17. Henry
17
HENRY
M ia couldn’t have run out of my apartment any faster. I watched her all morning after we slept together, and every time I noticed her looking toward the door and seeming to feel uncomfortable, I wished that she’d want to stay.
Sure, things were awkward. We’d messed up big time, acting on our desire before figuring out how to make it work.
I was confident we could. We had to. Two people could fit and make sense as well as we did without there being a chance of lasting.
I was the CEO, for fuck’s sake. If I wanted to enact a change to the ethics policies and scratch out the rules about not fraternizing, then I would.
But her eagerness to bolt disheartened me. My mood lingered, keeping me quiet and morose for several days.
It didn’t help that Jason was needier than usual. Ever since Ann opened her damn mouth and spewed that bullshit about a boarding school, I’d been facing issues. My dad noticed too.
“What’s with this sudden separation anxiety?” he asked one night when he came over to play with him.
I sighed then explained what Ann had said. His expression changed from a frown to a scowl. He shifted from frustration and worry to anger. Then he frowned again, seeming sad. “She had no right to say such a thing.”
I shrugged, looking at him expectantly. He’d introduced her. I was the one who politely told her I wasn’t available. Part of this fell on him for insinuating that I had to give her a chance. “She had no right to be encouraged into thinking she had a golden ticket to belong in our lives.”
He hung his head. “I… I can see how she was a bad fit now.”
I nodded. “Very bad fit.”
“I only want you to find?—”
I held up my hand to silence him. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I already have found someone? A woman I would love to grow old with? A partner in life to grow my family with me?”
He didn’t reply, looking to the side. His chagrined wince should’ve made me happy, that he was finally getting it and would butt out of my love life, or lack of one. It was on the tip of my tongue to expound even further, to come right out and tell him that I'd found Mia. That I wanted my secretary for much more than what she currently did in my life.
I couldn’t risk it now, though. Jason was clinging and asking constantly if she could come over or if he could hang out with her. She was really good with him, coming to his level and making him calmer. But she’d been busier than usual lately, going so far as to call off or tell Jen that she’d be in later.
It worried me. She seemed to be staying up late, always coming in so tired and then getting right to her tasks without making small talk with me at all. She looked half awake when she came to the office, and I kept wondering and growing more concerned with why she’d have such a robust nightlife all of a sudden.
Is she seeing someone?
Is she trying to avoid me since she’d had me?
Moving on?
I sighed at my desk, determined to stop this insanity of guessing and speculating. As soon as she came in today, I’d ask.
She was the one who said we’d have sex just that one time. Then we defied her prediction by fucking twice more that night. One night wouldn’t cut it for me, but I couldn’t shake off the thought that she might be done with me like that.
That does it. It’d been days now. I was asking her as soon as she got in. Thinking ahead, I ordered lunches to be delivered and texted her that I had lunch for her, waiting in my office.
She replied, which should’ve reassured me. It should’ve made me feel better that she wasn’t blowing me off.
Mia: Okay.
That was it. My offer of lunch and to spend time with me earned me nothing but an okay .
“Dammit.” I dragged my hands over my face, wishing I could get a better read on her. I couldn’t dismiss the idea of her reacting to having sex with me like this, pushing me away. I’d never regret sleeping with her, but I was weighed down with the awful hunch that in doing so, I’d ruined our friendship.
Just before she was due to come in, I checked that the delivered lunch bags were closed up tight on my desk. I’d ordered her favorite, hoping that would get me a smile. First, though, I had to drop off a couple of things at Jen’s desk.
Finished with that task, I strolled back to my office. Looking down at my phone to follow through the many messages and emails I had to stop putting off for too long, I almost ran into someone who’d gotten off the elevator.
A distinctive, cloying, and too-strong perfume reached my nose as I sidestepped at the last minute. When I saw that it was Ann dropping by, I deadpanned.
I assumed that after talking with my dad about what she said, he’d tell her to stay away. He was fiercely protective of Jason, like I was, and there was no way that he’d let her continue to think she could be here and seek me out. Then again, maybe he hadn’t had a chance to speak with her and set her straight, that no one came here and suggested that Jason be carted off to a boarding school as a nuisance.
“What do you want?”
She pushed her straight blonde hair back and tipped her chin up. “You’re not giving me enough attention, Henry.”
I looked down at the carpet, wishing I could find some reserve of patience and manners there. I saw no inspiration. I was depleted of tolerance for her. It was with clenched teeth and an urge to shout that I looked up at her again.
I bristled, knowing I didn’t owe her any attention in the first place.
“You have to pay attention to me to earn me,” she nagged, smiling haughtily like she knew she had to be right.
That remark irritated me more than her attitude did. Ann was just like Mackenzie, materialistic and wanting things and all of me, never realizing that I had to work. I doubted Ann had ever worked a day in her life. She’d balked at having to volunteer for a measly hour at the picnic, like the thought of being productive for someone else was horrid.
Mia got it. She understood all that was on my plate, and more than that, she was one of the hardest workers I knew.
“You know what? I don’t have time for this.” I gestured to the hallway, loosely indicating the direction toward my office. “Mia will be here soon, and I have to speak with her about something.” I did. I was desperate to ask if she was seeing someone on all these late nights or if she was avoiding me after sleeping with me. But Ann didn’t deserve to know any of that.
“Are you interested in her?” She jutted one hip out, crossing her arms tighter. Her stance was defensive, but her tone was offensive. The combo pissed me off. I just wanted her gone. “Are you interested in Mia?”
“That’s none of your business.” I was, but I’d be damned if I'd answer her and let her think she had control of this conversation, one I wanted to be done with now.
“I thought you were a smart man, Henry. Someone smarter than trusting a filthy criminal like her.”
I scowled, slitting my eyes and ready to lash out at her for slandering the woman I loved. I wouldn’t stand for her to make up this bullshit. I got it. She was jealous and antagonistic of Mia, but this was taking it too far.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded.
She huffed a laugh. “My God. You’re so clueless.”
I gritted my teeth, taking offense to that remark. Mackenzie used to say I was clueless as well. She’d nag that I was too stuck in my work to be aware of how unsatisfied she was with me. That I was oblivious to how long she’d been cheating on me near the end. She claimed that I had tunnel vision to work and it was my biggest flaw.
“She’s a criminal,” Ann enunciated, spelling it out like I was a moron.
I shook my head. This was bullshit. How low would she stoop? “No, she’s not. Mia couldn’t be a criminal.”
Ann lifted her chin, defiant. “Yes, she is. I did my homework on her.”
I shook my head faster as wrath claimed me. “Impossible. I’d never let a criminal be an employee on the executive floor. I’d never let someone with a record handle sensitive documents. And I sure as hell wouldn’t trust someone like that to be near my son.”
Ann grinned, covering her mouth like she had to keep in laughter. She was looking past me, at the elevators.
With the sinking feeling of my stomach dropping, I turned and found Mia.
She’d overheard it all. She frowned, not making eye contact as her cheeks turned pink. When she blushed, it was normally sexy. Her flush made her that much more real to me, but right now, the idea of her experiencing embarrassment peeved me.
She’d only be embarrassed if this nonsense Ann was saying was true.
But it couldn’t be.
“Then I’ll quit,” she said, not looking up at me. “I’ll see myself out.”