She had several times. Only from the office phone, not her personal cell. She pulled it out. “I’ll try.”
Gina dropped her fork and it clattered onto her plate. “I’ll try his pager too.”
It didn’t matter. Alex did not reply to either of them. “I’m going to head back to the office and prepare.” Jamie slipped her coat on.
Gina nodded. “I’ll keep trying his cell phone. I’ll check and see if anyone at the office has heard from him, without raising any alarm. I promise. I won’t make the employees worry.”
Jamie nodded. “Okay.” She took her hair out of the bun on the top of
her head and let out a shaky breath. This was too important of a meeting to cancel. “I’d better get ready to save Alex’s ass.”
An hour and fifteen minutes later Jamie took a deep breath to calm down. Gina had seated the investors in the conference room and there was still no sign of Alex. I’m going to have to take over. Shit! She had been through the pitch a thousand times with all of the statistics and facts memorized. Of course, she had gone over it to help Alex perfect it at the time, not herself, but that hardly mattered now. She couldn’t blow this meeting. She checked her appearance one more time in the mirror, making sure there wasn’t a wrinkle on her blouse or a hair out of place before heading into the conference room.
Ten men in thousand-dollar suits sat around the table, looking unhappy and impatient. They were all men like Alex, they weren’t used to waiting. As she strode around the long conference table, she forced herself to appear calm and indifferent. They definitely weren’t in an investing mood and it was her job to change that. She smiled pleasantly at them, mustering all of the authority and polish she could. “Gentlemen. Welcome.”
Three hours later, Jamie paced around her apartment trying to calm her shaking nerves with a glass of whisky and ice. It wasn’t helping. She hated public speaking but with much on the line, she didn’t have a choice today. Now all she wanted to do was hide in her room and get drunk. Really drunk.
She kicked her shoes off and then pulled her skirt down, drilling it at the wall. “You asshole!” she shouted to the empty room. Another sip of the burning liquid and she undid the top button of her blouse. She’d managed through the meeting and hopefully convinced the investors to stay with Alex. If they didn’t, it wasn’t her fault. She wasn’t the one who had run and hidden away. She’d faced them head on, and kicked ass, right?
A knock on the door answered her question. She spun around and stomped toward it, forcing a smile on her lips. Murray had bumped into her when she came home from work, all frazzled from the meeting and impossible day. He was probably checking up on her. “I’m okay, Murray,” she called, reaching for the handle and forgetting she was only in her blouse. She glanced down in a panic and only opened the door a crack to pop just her head out. “I’m fi…”
The words died on her lips as she spotted Alex on the other side. Her smile disappeared. “You!” Glaring, she swung open the door and poked him in the chest, hard. “Where the hell have you been?” She stepped forward and poked his muscular pec again. “I was worried about you. Gina was worried about you! You had a freakin’ important meeting today and your ass was nowhere to be found. Do you realize—”
“I know,” Alex cut her off, his eyes running down and then slowly up her. He swallowed hard before meeting her glaring eyes. “May I come in?”
“You have some serious explaining to do,” Jamie grumbled. She crossed her arms over her chest and stomped back into her apartment.
Alex looked around the apartment with a smirk. “One would think you moved in yesterday,” he joked. “You have absolutely no decorations here at all.”
“I don’t entertain guests so it’s never been an issue.” Jamie flipped her hand and marched over to the counter to finish her ridiculously expensive whisky that tasted like shit. She poured herself another glass, purposely not offering Alex one. “I come here to sleep. It doesn’t matter what the walls look like when I’m snoring.” She shook her head and pointed a finger at him. “You’re redirecting. Where’ve you been?”
Alex sat down on her couch. “I needed to get away for a few days,” he said simply as he spread an arm over the back of the couch and crossed an ankle over his knee. “Sort some things out. I went to the Hamptons.”
The freakin’ Hamptons? Really? “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Jamie walked over to the freezer and grabbed two more pieces of ice for her drink. “You could’ve been murdered for all I—we—knew.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, trying not to smile as he watched her. Jamie could see the corners of his mouth twitching and it infuriated her. “It was unfair of me. I just—”
“Needed to get away. I know.” Jamie took in Alex’s appearance and realized for once it was not immaculate. He smelled of perfume and there was a very distinctive lipstick smear on his collar. Anger washed through her again. “With a girl, apparently,” she snapped.
Alex had the grace to look embarrassed. “That’s none of your business.” He sighed. “I needed some… company.”
“Yeah, that’s apparent.” Jamie swallowed a large gulp of her drink, it burned something fierce as it ran down her throat. She refused to cough. “You reek of cheap perfume. So, unless you have a habit of cross-dressing, it is my business when you walk into my apartment.”
“You’ve no right to be upset with me about wanting some… some companionship,” Alex snapped.
Companionship? What the hell? Are we living in the 1800s? “I don’t care! Have sex with some bimbo, Alex. Fuck ten of them, I don’t care!” Her face heated up. “But I do care when you take off and don’t bother to answer calls. I don’t own a billion-dollar company but you can kiss my ass if you think leaving me in charge of it isn’t going to have any catastrophic effects!” Take that ass-hat! “So help me, if you fire me because—”
“Your job was never in any danger, Jamie,” Alex cut her off and smiled faintly at her, but it never came close to reaching his eyes. “I take full responsibility for the meeting being bombed.”
Jamie raised an eyebrow. “You think it went that badly?”
“They are always tough sells, Jamie. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I’m not even sure I could have gotten the million.”
“You really don’t think you could have?” It made her feel better that even he wasn’t sure he could seal the deal. Wait… did he say just a million. She took another slug of her drink. She felt light headed. Maybe the drink was starting to hit her. She suddenly wanted to giggle.
“No.” He shook his head and sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. “We’ll just get more investors. It’s okay.”
“We’re going to need more investors?”