by Kaci Hart
Connor couldn’t believe it. Everything else that had happened in getting the place together was great but this would be a game changer. A packed house for a whole week would go a long way to staying out of the red. Combined with the other reservations that they had already started getting because of the website and the hotel would have a decent capacity for the rest of the year. Things were starting to turn around and he knew that it was all Tessa’s fault.
Chapter Nine
Connor knocked on Tessa’s door. They were all supposed to be going out tonight to celebrate the successes that they were having. Everything was turning around so well. He couldn’t tell by the way that she looked when she opened her door.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing technically.”
“Then why do you look like the world as you know it just changed?”
“I just got off the phone with my former boss and it turns out that they realize how much of an asset that I am for the company. It turns out them firing me didn’t have the intended effect. I was the only one there that really knew what I was doing and now they want me to come back. They want to spin it as an administrative leave rather than them firing me and rehiring me.”
“Wow. That’s a good thing right?”
“I don’t know. I mean I guess so. It’ll be easier than going out on my own.”
“There’s a but there.”
“Of course there is. There is always a but. They would need me to come back tomorrow for a big presentation. There’s no way they can spin it like that and not have me there for the shareholders meeting.”
“Then there isn’t a but. You have to go.”
He saw the puzzled look on her face.
“What? Did you expect me to beg you to stay? To tell you that we have something real here and that we should check it out. See it to the end?”
“I guess kind of.”
Connor sighed. He put his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes.
“Tessa, I don’t have to tell you all that. You already know it. What I can tell you is that I want you to be happy. I can’t keep you from your life in New York. That’s not my call. I mean let’s be honest with ourselves. We both knew all along that you were going to have to go back.”
He saw the tear roll down her cheek.
“I guess so. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. I don’t even get a chance to let it soak all in yet and here you are taking it like it’s nothing.”
“You really believe that?”
“I don’t want to but what am I supposed to think when you seem all emotionless about it?”
“That I’m honoring my promise to not do exactly what I want to.”
“What promise?”
“You made me promise to not get all touchy when you finally left, so I won’t. It’s kind of obvious that both of us care about each other but we are fundamentally different. You can’t stay here and there is no way a country boy like me is moving to New York so I guess we’ll just have to enjoy the time that we do have tonight until then.”
“Okay, but do me a favor. Don’t tell anybody yet. I’d rather tell them when we get back. I don’t want to ruin their good time.”
“I promise, now let’s go before they think something is up. You know Ms. Celia.”
“Do I ever.”
He watched her lock the door and they headed downstairs. At least he got one more night with her in Stanton Falls.
***
Tessa sat in the conference room with her manager and a representative for Cobali Services. This was the latest important meeting about ad services for the latest high profile new client that corporate was desperately wooing. They were presenting the client with a Product Placement Proposal. Tessa remembered how it felt when she first got back. That first day it seemed like the amount of work that they had given her had quadrupled. It wasn’t until now, almost three weeks later, that she realized nothing had changed. She didn’t have more work. She just had less drive. Less of a desire to do the work she was doing. The more she was back in New York, the more she felt like she didn’t belong anymore.
She wasn’t even listening as the video rolled showing past commercials for the company. It wasn’t until Mr. Atwell directly addressed her that she remembered where she was and what she was doing.
“Tessa, you’ve been oddly quiet since this meeting started. What are your feelings on this proposal?”
“My… feelings?”
“Yeah. You know, how does the ad make you feel?”
“Oh right. The ad. Well I suppose I can’t say what I really think about it until I get a little more understanding about the company. This ad just feels like soup in a can. It doesn’t feel homemade. It doesn’t feel like something I want to eat when I’m sick.” She turned her attention to the client. “Excuse me for asking sir, but is this what you want people to think of your company?”
The client smiled at her.
“That’s why I’m glad we hired your company. You saw our challenge immediately. We don’t want to be thought of as the big company. When people think of our soup we want them to think of sitting down with friends that are as close as family and sharing more than just food. Sharing an experience. And I want different images. You know. Something homely . . .um. . .rustic. That’s it. Our brand should remind people of a place that you go and never want to leave. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah. I think I do.” Tessa stood up and walked towards the exit. “I’m really sorry but I’ve got to go.”
She couldn’t explain it and she might regret it one day but for now she knew that she didn’t belong where she was. Not anymore.
