AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When I look from his fingers to his face, there’s no expression there. He’s a blank canvas.
“When you’re settled, come find me. I have a proposition for you.”
I pull my hand away and ignore the tingling sensation, something I haven’t felt with a man…well, since him.
“Okay. Yes. I’ll…I’ll come find you.”
Flashes of memories come back to me as I march toward an open area of cubicles and offices. A teenage Jenson, laughing so hard I can see all of his perfect teeth, the feeling of his mouth curving into a smile against my skin.
The last one sends a shiver up my spine that I hope Liza doesn’t notice.
“What were you doing withJenson Sharpe?” she hisses, blocking me into a corner near the water cooler.
“He was just helping me out after I got lost. I took a wrong turn—”
“You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t go straight to HR and tell them to let you go.”
I scoff. “He can’t do that.”
Liza’s eyes are wide with warning.
“Yes, he can. Jenson Sharpe is practically God here. Whatever he says, goes.”
My heart drops into my stomach like a stone as Liza dives into a tour of my new work space and team.
A part of me wants to run far, far away from Jenson.
But I need this job. I took it for a reason.
I’ll just have to ignore the guilt gnawing at me and do whatever I can to remain employed. Hopefully, Jenson has moved past me disappearing from his life and realized that we were just kids with crushes. Fooling around in the back of cars, going to the movies as an excuse to touch in the dark.
Was that all it was?The omniscient voice in my head asks saucily. I ignore it and decide to focus on one problem at a time.
And right now, that’s getting to know every detail about my job as the head of marketing.
Even if it means having to face my past. Every. Single. Day.
Chapter2
Jenson
When 5:30 p.m. rolls around, it hits me that I’ve barely gotten anything done today. Not that there was a lot on my calendar, but I was irritated enough to ask my assistant to cancel two calls that probably should have happened.
Instead, I paced. Walked the long length of my office. Wondering what the hell Mel Atkinson was doing at my company.
Not yours yet, the voice in my head reminds me.Zach could always steal it right out from under you.
Infuriating, but it’s important to stay humble and not get ahead of myself. Roy Dupont, owner and creator of Dupont Analytics, is a humble man, and he respects the same in others. And right now, I need him to see the best in me.
Everything had been lining up nicely until lunch yesterday, when Roy suggested we head down to Vernon’s Diner. It’s not a place I like to be seen, but it’s one of Roy’s favorites, so I agreed.
Full of blue-collar workers and retirees, Vernon’s reeks of nicotine, grease, and mediocre coffee. Roy always orders the same thing: a Banker’s Hour plate and a hot chocolate with whipped cream. In his late sixties now, Roy doesn’t worry so much about his health as he does about his happiness. Which is why he’s planning on retiring at the end of this year.
“It’s not your competence I’m worried about, Jenson,” he said, happily picking at the piled high plate of breakfast food. “It’s the fact that you don’t seem settled. I’m worried that if I pass the company over to you, you’ll just sell it in the next five years. And Dupont Analytics, well…I built it from the ground up. I can’t let that happen.”
Initially, I’d been offended. But after spending the entire night replaying our conversation over and over in my head, I understood what had given him the impression that I didn’t “seem settled.”
During the last few years, I’ve dated only casually and very publicly. No one sticks around for more than a couple of months. And I trade living arrangements almost as often, finding a new townhouse or penthouse apartment as soon as I get bored.
