Chapter 11
COLE
“Morning, Wrinkles.” My eldest brother, Nathan, strolls into my office with a spring in his step that I almost despise.
He’s twelve years older than me, and I enjoy teasing him about his age and how much younger I look compared to him.
“What’s climbed up your ass today?” he asks as he takes the seat on the other side of my desk.
I grunt in response, unable to tear my eyes away from the laptop screen.
Since he married Arianna and returned from his honeymoon, or babymoon, as Arianna calls it, he’s been walking around the office full of himself, acting like he’s the king of the world.
I’m smart enough to see that he’s not intentionally showing off his wedding ring or flaunting everything he has that I lack—like a wife with a baby on the way—on purpose or just to annoy me.
But I’m pissed. I’ve been a grumpy bastard since the second I realized I’d lost Mina’s phone number.
I ignore him and slam the lid shut on my laptop. “What do you want?” I let out a heavy sigh. I’m not just annoyed, I’m fucking raging. My blood is boiling.
Nathan checks his watch. “It’s only nine thirty, what the hell has happened this early to fuck up your Monday?” His question is laced with humor.
“Nothing.” Everything. “I’m fine.”
“You sound like Arianna when I do something that pisses her off. When she says she’s fine, she’s never fine. Tell me what’s up.” Nathan leans back in his chair and unbuttons his jacket, settling in for a heart-to-heart which I could do without.
I don’t want to talk to anyone. “Nothing,” I lie.
He knows me so well, sometimes even better than myself, so he calls me out. “Liar.” Then he waits patiently for me to talk. But as the minutes pass, I let silence fill the gap, not words.
“Did something or someone prevent you from joining us on Saturday morning for tennis?” Nathan presses me for an answer.
I never miss a Saturday tennis match with my brothers. Sometimes, I wonder if my life has become so dull that it’s more predictable than Eli’s meticulously planned schedule.
Tilting my head back, I eye the ceiling.
“Someone,” I mumble eventually. If I don’t answer him, Nathan will camp out in my office until I do.
As the state’s top criminal defense lawyer, Nathan is an exceptionally persuasive litigator who can get people to open up in the courtroom.
He’s got balls of steel, and it’s the reason people hire him.
“What’s her name?” he asks, assessing me.
“Mina.” It’s only one of a handful of things I know about her.
“I lost her number.” I’ve searched everywhere, and it’s disappeared.
Just like she did. I’m grief-stricken when I don’t even know her.
It’s ridiculous of me, really, but I’ve barely slept the past two nights, replaying every kiss and touch, her laugh, smile, and that sexy tattoo branded into the skin of her back that I loved watching as I fucked her from behind…
It was more than that, though. We had something, and she made me feel something…
different… like the beginning of something new. Until it ended.
It’s eating me up inside that she would think I wouldn’t call her.
I’m a man of my word, and I never break a promise.
Nathan asks another question. “Did you get her surname, where she worked, or lived?”
I sigh again, “No, and I can’t find anyone in the area called Mina who is a software designer,” adding, “That’s what she does for a living.”
“Have you tried—”
I jump in, cutting him off. “I’ve done everything I can think of, searched everywhere online, social media, and I can’t find her without a surname.” I raise my voice, not meaning to. I’m not mad at Nathan. I’m mad at myself.
Nathan holds his hands up in surrender. “Cool it. I’m only trying to help.”
“I know,” I grumble, digging my fingertips into my temples. My head is pounding from lack of sleep. “She’s going to think I don’t care.” When I do. “And she’ll think Friday night meant nothing.” When it meant so much.
“Where did you meet her?”
“On the flight home from LA. She was different.” Special. Mysterious. “We spent the night together.”
Nathan keeps quiet, his eyebrows hitting his hairline in shock.
He knows I don’t do casual one-night hookups.
“I know,” I state, throwing him a look. “It surprised me too.”
“Did you call the airline?”
“Yes.” I knew what they would say before I made the call. “They have strict privacy policies and safety regulations and would never share a passenger’s details.” It was pointless. “No exceptions.”
“So, what now?” he asks, tapping his fingers against the armrests as if thinking it through.
“There’s nothing I can do.” What’s done is done. The scrap of paper with her number on it has gone, as if the air swallowed it. “Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Or maybe you’re overthinking again,” Nathan states, leaning forward. “If she’s the one, you’ll find each other again.”
“I don’t think so,” I scoff. San Francisco is a big place; if I haven’t bumped into her before this weekend, I never will again.
Nathan’s face splits into a wide grin. “I think Arianna and I are living proof that life has a funny way of making things slot into place when you least expect it.” His tone exudes so much confidence that, for a brief moment, I believe him before the doubt returns.
My belief that things would work out for me was wearing thin, then on Friday, I genuinely thought the tide was turning. The phenomenal woman who sat beside me, in a seat I hadn’t booked, felt serendipitous.
I was wrong. Yet again.
The universe is laughing at me, but there is nothing funny about it.
While Nathan and Arianna’s one-night stand might have developed into something neither of them could have predicted, I already know my situation with Mina has ended before it even began.
The ship didn’t just sail away; it’s sunk somewhere at the bottom of the ocean and is already covered in barnacles.
I don’t want to think about her anymore, and I’m over this conversation, so I change the subject.
“I met Tracey Bennett last week at the conference in LA, and she hinted that she was thinking of leaving Cooke & McGrath. I think we should make her an offer.” She’s an incredible employment lawyer, and we could use someone like her on the team.
Two minutes in her presence and you feel reenergized.
She’d make a great practice group leader.
“That’s a great idea, I’ll give her a call.” Nathan has always wanted her to join the firm.
Just when I think he’s finished talking about my previous predicament, Nathan keeps his voice calm when he asks, “So this girl, Mina? Maybe you’ll have to forget her. For now.”
He means forever.
“Yeah,” I agree, hating that I must. My heart feels broken. How is that possible?
I need to stop dwelling on the weekend. What happened, happened. Her phone number is lost, and there’s nothing I can do to find it.
Nathan stands up and runs his hand down his tie to straighten it, then knocks his knuckles on my desk. “Throw yourself into work. Or”—he stalls—“get back on the dating apps. I know how much you love those.” His tone is laced with sarcasm.
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with them, and while I’ve been hooked on them for months, now I can’t even stand the thought of logging on.
“You never know, Cole. She could be searching for you on one of those apps.”
His comment has me pushing back my shoulders, my spine straightening, and I’m suddenly filled with a sparkling sensation in my chest that feels a lot like hope.
Fuck.
Why didn’t I think about that?