“Kaia and I are going to a happy hour,” she says, offering up an explanation that she doesn’t owe him.
“I can bring something back for you if you’d like.”
Her eyes light up. “You’re going to Roman’s?”
He nods. “You want a Cobb salad?”
She smiles. “You know me well.”
He sure does. “You got it.”
“Thanks, Chase.”
They’re not entirely back to form, but it’s a start.
Chase pull his laptop out of his bag and turns it on. While he waits for it to boot up, he glances out his windowed office wall at Amber’s desk. She’s sitting there resting her forehead on her hand, looking a little bit shaken.
Maybe things weren’t as easy for her as they seemed.
Chase navigates to his contacts app and gets back to work on a task he started on his way over here this morning. He’s always kept his little black book in digital form. Amber has access to it; whenever she’d RSVP to an event he was taking a date to, he’d give her the name of the woman he wanted to bring with him, and she’d take care of scheduling everything for the both of them.
He cringes at the thought of her arranging his dates for him now, even though they were strictly professional. He can’t delete the whole damned app, because it contains some other valuable contacts that he can’t get rid of. Instead, he goes through name by name, deleting all the women’s numbers he’s collected through the years.
If he can’t be with Amber, he doesn’t want to be with anyone else, either. It’s a genuine gesture; he’s not doing it for show, but he still hopes it will help calm some of her fears.
He clicks off the cloud backup, ensuring these contacts are gone gone.
He’s serious about this.
It’s a first step, but it’s a big one.
The steakhouse is absolutely packed with people, but with the right amount of money, you never have to wait for a table. This one is in a secluded VIP section that Chase and Jason have eaten in countless times before. Roman’s is their restaurant of choice. These kind of lunches have become a tradition of theirs that started back when they were just starting out in the corporate world, when every new deal they made on their own was worth celebrating.
They still do it, but now it’s more of an excuse to see each other, a way to keep in touch when their calendars are full.
It keeps them connected in this busy world.
“So,” Jason says, cutting a piece of filet. This was the impossible deal. Are you gonna tell me what made it possible?”
He’s torn between not wanting to talk about this weekend more than he has to, and telling Jason the story that Chase knows he’ll get a kick out of.
“It was how it always is at these things,” he starts, spearing a piece of potato on his fork. “Full of passive aggression. At dinner on Saturday, I made a comment about not being able to choose just one, and Pearson said that seems to be an issue with me.”
Jason drops his fork and rubs his hands together as he leans back in his chair, laughing. “Jesus.”
“Amber didn’t take that comment too well,” Chase replies with a smile.
“No, I can’t imagine she did.”
“She gave him an earful about the kind of man I really am, and the next morning we had breakfast together. He admitted he might’ve misjudged me and agreed to partner up. We’re meeting tomorrow, and he left the door open for future partnerships.”
“Damn,” Jason replies. “I would’ve loved to have seen the look on his face.”
“His along with everyone else’s.”
Jason’s eyes widen. “She did it in front of everyone else?”
“She sure did.” Chase laughs with Jason, still in awe of this woman he’s fallen head-over-heels in love with.
“So are you two together now?”
“What?” He’s surprised; Jason’s always teased him about his relationship with Amber, but he’s always shot that down and hasn’t mentioned anything about what went on between the two of them this weekend. “No.”
Jason lets out a sarcastic laugh as he shakes his head. “What the hell is wrong with you and this girl?”
Chase grips the handle of his fork, resisting the urge to send it flying at Jason’s head. “Would you believe it if I told you that this time I’m not the one with commitment issues?”
“Seriously?” Jason looks at him in disbelief.
“Seriously. Figures that once I finally get over my commitment issues, it’s for a woman with her own.”
“Damn.” Jason says. “You know, as someone who’s seen the two of you together from the beginning, I’m pretty confident she’ll come around.”
“Her sister said the same thing to me when she stopped by my apartment this morning,” he says with a bitter laugh as he pushes his food around his plate.
“What was she doing at your place?”
“Amber came home upset last night; she came over to kick my ass if necessary. I vaguely explained what happened. She decided to let me live.”
“Sounds like a great sister to have.”
“I deleted my black book too,” he admits.
“That’s the first step. Next thing you know, you’ll be moving in together, then looking for a ring. And then she’ll be having a bachelorette party in Vegas while you’re on a golf weekend with your friends.”
Chase balks, a little offended because he’d planned exactly what Jason asked for. “That’s what you said you wanted!”
“It is what I want, I just didn’t think she’d be going to Vegas when I asked for it.”
“It’ll be fun. Just because it was non-stop debauchery for us back in the day doesn’t mean it will be for them.” He adds, “We could always do something wild if you want to,” even though his heart isn’t really in it.
“I just want to relax,” Jason admits. With an amused shake of his head, he says, “I’m not interested in half-naked women grinding on me for one last fling. I just want Kaia.” He shakes his head at himself with a smile.
