Page 113 of I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
She and I both knew that if Roxie wanted something, she was going to get it eventually. Roxie threw a top at me from her closet.
“Wear that. You’d lookamazingin that.”
“I’m not going, Roxie,” I argued again.
She rolled her eyes at me, knowing just as much as me that soon I would be in a taxi with her on our way to the Financial District.
“I want to celebrate our new website.” Roxie stuck her lower lip out, giving me her best puppy dog eyes for good measure.
“Fine,” I sighed, reaching for the top Roxie had given me before rolling off her bed to go change in my room.
It would be like saying goodbye. It was the closure that I would never get from James. But even as I attempted to persuade myself of that, a little voice in my head whispered that maybe, just maybe, he’d be there. Maybe if we saw each other, and I had a chance to explain, everything would finally be okay.
I held on to that tiny seed of hope as the two of us rode across the city in the back of a taxi. We used the time in traffic to discuss outstanding business issues.
Which font did we want our logo to be in?
Did we like the pastel orange or the pastel red?
The amount of tiny details to stress over were endless. I did not know how difficult starting our own businesswould be, but neither of us was deterred. The universe had laid the path, and it was now up to us to follow it.
The cab stopped in front of the familiar bar, one that I had spent weeks in boring myself to death attempting to find the perfect finance man. Only to realize that the perfect man had been the one smirking at me across the bar the entire time. Roxie was halfway to the front door of Whiskey Locker by the time I finally got the courage to step out of the taxi.
Flashes of the night James and I had made our original agreement played across my mind as I followed Roxie inside. I didn’t regret making that deal despite how everything ended. Without it, I never would have had the chance to feel seen and appreciated, how James had made me feel.
I spotted a few familiar faces hanging around the bar. The first guy I attempted to talk to—Mark. Then there was Graham, still lingering near the dart board. Even that bastard Henry who was now trying to flirt with another woman that hadn’t picked up on the ring tan line on his left hand. But the one familiar face I wanted to see was nowhere to be found.
I wasn’t sure if the feeling pooling in my stomach was one of relief or disappointment.
“What do you want to drink?” Roxie asked me.
For a split second, I almost asked for an Old Fashioned before I thought better of it. Was I trying to make myself miserable? “I’ll take a glass of white wine.”
“Grab us a couple of seats at the bar?” Roxie asked me before she sidled up to the bartender, Joey, who gave me a smile and a wave when he recognized me.
“Sure.”
Oddly, this place felt like a second home after all the time I’d spent here over the past few months. But I felt like a completely different person since the first time I had stepped inside. Back then I would have doneanythingto claw myself into Anthea’s good graces. Now I was taking matters into my own hands.
“Should we play a round of darts?” Roxie asked, eyeing Graham’s friend, who, I’m pretty sure, was devastated because Roxie hadn’t given him her number that night.
“I think I learned my lesson last time,” I said as I took my glass of wine from her.
“If you say so,” Roxie sang as she scanned the room.
My eyes drifted toward the entrance of the bar as I was wondering when we could leave, only to see a familiar face walk through.
6′5″.
Blue eyes.
The most handsome man in all the financial district.
All the air seemed to leave the room, but my gaze stayed glued on James.
He was here.
Then, like something out of one of my favorite romance movies, his eyes found mine across the room.
