Indigo Nights (Nights #3)(23)
I didn’t understand why I was unable to put Beth to one side, why she brought out a side of me that made me want to protect and possess her. I’d f*cked a lot of good-looking women, so I knew it wasn’t just that. Perhaps it was her openness, the fact that she had opened herself up to me in a way most women didn’t. She made it more than sex because every touch was full of vulnerability. And she didn’t seem to want anything from me other than for me to be careful with her. My wealth or power didn’t pique her interest, which puzzled me, but allowed me to imagine her as something more than just a lover.
“I’ve been looking at the strategic reports,” I said. Raine Media had become more interesting to me knowing Beth was potentially going to be working there.
“Oh, right. We’ll go through them in detail tomorrow. We have some time in the morning.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m not so sure we should write off Raine Media. Perhaps we just haven’t devoted enough attention to it.” I held my breath, expecting Raf to see straight through my conflict of interest. I liked the link that Raine Media created between Beth and me. If we sold it, who knew what would happen to Beth’s deal. I wanted a few days with her, some time to work out what the f*ck I was doing, to organize my thoughts. But I knew I should come clean. Raf and I had a strict policy against mixing business with pleasure. When we first started out we nearly went under because I pushed to acquire a company that my ex-fiancée’s brother was involved in, and Raf had reluctantly agreed. It had gone badly wrong and almost ruined us. It nearly meant the end of our business and our friendship. We survived partly because my ex-fiancée dumped me and because we vowed never to mix our personal lives with our business lives again.
Raf shrugged and stood up. “Not sure about that. Like you said, media isn’t our sweet spot.”
“But neither were tires, and look where that ended up.” I should just be honest with him, but what would I say? I banged a girl who might work at the TV station? I wasn’t sure there was anything to tell, yet. “We can talk about it tomorrow, but I thought maybe I’d go visit next week. Talk to some people on the ground to see if it can be salvaged. I think it deserves another three months.” Not being honest with Raf felt like I’d just stepped off a ledge into a black hole. I hated lying. My palms started to sweat.
Raf looked at me with a furrowed brow. Could he smell bullshit? I was usually the more ruthless of the two of us. I didn’t often fight to hold on to a business that hadn’t made material progress within six months of us purchasing it. I was usually the one chomping at the bit, wanting to get rid of the dead wood. Raf was the optimistic one, the partner who got me to be patient and give things more time.
“If you think that’s the best decision then I’m happy to support you. What did you see in the numbers that I missed?”
I’d not seen anything worth saving in the numbers.
“It’s just a feeling,” I mumbled, trying to be nonchalant.
“A feeling? You had a feeling? Wow, I’ll get Marie to draft a press release.” He swept his hand across the cityscape behind me as if reading a headline. “Hard as Nails Billionaire Dylan James Has a Feeling. This is going to go viral.”
What had I been thinking, handing Raf ammunition like that? “I was thinking of the publicity we’d get if we sell it so quickly. You remember what the press was like when we bought it; they told us we knew nothing about media and would bleed all the creativity out of it. I don’t think we can just drop it. We need to think, be smart about it.”
“And of course, you have a feeling,” Raf said.
I shook my head, trying to suppress a smile. “Get the f*ck out of my office before I get the feeling to rip your balls off.”
Raf chuckled. “That’s more like it, my friend.”
“I mean it. Fuck off. I need to wrap things up and leave.”
“You’re leaving work?” Raf looked at his watch. “It’s six. Are you going part time? Do I need to reassess your salary?”
“You’re a regular comic genius this afternoon. I have a meeting.” I didn’t want to open up to Raf about Beth. Not yet. I was continually busting his balls about his revolving door of women, so he wouldn’t miss an opportunity to bust mine. Besides, since Alicia, there hadn’t been much to share.
“Oh, right. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”
I pulled out my phone to see if I’d received a message. Beth hadn’t mentioned a time to meet. The easiest thing would be just to send her a message or call, but something was stopping me. I guess I wanted the ball in her court—I wanted her to want to see me.
As I began to log off, a new message came in. I didn’t recognize the sender’s address.
Long time, no see, stranger. How are things going? Want to grab a coffee sometime?
Love,
Alicia
I closed the email, and then opened it again, clicking on the sender field to see the full email address.
My ex-fiancée was emailing me as if we were old college friends. As if she hadn’t dumped me for a richer guy, and we’d not seen each other in a decade. Why was she getting in contact after all these years?
I hovered over the delete button, and clicked. I wanted to forget about it and get lost in thoughts of Beth.
Beth’s hotel was just a few blocks from the office, so I grabbed my coat and stepped into the cold. I couldn’t stop grinning as I imagined having Beth to myself again.