Chapter 11
Donovan
I haven’t seen her today, and as I sit here waiting for my lunch date, I feel antsy.
“More coffee, sir?” the waitress asks, and I lift my hand to stop her pouring. Any more caffeine and I’ll be bouncing off the walls more than I already am. I’ve eaten two large handfuls of chocolate coffee beans and had two expressos. My blood might as well be black at this point.
I got a text message from Jessica this morning, so I know she got my gift.
Gordon has also reported to me about her coffee shop run, specifically for the security team, and now I have my facility team running that down.
I don’t need her traipsing around the city in the middle of winter, grabbing coffee for security guards.
So I have instructed the team to build a whole new kitchen.
One that’s closer to the security desk, with new barista machines, fresh meals, and anything else they need.
All because I can’t wait an extra five minutes for her to be in the office each morning.
“Sorry, Donovan, I got caught up.” Bentley approaches me, albeit walking a little slower than I’ve noticed before. Considering he’s pushing late seventies, I guess he will start to slow down a little.
“It’s fine. I know what it’s like.” I stand, shaking his hand in greeting before we both take a seat.
“So, you ran out of the event quickly the other night.” He looks at me from under his brow as he gets settled.
“Yeah, well, Marcus was being an asshole.”
“When is Marcus not an asshole?”
I grin at that. I like Bentley. He says it how it is and doesn’t really sugarcoat anything. Along with my father, he’s taught me everything I know.
“Have you heard anything about their expansion into Asia?”
The waitress walks up and takes our lunch orders. Once she leaves, our conversation resumes.
“Only what everyone else has. I’m waiting to see if he makes me an offer.”
My eyebrow lifts. “Are you thinking of selling your ownership in APAC?” Because that’s an acquisition I would be interested in. I may hold market share, but Bentley has solid ownership there too.
“No. But I sure would like him to try and approach me about it. Besides, if I want to sell, you’ll be the first person I contact.”
My shoulders lower, happy with his statement. “I don’t know… there’s something about the strategy he’s using that feels off.”
“I agree.”
“Jessica thinks there's more to it. I mean, where the hell are they getting their capital from?”
“Your lady friend is a smart woman.”
“She’s not… my lady friend.”
His eyes shoot to mine. “She’s not your usual type.” He’s obviously ignoring my previous statement.
“She’s intelligent, quick, thorough… she’s a fantastic asset to my team.” I try to downplay my true feelings.
“How long have we been friends, Donovan?”
“A long time,” I answer him, wondering where he’s going with this.
“I might be old, but I’m not blind. You have feelings for the girl.”
I shake my head and scoff at him. “She’s my business advisor.
” I cement the fact, more so for myself than Bentley, because as much as I want to spend time with her outside of the office, it’s a really bad idea.
A bad idea I’ve already acted on by giving her a driver, a new scarf, and a morning coffee.
“She may be exactly that, and I dare say a fantastic hire, but I saw the way you looked at her. Your eyes followed her the entire night.”
“She’s my staff member at her first networking event; of course, I had to keep an eye on her.” That and I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Working the room. Giving everyone her warm, genuine smile. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, even if I tried.
“She was looking at you the same way.”
I pause, and he gives me a look that tells me he’s the smartest man in the room.
“I don’t think—”
He cuts me off. “Do you know where your father met your mother?”
The question catches me off guard, and I sit straighter. “No. Why are you bringing that up?” I’m confused. Is he losing his marbles?
“She was his assistant.” He sips his coffee, and I blink at him.
“Really?” I never knew this. I never knew my mom worked. I never really asked how they met. I just assumed that they met through friends at some posh fundraising event or something.
“Do you know how I met Bertie?” The mention of his late wife makes me frown even more.
I shake my head. “No.”
“She was the tea trolley lady at the company I worked for straight out of college. Bertie would come through the office where I was working as a cadet at ten a.m. every morning to deliver snacks and cakes to the staff. I still remember the small lemon slice she would reserve just for me. She used to hide it in a secret drawer, telling everyone else that she was out of stock, and then when she pulled up to my desk, she would slide out this little plate, with a small napkin folded just right, and put it on my desk and there was the last piece of lemon slice. You know every Friday up until the day she died, she brought me a piece of lemon slice.”
