Page 13 of Stick to the Plan
I still remember when I met him at university, he gave a lecture in my engineering class. We talked after class and he gave me his contact information. For the rest of the semester, we exchanged emails. When summer came, he offered me an internship in his brand new company. When my father unexpectedly passed that spring, Declan gave me a way to support myself and my family. Devoting myself to his vision helped me keep moving forward through my grief.
This merger is important to him. It is validation of his vision and his legacy. I won’t be the reason it fails. Mind set, I throw back the rest of the whiskey in one last gulp.
“We don’t even live in the same country! I can’t stay here. I need to get back to Ireland and my family. There’s no future with her.”
I hold the bartender’s gaze as I deliver my speech. He gives a sage nod, as if he knows more than he lets on.
“Well then. If there is no future.” He pours another two fingers of Jameson in my glass, as he returns my gaze. “But t’en again. The future is not set, t’ere is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”
With that nugget of Irish Proverb hanging in the air, he moves to the other end of the bar to tend to another customer.
It is for the best. Isn’t it? I stare into the amber liquid as if it’s a crystal ball with all the answers.
Chapter eight
Rub a Dub Dub
Brianna
I’ve officially survived the first week of this awkward arrangement. Colin excused himself after dinner to search the city for a decent Irish pub and won’t be back for hours. Finally, have the house to myself and I deserve a bubble bath. What the hell, and a glass of wine!
It hasn’t been easy, but we managed to find a schedule that works for both of us. In the morning, whoever dresses first lets the dog out. Then the other makes coffee before we head to the office. I check on my other projects and grab a bite at my desk while updating status reports and project plans. In the afternoon, I join Colin in his office to flesh out the details on the solar generator. After a solid 10 plus hour day, we cruise back to my little yellow house. I throw together some simple home cooked meal, and he digs into it like a man starved. We clean up dinner in companionable silence, and then move to our separate rooms for the evening. A twilight stroll with Riley for me, then a few hours alone with a good book in bed.
The initial meeting with Dublin went well. There were a few strained moments. Some tempers flared when one exec questioned if the generatorwould actually work. Between Colin and I, though, we smoothed the ruffled feathers and kept the meeting on track.
I was also, thankfully, spared from having to lie to Stone again. His routine is to stroll in at eight am, take a two-hour lunch with his assistant around eleven, and then disappear by three for a golf game. Since I always beat him in by at least a half hour and usually stayed until six pm, he hadn’t had the chance to corner me again. I’m sure he would after Monday’s staff meeting, though. I’d better come up with something good by then.
My cell interrupts my thoughts as it rings. Checking the screen, I flop onto the bed to answer with a huge smile. “Hey! What’s up? Where are you?”
“New York City for a charity concert. I got some amazing shots of the skyline, though, and some local models. You’ll love them.”
Nicolette Kato-Atherton is my best friend, and a successful magazine photographer. We’d met at freshman orientation and quickly became inseparable. Sophomore year we’d found Anna Bennet and decided to make our duo a trio. For nearly a decade now, we’ve stood together through thick and thin. Bad haircuts. Worse boyfriends. Promotions. And everything in between.
My smile fades a bit. “New York? When are you coming back? I miss you.”
“I’m stuck following this band for three more weeks. I promise I’ll make it back for your birthday next month!”
“You better bring me something pretty to make it up to me!” I close my eyes against the anxiety building in my chest I’ve tried to ignore. “God, I really wish you weren’t on this trip, Nic. I need you here now more than ever.”
“Let me guess, Big Dick and Queen Bitch giving you grief at work?”
I let out a deep sigh. “Yea, that about sums it up.”
“I really wish you’d let me slap that girl.”
Nic has made it known countless times in the last year what she’d like to do to Rachel. “I know, I love you too. I’ll be ok”
“You sound really stressed, love. It’s got to be something bad. What happened now?”
I fill her in on the last week - from walking in on Rachel propositioning Colin all the way up to dinner tonight. “I shouldn’t be so hard on the guy. It’s not his fault Stone made him an uninvited guest. Colin’s as much a victim here as I am, really.” Another sigh escapes me. “There’s just major politics in play here.”
“Is he cute?”
“Nic! Is that all you think about,” I chuckle lightly. Being an artist, Nic appreciates attractive men. She is gorgeous and confident and, of us three, it is usually Nic that gets approached first when we go out.
“Hey! I stare at gorgeous men all day and can’t touch a single one of them. I’m in the middle of a three month dry spell. Cut a girl a break!” Nic’s voice drops as she adds, “Does he have a sexy accent?”
I groan as I think back to that first morning after Colin arrived. I’d turned the corner and found Colin standing in my living room. The open slider had framed him perfectly as he stood in a tailored three-piece suit. Hands in pockets, just watching my dog sniff every bush in the yard. The morning sun haloed his chestnut hair, highlighting red sparks and creating tantalizing shadows on his chiseled face. My fingers had practically itched to trace those sharp planes. The only lovers I’d had for a long time had been battery operated, and it was starting to take a toll on my sanity. I’m not a teenager anymore who can’t control herself. With Nic I can be honest, though, and I am dying for some good girl talk.
