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I’d come from a good family. A solid background. My father had a great steady job and had paid for half my college education. I’d been fortunate.
Cooper, on the other hand, had had to work for every thing he’d ever wanted.
College had come with four part time jobs. His career was built on the back of his nearly breaking his back to attain his goals.
I’d been so proud of him, and when I’d been checking out ad agencies and found his picture on one of the sites… I’d pushed that one to the top of the pile, knowing Justin would trust in my opinion.
I hadn’t abused my position. Not really.
Justin could always say no to Leviathan and Dronig’s proposition. And, the truth was, no matter what Cooper did, he always put his all into it. If Justin went with them and asked for Cooper like I’d recommended, he’d get his money’s worth.
Without a doubt.
I don’t even have to know the man now to realize that. One of Cooper’s strengths was his reliability.
He was one of those guys you could depend on in a crisis, and I knew that wouldn’t have changed. Driven and determined, he’d been a force to be reckoned with back then. Now? I could only imagine how success had further strengthened him.
The fact he left school with a job offer at the agency he’s still working at, having worked his way up to Ad Exec told me so much about the man.
He hadn’t changed.
Was I counting on that?
I wasn’t sure.
He’s a ghost I needed to exorcise, that I did know.
It wasn’t that no man compared to him. It’s that every guy I’d dated… well, Cooper had left a shadow of himself imprinted on me. I needed to get rid of that ghost once and for all.
My boss, Justin, had been rich from birth. He had a silver spoon in his mouth but he wasn’t a bastard with it.
If anything, he’s too kind.
It’s weird to work for one of the Gandys. They were the family everyone in the town talked about because they were old money. Seriously old too.
Like railroad baron rich.
That’s why, when I’d applied for the job with Justin, I was surprised at the fact that he was, a, nice, but b, a great boss too.
His estate consisted of one large property; and when I said large, I meant it. It was the size of some office buildings in the city. Three stories high and designed to be like an old English mansion in the Palladian style. Tall and narrow with grand windows and elegant molding.
When he inherited after his parents died, he added on a kind of
greenhouse to the back of the property. Part greenhouse and part conservatory.
That’s where I worked.
It was a great place to have an office too. I overlooked an expansive garden that made a football pitch look small, and in summer, the gardeners created the best floral displays out on the lawn.
From the conservatory it was a decent walk to the front door—the one downside.
I got to my feet and straightened out my skirt. Peering into the mirror behind my desk, I messed with my hair, and made sure my make-up was right.
I looked as I’ve pretty much always done.
My hair was the same wren brown as always, and as ever, flat and impossible to do anything with. My skin was pale but creamy, and my dull hair actually contrasted with it—not in a bad way, either. I had dark brown eyes with super long lashes that were a mascara-free blessing, and my lips were painted a ruby red I’d stained them with that morning as I’d known today was the day I’d see him again.
Cooper.
