Page 32 of Yours, Finally

If she had to show me that piece of her, it was only fair that I showed it to her, too. Maybe I was rationalizing things, and finding ways to justify a way to get an inch closer to her. I told myself this actually leveled the field between us.

She watched me with sad eyes, and for a while I thought she wouldn't say anything and we'd go. I collected every bit of strength I had and, right before I could unglue my feet from the ground, she let out a soft, heavy laugh.

"I didn't sign up for an angsty romance, yet here we are."

It wasn't until I had looked up the terms later that I joined her with my own sad laugh.

Chapter 11

Vi

I took a sipout of a very strong cup of coffee. I had somewhat recovered, but I had slept terribly the first few nights after Jake and I visited the latest venue option. Maybe I should have taken a page out of Jake's book and worked on my self control, because I hadn't had enough of it that day. Ihadheld back— even when we'd walked on the tightrope between where we were and where we could be. We had stayed on the right side of things. Lines had been held.

Barely. And now I knew he felt enough to be jealous. And he knew I did, too.

"Vi?"

Jake hovered at the door, in his suit pants and shirt. No tie, and sleeves rolled up so I could immediately see his freckled,thick forearms and wonder if I would need two hands to wrap around anything of his.

"Fuck me." I ground out.

He gave me a lopsided smile. "I feel like now we know exactly where I picked up that expression."

I laughed. "Fine. Hold me responsible."

"Are you okay to have our meeting now?"

"Yes, of course." I checked my watch. Jake was on time; I had been distracted and hadn't noticed.

He sat across from me at my desk; I made sure to leave the glass wall transparent and the door open. Just in case.

"You must be having a lot of these meetings, huh?" I asked.

He nodded. "I'm in full transition mode. Helping Samar move up to my role, and meeting with all the VPs helping me move up, too."

"Well, some of this will overlap, I'm sure." I took a deep breath. "And that's precisely the nature of how vice presidencies are set up in the conglomerate."

"Tell me more."

I gazed at him. I was certain that he knew this already, but his eyes remained steady on my face, focused like he didn't want to miss a thing.

"I'm not going to test you on this." I smiled and allowed my eyes to lock with his. "You know that, right? In fact…"

I got up and found a binder Stephanie and I had prepared for this. Before sitting down on my chair again, I gave it to Jake.

"This is all the info I need you to know," I said. "It includes an annex with all the policies that are relevant to Legal. It overlaps with all departments, but you'll see a special section for HR, of course."

He nodded as he flipped through the pages. Over the years, we hadn't had lots of interaction alone at work. Things would change dramatically now that he would be a VP, so I hadprepared for this transition, too. A binder was part of my plan of attack. So far, we kicked butt at this being professional thing.

I crossed my legs and rocked in my chair. "Since you have it all together there, I thought I'd give you the CliffsNotes on the most important bits."

"Sure." He lifted playful eyes my way. "Show off your executive side. I don't really get to see it."

"You'll see it a lot moving forward. As VPs, we'll interact consistently. Our job at this level is to articulate the strategic and operational goals of the conglomerate, as well as those of the different subsidiaries."

He nodded. "We're the hinge in the matrix structure."

"That's right. That's also why my dad— and Gabe— have both the CEO title and President. They're at the top of the hierarchy for both sides of the matrix."