It was in regards to a goodbye party for her boss. And because it required her to leave for the beach early in the morning, it meant I wouldn’t be seeing her tonight.
And considering I’d be seeing her tomorrow afternoon, it shouldn’t have bothered me much.
But apparently, I’d hinged all of today’s energy to work on the idea that I’d get to see Holland at the end of the night. That I’d be able to feel the warmth of her body. Taste the sweetness of her lips. Hear the sound of her voice. Knowing now that I had to wait till tomorrow—that I was going home to an empty apartment tonight—made me somehow lose my steam and the will to keep going through my piles of work. All the mountains of analytics and data my research team had compiled in preparation of my meetings next week.
Since receiving the text, my mood had taken a nosedive. I was going to tell her to have my driver take her, but I was holding off on replying until I was in a better mood, since I’d learned my lesson on that. But within another ten minutes, she was calling.
And I answered right away.
“Hey.” I set my pen down, looking at her name on my phone.
“Hey,” she returned, the sound of her voice alone making me exhale. “I was going to ask if you were hanging in there, but I can already hear how wiped you are.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah. Just going through data reports till the call with the West Coast.”
“What time is the call?”
“Ten Eastern.”
She was quiet for a second. “Okay. So it’s nine-ten right now, and you’re probably holding yourself to your Iain Thorn standard about knowing every detail of those data reports, which means it’s feasible, for the sake of your own sanity, to take a thirty to forty-five minute break right now, because you literally haven’t stopped all day.”
I smiled at her doing the math for me. “That’s a fair assessment.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“Do what?”
“Relax for a little?”
“What would you suggest I do exactly? Breathing exercises?”
“Actually, yes. I know you’re teasing me right now, but I actually do those, and I promise you, if you breath in through your nose for four seconds, hold it for seven, then exhale through your mouth only for eight, you will immediately relax.”
I smirked. “You’re just full of all these tips and tricks, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Or you can give yourself a hand massage.”
“Holland, you can stop suggesting relaxation tactics,” I laughed. “I’m going to just keep pushing through. It’ll be fine.”
She made a sound like she was about to say something, but then she stopped, and I couldn’t help but smile at the mental image of her physically shutting herself up from trying to preach to me about the value of self-care and me time and all her favorite little rituals.
“Okay,” she finally said, but then she made an offended sound. “You just snorted at me. Why are you laughing?”
“Because you’re cute,” I said.
And I miss you, I thought, though I did my very best to sound casual and easy as we finished our conversation. She’d ended me on some customary torture by telling me that she was about to take a bath, and I had her promise to send me a picture of herself before getting in. And then we hung up.
But ten minutes went by and there was no picture.
Fifteen. Twenty.
I was on minute twenty-six of waiting when I heard the sound of faint chatter outside from one of the few agents left working in-office at this hour. From the intonation, the politeness, I knew it wasn’t someone familiar who’d just walked in.
So I paused, listening as I heard the chatter stop, replaced now by the sound of footsteps coming down the hall toward me.
I stared at my door, knowing that I was being irrational and that what I wanted was unlikely. But with what little energy I had left in me, I hung onto my fantasy, hoping and willing for it to happen.
Still, I was stunned when Holland appeared at my door.