Page 9 of Unofficial

"I don't want to stop seeing you," Kade answers honestly. "But I can't commit to just one woman. I'm sorry, but it's just not who I am."

"I can respect that."

Hold the damn phone. "You can?"

Jess nods. "Yeah, I can. I don't like it, but I feel like you're finally being honest. Which is why I have to do the same. Casual dating isn't in me. I want a relationship, Kade. Someone who wants me and only me. I deserve that much from someone."

She's right. "You do."

"So, this is goodbye."

The words sting worse than if she'd reached over and slapped him across the face. "I guess it is. Goodbye, Jess."

Pulling out her wallet, she stands and places a ten-dollar bill on the table for her untouched beer. She went Dutch.

Without a word, she leaves, and his chest aches. Why the hell does this hurt so damn much? It's not a breakup since she was never officially his girlfriend. But if that's true, then why does he feel like he just ripped his own heart out of his chest?

Chapter Four

Sitting in the bar she's avoided for weeks since she last saw Kade, Jess holds a glass of water in her hand and looks around. Her anxiety shoots through the roof, and she wants to be anywhere but here. They spent so many nights in this very place before heading off to one of their places together. When she believed them to be a couple, and he believed them to be nothing more than a fling.

She tried to get out of coming to O'Reilly's. Her boss wanted to take everyone out for a celebratory round, and she offered up every other location she could find within a ten-mile radius of the office. Of course, they settled on the one bar she would rather swallow nails than go to.

They successfully finished a project everyone thought impossible for their clients, and the drinks are well deserved. She tried to find a way out of joining, but she had no good excuse to avoid coming out without looking like a terrible team member. Considering she hopes to one day take over the company from Paul, skipping out on celebrations like this would hurt her more than help her.

"You did good, kid," Paul Gaines says as he gives her a side hug.

Her eyes look up to meet his warm brown ones, and she smiles. He has a head full of white hair with a mustache he's rocked since 1982. On anyone else, it would look ridiculous, but he pulls it off quite well.

Jessica's father passed away when she was five, and she and her mother never found a way to get along. She never knew how much she missed having a supportive parental figure in her life until she met Paul. He took her under his wing when she interned at his company, and she's never had a desire to leave since. They always say employees leave management, not companies, and she doesn't have any intention of leaving her boss unless forced to.

"It was a team effort," Jess says, deflecting the compliment. She's never been great with praise. Probably because she's never had any experience with it from her mother.

"You're so modest," he says. "You know, you're really going to have to work on that if you plan to buy me out when I retire. Modesty doesn't go nearly as far as conceited gloating."

She laughs. "I'll keep that in mind. But since you aren't retiring anytime soon, I think I'll stay modest. We'll work on that later."

“I’ll mark it down as one of my SMART goals. HR probably will love that.”

"You found a way to work with that impossibly difficult committee. They wanted to stop all progress, which doesn't make any sense to me. If no one inhabits those buildings, no one maintains them. It does no one any good to stop people from making changes and breathing new life into those old, haunted buildings."

"They just want to make sure the integrity of the building stays intact."

"By rejecting code regulations set by the very city they work for? Tell me how adding technology to allow handicapped patrons access to a building on a door that already exists hurts the integrity of the building."

Smiling, she nods. The committee was hellbent on stopping them from doing anything in most cases. "It was difficult, but it was also kind of a nice challenge. We don't have that many anymore with how great your reputation is. It taught me the art of compromise and creative solutions. Not to mention how best to navigate working with difficult people."

"Look at that optimism," Tiffany, the receptionist with brown hair as big as her personality, says. Her long, fake nails and false eyelashes complete the look she aspires to. Tiffany joined the party without waiting for an invitation once she heard the word 'bar.' "You're almost too good for this job."

"Watch your mouth," Paul jokes.

He shifts to talk to one of the others, and Tiffany looks around. Jess can't help but wonder just how high her hair happens to be teased. She's added at least a couple of inches to her height from her hair alone. Add that to her four-inch heels, and she's about half a foot taller than she normally would be.

"So... is the boyfriend here? Or is he coming? I want to see this guy who's had you smiling like a fool for months."

Tiffany really hasn't been paying attention, otherwise she'd noticed the smile fell from her mouth weeks ago. The words feel like a knife to the chest, and the words she has to say feel like battery acid on her tongue. "We're... uh... we're not together anymore."

"What are you talking about? You were head over heels for this guy!"

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