After Allen Benson came around the table to break Reed’s nose, he stormed out of the conference room with his attorney in tow, whom he promptly fired in a very loud confrontation on the elevator as they rode down.
Before the day was done, we’d been contacted by Ed Ridgely, the senior partner at Yates Hamilton & Booz, who just happened to be Katie’s boss. He and Reed were old golfing buddies, but unlike Reed, Ed was incorruptible.
He informed Reed that his firm had been formally retained by Allen Benson, and he had filed an injunction with a judge to freeze the deal to sell Benson Digital’s manufacturing operation to Amalgamated Industries, at least until both sides could present arguments to the judge.
It was just a tactic to buy time until they could come up with a better plan. Fine, I wasn’t too worried about it. Our contract with Benson was iron clad, and Price Bean & Whitlock owned a good chunk of Amalgamated, so they wouldn’t pull out of the deal. It would just delay things a bit. The judge would see that we had done nothing wrong. It might take a few weeks to sort it out, but in the end, the deal would go through as planned.
One week went by with no contact from Katie, then two. I was surprised at how much I found myself thinking about her at all hours of the day, and especially late at night, lying in bed alone.
It was crazy because we had spent a sum total of four nights together. It wasn’t like we were long time lovers or an old married couple. Still, the thought of her kept gnawing at my brain. And I felt like a total dick because I knew that my actions had hurt her, and embarrassed her in the eyes of her beloved uncle.
“Penny for your thoughts, young man,” Reed said, staring at me from across the lunch table at the Roxie. I was picking at a steak and potato. He was devouring a plate of crab cakes like they were going out of style and working on his third scotch.
“I would bet that you haven’t had a penny in your pocket in decades,” I said, forcing a smile. “Even if you did, you wouldn’t get your money’s worth paying for what’s going on in my head.”
Reed grinned as he chewed, despite having a Band-Aid going across the bridge of his nose and two black eyes. Funny, I thought Reed would stay in his office until his wounds healed. To the contrary, he wore the fact that Allen Benson had broken his nose like a badge of honor. He could hardly wait for people to ask him what the hell happened, so he could tell the tale of the big deal that led to his nose getting mashed to his face.
“Okay, then, tell me for free.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Let me guess, you’re still thinking about that girl.”
“That girl has a name,” I said with a sigh. I set my silverware on the plate and pushed it away, then signaled for the waiter to bring me another martini. “It’s Katie. Katie O’Hara.”
“Right. Katie O’Hara. I take it you haven’t spoken to Miss O’Hara since the Friday free-for-all.”
“The Friday free-for-all?” I smiled as I took a sip from my drink. “I have not spoken to her, but it’s not for a lack of trying. She won’t take my calls, answer my texts, or come to the door. And apparently I am persona non-grata at her office.”
He shrugged as he sliced a bite from my steak and shoved it into his mouth. “So? What’s the problem? Come on, Conner. It was a fling. It was fun while it lasted. It’s not like she was the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with.”
I nodded slowly for a moment, then said, “Who knows. Maybe she was.”
Reed stopped chewing and frowned at
me. He winced as his swollen nose pulled against the Band-Aid. “Excuse me? Maybe she was the one? Seriously?”
I picked up the fancy napkin and wiped my mouth with it, then tossed it aside. “What if she was the one, Reed? What if I totally fucked up the one relationship in my entire life that wasn’t based on bullshit.”
“You cannot be serious right now,” he said. He picked up his scotch and scoffed over it. “She’s just some girl, Con. For the love of God, you have Cassandra Leone on speed dial. Why the fuck are you acting like a lovesick puppy over this Plain Jane lawyer?”
“You can be a real dick sometimes,” I said, mainly because that was all I could think of to say. I couldn’t explain to him the feelings I was experiencing at that moment. The fact that I felt like I had a hole in my chest he could shove his fist through would be a foreign concept to him. The only time a woman ever made Reed Helstrom cry was when she had a divorce lawyer sitting beside her.
He was right about one thing; I had Cassandra on the string, along with dozens of other gorgeous girls who would jump at the chance to spend time with me. Why, then, was I pining away over Katie O’Hara?
Why?
Because I was in love with her, that was why.
Shit. I had fallen in love. And now she wouldn’t give me the time of day. And I really couldn’t blame her. I was as big of an asshole as Reed was. He was just much prouder of it.
“Why don’t you just show up outside her apartment or her work if you’re that hell bent on seeing her?”
“I’ve tried that,” I said, head shaking. “She refuses to come out when I’m there. She has the doorman threaten to call the cops. And then there’s this fucking injunction that Ed Ridgely filed. That’s just fuel to the fire.”
“We’ll beat that,” Reed said confidently. “I’ve talked to Ed. He knows it’s a losing battle. He’s just buying time to give Allen Benson a chance to cool down.”
“Yeah, I know. But that is the nail in the coffin as far as Katie is concerned.” I leaned back and blew out a long breath. “Goddammit, why did things have to end up this way?”
“Because that’s how business works, my boy,” Reed said, hands spread over his empty plate. “Somebody wins, somebody loses. That’s the way it works.”
I began to nod slowly as a small light flickered inside my brain. “What if it doesn’t have to work that way?” I asked. “What if we actually did a deal that was win/win for everyone involved?”