Page 34 of If We Were Young

Why weren’t we laughing, reminiscing over old times and giggling over the fact that once I was so madly in love with him that I couldn’t think straight, and how silly I was?

There’s none of that.

“Mr Carling.” I sounded like an idiot, but using his full name was like holding up a shield in front of my heart.

He sighed, but it didn’t register on his expression.

Come on, Ronnie, be brave. Speak your mind—for once.

“Why did you take us on if you don’t want to be here? It’s obvious you don’t like me… anymore. It seems to me this could become very awkward, especially on such a tight deadline.”

Just then, right then when I’d let words come out of my mouth, Natalie pushed through the door backward, her arse swaying in her tight straight dress, as she brought in two mugs. “Fred is on his way up.” She flicked me a glance, searching over the way I stood with my arms folded, then looked at his corresponding stance. He leant against one of the easy chairs, his body language relaxed—sexy as hell—his face a closed mask. She didn’t know that wasn’t what his face should look like. I did though. I knew his smile was unlike anything else on this planet. It could make your heart grow and grow until you were sure it would explode its way out of your chest.

“Excellent.”

She hesitated and I used eye-talk to get her to move on. Not that she did. I’m sure her arse rarely swayed like that when she came into my office.

Steam started to come out of my nose.

I harnessed Hannah’s inner Godzilla until the phone rang and cut off the pressure build-up of smoke and vitriol. “Could you?” I smiled, the tiniest tight upturn of my lips.

“What?”

“Answer the phone.” I turned and glared at her, catching my own ridiculous reflection in the window.

“Of course.” She frowned but backed out the room and I spun myself to look back at Matthew, raising my eyebrow in a ‘please answer if you haven’t been too distracted by my skinny assistant’s pert behind’ way.

“I have a lot invested in this business.” The clipped response was like bullets out of a gun.

So he was worried about money? Really?

I cocked my head and analysed him, and in vain tried to make sense of who he now was.

“Fine.” I motioned to the table and the chair opposite the digital display board mounted on the wall. “I’d hate for your investment to fail. Fred will be here in a moment and we can get started.” I pushed a mug towards him. His eyes flashed at my face, the frown deepening.

Anytime, Fred… Anytime…

Piercings

Time ticked painfully slow. Not just in my head; the batteries must have been running out of the clock on the wall and it clicked at an uneven pace. According to the timepiece, it was seven thirty; I wished it bloody was, I might have stayed in bed.

Matthew’s gaze had just fallen on my left hand. I watched him like a hawk about to swoop for its prey, when Fred blustered in.

Ah, Fred.

Ten years my junior, Fred styled himself on the ‘just got out of bed’, boyband chic, geek vibe. Usually I didn’t mind. But that was when he wasn’t sitting next to stuck-up-my-arse-in-my-sexy-expensive-suit Carling.

It registered that, in a very short amount of time, the man opposite had gone from Matthew to Carling, but I didn’t have time to ponder on it.

“Fred!” I almost bounced on him. His hand landed on my shoulder and gave a squeeze. We didn’t look professional at all; the scorching frown from our client didn’t make me feel he appreciated our small business mindset.

“Boss Lady, sorry I was slow in coming along. I wanted to fix up what we discussed this morning.” Fred winked and then turned to face our visitor. “Well you don’t look like an Amanda.” He leant forward to shake Carling’s hand, and I flinched at the power squeeze that turned both their hands red. “That’s a shake you’ve got there.”

The responding smile held a glacial wind straight from the arctic. “Amanda got caught up with finances.” His voice clipped, more bullets to my battered nerves. “Time is too much of the essence right now for us not to be making immediate headway.”

Immediate headway? Hell, who is this man?

“Okay.” I patted my hands on the table. “Let's get going then.”