Then, out of nowhere, a skateboard came rolling toward her.
It had flipped over her feet, almost jerking her book out of her hand. While she had jumped back in surprise, this tall, wide-shouldered figure appeared in front of her, smiling.
“Sorry about that,” he said, a bit breathless from jogging over. “Are you hurt?”
For a moment, Jules lost her breath. She couldn’t determine if it was out of fright or out of admiration for the man that stood before her. Eventually, she had cleared her throat and swept the dust from her dress. He reached for his skateboard and knelt beside her.
“You don’t stay pissed at people for long, do you?” he said with a grin.
She couldn’t hold back a smile. “No, I’m not hurt,” she told him, “and no, I wasn’t pissed to start with. You wouldn’t deliberately roll that ugly thing toward another human, would you?”
His hand fell on his chest and he gave her a wounded look. “Ugly thing?” he repeated. “This beauty here is prettier than most ladies.” They both looked at the dirty, scuffed skateboard that had seen better days and she raised her eyebrows at him.
He had spoken in an animated voice, and she couldn’t stop grinning at his deliberate playfulness. “Well, get back to it,” she told him before turning to the sandwich she had brought with her.
Somehow, she sensed that he wasn’t going to leave her alone. He sat in front of her, inching closer and stretching his hand toward her. She looked up at him and tilted her head, wondering what exactly was happening.
“Richard,” he said. “Richard Morrison.”
“Jules Harper,” she told him, a bit shy.
“Harper?” he said, smiling. “Like the instrument, harp?”
She chuckled as she shook his hand. “Yes,” she said, “like the instrument, harp.”
They had held each other’s hands for long afterwards, always with a loving smile. They loved to explore nature together and spend hours enjoying each other’s company. With Richard, days felt like minutes and she couldn’t get enough.
They had known each other for only two weeks before she realized that she was in love with him. It had taken her another week before she told him, and he had kissed her tenderly, telling her how long he had held back his feelings too, thinking she didn’t feel the same way.
He had genuinely loved her, Jules was sure of this. But Jules had a difficult time opening up to him or allowing herself to truly give in to her emotions. She worried that her life suddenly revolved around him, and everything she would do from then on would be for him.
She didn’t want to lose herself in the relationship, and she knew that was what eventually tore them apart.
They had gotten a place together his third year in college and had spent every night in each other’s arms, talking about future plans and the babies they were going to have together when they were ready.
He loved her. He would do anything to keep her, and he didn’t want to imagine life without her.
So, what had happened? Jules often wondered. How had five years passed since then, and she was swarmed in an office with work instead of still being in his arms, being loved and loving him back?
As much as she liked to wonder, she knew deep down the real reason why everything fell apart. Graduation and her internship had happened. The perfect relationship they had went down the drain the moment she received the acceptance letter for an internship at Harrison and Baker, a high-class law firm that was over seven hours away from Rhode Island by plane. For days, she had hidden the letter from him and sadly watched him build his career as a stockbroker with every intention of proposing to her.
The day she finally told him that she would be leaving, she watched him stagger into a chair and stare at her as if he didn’t know who she was anymore.
“You’re breaking up with me,” he whispered, blinking unusually fast.
“No!” she cried, rushing over to hold his hands. “It doesn’t have to mean we’re over. I’ll call all the time. We have Skype. We could write letters and visit each other...and...”
“And all the past three years goes down the drain!” he snapped uncharacteristically. “Did you think about that at all?”
At the time, Jules didn’t understand him. She had stood and frowned at him, accusing him of being selfish.
“This is my dream law firm,” she told him. “And it isn’t continents away! It’s just a day’s drive and less than eight hours by plane! Why can’t you be happy for me?”
Richard just shook his head and buried it in his palms, completely disoriented. “But there are countless high-class law firms right here!” he reasoned, his voice a little softer. “We could stay here and you could follow your dreams. Everything could be the same, or even better. I just got a raise, you know, and we could actually live on that at first, and we could plan more and...”
Jules was no longer listening to him. She had stepped away from him gradually, wondering why he wasn’t even considering her own dreams. She thought she hated him at the time, the love she had felt all those years gradually melting away from her heart. A mere week later, they had grown apart so much, it felt that they were two strangers just coexisting.
She told herself she was doing what was best for the relationship and herself, but she ultimately knew that she wasn’t.
The decision was a tough one, and she had both gained and suffered for it. For the next six months, while she worked hard at the law firm, getting all the recognition she needed as a promising protégée for senior partners, Richard had drifted away from her life. She had heard from him regularly at first, but because of her busy schedule, she had no time to write him back—email or otherwise. Soon enough, the mail started coming only once a month until they stopped coming altogether.
It was then that Jules realized her mistake. She had spent an entire year away from the only man she had ever loved. She had been the selfish one, not him. He had tried everything. Even though he had hated the idea of being apart, he had been willing to keep in touch, but she had ignored him, focusing on her career instead and thinking that that was what was best for the both of them. She didn’t want to end up resenting him, and he wouldn’t want that either, right?
