“You looked me up online,” he said, his expression blank. “So you know.”
I nodded. I did know.
“That picture on your desk…that’s your wife who died?”
He didn’t nod but instead turned to look out the window.
“Her name was Allison.”
SEVEN
GRANT
He didn’t think she was ready to date. She just got settled.
Two Months Later
“Why doesyour business card say Associates?”
“Why are you always asking me stream of conscience questions from my doorway?” I retaliated.
“Do I do that?”
“You do,” I assured her.
I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my eyes. I was one of those people who was going to need glasses prematurely for my age because of all the time I’d spent in front of screens.
It was the end of a long day.
I’d just had to give bad news to someone who I’d been considering investing in, but the numbers just didn’t work. It wasn’t that I couldn’t make a profit, it was that she couldn’t make a profit. Not with all the forces in the market working against her right now.
She’d been devastated, I knew, but she’d handled herself well. Professionally. I’d wished her luck, but the truth was, I wanted her to get a new idea. A better one. She had a head for business and all the ambition in the world. She just needed something that had more upside.
“What?” I asked, finally acknowledging her presence on the periphery of my space.
“Heather was a no then?”
I loved and hated the way she did that. She knew who’d been on my call sheet, so no mystery there, but she could always determine my decisions from just my expression.
I hated that I gave that much away with a sigh or a look. I loved that I didn’t have to go into any other further explanation about my decision.
Anna knew I’d been rooting for the woman. She also knew I was just as disappointed with the outcome. I glanced up and gave her a brief nod.
However, I quickly averted my eyes. It had become a tick with me these past several weeks. Suddenly, she was the sun and I couldn’t look at her directly.
Because, if I did, I saw her in nothing more than the leggings and tank top from that afternoon in the motel.
A waif like version of some poor man’s ballerina.
I hadn’t known if I should cover her with a blanket, force feed her, or make her dance for me. I did none of those things, of course. But the image wouldn’t leave me.
It was annoying. I didn’t want to think of her as a woman. Or a person for that matter.
Anna was a tool. Nothing more.
“It says associates on the business card, and on the sign outside our office, but really it’s just you.”
“I liked how it sounded better, when I was filling out the paperwork,” I said, trying to put her off. “Besides, now there is you.”
