Page 46 of Flirting with Trouble

Her brows knit. “I didn’t realize it was that late. It’s three hours later where you are. You must be exhausted.”

“I’m fine. I had fun tonight. I like talking with you.”

“Me too. You’re a fun friend, Wells, but you’re a sucky playboy.”

I scoff, more at her use of friend than sucky playboy, but I’ll play along. “You and I both know that’s not true.”

“You’re not supposed to become friends with your conquests.”

“I don’t. One day you’ll realize you’re a hell of a lot more than a conquest.” Before she can argue, I say, “I’m sure you’ll see me in your dreams tonight. G’night, sweet thing,” and end the call.

Chapter Ten

Victory

It’s nice to be back in New York. It felt good to sleep in my own bed last night and to go to the gym in my building this morning. While I was working out, Wells sent me a picture of himself jogging on the beach and an invitation to another game of WordLink. We had fun playing and chatting, but I’ve been at work for four hours now, and I haven’t had time to play a single word since I got here. I’m surprised by how much that annoys me. I’ve never gotten frustrated over work coming ahead of friends before.

Then again, I’ve never slept with a friend before.

But I can’t get lost in that right now, so I try to push those unwanted thoughts away—which feels like a habit, I’ve done it so often recently—and focus on the litany of excuses coming from one of my top agents over speakerphone about why his client has missed, or shown up late, to the last several events. I’m not in the mood for this.

“I don’t want to hear any more excuses, Kevin,” I say sharply, and stop pacing behind my desk. “Every time your client misses an event, this company’s reputation takes a hit. You’ve got one week to get Bo under control. If you can’t manage that, I’ll give him to someone who can.” I end the call, and a knock rings out on my office door. “Come in.”

The door opens, and Padma peers in, surveying me. Her dark hair is pulled back at the nape of her neck, and she’s the picture of professionalism in a black pantsuit. “I was going to ask if you had a minute, but you look like you want to kill someone, and I’d rather it wasn’t me.”

That makes me smile. “You’re safe. Come in. I just hung up with Kevin Mickelson. Bo Jasper missed another engagement, and the company called me.”

“Bo’s a handful.”

“I’m aware, but Kevin’s an excellent agent. He’s been with us for six years, and he’s one of the best at reining in clients. There must be something going on with him.”

Padma lowers her voice and says, “Don’t take this as gold, but I heard through the grapevine that Kevin and his husband are going through a rough patch.”

“Damn. Haven’t they been married for eight or nine years?”

“Almost nine.”

I sigh. “Now I feel bad. I just told him he’s got one week to fix this, or I’ll give Bo to another agent.”

“Business is business. He knows that.”

“I know, but I think I’ll call him back and see if he has time for lunch early next week. Maybe I can suggest something to help with Bo and offer a softer out if he needs a little time to get things back on track in his personal life.”

Padma smiles and shakes her head.

“What?”

“Kevin is worth the extra time and attention, but you’re just like Harvey. Hard as nails when you need to be and a soft place to land when your team needs it.”

As much as I love hearing that, it brings rise to the undercurrent of guilt I’ve been pretending hasn’t been there all week. “I’m not soft,” I say as we sit down.

“Being empathetic is not a bad thing,” Padma says. “Seeing past the bottom line when you’re the boss is a skill some people don’t have. Running this place is a thankless job, and you deserve to be commended for it.”

I wave my hand dismissively. “I appreciate that, but I love what I do.” Although, talking with Wells about the aspects of my job that I gave up when Harvey died was a harsh reminder of what I’m missing. “And I couldn’t do it without you, Padma, so you deserve a pat on the back, too. But I know you didn’t come in here to pat me on the back, so what’s going on?”

“I wanted to bring you up to speed on what went down with the M&O transition when you were gone. We hit a bump in the road with the software system. The company that was handling the software transition fell behind schedule, and they wanted us to push our deadline back by two months.”

“That won’t work. I’ll call them, and if they can’t meet the terms of the contract, I’ll get another tech company who can.”