“Ready.”
I took a sip of my wine and settled into the comfortable booth. Noah swirled his glass, smiling as he looked at me.
“I love you in blue.”
I glanced down at the dress I was wearing. It was one of my favorites, with a full skirt that made me want to twirl when I wore it. The scooped neckline and modest sleeves meant it was acceptable for the office, yet I enjoyed wearing it.
“Thank you.”
“You look a little tired. Bad day?” he asked mildly.
“Busy. I wanted to make sure I was prepared for every case scenario.”
“What is the process?”
“Friday, I present everything to my direct boss and his team. Our findings, recommendations, et cetera. He goes through it and makes his own recommendations.”
“Are they often different?”
“No,” I said proudly. “That’s why I made VP.”
“And then?”
“The owners are given the complete report. We meet, answer questions, and they decide what routes to take. The price they want to offer, the direction they plan to go, that sort of thing.”
“Are you done then?”
“With that, yes. My background is in finance, so I have a lot of other duties I handle. Lately, though, the firm has been buying a lot of businesses, especially in the IT and telecommunications area, so I’ve been doing a lot of that work.”
“Will you take a break when this is over?”
“I plan to.”
He leaned back, resting his arm along the top of the bench. “Good.”
“You leave early in the morning?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light.
“Yes.” He paused, taking a sip of his wine. “Can I see you this weekend, Dani?”
“I’d like that.”
He reached across and took my hand.
“Me too.”
Wednesday morning, Noah left around four. I was half asleep as he kissed me goodbye, murmuring that he would see me soon and we would talk later. He’d kept me up a lot in the night making love, and I was asleep before he’d shut the door behind himself.
A few hours later, I woke up alone, already missing Noah’s presence beside me. The past two days had been free from any sort of strange anxiety, and I was grateful the sudden onset of panic attacks seemed to have stopped. Not once did I have to stop to have a meltdown in the privacy of my office. If I felt myself getting tense, I would inhale long, deep breaths and think of him. His texts and funny pictures kept coming all day, and they helped keep me calm and focused. I was sure I was past the terrible episodes.
I sat up, remembering how he’d made me promise to eat well and call him if I needed him at all. I knew he was worried, not as certain as I was that the episodes had passed. I slid from my bed and went to get ready for work. My townhouse felt empty without Noah there, with no sounds of him in the kitchen, no smell of coffee brewing. I knew he had packed a lunch for me, but it wouldn’t be the same today without him beside me on the subway, his hand wrapped around mine.
I shook my head to clear it. I needed to stay on track and focus.
During the day, I felt myself getting tense more often, but that was normal when I was coming to the end of the long process of putting together everything for an acquisition. I breathed through the anxiety, worked late, and when I got home, called Noah. The cadence of his voice washed over me, relaxing me, and we chatted for over an hour.
“I was picking beans for the store this morning, Sprout. It wasn’t as much fun as when you were with me. Gabe isn’t very affectionate.”
I laughed at his drollness.
“I had a customer come in and ask if we were going to sell the apple crisp they’d had on Saturday in the store.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“I told them it was exclusive.”
“I see.”
“I’m hoping we might serve it again…” His voice trailed off in question.
“I think we might be able to arrange that.”
“Excellent,” he breathed. “I promise great rewards.”
That made me smile.
I fell asleep right away but woke up several times in the night. Thursday, I was short-tempered, my anxiety constant. I snapped at Lynn a few times, and even though I apologized right away, I felt bad for being so short with her. Noah called, but his voice didn’t soothe me as much as it usually did, and I kept his call brief. He texted me Thursday night after service to see if I was still awake. I stared at the screen for a moment, then set aside my phone and returned to my laptop. I would rather he think I was asleep than know I was still working.
After another restless night, I woke up Friday morning already stressed, putting it down to the fact that we had our final meeting today and I would be in the spotlight. A small voice in my head kept telling me the longer I was away from Noah, the more stressed I seemed to become. Which was silly—I barely knew him. How could he have such an effect on me?