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“Yes, it is.”
My hands tightened into fists. “Christ, Elise, if you would have told me this a month ago, all this—”
“I’m sorry, Weston, but out of context, I couldn’t have known how important it was. It only makes sense now, which is why I’m in your office.”
Though what she was saying was completely rational, I had to work to rein in my temper. There she was, looking beautiful and sad and so fucking far away. If I could have crossed the room, I would have shaken her or held her or fucked her. Maybe all three. But then what? Andes was hanging by a thread. What I wanted didn’t come into play. Not now.
“Is that it?”
She blinked, her shoulders falling. “I guess it is.”
She started for the door, and I stepped aside, holding my breath. If I caught her scent, I feared I’d give in and lose sight of what I had to be doing.
At the last second, she whirled around to face me. “I heard you telling Renata not to allow me into your office.”
I flinched at her admission. I hadn’t done that to be cruel. I’d done it out of necessity. “I’m sorry you heard that. But you have to understand—”
She held her hand up, and it was dangerously close to touching me. “And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I knocked on your door Saturday morning. Miles answered, and he was the one to tell me you’d gone to California. You left the state and didn’t bother telling me.” Her tongue darted out to lick her lips. “What are youdoing?”
“I’m trying to save my company, Elise. I thought you knew that.”
“No, Weston. What are you doing with me?” She huffed a breath. “I’m not even a consideration, am I?”
Phones were ringing on the other side of the door. Voices of people coming to work, attempting to rectify the disaster happening tomycompany. My plate was full, and I’d just been given one more thing to add to it.
I was cracking, being pulled in so many directions, my head was spinning.
And the woman I loved, the woman I’d made promises to, was in front of me, rightfully hurt, needing me.
I was fucking up, like I always did, and there was nothing to be done. There was no trading one disaster for another. Right here, right now, I had to choose which one to tend to.
“I can’t do this with you. We’ll talk when I’m out from under this, but it can’t be now. People are waiting for me so—”
Her fingers grazed along the arm of my jacket. “I was waiting for you.”
There was finality in her gentle words. Past tense. A death knell delivered like a basket of kittens. It would have killed me if I had let it, and I couldn’t do that.
“I told you before we started I was no good at this. I warned you, didn’t I?” My anger resurfaced, but even I didn’t know where it was directed. It was just…there. Thick and suffocating.
“I guess you did. I’m sorry I didn’t listen.” She backed up until she hit the door, then she fumbled with the knob. “And don’t worry about talking once this is over. I think we’ve said all we needed to. I hope it all works out. Andes is a good company.”
She was gone in the next second, and the sense of wrongness hit me like a ton of bricks. I almost chased her, but I had no idea what I’d say if I caught her.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I yanked it out to check the notification. Elise’s picture lit up my lock screen.
Fuck.
Black coated my vision, and I hurled the phone against the wall, the loud crack like music to my fucking ears. The urge to pummel my fists through the drywall nearly overtook me. My body listed forward, my hands ready to pound something into oblivion.
Why did she have to do this?
Why couldn’t she have given me the time to take care of what I needed to?
I shoved my fingers through my hair. There was no time for this. Andes was too big.I’dbuilt it into something too massive to let my personal feelings affect my work.
One minute.
That was what I gave myself to pull it together.
