishing I had shaved this morning instead of last night.
“Always so self-deprecating,” Adelaide says, rolling her eyes.
“It’s not hard when you’re…” I gesture to her, at a loss for words. Wherever Adelaide goes, she leads with her beauty. And she knows it.
When I met Adelaide Frazer, she was an up-and-coming model. Since then, she’s taken catwalks and magazine covers by storm, competing with the likes of the Hadids and Kendall Jenner. I always felt like Roger Rabbit next to her with my glasses and lanky awkwardness.
It turned out I had reason to be worried when our relationship came to a screeching halt after she left me for football player Theo Wadeltsky. Taller, stronger, and objectively more handsome than me.
I just wish she’d had the decency to break up with me before falling into his bed.
