Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
I pull out the chair, then grab my laptop and put my cell phone right next to me. I open the laptop, waiting for it to start, and look up, seeing he’s walking back into the office with a folder in his hand. “I have this,” he says, pulling out the chair beside me and sitting down next to me, “it’s just little press notes that have been made over the years.” He hands it to me, and I open it up, seeing the news clipping. “My mother sent that to me. She said it was before the web days.”
I laugh at that. “So what’s the summit?” I ask.
“It’s lending and risk management professionals from California. It features the following tracks: regulatory compliance, risk management, lenders and chief credit officers, and finance. Everything that sounds like a good time.” He laughs as he leans back in his chair. “Actually, you should think of coming with me. It would be a great place to see how I work and what we stand for.”
I’m about to answer him when my phone buzzes from beside me. I look down and the only thing I can see is it’s from Josh.
I ignore it and turn back to Nash. “I’m one of the speakers, so you can see how popular I am.” He puts his crossed hands on his stomach. “You’ll get an inside look at the West Coast section of the Cottrell Group.”
My phone buzzes again, and this time, I see the message.
Josh: Did you really take off to LA without telling me?
The fucking nerve of this guy. It’s been four fucking days since I gave him the ultimatum, and the first text he sends me is about me not being in New York. No doubt he saw my Instagram post this morning of the sunset with the caption, “Waking up in LA.”
I see Nash’s eyes on the phone at the same time as I turn the phone over. “You can get that.” My eyes fly to his. “I don’t mind.”
“No, it’s fine,” I say, ignoring the buzz again. “He can wait for once.”
“He?” Nash says. “Who is he?”
“Josh is my boyfriend,” I reply, but then I quickly rephrase. “Was my boyfriend.” Nash’s eyebrows go up. “It’s a bit complicated.”
“Sounds like it,” he mumbles, then taps his finger on the conference table. “So what do you think? Would you like to come with me?”
I think of all the reasons I shouldn’t go to Vegas with Nash. I think about how I’m going on vacation with my family next week, and I need to get home. I think of the fact I should be as far from Josh as I can possibly be, and the word comes out almost in a shout. “Sure.”
Six
Zoey
“You’re off to Vegas?” Zara literally spits out her coffee when I call her bright and early on Thursday morning. I nod as I walk from the kitchen in the condo toward the balcony. Sliding the door open and stepping out in the white robe that came in the closet, I sit in the chair looking over at the houses, and I can hear the soft waves in the distance.
“I’m off to Vegas,” I confirm, sipping the coffee I just made before calling Zara. It’s six o’clock here, and I still haven’t gotten used to the time change. “It’s going to be good for me to find out more about the company. I can network and see what everyone says about the company as well.”
She throws her head back and laughs. “Is that what you’re telling yourself?”
“That’s the truth.”
“How is Josh?” Zara asks, and I shrug.
“No clue,” I answer her honestly. “He texted me the day after I landed here to ask if I was really in LA without telling him.” I laugh bitterly. “Not like, ‘oh, Zoey, I miss you. I need to see you. Maybe we should talk.’ Nope, it was all ‘you left without telling me,’ and then he followed up with ‘how long will you be there?’”
“So he’s texted you, but he hasn’t called you on the telephone?”
“How else would he call me, on the can and string? Why do you say it like that, on the telephone?” I make fun of her. “But to answer your question, negative.”
“He’s not worth it,” Zara says. “If that was Daniel, I would be like fuck this shit.”
“If this was Daniel,” I say of her fiancé, “you would have already burned his clothes while you were live on some social media platform.”
“Word.” She points at the screen. “Don’t fucking piss on my leg and then be like, I think it’s raining on a sunny cloudless day.”
“What is up with you and these sayings today?” I laugh.
“Ugh, I spent two days with Uncle Matthew and Uncle Max. It’s like all their old-time jokes have stuck on me.”