Page 114 of I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
My heart stuttered. I forgot how to breathe. And then James was walking toward me—confident, familiar, impossibly handsome—his smirk soft but unmistakablyhim.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I breathed, my voice barely above a whisper, as if speaking too loudly would break the spell between us.
The air shifted. It was heavy with everything we hadn’t said. With hurt and hope. With all the words we’d carried in the silence.
“Can I buy you an Old Fashioned?” he asked.
That warm smile I had grown so fond of flickered across his face.
“I would love an Old Fashioned,” I replied, and he signaled to Joey, who nodded in understanding the minute he saw James.
“It’s really good to see you, Hal.” That familiar nickname that I once hated was like music to my ears.
It was strange not being able to reach out to him.
“Hi, Hallie,” Sebastian’s voice broke the moment. He slid onto the barstool next to Roxie, offering a little wave. I blinked, noticing how easy he and Roxie looked together. Much more at ease with one another than the last time I’d seen them together in the Hamptons. Roxie totally avoided my gaze as she turned to Sebastain, asking about his day with the innocence of someone who hadn’t just orchestrated an entire romantic ambush.
“How are you?” I winced the second the words slipped from my lips. Because I had a feeling I knew exactly how he felt.Betrayed.
“Maybe the better question is, how are you doing?” James asked. “You’re no longer atSophisticate?”
“You’re right,” I said. “I leftSophisticateafter I found out that my boss had published a completely different article under my name.”
I tried to choose my words carefully, worried I might offend James and end our conversation before it started.
James tilted his head slightly, concern filling his eyes, but he didn’t interrupt. Didn’t pull away.
“What was your article meant to be about?” James asked.
I hadn’t dared to send it to him before. I’d been too afraid of rejection. Of more silence. But now … I didn’t hesitate. I pulled out my phone, opened the document, and handed it to him. Therealarticle. The one where I took a risk, laid my heart bare and talked about just how much that date and meeting James’s family meant to me.
He took my phone from me, his brow furrowing in focus as he read. Every flicker of his expression hit me like a wave—until finally, he muttered under his breath, “Goddamnit.”
My stomach sank. “You didn’t like it?”
He looked up quickly, eyes wide. “No! Hallie, it’sincredible. This would’ve been your best piece. The way you wrote about us, about that night … There’s so much heart in it. I feel like people would’ve reallyfeltit.”
I gave him a sad smile. “I guess we’ll never know, will we?”
“That’s not your fault,” he said. “You couldn’t control what your boss did.”
“No,” I murmured. “But I should never have brought you into this mess.”
His expression shifted. “And that’s what you truly think? That you shouldn’t have met me?”
“No. God, no,” I said quickly. “You’re the first person who ever really saw me. Who understood me. I don’t regret onesecondof it. But I still feel terrible that you got caught in the fallout.”
“I don’t,” he said, his voice certain. “It was the best few months I’ve had in a long time. I think it was the catalyst I needed to step away from the grindstone that is Berkley Williams and do something out of the ordinary.”
“You took the job with Rooster?” I asked, eyes wide.
He nodded, grinning now. “I did.”
“James!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him before I could second guess myself. “That’s incredible.”
It wasn’t until I felt the warmth of him, his arms winding around me, that I realized what I’d done. I started to pull back, awkward and apologetic. “Oh, I’m sorry—”
