Page 10 of Getting Down to Business

“What’s going on?” Trent asked.

“What do you mean?” He looked at the pitcher as Tiffany filled her glass. “Were you ready to go?”

“No. We just figured you would be.”

As much as he hated feeling like a third wheel on their date, he wasn’t ready to go home. He shrugged and poured himself another beer.

Eventually, he had no choice but to go back to his apartment alone. He wasn’t even drunk enough not to mind it. He sprawled out on the sofa to watch television and fell asleep there, pretending it was an accident rather than the truth: he didn’t want to sleep in his empty bed.

While Jade hadn’t stayed at his place often—maybe that should have been a sign—he hadn’t been alone. Spending the evening with Trent and Tiff forced him to see the truth.

He was a relationship guy. As many times as it hadn’t worked out, he wasn’t willing to give up. His parents made it look so easy.

Maybe Gray was making this more difficult than it was. His mother and father had met when they were both dating other people. Trent met Tiff in a club and wasn’t expecting to fall in love. The right person might start out as a one-night stand. Again, his thoughts turned to Alyssa, but he quickly shook them off. She’d made it very clear she didn’t want the same things he did.

The next night, he was determined to do better. It was Saturday. He put some effort into his clothes, and even put some crap in his hair so it would look like he didn’t care about his hair.

He wasn’t going to go out on the search for a girlfriend, he was simply going to meet someone and let it turn into whatever it was supposed to be. He sat down at the bar beside an attractive redhead. When she looked his way he smiled.

“I’m Kelly.”

“Grayson.”

“What do you do?” she asked next. He and Alyssa hadn’t bothered to ask what the other person did for a living. Though looking back, that discussion might have prepared them for what happened the day after they’d been together.

Alyssa had said it didn’t matter where they worked. The only thing that had mattered was if he could get her from point A to point B. He’d accepted the challenge.

“Accountant.”

“You don’t look like an accountant,” she said with a laugh.

“What do you do?” He went along with normal protocol.

“I’m a life coach. Or I’m going to be.”

“That sounds interesting. What kind of training do you go through to become a life coach?”

“I don’t need any training. I’m a natural.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I can meet someone and know what they should be doing.”

Gray thought she might have life coach mixed up with palm reader, but he smiled and went along with it.

“And what should I be doing?”

“Definitely not accounting. In fact, you should walk into your office on Monday and quit that job. I can tell it doesn’t make you happy.” Grayson blinked. Accounting made him more than happy. It also made him a lot of money, which he enjoyed. Something else he enjoyed was having a roof over his head, which seemed in direct contrast to her plans.

“Actually, I like my job a lot.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I really do.”

“No, you don’t,” she repeated more adamantly.

It seemed Kelly was going to be more of a life dictator than a coach.