Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 55093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
I studied that photo for the longest time, sitting behind the desk in my hotel room. It was right there, for all the world to see. I kept running my finger over her image until the ramifications hit home. “Oh…shit.” I got dressed, threw my stuff in my luggage and called my pilot. We were going home a few days early.
I read the caption that came with the photo and my heart sank. I’d left her to face this alone. The heading alone was enough to make shit hard for her, but the byline wasn’t much better. The implications were hard to miss, unless you were thick as a brick.
I tried calling her before the plane took off, but there was no answer. It was already late in the afternoon by the time we landed and there was another message waiting for me. I recognized the name of the place and the address but had no idea why I was being asked to come there. Then I remembered who it was I thought was sending me these messages and knew it must have something to do with Emily. I tried calling her with no success, but decided to play along.
I barely had enough time to get home and clean up before heading back out again. I had no idea what I was walking into. The place was an upscale nightclub slash restaurant where what I would consider the younger crowd tend to gravitate. Lately though in the last few years at least, it had been drawing a more mid-stream clientele. Old men trying to recapture their youth, and cougars on the prowl I guess. So what was I doing here again?
I felt almost silly as I sat in the car on the way there. The night was coming on as the sun faded into the western sky and outside the streets were no longer bustling with worker bees, but the jet setters and those looking to unwind. I appeared more relaxed than I actually felt, as I leaned back into the corner of my seat with a finger playing across my lip contemplatively.
There was a feeling in my gut that hadn’t been there since my third or fourth takeover. Back when this was all new and the excitement was almost as high as the wealth I was about to achieve. I’d grown accustomed and the thing I loved had become nothing more than a job that I could by then almost do by rote. There hasn’t been much in my life that gave me this feeling of impending joy.
Is that why I’d left? Was it fear? I do remember there was always a bit of fear mixed with the elation back then, but somehow nothing ever felt like this. Still, no one looking would ever guess at what was going on inside me. I had no worries that I was walking into a trap. Once I’d figured out that it was her friend, Simone, whose name I’d finally remembered, I started seeing her text as some sort of puzzle.
Having met her and being subjected to her brand of protective friendship where Emily’s concerned, and since I hadn’t felt anything but genuine interest on behalf of her friend the one time we met, I saw no need for apprehension. Of course I could be totally wrong and this could be someone else altogether, but still I wasn’t too worried about it. If I don’t like what’s on offer I’ll just turn around and leave. No harm done.
I kept myself occupied with pedantic bullshit so that I didn’t have to face the one thing that plagued me, not yet at least. I’d come as far as accepting that I knew even before I left here where this was all leading. It wasn’t the marriage thing that sent me into flight mode; it was her, Emily. I didn’t have to go to fucking Arizona to figure my shit out.
Shit, before I met her I was all over that damn company, it was to be another feather in my cap. Now it didn’t mean shit. For me that was very telling. That I was willing to give up a lucrative investment because it would mean being away from her, was all the proof I needed that she’d caught me. And all it had taken was one evening, when others had spent months without even an ounce of success.
There was obviously something going on here tonight, since there was already a line forming outside on a weeknight. Not that that’s necessarily unusual for this town, but it was noticeable. I left the car and followed the instructions I’d been sent which precluded me having to stand in line.
Inside the place was already packed and the noise level was at maximum. There was a stage highlighted where something was about to go down. I told the hostess exactly what I was told to say and was led to a table front and center. Now I was beginning to get, not nervous, but a little skeptical. I really didn’t know what this was about after all, only my suspicion that it had something to do with Emily.