***
Connor pulled his pickup truck to the house and parked. It was the first time in years that the parking lot had more than a few cars in it. If things kept up at this pace, he might need to expand the parking lot by a few spaces, but that was a good problem.
What wasn’t so good was how he was feeling. Everything was going great for the business but he felt horrible. He knew he’d promised that he wouldn’t make it hard for her to leave but he wished inside that he had. That he had begged her to stay because he truly felt like they had something special.
Unfortunately, that just wasn’t how it went down. He sighed as he headed into the house.
“Ready?” Libby asked.
“For?”
“Ms. Celia is waiting for you.”
“Please tell me you’re joking. What I’m ready for is to go to my room, shower and relax until you call me for dinner.”
“I’m not joking. Now you can try running that by her if you like.”
“No. Where is this supposed intervention being held?”
“In the dining room.”
“Okay. I guess on to the intervention.”
“Don’t worry. I have a feeling this is going to help you more than you could imagine.”
Libby pushed Connor through the kitchen door and he saw all kinds of delicious looking food on the table.
“I’m not sure if you two misunderstood how an intervention works because I don’t think it’s just a bunch of food. Not that I’m upset about that.”
Ms. Celia playfully snapped at him.
“Boy will you be quiet and sit down? I didn’t say we were going to do an intervention. I said we might if you didn’t get your act together.”
“Lucky me then. I must have pleased you with my attitude today because this looks wonderful.”
“No, your moping is still contagious and I almost did have to talk some sense into you but something happened today that I think will cheer you up really quickly.”
“I don’t know about that. Unless you can change time and let me go back three weeks ago.”
The older woman laughed at him.
“I can do you one better.”
He scoffed.
“I doubt it.”
“You shouldn’t.”
Connor froze in place. He knew that voice. Well. When she came through the
kitchen door, he couldn’t help but grin from ear-to-ear as he stood up from his seat.
“Tessa? What are you doing here?”
“Well I hear you’ve been moping ever since I left. Didn’t I make you promise to not get all sappy when I was leaving?”
“Yes but in all fairness I didn’t know how hard it was to let you go.”
“Okay. Humor me then. If you could go back, what would you say?”
“It doesn’t matter. You know I don’t like the idea of changing the past. And I don’t need to. Not when you’re here now. I guess the question is how long are you going to be here?”
“That all depends on what you would have said.”
“In that case, it would have been something along the lines of, ‘I know you think you have to go but you don’t. You belong here, with me. And you know that.’ That’s how I would have started.”
“Nice. Smooth.”
“Wait. I’m not done yet.”
“I see.”
“Then I would have said, ‘Why don’t I just ask you to be Mrs. Connor Armstrong so that we can make sure that you stay and never leave.”
“Well then I would have probably had no choice but to stay.”
He crossed the room and pulled her into a tight hug; sweeping her off her feet and swinging her around.
*****
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Continue reading for an excerpt from Kaci Hart’s book, PURSUING ANNA.
Chapter 1 (Excerpt)
Anna saw the woman as she walked into her office and she knew exactly what it meant. She coaxed herself to be calm.
Don’t kill the messenger.
Still, she was finding it a bit hard not to at least entertain the idea of doing so. Not like it mattered. No act of violence or anger was going to make the stacks of documentation that were coming in her direction go away any faster. Besides, she knew it wasn’t the woman’s fault.
“I’m sorry.”
Callie mouthed the silent apology and quickly scurried out of the room with a look on her face that made Anna feel bad. She must not have been doing the best job hiding her frustration. Even such, her momentary sarcasm arose when she looked at the small mountain of paperwork that had found a temporary home on her desk. She thumbed through the stack, taking inventory of all that was there.
“Now this is exactly what I needed today. One, two, three new quality control reports for review and I don’t know how much other stuff is here. I swear that the fun never stops here.”
Anna reminded herself to apologize to Callie later. She knew the girl wasn’t the thickest skinned. The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt her feelings. That’s not the type of person Anna was and even if she was mean, she had absolutely nothing against Callie. It was just that she hadn’t planned on starting her day out with a gift like this, and unfortunately for Callie, delivering those reports was one of her daily functions.
Anna sat back in her chair, and looked around her office. She could have done worse but that didn’t mean she was completely happy. She certainly wasn’t living the life that she had dreamed of. Being a professional didn’t turn out to be anything like she had thought it would when she was so easily excitable in college. Back then she was ready to take on the world.
