“No, it wasn’t Amanda.”
Suddenly, I could breathe. He had been with someone, I knew that. But so was I. As long as it wasn’t her, I felt like we could get beyond this.
At least I was going to try.
CHAPTER 16
Chase
This past weekend was nothing like I expected it to be. It went from a disastrous Friday night of passing out drunk in Maryellen’s hall. To us talking it out all day Saturday and getting to know one another. To her spending the day at my place on Sunday.
We went the whole time, forty-eight hours, without having sex. We kissed, we made out, there was plenty of that. But no sex. And I was still happy getting into my bed last night.
We finally had a conversation yesterday about us.
Us as a couple.
“I’m scared,” Mare said. “I don’t think I’m ready to do this at work, or even outside of our apartments anytime soon. I need to go slow.”
“We can work with that,” I told her. “We can make that work.”
It wasn’t ideal, but as I told her, she was worth it.
I finally got to play my guitar for her. That was probably my favorite part of our Sunday. I played her the song I’d written for her, although I only played the music, no words. She had no idea it was something I wrote. As I watched her while I played, I loved how her eyes closed and she got lost in it. It meant a lot to sharethat part of myself with her. Other than my mother, no one had truly appreciated this side of me.
My father would tell me to “put the damn guitar down” and get back to my homework while I was growing up.
The fact he was no longer around the office made having my guitar here at work a nice benefit. Picking it up to relax had become commonplace.
I was still up on the thirty-fifth floor, unsure when the new office would be ready. Maryellen was not looking forward to us being on the same floor as much as I was. She felt it would lead to more opportunities to let the cat out of the bag about us. I was simply excited I’d be able to see her from my office door.
Me: I already miss you
I was tempted to head to the fortieth floor to see her. Gage wasn’t in the office today; he and Harper were still away on their special weekend getaway.
Me: This weekend was amazing
Finally, the three dots appeared.
Maryellen: It ended up being an amazing weekend
That put me back in my place.
I needed to work hard to not screw this up. I only had one relationship before this that had been serious, and beyond that nothing seemed worth it. From my college days to Amanda, to most recently all the damn hookups, I never handled any relationship properly. There was no responding to text messages or calling back after a night of sex. I was a dick. A total dick.
But Maryellen wasn’t like the others. This even felt different from the two years I had spent with Amy. That seemed juvenile. This felt…real.
They were all meant to be temporary.
Not her. She was never temporary.
The knock on my door startled me.
“Come in.”
In walked the most striking blonde to ever work for Parker Financial. I jumped up and ran to her side.
I tried to stifle the temptation.