I breathe out, eyes narrowing. “This is a very nice story, Bentley, but I fail to see your point.”
“My point is, most people meet through work. I saw a statistic on this the other day which stated that forty-three percent of people who have a workplace romance ended up marrying that person.”
“Are you feeling alright, Bentley?” I brush off the comment, trying to act like I’m not completely fascinated by that fact.
“Denial doesn’t suit you,” he deadpans.
Yeah, but it’s the smartest response. I have no idea what it is about Jessica that has me thinking about her almost every minute of every day.
I feel ridiculous, like a schoolboy with a crush.
It’s not how I usually handle myself, and my thoughts of her are so far off the professional, I can’t believe I’m even entertaining it.
But my chest has never burned for a woman like it does every time I see her.
My heart hasn’t skipped a beat when a woman walks into my office like it does when Jessica steps through my doorway.
I sigh and sit back, looking at him.
“Fine. She’s amazing. I really love her brains and her beauty.
She’s easy to talk to. Our work ethic aligns.
She’s nothing like the women I usually meet in the best possible ways.
But… she’s my staff member. I can’t do anything,” I tell him directly, even though in the car, I wanted nothing more than to kiss her senseless and almost did.
“Hmmmm… what a conundrum.” He’s teasing me now.
“I hired her for her smarts. She’s a very big asset to York Enterprises.
Her career is building, and I can’t just go and take that away from her.
” I’m in a lose-lose situation. Bentley watches me silently as I lay my cards out for the man who knows me better than I know myself sometimes.
I never thought I would be in this position.
“What, so you are full of stats and romantic stories and now you have no advice for me?”
“I know what I would do.”
I wait, wishing he would just tell me already. I feel like I’m stuck between doing what’s right and feeling what’s real.
“Care to share?”
“You know more than anyone it can get pretty lonely at the top. Finding that one person who can be by your side in this business is hard… Let me ask you a question. If you’re offered a deal that has a fifty percent chance of return versus a fifty percent chance of failure, what would you do?”
“Take the deal. It’s fifty-fifty, but if I lose, I could probably weather the storm.
” I’ve done many deals like that. It’s what helped get York Enterprises to where it is today.
I’ve taken risks. Not because they all worked out, some failed dramatically, but that’s business.
You roll with the bad and hope the good catapults you further ahead than before.
“Well, you have your answer.” He sits back, looking at me like a cat that’s got the cream, and I huff a laugh at myself, realizing that I backed myself right into that corner.
“Your steaks, sirs.” The waitress walks up, depositing our meals and topping our drinks as Bentley and I look at each other silently across the table.
Once she leaves, I speak again.
“The only problem with that is if it doesn’t work.
If I experience the loss as opposed to the gain in this scenario, I’m not sure that’s something I could weather…
” Workplace issues aside, I’ve always kept my emotional distance from women.
That's why I'm forever an eligible bachelor.
Being emotionally unavailable has kept me focused, kept me sane, kept me alone.
But I already know it would be different with Jessica.
“Well, every deal worth taking carries risk. If it didn't, someone else would already have taken it. You don’t build a legacy by playing safe. You build it by knowing the stakes, trusting your gut, and being the kind of leader who can choose what matters most. Whether you walk away whole or not, that’s the price of something real.
” Bentley picks up his steak knife like he didn’t just deliver me the holy grail of advice and starts to dig in.
And I realize that’s the point of it all.
Jessica is real. Everything else I’ve experienced in life has been curated.
Like an art exhibition or a magazine shoot.
The details of my life, where I went to school, who I befriended, working in the business, living a lonely solitary life, my parents built me up to be the man they wanted, to be the man who took on the business, and I just went with it.
It was my sole focus. But now Jessica has come along and made me think what life would be like if I just stepped out of the lines a little.
I just don’t know if this is the beginning of something real, or the end of everything I’ve ever known.