I’m always in control.
What has she done to me?
And all this by just seeing and talking to her.
Removing my jacket, I throw it onto the couch and pour myself a bourbon. I don’t normally drink during work, but today is different. I could easy down the whole bottle in one gulp if Kate wasn’t standing there.
“What’s the schedule for next week?” I ask, praying I can stay here.
“Tomorrow night is the charity ball. Your sister will be meeting you here at five o’clock sharp with your tux, and apparently your… um… date, Brooke.” She clears her throat, continuing, “On Sunday morning you have another meeting with Mr. Klein to go over your expansion of After Dark. Two o’clock will be another inspection of the new office. Then on Monday morning we catch a red-eye back to London.”
I’ll have no time to find her or even spend time with her. I pour myself another glass, the first one obviously not doing the trick. The first thought floating through my head is to cancel going to the charity event.
Yes, I’ll cancel that.
At least I’ll have all Saturday night free to find her.
“Tuesday at eleven is the stakeholder meeting. That’s expected to run until five. The Hilton conference room has been booked for the event.”
It has taken us months to organize this meeting. I know I can’t get out of it. I grit my teeth as she continues on and based on the schedule she reads out, I won’t be back in Manhattan for three weeks.
Pacing the room in short spans, I scrub my hand over my face willing the impending headache to stop. I’m starting to feel like a lovesick teenager except I’m thirty-fucking-four, a successful entrepreneur with money to do whatever the hell I want, which proves absolutely pointless at a time like this.
My phone starts to buzz—it’s Bryce—so I make my way into the bedroom and close the door behind me.
“Bryce.”
“Mr. Edwards, I have some information regarding Miss Mason.”
“Go on...”
“Her current employment is at Mason & Romano where she’s a partner in the firm.”
“Firm?”
“Yes. She’s a lawyer here in Manhattan. The boutique firm is located on Madison Avenue…” he advises, pausing while I listen quietly. “She graduated with honors from Yale.”
So, she was in New Haven all that time? Her mother gave me no inkling of that when I went to look for her. I try not to focus on the regret starting to creep in at not finding her and telling her how sorry I was. Why didn’t I try harder? Why didn’t I continue until she was in my arms again?
“Her status is showing single. Never registered as being married.”
For now. Anger is boiling inside of me at the thought. Images of the ring flashing before me, my grip on my phone tightens as I try to remain calm to process anything else he has on her.
“She currently owns an apartment in the Upper East Side as well as a home in Connecticut.”
“What’s the connection in Connecticut?”
“I haven’t been able to get a connection yet.”
“Thank you, Bryce. Please update me as soon as you find anything else.”
I hang up the phone, a little more at ease now because I know more about her. Yale, wow. I always knew she was smart, but she never mentioned anything about wanting to be a lawyer. Our last conversations revolving around college was her trying to stay close to home, and after our relationship became more involved, a huge part of that was to stay close to me.
My curiosity piques—all of this is very unlike her.
She always walked away from drama, even at school. Being a lawyer and arguing for a living seems very left of field as her chosen profession. Financially, she appears to be well off, but this house in Connecticut keeps bugging me. It isn’t the type of area you would invest in, so why would she own property there?
I walk over to the window, watching the city pass by. All I can think about is the fact that she has become this beautiful woman.