27. BEN
27
BEN
W e sat in the dining room, waiting for Richard. I had all the paperwork ready for him to sign on the tablet that we always used. Alex had had the lawyers draw it up and I’d received it this morning, just in time for this meeting.
Sofia sat next to me, but she was closed off from me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Sofia nodded, but she looked pale, and she didn’t keep eye contact with me for long. Her hands were knotted together in her lap.
“Talk to me.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “I just feel a little sick. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
I frowned, concerned. “What kind of sick?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.” She was short with me, closed off. I didn’t know how to reach her.
Last night, she’d been so open with me and the sex we’d had… I’d never had that with a woman before. I’d never had sex be so… loving. Now, it was as if everything had changed. It was as if some kind of barrier had fallen back into place between us, and the woman I’d been able to reach last night was too far away for me to find.
I would try to figure it out later. Richard was going to be here any second, and I couldn’t let my worries about Sofia distract me from sealing the deal once and for all.
We waited in silence, and I watched the door.
Time ticked on, and Richard was later and later.
“Where the hell is he?” I asked. I was getting frustrated—both with Richard being late and with Sofia being so distant. I had no idea what was going on, and this tension that came from being with a woman was new to me and quite frankly, I hated it.
Was this part and parcel of being in a relationship? Because this wasn’t what I’d had in mind when I’d told her I was falling for her. What we’d had last night… that was what I’d imagined, but long term.
My phone rang.
“That’s Richard now,” I muttered when I saw his name on my caller ID. I put on a smile. “Richard, how are things?”
“Not good,” Richard said. His voice was strained. “I’m going to need to postpone. I have a medical emergency I can’t ignore.”
“Oh, no,” I said, blood draining from my face. Postponing was never good. Postponing could lead to canceling and we couldn’t afford that. I usually wanted a contract signed as soon as possible, so the window for someone to change their mind was small.
The longer we left it, the more time Richard had to think about it without me or Sofia being able to convince him and I didn’t want him to find some reason to change his mind.
“I hope everything is okay,” I said.
“Me too. I’m having pains in my chest and my left arm and I don’t want this thing to turn into a heart attack.”
“Oh, God, no. Please, take care of yourself and let me know how you are once you know what’s going on.”
“I will, I will,” Richard said and ended the call.
Dread settled in my stomach.
What if Richard died? That would be disastrous. How would this project move forward without him as an investor? I didn’t know if we would be able to find someone else in his place, and the whole thing was just… fuck.
“He’s not going to make it today,” I said to Sofia.
She looked even paler than before, and I frowned.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said and stood.
“What’s going on?” Why didn’t she want to talk to me? It suddenly felt like fucking everyone was shutting me out.
“I’m going to excuse myself,” she said in a strained voice and all but ran away.
“Sofia?” I called after her, but she was out of the dining room before I could do something.
I got up to go after her when my phone rang again. I reached the door and saw Sofia go into the restroom. Shortly after, Amy followed her.
I didn’t know Amy was here.
My phone kept ringing and I checked the caller ID, hoping to hear from Richard, have some good news, something .
It was Alex.
Damn it.
“Hey, bro,” I said, answering the call. I couldn’t miss the call. Alex was my brother, but right now he was phoning about the project, which meant he was my boss. And I couldn’t ignore a phone call from my boss.
“When is your meeting scheduled for?” Alex asked. “You got the documents?”
“It’s supposed to be now, but Richard had an emergency.” I didn’t mention that our investor might die. Yeah, that wasn’t going to go down very well. “I’ll reschedule with him as soon as possible, but it’s in the bag.”
“Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched,” Alex said, and I could imagine his scowl. “It’s not official until we have that signature. How long are you going to have to extend your stay?”
“A day or two at the most,” I said, sounding confident, although the truth was, I had no idea. If it was serious and Richard was in the hospital, it might be longer. But we could go back and then come back to Harborview later.
I could go as far as planning a second business trip like this with Sofia, and the second time around we could really be together… the idea was a good one.
“Okay, good,” Alex said, echoing my thoughts, although the reaction wasn’t to what I’d been thinking. “Let me know what’s happening, but until we have his signature—”
“I know, I know. It’s not official.”
“You know how these things go. Too much can go wrong, and we don’t bank on something that’s not official.”
I sighed. Of course, I knew all of this shit. I was a part of the company, I’d done a hell of a lot of contracts with plane sales… but Alex was just doing his job as the guy overseeing this project, I guess. It was supposed to make the company look good, and Alex was the CEO. It was all a part of his environmentally friendly direction, and we’d been working hard to swing things in a different direction.
It irritated me that Alex didn’t think I could do the job the way he would have it done, but he’d sent me, so he would just have to trust that things were going to work out.
Even if I might have made it work in slightly unconventional ways.
I thought of Sofia.
“I’ll talk to you as soon as I know what’s going on,” I said absently when I saw her and Amy leaving the restroom and walking to the living room.
“You do that,” Alex said. “Keep me updated as we go along. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Marina to take care of your stay for two more days and all that entails.”
“Thanks,” I said, and we ended the call.
I headed toward the living room to find Sofia and find out what was going on with her. Clearly, I was missing something, and I wasn’t going to wait for her to tell Amy to tell me.
I wanted to hear it from Sofia directly.
I’d been open with her about everything, baring my soul to her. The least she could do was offer me the same courtesy instead of telling me that everything was fine when I knew it wasn’t.
I hoped it wasn’t her health, but deep down, a deep-seated fear, I was a lot more worried that it wasn’t her health… it was me.