Page 110 of I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
I nodded my head. I could imagine the betrayal that James felt. The betrayal that he didn’t want to experience again after Cassidy.
“Maria tells me you did not write that article?” Lorenzo’s deep voice held an air of softness.
“No. The published article was nothing like what I’d originally written. My editor changed it all. She thought my article was too sentimental and wouldn’t have generated the readership that the magazine needed.”
Lorenzo shook his head. “I don’t know what the world’s come to that we focus on trying to draw the attention of people on the internet. Yet, here we are. Have you told James this?”
I sighed. “I’ve tried. But he doesn’t want to speak to me. Rightfully so. From the outside it looks like I strung him along and then disrespected him.”
“Well, if it’s meant to be, then the two of you will figure it out.” Lorenzo reached out to pat my hand. “Now tell me about this business you and your friend are starting.”
I smiled. “Roxie and I are starting our own blog. We are still working on getting everything off the ground. She and I are taking some freelance jobs in the meantime to help fund everything, but once it’s up, we would like the first review on the site to be Rossi Pizzeria.”
Lorenzo mulled over my words for a moment. “And you think this will help the restaurant?”
I took a deep breath. “I truly believe it will. Rossi Pizzeria has a story to tell, a story that will resonate with so many other hardworking families across the country. I want our blog to showcase places like this, places that pour their heart and soul into the food they serve to their customers. Between my previous social media account and the connections from the freelance jobs we’ve takenover the years, we have enough of an audience for the restaurant to see a difference.”
“I’ll bring everything on the menu over for you two. I look forward to seeing what this does. James was so passionate about this, and I have the utmost confidence in my grandson.”
I only wished James were here to see how much his grandfather trusted him.
39
James
“God, I missed this.” Sebastian sighed as the two of us sipped on our drinks at Whiskey Locker during Monday’s happy hour. We’d decided to celebrate the end of my time at Berkley Williams after I’d handed in my resignation.
I twirled my Old Fashioned in circles on the table. This should be a day of celebration. I was on the verge of starting something new, something exciting. But the last thing I wanted to do was celebrate. Not when nearly every waking moment was haunted by Hallie. She waltzed into my life with a stubborn attitude that I couldn’t get out of my head. I developed feelings over the next few months of getting to know her, only for her to show her true self. Part of me wanted to be grateful that I’d realized before it had gone any further. But a bigger part of me refused to believe that Hallie could be that calculated. It felt completely out of character for the woman I thought I knew.
A few of the men I knew from different financial firms had come up to me after hearing the news that I was leaving Berkley Williams. Most of them were trying to figure out where I was going next. I kept quiet about my new position at Rooster’s venture capital, which wasn’t to be announced for another week. I was too distracted byreliving all those nights I’d spent trying to disrupt Hallie’s carefully crafted plans to find a man in this bar. Neither of us had expected that the man she had been looking for all along was me.
“Dude, if you’re going to be a fucking bump on a log, you could have just told me you didn’t want to come,” Sebastian said. “I’ve been trying to get you to come out with me for over a week, and you’ve been turning me down left and right. Is this still about Hallie?”
Sebastian’s normal antics had never bothered me before. I couldn’t remember if he’d ever fallen head over heels for anyone before. His relationships usually had a twenty-four-hour expiration. He couldn’t fathom why I was still reeling from everything that had happened with Hallie. In his eyes, I should have gotten over Hallie by getting under someone else. But that was where he and I differed. Hallie wasn’t a girl one could simply get over. The girl I thought I knew was now just going to be the one that got away.
“Of course this is about Hallie. Howcouldn’tthis be about Hallie?” I downed the rest of my drink, relishing the burn it left in my throat. It provided some relief from the constant focus on the ache in my heart. “I think I’m in love with her, Sebastian. Or the person I thought she was. How in the hell am I just supposed to get over her? Nothing makes sense. I still can’t figure out why she would do something like this.”
“And you still won’t reach out to her to find out?” Sebastian asked. “For someone so smart, I would assume you’d want all the facts. This isn’t like you.”
Sebastian was right. It wasn’t like me to act so emotional.It was why I was a numbers guy. I made decisions based on facts and provable scenarios. But there was no way of making sense of all of this. Which was why I’d avoided Hallie’s texts, calls and voicemails for so long. If I just ignored it, my brain didn’t have to turn it into logic.
But for once, maybe Sebastian was right.
I hesitated for a moment, then pulled out my phone. My thumb hovered over Hallie’s contact—the one I’d blocked days ago in a moment of anger and hurt. With a deep breath, I tapped unblock.
Almost immediately, the unread messages poured in.
It was tempting to ignore them, to pretend they didn’t exist and keep moving forward with my life. But a small voice inside me whispered I could never move on, not without understanding what had really happened.
I opened the first one. Hallie’s words spilled out, a mix of apologies and explanations. She swore she hadn’t written the article that was published. That what I read wasn’t hers. Her messages were filled with disbelief and desperation. She claimed her original version had been changed by Anthea, who didn’t think the piece was “strong enough” and had replaced the heartfelt tone with something far more cynical.
As I scrolled, a part of me wanted to believe her, to give her a chance to explain herself. But another part—the part that was still bruised—wasn’t sure if I could trust her again.
Sebastian leaned closer, his eyes scanning the messages on my phone. “What did she say?” he asked, his voice laced with curiosity.
“She said the article that published wasn’t hers,” Ireplied, my voice tinged with uncertainty. “She said that her boss changed the entire article without her knowledge.”
Sebastian’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Do you think she’s telling the truth? I know she really wanted that food critic position. What if her boss shot down her first article and asked her to put out the one she wrote instead, without telling you about it?”
