“Married?” The thought had been skittering on the edge of Kat’s mind, but she’d purposefully been ignoring it. The last thing she wanted to be was ‘the other woman.’
“Can you think of a better reason why he wouldn’t call?” Renee sat back in her chair. “Especially if you two had a connection?”
“Maybe he lost my number?” Kat asked hopefully.
“Maybe you got played.”
Kat slumped in her chair. She hated it, but Renee was probably right. Just because she’d felt something didn’t mean he had felt it, too.
“I’m sorry, Katy,” Renee said.
“You’re probably right,” Kat admitted, taking a deep breath. It was foolish to think otherwise.
“I’m always right,” Renee assured her. “How about this? Bob has this great friend I can set you up with. He goes to the club with us.”
“That’s really not necessary,” Kat told her. She just wanted to go back to work and forget about all of this.
“He’s a great guy, really. Not quite as cute as Bob, but then I’m a little biased.” Renee flashed her flirtatious smile, the one that made guys buy her drinks. But Kat was immune to her charms.
“Thanks, but I’m good.” Kat wasn’t about to take Renee’s charity match-making.
“You sure?” Renee batted her eyelashes as a backup move. “He’d be great for you.”
“I’m sure, thanks,” Kat told her. I can find my own dates, she wanted to add but kept her mouth shut. No need to start a fight with her friend.
I don’t need a date, Kat silently told herself, turning back to the computer. The truth was she didn’t just want a date. She wanted AJ. She wanted that connection again. The fun and the magic that the two of them had together. No random friend of Bob’s was going to give her that.
“Can you get me the spreadsheet for the quarterly projected incomes?” Kat asked Renee, changing the subject back to work. “I think if we add it to page seventeen with another graph, we can make the profit margin more clear.”
“Sure, sweetie,” Renee replied, her mind obviously still on Kat’s love life.
Kat did her best not to sigh. It was time to work. She turned her cell phone to silent and reluctantly tucked it into her desk drawer. It was time to work without distractions and try to forget entirely about a guy that wouldn’t call.
13
AJ
AJ rubbed his temples and considered getting another cup of coffee. He had spent the morning trying to find information on Kat again, and it had gone nowhere. He knew he needed to just accept the fact that he wasn’t going to find her. He had done everything in his power to find the woman, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
He figured that, if he didn’t let this go, it would eventually drive him mad. AJ was a billionaire CEO. He had built a company from the ground up. Now that he was at the top, he was used to getting what he wanted. And he wanted her. Or at least her phone number. There wasn’t a problem that he couldn’t find a solution for, especially now that he had basically unlimited funds.
The fact that he couldn’t even figure out who this girl was seemed to make all of his money and power feel worthless.
The intercom on his desk buzzed, breaking his train of thought.
“Sir, your first appointment is here,” his secretary informed him over the speaker.
AJ scrubbed his face with his hands and tried to clear his thoughts. It was time for work.
“Give me three minutes and then send him in,” he replied, hitting the intercom button with more force than he was intending.
He chugged down half the cup of coffee as he logged into his computer and pulled up the proposal. Usually, he would have already looked over the information on the meeting by now, but he had been up late dealing with lawsuit issues and had never gone back to the email after getting distracted by the ‘Yours Truly.’”
Luckily, his secretary had left him a summary of what the meeting would be about. He made a mental note to give her a raise as he looked over her report. E. Ryder from one of the logistics divisions had a plan to utilize inventory more effectively by renting out items that weren’t selling.
It was a great idea. For the first time in weeks, AJ felt his energy for work coming back. He set his coffee down and re-read the summary. He’d need to actually hear the proposal and have some questions answered, but if it was half as good as he suspected it could be, he’d be happy to have it put in motion.
His brain started coming up with questions regarding pricing, shipping, contingencies and all the other details that would need to be in place before approving a program like this. It felt amazing to be working on something other than the legal issues of his company. If nothing else, this would be a great distraction from the things in his life he couldn’t control.