Chapter 3
THREE
WHAT’S HER NAME?
Beckett
A few weeks later
The conference room emptied, and I waited until I waved goodbye to the last person before I gathered my things and headed into the hallway.
I should have expected it, but Natalie still startled me when I turned the corner.
I jumped but managed to catch my notepad and phone before both went flying.
“Sorry,” she apologized quickly. “I think that went well, right?”
Natalie, our Director of Office Administration, was my right-hand. The firm my dad built and passed on to me, Crawford Law PLLC, would not be what it is without her.
We both started down the long corridor, past cubicles and one of our copy rooms.
“I think so. I’m hopeful that the new team will fit in.”
Our meeting with the immigration department was to let them know we would be adding three new paralegals and a new attorney. The attorney wanted to transfer her practice to Crawford Law, and with her expertise and the numbers she was billing on her own, I knew it was a no-brainer.
Plus, her paralegals were top-notch. I just hoped they enjoyed the firm enough to stick around.
“They’re starting in a week, so I’ll keep you updated on onboarding. Let you know if we run into any hiccups. Alexandra, the new attorney, wants a meeting tomorrow afternoon to discuss a few details of the data transfer.”
Without thinking I nodded and agreed to the meeting. Natalie turned left, while I was supposed to go right when I realized my mistake. “Wait, what time tomorrow afternoon?”
Natalie spun and screwed up her brow, glancing down at her phone to check the time of the meeting. “Three p.m. Does that not work?”
“Can we move it to the morning? I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon that I can’t miss.”
Natalie nodded and started typing away on her phone, but I didn’t miss her incredulous look. Years of working together—decades, actually—meant I didn’t miss much. We knew each other better than most.
“Don’t give me that look,” I jokingly warned.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What I do know is that whatever the appointment is, it’s not on your calendar. But I just emailed Alexandra and asked to move it to tomorrow morning instead.”
I shook my head and rubbed my hand over my mouth to hide my smile. Of course she thought it was something scandalous, which I didn’t put past her. There had been many a time that I left specifics off my calendar because they weren’t work-friendly.
“I’m helping my aunt out with something,” I explained, but Natalie was already walking away.
“Sure, sure,” she muttered loud enough that I could still hear her as she stepped into her office at the end of the hall. It was a similar story I’d told a time or two when I was instead planning a date. Only this time, it was true.
After building the law firm and establishing it as one of the most sought-after businesses in the country, my parents retired and spent their time traveling while I ran the company. And my brother, Andrew, started an office in Chicago.
Which meant my dad’s older sister, Michelle, was my responsibility.
Not that I minded either. Aunt Michelle was one of my favorite people on the planet, and when she decided she wanted to live in what they called a “luxury living facility for active seniors,” I made sure she was taken care of.
Tomorrow was move-in day, and I had to be there to finalize the last-minute details and ensure the move-in process was seamless.
And it couldn’t have been a date anyway. I couldn’t touch another woman, let alone even think about one, when Bubbles was still heavy on my mind.
I walked the last few feet to my office and closed the door behind me. Finally by myself, I took a deep breath.
I would have fought the onslaught of thoughts, the same thoughts that had been occupying my brain every minute since I saw her at Abditory’s opening, but it was useless. Nothing worked, so I’d given up trying.
I was obsessed, plain and fucking simple. Especially since I still didn’t know her name, and she’d managed to slip out of our room without so much as a note or a wave goodbye afterward. The only thing she left behind was the sweet scent of her perfume on the sheets and her nail marks down my back.
But it was the impression she left on me that lasted the few weeks it had been since I’d last seen her. The rest of it faded, but the memory of her hadn’t.
My first thought—after the sudden and heartbreaking realization that she was gone—was that maybe she hadn’t had as good of a time as I suspected. But that thought disappeared just as quickly.
The way she was begging and pleading for me to make her come. Hell, the tears in her eyes at one point as I mercilessly pounded into her weren’t fake.
I dropped my notes on my desk and fell back into my leather chair, running my hands through my hair that was in desperate need of a cut. My frustration was at an all-time high, yet I couldn’t do anything about it.
I’d exhausted every option. Gone through the guest list top to bottom and asked every person I could think of, yet no one could tell me who the beautiful, curvy blonde was.
Bubbles. I was in so deep, and all I had was a fucking nickname.
Sitting up, I scooted closer to my desk and peered out the glass window in front of me.
My office was at the front of the suite.
Not because I wanted to spy but because I liked to be aware of what was happening at my own company, in my own firm.
I was responsible for everyone inside. My name was on the door, the people who worked here deserved a boss who cared and who paid attention.
Our receptionist, Pearl, walked by and waved at me through the window. I waved back and plastered a quick smile on my face. When she passed, it dropped immediately.
I jiggled my mouse, and my computer screen lit up.
Logging in, I pulled up the document I’d been meticulously reviewing ever since Nathan emailed it to me.
It was the guest list for his club opening, which I’d had to bribe him to get.
Although watching his dog, Cuddles, for free the next time he needed me wasn’t exactly a hardship.
I would’ve done it without anything in return.
Nathan was the one that felt it necessary to pay me. He was nice like that.
I knew many of them, and those I didn’t know, I’d consulted Nathan about. Neither of us could identify who my Bubbles—as he so lovingly referred to her—might be. There had been a few close calls, but none of them were her.
Nathan had kept his thoughts to himself, although I could have easily guessed what he’d say. We’d known each other since college, so he’d known me through every relationship. And when I wanted something, I pursued it with everything I had.
I knew I was verging on crazy, but I couldn’t let it go. I wouldn’t let her go.
The woman had made such a big impact on me, I wouldn’t stop until I knew every single thing about her.
Starting with her name.