Not too long ago, Chase would’ve made fun of him. Now? He understands completely. “Yeah, I finally get it.”
“She’ll come around,” Jason reassures him.
Chase hopes he’s right.
Chapter Fifteen
Amber has always liked Jason’s fiancée, Kaia. The first time they met—at some fundraiser that Amber was attending with Chase—Kaia discreetly tucked the tag back into Amber’s dress. She gave Amber an emergency tampon later that night, then they shared a giant piece of chocolate cake on the balcony outside and talked about their shared love of 80’s teen movies while Jason and Chase charmed some investors inside.
They’ve been friends ever since. They go out for lunch every few weeks, catch movies together when Jason’s out of town, and meet for the occasional happy hour. They aren’t best friends, but they’re close.
One of the downsides of this friendship combined with being Chase’s personal assistant is that in the course of her wedding planning, Kaia occasionally tasks Amber with things that would typically be reserved for a significant other. Like choosing which pair of suspenders she thinks Chase would prefer, or which shoes might be more comfortable for him. She picks his meal for the dinner service, and schedules his tuxedo fittings.
Before this weekend, it made her feel more intimately involved in Chase’s life than she actually was, but now it just makes her feel confused and terrible. But that’s not Kaia’s fault; she has no idea how things have changed between them.
She and Kaia are at this trendy bar down the street from the office. It’s packed with professionals just off of work, and Kaia stands out a bit in her more casual attire. She works from home most of the time, which makes Amber insanely jealous, mostly because she’s not bound to wearing heels day in and day out. She looks comfortable tonight, still beautiful in her jeans and t-shirt. She doesn’t seem to care that she’s the odd one out, and that’s one of the things that Amber loves about her.
She’s glad for it either way. She feels rattled by his ability to treat her the way he did before they’d had sex, despite the fact that that’s exactly what she wanted and asked for. She finds herself wishing it would be more difficult for him to stay away from her, finds herself wanting to be pursued despite keeping her distance. He’s respecting her wishes, and that’s what she wants, but she also wishes it was impossible for him to do that. She knows what she wants one minute, then wishes for the opposite the next.
It’s like she’s begging for him to prove to her wrong for swearing off relationships, like she wants him to reassure her about her fear of infidelity despite the fact that she’s never explicitly talked to him about those worries in the first place.
She knows she’s being a hypocrite, she knows she’s a mess.
Apparently Kaia does too.
“Do you want to talk about what has you looking like that?”
Amber attempts to play dumb. Margarita time is her happy place; she was hoping to avoid all talk of heartbreak for the evening. “Like what?”
“Like you’ve been licking the salt off the rim of your glass and hating life. Sour and angry,” she says, with a note of honesty behind the teasing.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she explains. “But it’s not because of you, it’s because of me.”
Kaia looks like she’s trying to decide whether she wants to honor Amber’s wishes or not. “Well, if you change your mind, I have a running tab and you’ve got the rest of the night off. Share your troubles and drink away.”
Amber stares longingly into her margarita, wishing she could just jump in and drown. Getting drunk and forgetting about her troubles is tempting. “Maybe I will. If I get sloppy, just make sure someone gets me home.”
Kaia laughs. “I’ll take you home. Or we could always ask Chase; he’ll probably still be at the office by the time we’re done. You know he likes taking care of you.”
Amber narrows her eyes at her friend. “Is this a set up?”
Kaia looks taken aback. “What? No. Why?”
She shrugs, then takes a drink. “No reason, I just thought maybe Chase put you up to offering his name as designated driver.”
“Why would you think that?” She ponders it for a few moments. “Is he the reason for this face? Did something happen between you two?”
“No,” she lies. She kind of wants to talk to somebody about what’s going on and she knows that Sasha can’t be an impartial judge. She’s been too vocally hell-bent on her and Chase getting together that she knows whatever advice Sasha offers her is going to tilt her in that direction. She needs a third party who has never indicated one way or another whether they know about how Chase and Amber feel about each other.
Kaia is that person. Amber suspects that she knows how she feels, but she’s not pushy about it if she does. Maybe she’d be a good person to talk to.
Amber takes a long sip of liquid courage.
“Things are weird between us, and it’s my fault that they’re weird. But…I don’t know how to get over the thing that’s making it weird.”
Kaia stares at her. “Did you guys sleep together?”
Amber takes a deep breath. “Yes. And it was amazing, but I shouldn’t have done it. I think I’m in love with him and now I can’t go back.”
“People in love usually have sex with each other,” Kaia says gently, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s kind of a thing, and once they do they don’t want to go back to the way things were. It’s okay if you don’t.”
“But I do,” Amber says emphatically. “He’s my boss! I love my job, but he also doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to relationships, and I’m scared of—”
“You’re scared of what?” she encourages.
“Nothing, it’s…never mind. I just want things to go back to the way they used to be, but I want them to change. But I’m scared of the change, I’m just…stuck.”
