“Bruce said you were in California.” She gestured toward the door Bruce sat behind. “I know which town you live in, and my assistant found the exact address online. Property records and things like that.” Her accent, which I usually didn’t mind, now grated on my nerves.
“Is this how you’re going to make business decisions, too, Blanche?”
The smile she had on turned into a scoff. “No, this is what happens when I let parts, other than my brain, make the decisions.”
“Let’s stick to our brains then.” I continued to look at her, ensuring my message sunk in.
“You certainly do.”
“I find that it works. Listen, Bl—”
“No, no, you don’t have to tell me. I got your message loud and clear. It’s me, not you. I was happy with our … format. It was clear that that was all there was to it, and usually, I … I don’t know why … I shouldn’t have stirred from it.” Her accent became heavier the more she stammered on the words.
A pang of regret coursed through me. I felt like the hardhearted son of a bitch that I was. I felt sorry for her. I felt regret for my careless actions, for my culpability in causing someone else pain.
Ifelt.
January’s reappearance in my life did to my emotions what long-overdue glasses did to someone with acutely impaired vision—every variety of emotion sharpened. It was too sharp, painful. Ever since I had left Wayford, I’d strived to remove those glasses and go back to where I had been before she had re-entered my life.
I looked at Blanche, reminding myself that I did not ask for this—for her to develop expectations, come to my house, make assumptions. I wasn’t going to apologize for not wanting this. Women were attracted to me; they didn’t fall for me. Not to the best of my knowledge, because I never stuck around to know if they did. It was stupid of me to have let this one last longer than usual. It was wrong of me to start something with someone I had professional ties with. I had become careless.
Our contact was going to end, anyway, following my decision to sell my majority stake in both companies as soon as they merged and stabilized and let Blanche and Paulo co-manage them. We were waiting for him and the few disgruntled board members he had to join us. They couldn’t have been late at a less convenient time.
There was another thing I needed to know. “Did you—”
“Meet your tenant? Yes,” she cut me off, answering the question I didn’t finish asking.
I gritted my teeth. It wasn’t her fault, but I didn’t want Blanche and what she represented in my history—and shewashistory—to sully anything to do with January, who was the only part of my history worth preserving.
The anger that began bubbling inside me was another proof I didn’t want. A proof that the dam had been breached, that my efforts to seal the cracks weren’t complete. Feelings were seeping through them. And anger was the last one I wanted to feel.
“You’re a cold man, Oliver. Except in … well, you know … but you have a sense for people. That’s how you choose the companies you save. You see, I studied you over this past year. You do your financial research, and calculations, and business plans, but it’s the people that you eventually decide by. Regardless of what we … had, I’m proud to be among them.”
I didn’t reply. I was happy she used a past tense about us, but I had a feeling she was not done yet.
Blanche smiled. “Your tenant, she has such kind eyes and smile. I felt like a fool when I realized that I let my … other organs guide me. But that woman, I don’t know how she did it, but she made me walk out of there feeling better. That is, until I saw you now. But you know what? I needed this reality check, so thank you. We have an important meeting now, and I’m ready.” She chuckled, and it was a lighter chuckle, as if hurling at me everything she had been holding enabled her to move on.
But her words had a different effect on me. Though I remained sitting, my face seemingly expressionless, these words flooded over me with the force of a rupturing dam, drowning me with an uncontrollable desire—to see January’s smile and eyes at that moment, at all moments, the eyes that saved me time and again from myself. I felt blood gushing through my veins, as if my heart was the dam that had been breached and it was bleeding now.
“Anyway, even a tenant, you chose well,” Blanche continued, unaware of what was going on inside me. “That’s the point I was trying to make. Pity you’re pulling out of Designal once the merger is complete. Pity she’s leaving. I’m talking business now, Oliver—nothing personal—it’s all a pity. Maybe you can reconsider, and we’ll keep it business only.”
She was trying to make a point about her business, but from that speech, two words shot right through me like a poisoned dart.She’s leaving.
The door opened. Bruce held it open for Paulo and three other men who walked in.
I rose to my feet, hoping my face didn’t reveal the state they found me in. Blanche hurried from the other side of the room, toward the newcomers.
“Paulo, hello,” she greeted. “Mr. Corbin, pleased to finally meet you.” The hand she extended toward Corbin remained hanging in the air, unreciprocated.
“So, we all had to come to you for this, Madden,” Corbin addressed me combatively, ignoring Blanche.
“I offered we do it online, but you insisted. So, driving two streets tomyoffice to contestmydecision is what you had to do,” I stated the facts. “Welcome.” I extended my arm toward him.
The man next to him grabbed my hand and shook it when he noticed Corbin was stalling. The other two shook hands with Blanche.
As if he was doing me a favor, Corbin shook my hand. If his grip was meant to convey a message, I hoped that the way I gripped his back conveyed thefuck right offI didn’t say out loud.
Just as his two companions and Paulo were about to take a seat, Corbin gestured for them to stop. “We’re not staying, gentlemen. All I came here to say is that there is no way this merger is going to pass. Do you hear me, Madden? And you, Miss LaPointe? No. Way.”