Of course, a part of her was glad that she put in all that focus and work because after the year, the firm offered her a permanent position. She had quickly become one of the top junior associates and had worked her ass off to stay at the top.
Amidst this, Richard often crossed her mind and she would spend hours in front of her laptop, thinking of the messages she could possibly send to him. She thought about calling or texting, but often wondered what she would even say. She kept procrastinating, justifying her lack of action with her busy schedule, until her phone rang one day and it was Richard Frigging Morrison.
“Richard?”
She couldn’t believe her ears.
“It’s been a while, Jules,” he said, his soothing voice reminding her of the nights she spent listening to it as he wrapped her in his arms.
“Indeed,” she replied, unable to think of anything else to say.
“How is the firm?” he asked her.
“Good,” she told him. “I might be making senior partner soon.”
“Whoa.” He whistled. “Doing work over there, huh?”
Jules nodded, wishing she could see the expression on his face and confirm that he was really happy for her.
“Well, I’m building my advertising firm now,” he said. “I sure could use a senior partner’s help anytime.”
Jules could practically hear his grin as he spoke, and she quickly remembered the spark in his face whenever he smiled. She had missed it terribly. “You quit stock?” she asked him.
“Yes,” he said. “Rough world. Tough business. And I’ve made enough from it already. Soon I’ll have enough funds to launch my own company.”
She nodded, smiling as she remembered how ruthless he was when it came to succeeding. “Why did you call, Richard?” she suddenly ask
ed him, unable to hide her emotions. “I always wanted to grab my phone all these years and do it first.”
There was a short silence before he said, “But you didn’t.”
His words didn’t come out as an accusation, but she felt the cut of them all the same. She nodded as if he could see her and waited a few seconds as he inhaled a short breath before he finally responded to her question.
“I’m getting married, Jules,” he said.
Those four words had broken her. Jules remembered how her hand froze, almost letting go of her phone. Her mind, within a millisecond, had briefly gone through their first date, their first kiss, and the first time he had made love to her. She had thought, at the time, that her entire life was meaningless without him.
And he was getting married to another woman.
For weeks after the phone call, Jules had become a wreck. She had buried herself in work with renewed fervor, trying to keep Richard out of her head. Always lost in thought, she blamed herself for losing him. She thought about the steps she could have taken so they could have both had what they wanted, instead of just leaving Rhode Island without hesitation.
Eventually, Jules had resorted to traveling often. She signed up to take on projects and cases out of town, which the firm approved immediately—it was difficult to get regularly traveling lawyers since most had families. The firm provided transportation and housing, so she went where she was told to go. It didn’t matter to her, as long as she was anywhere but there. She just needed to be moving, to be preoccupied. Jules did this for six months, avoiding calls and texts from Richard until she had gotten his Christmas card in the mail. He had sent a photo of him and Mary, his wife.
It was the reality check that Jules had needed. She had paused to think about how lonely her life had become. As she stared at Richard’s face, she only saw pure happiness and contentment. He used to look that way when he was with her, but he had clearly moved on. Her eyes trailed down to his hand, which was on Mary’s stomach, revealing that she was pregnant. They looked so happy together. Jules couldn’t hold back her tears. She was happy for him, she really was. He finally had the marriage he had dreamt of throughout college. She wanted the best for him, but a tiny, pitiful thought sprouted: what about her? Was her world exactly as she had thought it would be?
She stopped running from everything that very evening. She finally stuck to a firm in Seattle. She built herself a small home and returned to it every evening, thinking of the day she would be happy like Mary, with a man as passionate as Richard.
“And how’s that going for you, Jules?” Jules muttered aloud, her voice echoing softly through the walls of her office.
She stared around her and sighed. The paper she had dropped earlier was on the table in front of her, and this time around, she didn’t bother to go through the words. She just stared at it, calculating in her head the number of dates that she had had since she settled down in Seattle.
“Twelve,” she whispered. “Twelve and not a single one reminds me of what I had with him.”
Jules had been using apps to find her dates, but found that most men just wanted to get laid. Sure, casual dating and sex was fun, but at some point, it just got repetitive and unfulfilling. She needed more than just a one-night stand. It wasn’t as if she was expecting marriage from the next guy she dated, but how did she go through twelve guys and not find any potential in any of them?
She had to admit, though, it wasn’t as if they were terrible human beings.
“It isn’t you,” she had told pretty much all of them. “It’s me. I want more than this.” The typical excuse. She wasn’t proud of it, but she also wasn’t going to string them along.
More. Fulfillment. Happiness. Love. The realization had hit her that these were the things that she wanted in her life. She was tired of all the fruitless dates. She wanted a relationship that was going to make her happy and fulfilled—one that would remind her of the true love she had once felt and ultimately lost.
The wall clock reminded her that her lunch hour was quickly approaching, and that finally got the whirlwind of thoughts in her head to stop. She stared around her for the umpteenth time and sighed, wondering how she had managed to stay in a single spot since six in the morning, buried in piles of papers and memories that may soon drive her nuts.
