I grinned. “No, you sure as hell will not.”
CHAPTER 9
Silas
I tuggedat the cuffs of my pink, pinstriped jacket even though it was perfectly fitted. It was one of my favorite outfits—one usually reserved for a Rehearsal Dinner—but in a way, thiswasa rehearsal.
The first day of getting on with my life as if Bryson hadn’t knocked me off my axis. My cell phone sat on the conference table, drawing my gaze again and again, practically whisperinghe deserves a response.
After talking with Caitlyn to set up this meeting, I no longer doubted Bryson had told me the truth. He hadn’t lied to me or tricked me—and yet, I couldn’t bring myself to call him.
Heidi strode into the conference room with a slim binder in her arms. We kept the most pertinent information in the computer, but I liked to have something tangible couples could see and hold at meetings. It made it all feel more real to them.
“Ready for the Kennedy meeting?” she asked.
“Do I have a choice?” I asked with a nervous laugh.
She smiled sympathetically. “I’d cover it for you, but Caitlyn refused to work with me.”
I took a gulp of lukewarm coffee and moved to a seat at the small round table. “Don’t take it personally. She just didn’t want me to quit at the last minute, and I can’t blame her for that. Especially since…”
Heidi was kind enough not to fill in the gap. The whole office knew what I wasn’t saying.
Even though I’d created drama over something that wasn’t even true.
The door swung open, and I tensed. But it was Carol Ann, not Branson and Caitlyn. Only slightly better. I was so embarrassed by the chaos I’d caused the office last week.
“Hello, darlings, just checking in about out lunch meeting later?”
“It’s in my calendar,” I confirmed.
“Then itmustbe happening,” Heidi teased playfully.
There’d been a joke around the office for almost as long as I’d worked here. If it wasn’t in Silas’s calendar, it didn’t exist, and if it was there, it was damn well not going to change.
Of course, sometimes I had no choice. I worked with vendors who weren’t always beholden to my calendar, but I treated it like my personal compass. Without it, I’d be utterly lost.
“It’s my treat today,” I added. “For all the headaches I caused.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Carol Ann said. “It’s quite understandable that you were caught off-guard. Frankly, dear, I’d be more upset if you took something like that in stride.”
I pulled a face. “I hate to give credence to the stereotype that all gay men are drama queens.”
“No one thinks that,” Carol Ann assured me.
“We just thinkyou’rea drama queen,” Heidi teased. “We don’t put that on all gay men.”
“Oh, play nice, you two,” Carol Ann admonished before ducking out of the doorway.
Heidi flipped open the binder, and we quickly reviewed its contents. I frowned. “Damn. You didn’t make any of these vendor calls?”
“Caitlyn expressly declared she would not work with me. Ethically, I didn’t think I should do any work in case they hired someone else.” She hesitated. “Was that wrong?”
I sighed and shook my head. This was a mess of my making, no one else’s. Maybe it was understandable I’d believed Branson to be Bryson and freaked out, but I could have taken their calls sooner. “That’s on me. Don’t worry about it.”
A soft rap sounded on the door just before it opened. Amari from the front desk smiled in at us. “Mr. Larkin and Miss Kennedy are here for their appointment.”
I nodded. “Good. Show them in.”
