Ten Days of Perfect (14 page)

Bo finally spoke, “David, I hypnotized these fine women with my music nearly a week ago- see how anxious they are?” He grinned like a cat with a mouse in its mouth and raised an eyebrow in my direction.

The four of us broke in to a relieved laughter; more relieved than David could even know that this little itty bitty cat was out of the bag. We just had to keep t
he lion at bay a while longer.

During the hour-long meeting
,
we acquainted ourselves with David, and he with us.
He promised to
get in contact with our boss to arrange a trip to DROP headquarters in New
Hampshire. I glanced quickly at Bo, for the first time during the whole meeting, and caught him looking back at me, smiling at the mention of going to New Hampshire. I was acting a little more distant than I’d planned, but I couldn’t look at him directly in the eyes; not with the weight of a thousand lifetimes resting on my bones.

David’s soft voice broke my stare, “Bo’s father,
Spencer
, was a good friend of mine. I’m thrilled to help his boy carry out his vision. I’m looking forward to the meeting next week.”

“We’re looking forward to it,
as well
,” Monica entered. “I do have to ask, though, there are thousands of non-profits up and down the New England coast; how did you stumble upon ours?” I
shot Monica an interested look.

I had assumed that they researched articles on various organizations and saw that ours was often featured for Monica’s outstanding efforts at outreach and education, and my ability to seek out and secure funds from various sources for large amounts of money. Maybe she knew this, too, but wanted to hear it.

“Good question,” David answered, “We had our legal team do some research on successful non-profits, and yours was among them. While we have visited several in the area over the last week, yours came highly recommended by a member of the team. Adrian Turner.”

Monica’s gasp filled my ears, and competed with the sound of my pounding heart. I prayed the look on my face didn’t match Monica’s; she was as white as the paper she was holding.
Maybe you’ve cracked under Bo’s hot gaze and gone crazy
- and Monica has too.

“Um,” I cleared my throat with what little grace I could muster, “did you say
Adrian Turner
? Princeton University undergrad, and Harvard Law School?” I tried to will the still-unidentified feeling from my face.
Fear, anger, general nausea?

“Yea, that’s him. You know him?” Bo’s tone told me he read my face just right.

Monica composed herself quicker than I could
.
“Yea, we both know him. He had a lot of public relations classes with us at Princeton; we were in
the same
study groups and whatnot. He’s an incredible asset, you’re lucky
to
have him. We’ll have to thank him for the connection!”

She’s good.

“OK,” I continued, immediately needing this meeting to end so I could go scream into a pillow
, “Thank you so much for squeezing us into your busy
week. David, I’ll have Carrie get in touch with you on Monday to arrange an overnight in New Hampshire.”

“Sounds great. Thank you Ms. Harris, Ms. Pierce.” David shook our hands and headed toward the door.

“I’ll catch up with you later, David.”
Bo told him, slowing down while
gathering materials.

Shit, does he want to talk to me about last night, this weekend, my reaction to Adrian, or all of it?

By the time the sound of David’s car faded to the distance, the three of us hadn’t moved from our seats.

“Bo, could you hang out here for a couple of minutes, I have to talk to Ember in my office.” Monica attempted the most graceful exit po
ssible under the circumstances.

“S
ure.” He shifted uncomfortably.

The searing neon blinking “Adrian” sign overtook my brain and I wanted to run and scream. We left the door to the meeting room open, but shut the door to Monica’s office.

“Holy shit! What the hell?” Monica said in the loudest whisper known to man.

“Did you have
any
idea?” I was breathless
,
my eyes darted around the room.

I knew Monica was friends with Adrian on Facebook, but she never spoke of him.
I also
knew she’d tell me if he
mentioned he was working with someone and referring
us to them
, but I was grasping for any explanation.

“Get a grip,
Em. You
know
I’d say something to you if I knew.” Monica rolled her eyes, annoyed.

“I guess it’s totally possible he was just doing the fellow-graduate good deed thing by showing us preference
in the search process.”
That really
was
the most likely explanation, had we not cried during break-up sex.

“Yea, let’s go with that for now
. At least until
we h
ave a chance to talk with him.”

“Agreed, I guess we
will
have to talk to him. I suppose I should be the one to call
him;
he’d know I was avoiding him if you called.” Uneasiness regained its footing in my gut.

“Smart. OK, I’ll get his contact info, email Carrie about our meeting,
and then stay here until you’ve finished talking with Bo,” Monica said, motioning to the door.

“Oh shit!” I had completely f
orgotten he was waiting for me.

In the meeting room, Bo was leaning against the window with his hands in his pockets. The light sought out and illuminated his deep blue eyes as he turned to me.

“Hey, sorry about that. Today has been ridiculous.” I shut the door behind me.

“It’s OK.” He smiled so sincerely I instantly felt my throat tighten. “
H
ow’s Monica?”

“Ugh,” I sat down in the closest chair and rested my elbows on the table while my hands held my head, “my heart is
actually breaking for her, Bo.”

I wanted him to tell me that I would never feel what Monica felt. I certainly didn’t intend to make
him
ever feel that way. He, however, didn’t know how I felt about him. I was at an unfair advantage with the information Monica had given me.

He left the window and sat in the chair next to me. “What happened?”