She had a master plan of course. She was supposed to graduate from college at the top of her class and start her own little accounting firm that would grow into something on the level of H and R Block. Okay, so now she knew that her ideas were a little more grandiose than they needed to be. She remembered how her mother would always tell her to get her head out of the clouds and focus on something realistic.
It seemed like her mother knew so much all the time. God rest her soul. Her mother was a good woman who had died much younger that Anna ever expected. Maybe if she had known her mother would be gone early, she would have treated her better. But it was too late now. All she could do was be thankful for the woman that had raised she and her sister all alone by working three jobs. She wouldn’t complain about doing a few reports like Anna was doing now.
No. Anna probably got that unappreciative part of her attitude from her father. At least that was what she assumed. She’d never actually met the man. The last she had heard, he lived in Texas with a family that didn’t include her. For all her faith and love, Anna’s mother married the wrong man and he burned her. Badly. Anna promised herself from a young age that she would not end up that way.
That was one of the main reasons she had wanted to have her own firm. She wanted to stand on her own without anyone’s help. The only problem was that it was pretty much impossible to get a business off of the ground. No reputable company wanted to hire a young, inexperienced accountant with zero credentials outside of a few internships and a very well balanced checking account. They wanted the backing of a major company. Well she didn’t go through all those years of beyond boring classes just to punch digits into an accounting program for some mega company.
She held out for a decent amount of time. Six months to be precise. That was when the grace period on her student loans ended. The reality of what she needed to do to make it came in the form of a monthly payment that was over four hundred dollars. So she ate a bit of humble pie and took the job offer that she’d been given by a company she had interned for in school. That was five years ago.
When she really thought about, her professional life wasn’t all that horrible. She was blessed enough to have a job with one of the most respected accounting firms in the Miami area. If she compared herself to the average twenty-six-year-old, she was doing stellar. In fact, just six months ago she happily moved into her very own custom built two story house in a new gated community. It was the first really big splurge she promised herself when she started at the company. It was definitely a far cry from the little place that she shared with her mother and sister while growing up. In short, she was doing pretty good for herself.
None of that goodness changed the truth that she was in for a long day after getting that work dropped off at her desk. She should have been used to it by that point in time. Mr. Granville kept her constantly busy since he took over as her boss last year. At first when he’d inherited the High Equity Business unit that she was a part of, she thought he had taken a liking to her. He used to be full of complements and unnecessary thumbs ups to go with his funny, crooked smile. ‘You’re a great gal Anna. And smart to boot! That’s going to take you even farther in this company’.
In the beginning she liked hearing it. Sure it was a tiny bit chauvinistic but she didn’t think he meant anything overt by it. It wasn’t until a while later when she noticed that every compliment was a prelude to a whole lot of work coming her way. It had gotten to the point where in order to not scream, she created a game of it all. If she correctly guessed how many hours of extra work he would give her, she would go out for a nice treat during lunch the next day instead of her normal boring sandwich.
Yesterday she had guessed right so at least she could look forward to a nice lunch. The problem now was that she was hungry already. She cringed as she looked at the pile of work on her large mahogany desk. She pushed the brown leather chair away from her desk and slipped her feet into her heels. Her favorite thing about having a desk that big just might have been that she could relax her feet on the cool tiled floor under her desk without a single soul knowing. She got up and sauntered through her door.
“Hey Todd,” she called to her colleague as she entered his office located across the hall from hers. “I guessed right yesterday so I’m going to treat myself at lunch today but I’m starving already. I’m heading out for coffee and a bagel from that cafe down the street. It’s the one that Mitch from marketing has been raving about.”
“You mean Thanks-A-Latte?” Her young colleague questioned.
“Yeah. You want me to pick you up a sandwich or anything while I’m th
ere?”
He seemed to consider for a split second before he grinned at her.
“No thanks, I’m good. You know I have the breakfast of champions every day. How about I bring you food for breakfast tomorrow? You will be hooked, I promise.”
He winked at her and chuckled as he went back to focusing on his work.
“See, there you go playing again. Seriously Todd. Pop tarts every day? What type of champion eats pop tarts and chocolate milk? Anyway, I’ll be back soon if anyone asks. Please spend the time while I am away converting to grown up food.”
She took her jacket from off the back of her chair, grabbed her bag and keys, and charged out the door with a purpose.
The only thing that will get me through the day is my coffee.
***
