Lilah said an awkward goodbye and then hurried into her office. I simply stood in the doorway, arms crossed aggressively across my chest until Savage slunk away. I wanted more than anything to follow him into the elevator and kick his ass—especially after seeing him with Lilah—but I remembered Colonel Tanaka's lessons on self-control and took minor consolation in the fact that I'd been the bigger man.
As much as I hated to admit it, his presence was giving me doubts about what Lilah had told me. What had that man been doing here, under my nose, bringing her flowers? I shook my head. I could just walk in and confront her about it, but it wasn’t the time or the place. The answers to those questions would have to wait. I had way too many other things on my plate to deal with at the moment. I put my hands in my pockets and trudged out to get some lunch.
Chapter Thirty
Lilah
My cheeks were glowing red and burning as if they'd just been doused in gasoline and set alight. I could hardly believe Brendan had the audacity to walk into this building, head straight to my office, and hand me a bouquet of flowers knowing full well the kind of stir his presence was going to cause. Knowing the likelihood that Asher would see him.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that making such a show was likely his motive all along. Brendan had made it clear he was still romantically interested in me—he hadn't stopped messaging me, despite me responding either with single word replies or not at all. My aloofness hadn't seemed to discourage him in the slightest. And now flowers?
I wasn't sure what I could actually do to get him off my back. The longer he pursued me, the more I questioned if he was even interested in me at all, and the more convinced I became that he had something to do with the tweet being leaked.
First, there had been the break-in at the offices, then Brendan suddenly taking a strong interest in me, and now this leaked tweet. Something was fishy—like, left in the cooler in the summer heat for a week, fishy. I didn't have any way of proving anything though—not yet, at least. I had every intention of finding a way.
For the moment, however, what I needed was damage control. Asher had arrived at precisely the worst moment—seconds after Brendan had surprised me and shoved a bouquet of flowers into my arms. It was almost as if the man had been given a cue.
And, what had I done? I froze. What was I supposed to have done? Or said? How should I have reacted? Clearly, I didn’t know. So, I did what any confused woman with her arms filled with flowers would do, I crept into my office and shut the door.
With all that was happening, I had to rethink my situation.
As much as I’d been trying to, I couldn't deny that my feelings for Asher had grown stronger. In fact, they seemed to be growing stronger by the day, no matter how much I tried to trample them down and ignore them.
But I still felt strongly about putting my career first—that hadn’t changed. My career, my passion for my job is what had driven me for the past few years. It was the one thing that had gotten me through the tough times, through the depression and heartbreak after Jacob. And focusing on that made me stronger than I had ever thought possible.
In fact, look where that had landed me. In my dream job, where I'd just been given a raise, a promotion, and a new luxury car to drive around in. And yet, despite all of those things, something hollow remained in my core. There was still an emptiness when I wasn’t buried in work.
Only, when I was with Asher, that emptiness went away. I found myself time and time again thinking about how we laughed together all those late nights when we were supposed to be working, how easy it was just being around him, how much we had in common . . . and how forcefully I kept pushing him away.
What I felt for him seemed to be at odds with everything I was putting at the forefront of my life. It was a conflict I felt, on some level, couldn’t possibly be reconciled. It would have to be one or the other; I simply couldn't have both. Life didn’t work that way.
How could I play both sides of that fence and make it work?
A sly smile crept over my lips as the idea spread like wildfire through my mind. Playing both sides of the fence was precisely what I needed to do.
***
Asher stepped over to the projector, where he pulled up a chart, and turned to face the team around the conference table.
“The French VIV perfume campaign has been a runaway success,” he said with a smile, “Largely due to the brilliant insight and innovation provided by our campaign leader, Miss Maxwell, here. I really don't think we could have asked for better results, especially since its success opens up a whole new potential client base for us in the European market. In fact, in light of how promising some of the market research appears, we are considering the option of opening an office in Europe.”
I was as taken by surprise as the rest of the team seemed to be. Opening a European branch? Mostly because of my influence on a campaign? It sounded too good to be true, and I immediately wondered what that meant for my future with the Sinclair Agency. I could totall
y see myself living in Paris.
Just as Asher was flipping to a new chart to review, he was interrupted by a frantic knocking on the door. Confusion ran across his features. “Come in,” he instructed.
One of the interns burst in, carrying a laptop that still had half of the power cord dangling from it as she rushed into the room.
“Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Sinclair, there's something you really need to see. I’m so sorry for interrupting. It’s just . . . it’s just,” she stuttered.
“What? What's wrong?”
“The tweet, sir, the tweet—and that blog post. They've just gone viral, sir.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Asher