Leave out the thousand lifetime’s thing, whatever you do.
My eyes met his as I
rested my chin on closed fists.

“He just…he told her that if there was a soul-shifting, core-quaking love for everyone…” my breath caught for a split second
, “he wasn’t sure she was his.”

I broke his gaze and glanced out the window.

“He didn’t even look her in the eyes when he told her, Bo. He couldn’t even give her the respect of a little eye contact as he shredded her soul.” My cheeks burned, fighting the tears working their way to the surface of my eyes.

“Damn,” he said, closing his eyes briefly. I wondered if he was relieved that I didn’t seem to know his part in that conversation. I wondered if he felt bad at all, even
though it wasn’t his fault.

“Do you believe him? Josh, I mean, about the s
oul
-core thing?” he asked. I nodded and rubbed my forehead.

“I really do.” I opened my eyes and found him studying my face.

“Does Adrian Turner have anything to do with that look on your face?” It was barely a question.

Well, that didn’t take long.

“Yes, but not in the way you might think,” I said softly.

This wasn’t the place I wanted to talk about Adrian. I didn’t really want to talk about Adrian at all, but my hand was forced i
n more ways than one.

“I saw the look in your eyes, Ember, when David said his name. It was like you saw a ghost.” His concerned eyes teetered on hurt.
Yea, the Ghost of Sexcapades Past.

“I haven’t talked to Adrian in like three years. When he was at Harvard Law he Facebooked me a few times, but I was tired of seeing the pictures he posted with girls who were nothing like me. I know that sounds bad, and I don’t mean it to. We haven’t meant anything to each other in five years, Bo. And, even then
- look,
I want to talk to you about this, but not here and not now. Monica’s coming over tonight so we can emotionally process what happened with Josh. Can we get together tomorrow night?” I wanted to tell Bo about Adrian, about my feelings for him,
everything,
but I couldn’t do it at work.

“I have to head back to New Hampshire today for a quick meeting, but I should be back by tomorrow late afternoon. I’ll call you when I get back to town, OK?” The distance in his voice sent tension searing through me.

“Bo,” I reached out and gripped the top of his hand, not wanting him to slip away. Thankfully, he turned it over and interlaced his fingers with mine, “what happened w
ith Adrian is ancient history.”

“November, you don’t owe me an explanation.” He kissed my hand, “But, it can’t be
that
ancient to Adrian if he used work to get in contact with you, without giving you some sort of heads
up or ‘how’s it going’ first…”

Gut punch.

He was right about Adrian, but he was oh-so-wrong about me owing him an explanation.
You owe one to Bo because you love him;
he just doesn’t know that yet.

“Do you think Bo was right, about Adrian not being over you?” Monica asked as she plunked on my couch with an over-full glass of wine.

Before Bo headed back to New Hampshire, he kissed me with complete disregard for the workplace, and told me he’d text me later.  The second Bo left our office, I to
ld her about our conversation.

“He didn’t say Adrian wasn’t over me, Monica. He doesn’t even know what happened
with him;
I told him I wanted to tell him about Adrian, but that everything was ancient history. Bo said it couldn’t be that ancient since-
”

“Since Adrian pulled the weasel-move of orchestrating a venture between our agency and one whose legal team he’s on? I’d say ten points for Bo.” It’d been a long day for everyone.

“What the hell am I supposed to tell Bo
about him
?”  I really had no idea, so this was the perfect Josh-distraction technique.

“Start with the truth; you two were Princeton’s most beautiful couple with the best sex life.” She gave an impish smile.

“Oh, well, that seems easy enough,” I laughed.

Monica’s phone rang and she ignored it as
soon
she saw who it was.

“Josh again?” I asked sympathetically.

“Yea. Not sure what he could
possibly
have to say to me. He covered it pretty well last night.” Her face blanched at the thought.

My phone began to ring. It was Josh.

“Mon, he’s calling me. Let me answer so he doesn’t track us down.” I scurried to the bedroom and answered.

“Josh
what
do you want?”

“Ember, Jesus, thanks for answering. Is Monica with you?” He sounded calm, with just enough angst to keep me from hanging up.

“She is. She came here after work.” I wasn’t going to offer any of what Monica already filled me in on.

“Is she OK?”

Yea douchebag, she’s perfect.

I caved a little
.
“Not really, Josh, what the hell?” I kept a firm edge to my voice.

“November, you have to understand. Just, like, when you
know
you feel something, you
know
when y
ou don’t . . .”

“You didn’t
know
you didn’t feel whatever it is you think you’re supposed to feel until you chatted up Bo,
Joshua
.” I hoped he could sense my arched eyebrow.

“Shit, I should have known she’d tell you about that.”
Yes, you should have.
“Don’t tell Bo, OK? I don’t want him to think I’m
a lame blabbermouth.”

You
are
lame.

“Whatever Josh, look, she’s here, she’s with me
and s
he’s fine, no thanks to you
. Y
ou need to leave her alone for a while. If she wants to talk to you again she’ll call, and you better answer your damn phone.” I’d given Josh all I could afford with my brokenhearted best friend in the next room.

Josh let out an exasperated
sigh, “OK, Ember. Listen . . .”

“Josh, not tonight, I’ll come by and see you at Finne
gan’s tomorrow after work, OK?”
Why the hell did I just offer that?