Kaia puts her drink down and takes Amber’s hand. “Being in love is scary even when it’s not with your boss,” she teases. “I think it’s worth the risk, but that’s something that you have to decide for yourself. If you jump in before you do that, you’re in for nothing but trouble. But you’re not working on a timeline here, I guarantee you. I know Chase pretty well, Amber. He’ll wait for you to figure things out.”
That’s reassuring and heartbreaking at the same time.
“Have you talked to him about what’s bothering you? Does he know what the issue is?”
“I’ve told him about the issue, but I don’t think he knows that’s the issue, if that makes any sense.”
“You can’t get past it if you don’t talk about it. Trying to pretend it didn’t happen doesn’t seem like a great idea, Amber. That’s a recipe for disaster. I hope you know that.”
“I’m beginning to figure it out, yeah.”
“In my experience? The ones who rattle you and make you question everything about the way you thought your life had to be? Those are the people worth keeping. They’re the ones who can make you get over your shit and finally be happy.”
Amber sighs. “I feel like you’re right. My heart knows that you’re right, but my head is having a hard time catching up. It thinks up the worst-case scenarios and doubles every fear I’m having a hard time getting over.”
“Is this about your sister?” she asks.
Kaia’s nailed down the issue so thoroughly that Amber feels like it would be an insulting waste of time to deny it. “Part of it. I’m not the kind of person to hold Chase’s past against him, honestly…I don’t want to. But his track record doesn’t exactly inspire confidence if commitment is something that you’re looking for.”
“When you find the right person, it inspires you to change in ways you never thought was possible. Look at Jason if you need an example.”
Amber can’t argue with her there. He’d had a similar past, and now she can’t imagine him with anyone but Kaia. She’s never met two people more perfectly suited for each other. Even as she thinks about it, she can’t help the thought that maybe they don’t know each other as well as they think they do, that one day one of them could surprise the other with something ugly and impossible.
“You know,” Kaia says after taking a sip of her drink. “Chase did RSVP with a date, but about a week later, he called me and told me he was coming alone.”
“He did?” Amber searches her friend for any clue that she’s placating her. Kaia wouldn’t like about something like this though, Amber’s certain.
“Yeah. It was right about the time when he started going a lot of places alone. Maybe things changed for him a long time ago, and he’s already been demonstrating a commitment to you without you knowing that’s what it was.”
That’s something to think about. It doesn’t calm her worries necessarily, but it does settle something deep in her chest.
“Thank you.”
Kaia grins. “Anytime. I feel like you need a break and to have some fun. Are you sure you can’t come to my bachelorette party?”
“Maybe Vegas will provide a good distraction for you. We’re gonna have a great time. We have a whole floor of the hotel, I’ve got masseuses coming to get us nice and relaxed. We’re gonna have mani/pedis, we’ll go to a couple of shows and just do whatever in the hell we want to do.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Do you think Sasha would want to come? There’s room on the jet, there’s room at the hotel, and every girl who’s recently gone through a breakup should treat herself to a nice long weekend of relaxation.”
“She just had one,” Amber replies with a smile. “Before we went away o
n the retreat, Chase sent her a care package with some champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and bath bombs. If she went on a self-care trip to Vegas, she’d be in heaven.”
“Let’s invite her to heaven, then. I’ll call her tomorrow.”
“She’ll love that.”
“I don’t know if you realize this,” Kaia says. “But if you’ve got a man sending your sister post-break-up care packages unprompted? You hang onto him with both hands. Wrap your legs around him if you have to.”
Amber throws her head back and laughs. Kaia might have a point.
Kaia wasn’t lying when she said that her bachelorette party was going to be nothing but rest and relaxation. In Amber’s admittedly limited bachelorette party experience, strippers, debauchery, and copious amounts of drinking were involved. This trip seems more like a three-day celebration of Kaia.
Vegas seems like a strange place to go to have a relatively quiet goodbye ceremony for your single life, but it’s a traditional bachelorette spot for Kaia and her group of friends. If there’s one thing that Amber wouldn’t want to do right before a wedding, it’s break with tradition.
Amber doesn’t know any of Kaia’s friends apart from her former roommate Janine. They’re all nice enough, and do their best to keep Amber and Sasha included, but people who have been friends for years have so many in jokes that it’s impossible for two relative strangers to not feel like outsiders from time to time.
Jana, one of the women in the bridal party, is someone Kaia tried to set up with Chase a while back. They went on a couple of dates, but nothing ever came of it. She’s a sweet person though, and Amber finds that she likes her the most out of all of Kaia’s friends.
Amber’s never been to Vegas. When the ladies aren’t relaxing, they’re down on the strip taking in a few shows, bar hopping. Amber gets flirted with ten times as often as she does in the city, but she doesn’t have the heart to flirt back.
It belongs to Chase.
Her sister, thankfully, doesn’t have the same issue. She thrives under the attention, and seems like she’s having the time of her life. Amber makes sure to take Kaia aside and thank her again for Sasha’s invite.
One Night With The Billionaire Too Page 11
