Looming between Chase and me. Evie and I thought that once we made it through this weekend, I should consider telling him. Holding it back much longer would do more damage down the road.
And I agreed with her.
But I didn’t want to follow through on it. At all.
“Yeah, I’m waiting for Harper to come. We’re meeting about the party, of all things.” My eyes rolled, and she gripped my hand again. “I have my journal with me. I’m gonna work on my writing until she gets here.”
“The infamous book you keep saying you’re writing. I wish you’d let me read some of it,” she said. “And you know I’ll be there with you at the party. It’s like fate stepped in that Mitch and I would be seeing each other, and I would get an invite to this shindig.”
She gathered up her things, but I didn’t want her to go. Now that she knew, I felt some added strength with her nearby.
“Call me if you need anything,” she said before blowing me an air-kiss.
I had long finished my coffee. Getting in line to get a refill, I noticed Harper walk in. She was one of my favorite people, has been for years. I hated the feeling I got in my gut anytime I saw her recently.
None of this was her fault. It was her freaking engagement party.
Fault was not even the right word. It was no one’s fault.
Circumstances. It was the circumstances of my life I was now dealing with.
“Harper!” I yelled her name to join me in the line.
I could do this.
I would give every attempt to do this.
CHAPTER 22
Chase
The assistant Gage hired for me, Mallory, was extremely professional. She knew what she was doing from day one. Maryellen created the handbook for her this weekend while at my place. She made sure to get to it since Gage gave us Friday afternoon off. I told her not to bother, but she ignored me. As it turned out, it seemed Mallory didn’t need it. Her ability to jump into the position and be a team player was impressive.
The guys on the sales team found other things about her impressive.
Things I didn’t want to notice. Things I would have paid attention to before having a girlfriend. But I was still a guy, and she was a beautiful woman.
Not as beautiful as Maryellen.
I felt that in my whole body, even as Mallory stood in front of my desk.
“You have a Zoom call this afternoon at two, and then an in-person with your brother at three.” She had her tablet in her hand as she read from it. “That’s it for today. Shall we go over the rest of the week?”
She was doing a great job of keeping me on task with my new role. It was overwhelming right now, the amount of work I wasundertaking. I wouldn’t ever admit it to Gage, but if I didn’t have Mallory, I knew I’d become lost. The time without Simon proved that.
“Not right now, thanks. Let me prepare for those two meetings. Don’t forget, I won’t be here in the afternoon on Wednesday. Make sure that’s on my schedule.”
She moved her pen around her tablet. “Yep, already there, sir.”
My head jolted up at the word. I guess it was the norm in the industry, but like Gage, I didn’t like it either. Simon never called me sir. We’d been on a first-name basis. Was it a male-female thing?
“Mallory, please just call me Chase.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll get used to it. Chase.”
We shared a smile, and she walked out of my office.
My office.
