“Don’t shut your eyes on me,” James said, thrusting into me one more time as my body finally gave in and climaxed around him.
He steadied me against the door as he found his own release, and I heard him whispering a few words I couldn’t quite understand into my ear.
He held me until I was able to stand on my own, rubbing his hands against my back.
He smoothed my hair back into place, clasping my hands. “Don’t let these people run your life, Kate,” he said, kissing my forehead. “You can always choose what you want to do.”
“Can I start by choosing not to play my cello solo again?”
“No.” He smiled and opened the door. “I think I just fucked all of the stress out of you, so you might as well put it to use.” He slipped out of the room, leaving my mind racing with new questions and decisions I needed to make.
I didn’t make any final decisions that night, but when it was time to play my solo, I played the best I’d ever played in my life.
I can handle another day
I COULD NO LONGER DENY the truth when it came to Kate. She was still hands-down, the best sex I’d ever had, and from the looks she gave me in between all of our escapades, I knew that there were still feelings there. Not only that, but I was sleeping better. Ever since that day she walked into my boardroom.
Pacing my office, I weighed the pros and cons of giving ‘us’ another try.
Pro: more chances to experience the best sex of my life
Pro: more chances to be around Kate whenever I want
Con: She didn’t wait for me and has yet to explain why
Con: She didn’t wait for me and has yet to explain why
I sighed and contemplated a temporary, friends-with-benefits arrangement instead.
Maybe we can focus on the sex for the short-term and work on everything else as it comes.
Restless, I took the elevator down to the marketing department and walked to Kate’s office. I sat in the guest chair, in front of her desk and waited for her to return from her two o’clock coffee break.
Several minutes passed, and she never walked through the door. Her staff members strolled in ever so often, mindlessly stacking new paperwork onto her desk.
I waited a full half hour before sending her a text message.
Me: I’m aware that you may still be recovering from the weekend, but are you planning on coming to work today?
She didn’t text back.
I walked behind her desk and pushed aside the stack of papers that covered her keyboard. I turned on her monitor and noticed that she hadn’t answered any emails in the last sixteen hours.
Did she quit?
Pulling out my phone, I sent Mr. Levin an email.
SUBJECT: QUESTION.
Did you receive any new resignation letters from anyone this weekend?
Sean Holmes
CEO of Pier Autumn Coffee
SUBJECT: RE: QUESTION.
Only the ones you’ve redrafted for other employees, sir…
Joshua Levin
Human Resources Department,
Pier Autumn Coffee
CONFUSED, I WALKED through the department and stopped in front of her lead manager’s desk.
“Well, hello.” She smiled. “How may I help you today, Mr. Holmes?”
“I’m looking for Miss Kennedy.”
“You shouldn’t be.” She batted her eyes. “Not when I’m sitting right here.”
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t say anything.” She cleared her throat and tapped her tablet. “According to my memo, she took her assistant to Lake Tahoe yesterday morning. She wanted to get some better pictures for one of the backgrounds.”
“When’s the last time you heard from her?”
She shrugged. “I guess this past Friday. I’m sure they’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Thank you.” I turned around and headed to my office, but I felt like something was off.
Kate had never been late, and she always made a point to email the board her weekly agenda by the early morning hours.
I called her phone, and it went straight to voicemail. I called again. Voicemail.
Hmmm.
I scrolled down to her assistant’s name and called her instead.
“Oh, shit,” she answered on the first ring. “I mean, hello, Mr. Holmes! How are you doing on this lovely Monday morning?”
“It’s the afternoon.” I looked at my watch. “What time are you all planning to return to Seattle?”
“It depends on what you mean, when you say the word ‘time.’” She let out a nervous laugh. “I mean, what’s time when you think about it, really? We focus so much on the minutes, when it’s the moments that really count.”
“It’s a simple question, Summer.”
“Yeah, well—it sounded a bit complicated to me, sir.”
“Are you on drugs?”
“Ha! No, not at all.” Her crazy-ass tone didn’t convince me. “Funny you should ask about drugs, though. I’ve learned a lot about the helpful ones today.”
I can’t deal with this anymore. “Give Miss Kennedy the phone, please.”
“Well, I would, but she’s currently unable to speak. Plus, the doctors told me to stop bothering her until they finish checking on her vital signs.”