Can Beverly trust Grant? Or, will Grant’s chiseled body and dreamy eyes be too hard for Beverly to resist?
Chapter 1
Beverley
I looked on either side before crossing the road, safety first! Even though my mind was whirling with thoughts and I couldn’t concentrate on a single thing, I could still walk to my office blindfolded. I knew these streets like the back of my hand. I couldn’t fathom what it would feel like, to not go to that office any more. I’d dedicated the past four years of my life to it. Building up the company from scratch, working weekends to ensure that we might be able to finally break even. I had poured my blood and sweat and soul into it, and just when I thought that I just might be able to make it…my accountant told me that the company was going under, that I wouldn’t be able to pay my employees and the only way out would be to sell the company while I still could.
This was an absolute nightmare. I was walking to the office, but I might as well have been a ghost, because I wasn’t thinking any more. What was I supposed to do now? Get a job? I’d been self-employed since college.
From the moment I graduated, I made plans of starting my own company. The tech industry was reaching its peaks and I had an idea for a mobile game. I moved to Silicon Valley, rented a small apartment and converted it into an office. I wrote the code for the app myself and within the first three months, it had reached a thousand downloads on various app stores. I hired employees, I set up a separate office space and we worked tirelessly to ensure its success.
And now it wasn’t the way I expected. I would have to sell the game to a bigger corporation just to stay out of bankruptcy and be able to pay my employees. I was ashamed and angry and feeling completely lost.
I took the stairs up to my office, and pushed open the wooden door that led me to the small reception area. My office had three rooms. A reception area for Susan, the receptionist, a room for the other two programmers and one for myself where I sat behind a desk facing three connected computer screens.
Susan looked up at me with a nervous expression on her face when I walked in.
“Morning, Bev,” she said and I forced a smile on my face. There was no reason for me to smile any more.
“Morning, Susan. I’ll be in my office if there are any calls for me,” I said, still in a daze. But, Susan stood up all of a sudden and startled me.
“Bev, there has been an offer” she said, and I looked at her still a little confused with my brows crossed.
“An offer for what?” I asked her and Susan looked like she was struggling to get the words out.
“For the company, you know?” she said and my heart sank. This was getting more real by the minute.
“Someone made an offer to buy my company?” I asked her in a raised voice. Sasha, one of the programmers, stuck his head out from his room and looked at us. Susan sat back down and nodded her head, like she was ashamed of herself. They all knew exactly how badly I was taking this.
“Who is it?” I asked Susan, who also doubled up as my assistant and secretary. She looked at her papers, and shuffled through her notes.
“I got a call from them only half an hour ago. From the offices of Lonex Apps?” Susan said and looked up at me. Now, she was beginning to look like she was worried for me.
“Lonex Apps?” I said, in a much shriller voice. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“That’s what the man said on the phone,” Susan replied and I fisted the palms of my hands and tried to control my rage.
“You mean, Grant Jennings’ company?” I asked and Susan shrugged her shoulders.
I was asking the wrong person, Susan wasn’t up to date with the inner workings of Silicon Valley. But, I had no one else to take my temper out on, and I had a lot of temper inside me at that moment. I couldn’t believe that Grant Jennings’ company wanted to make an offer.
“What does this mean?” Sasha’s voice interrupted my thoughts and I whipped around to face him with narrowed eyes.
“I don’t know what this means. I don’t even know what they want,” I growled at him.
“Lonex is huge, they are becoming even bigger by the day. I’m sure if they want to buy us out, they’ll have a big sum to offer…don’t you think?” Sasha continued, unaware of the bubbling feelings of rage that were erupting in me.
I tried to control them, I barely could. Sasha’s words were slowly sinking into my brain and driving me nuts. Just when I thought that my day couldn’t get any worse, it had.
“I mean, Grant Jennings…that dude really knows what he’s doing. I bet he has big plans for the app. This could actually be great, Bev,” Sasha said and I shook my head silently. I didn’t want to hear his name, I didn’t want to think about what Grant Jennings wanted to do with my company. I wouldn’t sell to him even if I had to go bankrupt.
“Hey, didn’t you go to college with him or something?” Sasha said and I glared at him, before turning on my heels and walking straight into my office. I banged the door shut behind me and leaned against it, just to catch my breath.
This was the worst possible way that Grant Jennings could make a re-entrance into my life. I thought I never had to think about him again. That my feelings for him in college were over and I could finally move on with my life. But here he was again, turning my world upside down…but this time I was resolved not to let him.
Chapter 2
Grant