Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
I grab my coffee and pour a ton of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups creamer in it because I never ate the ice cream last night. I deserve the splurge. I head back to the couch and decide that work and a hard workout is the only way I can survive today. Since it’s the middle of the night in Japan, I email my brother about the event center, hoping the contact he has for the sale is as good as he promised. I then head to my bedroom, throw on workout clothes, and head to the gym on the fifth floor, since awkwardly running into Reid during a run is not on the agenda.
I’m just leaving for the gym when my phone rings with Reid’s name on the called ID, and I don't hesitate to answer. I need to work from home for a few days. I need space and I tell him just that. The asshole lectures me about doing my job and how my role as CEO means putting aside personal baggage. And he’s right. No asshole, in other words, him, should keep me from my goals and my job. I’m now almost as pissed at myself as I am at him. Almost.
Once I’m in the gym, I burn off a lot of emotion, then run to the store to grab all the items that are in my suitcase which Reid still has. I return to my apartment, check my email to find nothing from my brother, and then I shower. I settle onto my couch and start looking for a backup plan if the event center bombs. Every hour that passes is torture. I think of Reid. I want Reid. I hate Reid. I might be in love with Reid, which makes me hate him all over again. And isn’t this just what he promised? He knew I would end up hating him because he knew he’d done me wrong.
“Asshole,” I whisper.
By evening, when it will be morning overseas on a workday, I’ve just ordered Chinese food when my brother calls. “I’m walking into a meeting, but I want my percentage on this.”
“I’ll pay you a finder’s fee, but not a percentage.”
“How much?”
“Nothing if I don’t do the deal, which means I need the number.”
He actually hesitates but gives it to me. Our goodbye is curt. I dial the business office for the event center and connect with the man I need to speak with. His English is good and he confirms that yes, they are considering a sale. We talk about what he needs from me and the starting bid is a huge number, but he emails me financial data to justify the sale.
I spend the next few hours working through that data, putting it in presentation form, and it does look good. I email it all to Reid and then I fall asleep on the couch with my MacBook beside me and my phone beside it. I shouldn’t want it to ring again but I do. “I hate you, Reid Maxwell,” I murmur into the darkness.
Reid
I want to call Carrie, but I can’t take her shutting me down again. I need stand in front of her and make her listen. And so I work out long and hard, and finish with a cold shower and memories of fucking Carrie in this very shower. I then call the contacts I need to call to get the money together for Grayson, which leads to a dinner I really don’t want to have. After hours with the “money men” as they love to call themselves, I arrive back to my apartment, with the promise of an investment so damn large, it even makes my head spin, and I’ve done my share of mega-deals. This project Carrie came up with for the event center is hot. I hope she can pull it off. I hope we can pull it off.
I walk into my godforsaken, big-ass empty apartment. Why did I want this place? My phone rings and I dread looking at the screen. I want it to be Carrie, but I know it’s not. I pull the damn thing from my pocket and read the caller ID. “Hello, Cat,” I say, walking to my bar and pouring a whiskey because I’m apparently over the hangover and ready to do it again.
“What’s happening with Carrie?”
“Not a damn thing. Not until tomorrow when I can force her to listen to me. If she will. For all I know, I’m dead to her.”
“No,” she says. “I saw how she looked at you and I saw you looked at her. Reid, I’ve never seen you look at a woman like that. She’s—changing you or maybe healing you in some way I can’t know. We just aren’t that close.”
“Cat—”
“We’re going to work on it. I sense that now. I’m—willing, Reid. There has to be some way you can earn Carrie’s trust. Just tell her whatever it is you say you can’t tell her.”