Mr. Park Lane (The Mister)

Joshua scratched the back of his head. “What mistake?” he asked.

“Losing all sense of judgment because I’m crazy about you. And here I am again, over a decade later, in almost exactly the same place. Take another step toward me, Joshua, and I’m gone—drowning in you, losing everything that’s important to me because all I can see is you. I told you about Calmation yesterday when I’d been sworn to secrecy. Next time, it’ll be a mistake I can’t row back from.”

“Hartford?” He reached for me and I stumbled backward, desperate to escape his touch because I knew how powerful it was. How powerful he was.

“And you know what?” I asked. “It might be worth letting myself surrender to the pull if it wasn’t all so one-sided. But I can’t lose myself in someone who might or might not remember to share the important stuff with me, who may or may not want something more than just sex. I can’t fall in love with someone who’s never going to give what I give.” I would always feel more for Joshua than he did for me. I couldn’t live like that.

He shook his head. “What do you mean, give what you give, fall in love? You’re moving at warp speed, a thousand miles down the road. We had our first date yesterday.”

I looked up at him, his floppy blond hair, hard chest, and charming smile. God, he was pretty. “You’re probably right. For sure I can see farther down the road than you, and despite wanting to hold back, I’m racing to go further. I can’t stop myself. In any relationship we have, I’m always going to be ahead of you, Joshua. And I can’t do it.”

My forcefield lay in pieces at his feet. It was all there for him to see. Was I hoping he would tell me I was wrong and he was right there on the road next to me, holding my hand? Probably. Was I hoping he’d tell me he loved me and we could figure this out because we were going to be together until the end of time? If I was, I wasn’t holding my breath.

I waited, one beat, then two, giving him time to fill the silence.

At least he didn’t lie. He was who he was and who he always had been. It was me who had changed.

Eventually I slipped inside and closed the door.

We were done.

Thirty-Four

Joshua

I swept into the meeting room, my top team gathered around the glass table, the London skyline in the background. I’d spent the last week replaying my last conversation with Hartford, trying to come up with something I could have said that would have made her stay.

In the end, my Genius Time told me that it was action not words that counted. I was going to show her how much I cared about her. How much I listened to what she had to say and how much I’d changed from the man who only did casual.

“I have an announcement.” I took a seat and scanned the faces in front of me.

“Today I called GCVB and told them that Luca Brands won’t be working on any accounts for Merdon.” Yes I’d hope Hartford would approve, but I’d withdrawn Luca Brands from the Merdon account because it was the right thing to do.

Gasps echoed around the room. They knew what that meant: job losses. “I’ve not heard officially from Eric that Luca Brands no longer works for any of the GCVB brands, but I fully expect to.” Eric would move fast and I expected him to fire Luca Brands before the end of the day. I wanted to get ahead of him.

A couple of hands shot up but I knew the questions everyone wanted answers to.

“I’ll take questions at the end. Let me just finish.”

I’d been up all night for a week brainstorming and strategizing. My Genius Time had paid off.

“I’m creating a new division of Luca Brands. And I’m looking for top quality internal candidates to head it up.” Relief swept over their faces. “The division will do some of what we already do, but the clients of the division won’t be luxury goods. We’ll be working with charities and causes we believe in. We’re also going to create a new lobbying arm to champion the priorities of these clients. The first project for the new division will be to roll out a campaign against Calmation being approved as an over-the-counter drug. We haven’t got much time, so I’m going to need people willing to get started as soon as possible.” Harford had been right—I didn’t need her help to do the right thing.

Val, my right-hand woman on the original Calmation campaign, stuck up her hand. “I’d really like to head up this campaign. I know the drug, I know the issues, and I also have a kid with ADHD. The drug should be on prescription only.”