Page 7 of Mending Our Chance

“That’s enough,” I snapped, keeping my voice low so that Felicity couldn’t hear. At the same time, I considered his response. She wasn’t always so callous.

“She told me to tell you that we’re meeting in a few minutes. Man, we’re really like a real corporate business now, meetings and everything.” Harold bobbed his head and sauntered away, unphased by my dark mood and the tension in the air that was liable to break.

It’s fixin’ to storm in here. I wondered if Felicity could feel the undercurrents too.Trying to distract myself, I closed my eyes and pondered whether Harold would ever amount to what I needed him to be. Regardless, I was locked in now, and I wasn’t going to give up on the guy. And I sure as hell wasn’t giving up on Felicity. Which meant that if she had a problem with me, I was going to have to figure it out.

~*~

Felicity presented me with a list of documents she wanted to review. “I know some of them are of a sensitive nature so I won’t take them off the premises, but I just need to see how things were set up, including the structure of your holdings and what binding language was used.”

Did I hear timidity in her voice? Those pools of dark liquid were turned up to me, but the rest of her face was hidden behind a mask. Her voice, however, was almost hesitant and filled with such emotion that it sent my body into a tail spin. It made me question her feelings toward me and whether she really did hate me. “Of course, whatever you need.”

Harold jumped in and added something which broke the spell that I hadn’t realized had fallen over the room, but Felicity ignored him, flicking her eyes back to her list.

No! Whatever that was, bring it back! But that private moment was gone. An ache ripped through my chest as I thought about grabbing Felicity’s hand and dragging her somewhere private. I visualized how I would brush my lips across hers and demand she open up to me. What had happened to the girl I left behind?

“And that’s all I need with regards to documents,” Felicity finished as she put her list down and looked around the room. “One more thing, this conference table is a plastic folding table with a dingy tablecloth. It needs to go—now.”

Harold’s face fell. It had been one of his pitiful contributions. I jumped in to save my partner from embarrassing us with an outburst. “It was all we could scrounge up.”

Felicity put her hands on her hips. “Look, this won’t do. You have an acceptable office suite, but you need to decorate it to fit the bill. Furthermore, both of you need to dress the part.” She grabbed two pieces of paper and furiously scribbled out a few instructions on them before thrusting them at Harold and I. “Go shopping at these stores,” she demanded. ”They will fit your budget. Buy a black suit, three white shirts, and five ties. I’ve noted the tie colors for each of you. This will be the bare minimum to work with.” I reached out and accepted the paper. She added, “And Marcus?”

Hope ignited in my chest that she was addressing me directly. I smiled at her. “Yes?”

“You’re dismissed. Get out of this room.”

My smile slipped. Just like that, I had been verbally backhanded. I still couldn’t figure out why she hated me. I defied her order, not because of her edict, because I would move heaven and earth if she demanded it; but because of the mirth on my partner’s face that glued my ass to the chair. I had just been shamed in front of the man I was supposed to be in business with and it was obvious that he was delighted about it. The bastard.

“Do you have anything else to add to the discussion?” Felicity tapped her foot. I glanced down, my gaze taking in those petite, muscular legs.

“I do, as a matter of fact,” I drawled, even though my eyes couldn’t meet her stare while I spoke. “I had been readin’ up on things, and well...” I paused, wondering how far to take this. But then, I knew without a doubt that I could do this. I could look her in the eye and be an honorable man, just like the one I had been raised to be. So with great effort, I met her gaze again. That was a big mistake; the heat was almost more than I could handle. My spine quivered and I felt sure my hands were shaking in my lap.

I cleared my throat and continued, “I was thinking that we should make this morning huddle a regular thing. Other businesses gather in the mornings to debrief on what each player is doing and set goals for the day. And well, I thought…” my voice trailed off again. I just couldn’t handle her, and the abnormal lack of confidence in my voice was all due to this weird situation. I had met my match.

I shrugged and rose from my chair, almost tripping over my feet as I shuffled to the exit.

Her concession stopped me in the doorway. “It’s a good plan. I actually implement this as part of my strategy. However, given we need to iron out a few wrinkles, we’ll be meeting more than once at this stage. Now isn’t the time to get into all the details. It’s better I send an email with instructions. We can talk about the strategy after you read the material.”

I paused, not quite sure what to say. It sounded like praise, yet nothing earth shattering. Getting a read on her was impossible.

Her voice cut through the silence. “You can leave now, Mr. Bowers.”

Ouch. I had tried to engage with her and been burnt. Harold had warned me full well that she wouldn’t work with me but it still hurt to see the truth of it.

I left the room to give effect to Felicity’s orders and go shopping. She was right. The suits looked amazing, but even at a discount they were tapping into our slim margins given I had no personal cash reserves. And as tempting as it was to touch the family money, I wouldn’t—not for this or anything. Did she know that? I wondered, as I put the suits on the business credit card. She had access to the books and account balances after all. Regardless, my financial position was something that she needed to know and I was determined to use it as an excuse to talk to her again.

Today, I had been prodded, and I felt raw. Even the strongest of men had chords that could be struck. The only question was whether Felicity knew and was prodding on purpose or if it was sheer accident. I knew I needed to address the emotions swirling inside me. It was high time to confront her, and this provided me with a reason.

Marching back to the office took a good forty-five minutes. As I left the elevator, I saw her leaving for the day, probably to go and teach a class.Good. I had caught her just in time.

Hovering by the exit, I barked at her, “Felicity, what the fuck?”

She stopped, the door to our office suite closing silently behind her. Those smoldering eyes narrowed at me, unphased by my harsh, sudden greeting. “Excuse me?”

“I need to know what happened between us when I left. If I was in the wrong, let me apologize and let’s bury the hatchet.” I was madder than a wet hen as I stalked right up to her. Reaching past her, I pulled the door to the suite closed tight, leaving us alone in the hall of elevators used by the three office suites on this floor. “I can’t work with you like this—existing under your wrath-filled eye and tasting your ire on every spoken word.”

Unphased my by looming presence, Felicity put her hands on her hips and shouted back at me, “I told Mr. Graceson that I will only work with him which means I don’t need to have this discussion. So, you can march right on inside and get me those documents or you can get out of my way.”

Fuming, I held up a hand. “AVIAF Tech. is my company—”

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