She needed solace. She needed to find true love again.
She wondered if the date she would have at lunch would be anything different from the rest of the men she had met in the past two years. One could only hope.
Chapter Three
By the time the elevator doors slid open, Trevor had managed to clear his thoughts of the memories that had slithered through them the entire time he drove to the office. Hurrying to the waiting room, he smoothed the length of his crisp, tailored shirt with his palm and donned a confident smile, mentally preparing himself for the meeting.
However, when he stepped into the room, he paused at the entrance, seeing that it was empty. Relief washed over him and for a moment he thought they had left, but, staring down the hall, he instantly knew he was wrong. At her desk, Theresa was staring at him with a worried look, despite her effort to stay on the line with whomever she was talking to. When he stepped toward her, she pointed to the door to his office with her pen and bit her lip.
“They couldn’t wait,” she mouthed.
He grunted under his breath and nodded at her. Through the frosted glass walls of his office, he could make out the figures of two men who stood at opposite ends of his office with their shoulders resting against the wall. There was a third man on the sofa and he seemed to have one of Trevor’s office statues in his hand.
Trevor held his breath and walked past Theresa. He had a feeling the growing temper he had tried to discard before he stepped into the building was about to resurface, but he somehow managed to keep the smile on his face as he stepped through the doors.
The man on the sofa jumped to his feet as Trevor briskly walked to his desk.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Trevor said as he sat and turned to stare at the three of them.
“You do not keep us waiting,” the man who had leapt to his feet replied, narrowing his heavily browed eyes.
Trevor stared at him. His name was Sucre. Trevor had seen him before. His curly, sandy hair was unmistakable. He looked American with his skin tone and hair, but his accent betrayed his Mexican roots. Trevor made sure that Sucre knew his words had no effect on him before he glanced away to stare at the other men.
“I actually can keep you men waiting for as long as I want,” he said, speaking to all three of them at once.
One of the other two men grunted and pushed off against the wall with his shoulder. He wore a jacket similar to the other man and had the same cropped haircut, but had a much smaller build.
“You have something to say?” Trevor asked him, lacing his fingers and settling them atop his desk.
His ability to never cower seemed to always surprise them. The short man pursed his lips. Sucre stepped toward Trevor’s desk, more confident than the rest.
“You are financing an office building,” he said.
Trevor blinked twice. His company had commissioned a quarter of last year’s total revenue for investment in construction and real estate for the current year. It was a strategic plan, considering the rise in demands, so, yes, he was financing an office building development as one of the few constructions for the year, but it hadn’t even gotten to the news yet.
“Yes,” he replied, staring blankly at Sucre. What was he getting at?
The burly man nodded and inched closer to the desk, slowly dropping the small bronze statue in his hand on top of it.
“You will offer the contract to UF Inc.,” Sucre said plainly, staring into Trevor’s eyes. “Every benefit goes to them.”
For a second, Trevor wasn’t sure he had heard him correctly. “UF Inc.? But—”
Sucre shook his head, cutting him off. “It is what he wants,” he said, gritting his tee
th.
Trevor tapped his fingers on the armrest of his leather chair and tried as much as possible to contain his anger. “So, Stefano decides what company I give out contracts to now?” he muttered under his breath.
Sucre pretended as if he hadn’t heard him. Trevor watched as he slowly stared around the office, exchanging a solid look with the other men.
“We have been here before, Mr. Strome,” he finally replied. “You know how this works. Giving out the contract to UF will be a smart business decision for you, and not doing so will be a bad decision for your health.” He raised his eyebrows and Trevor knew exactly what he was trying to convey.
Trevor clenched his hands into fists. He thought about lunging from his chair and knocking the smirk right off his face, but they were right. If he did as he was told, things didn’t have to get complicated.
“Is that a threat from Stefano?” he asked instead of giving in immediately. He loosened the grip of his fingers and flexed them.
“Oh no, no. He only asked that we should come here and insist on who gets the contract,” Sucre said with a tone of sarcasm. “Making sure that you get it done is our assignment. Like I said, you know how this works. You simply give us what Stefano wants, we take what he wants us to take, and no one gets hurt.”
“No one?” Trevor asked, smiling. Each man looked strong enough and was deep in Stefano’s gang, but they were all also wise enough to not threaten him—at least not directly.
“You could be safe, Mr. Strome. Think about it,” Sucre responded, reading what was on his mind. “Think of your poor secretary—the sweet lady. What’s her name? Terry? Tanya? She offered us tea, didn’t she?”
The other men seemed to catch on to what seemed to be a joke and began to chuckle. Trevor instantly thought about how worried Theresa had seemed before he stepped into the office, and he wondered what they might have said to her before his arrival. Theresa was used to Sucre showing up at the office from time to time, and perhaps she knew why he came too, but she had never uttered a word about it. He had never realized it, but she knew a bit too much as his secretary, more than he was comfortable with. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if poor Theresa got caught up in this mess because of his mistake.
Cold-Hearted: A Billionaire Secret Baby Romance (The Alabaster Club Series Book 2) Page 2
