Page 114 of A Lot Like Adiós
A shame, really. He was finally getting used to Gardaron.
He was almost there when someone turned a corner and crashed into him like a rampaging trihorn, taking him to the ground. They fell in a writhing tangle of limbs and Zack, though bigger and expertly trained by the finest soldiers in the Salazarin army, soon found himself facedown on the dusty ground with a stunner pressed to his throat.
His attacker spoke. “I could stun you, but then I’d have to drag your heavy ass back to my ship, and I’d rather not do that.”
Zack sucked in a breath, the mask sticking to his face. “I knew it would be you.”
She hesitated before asking softly, “How?”
Part of me has always been waiting for you, he thought. But he didn’t say that.
Instead, he hardened his voice. “Tell my father I’m never going back.”
“I would, but it was your mother who hired me.”
“My mother?” Shock mixed with fear, betrayal, and something close to happiness. Heedless of the stunner, Zack rolled over to look his old friend in the face. “She’s alive?”
She pushed the visor up on her forehead, revealing the amber-colored eyes that would’ve given away her identity immediately. Dark wisps of hair were visible at her temples, and despite the mask, hisbrain filled in the remaining details of the face he’d known so well. A mouth that was made for smirking and smiling, a nose she turned up at him when he was being an ass, despite his higher status.
“Riva...” he whispered, reaching for her.
A jolt of electricity tore through him, scrambling his thoughts and stealing his consciousness.
She’d stunned him.
Chapter 25
Michelle did what she always did after emotional upheaval. She flirted with burnout.
There was regular client work, and a few other inquiries had come in while she was with Gabe. She accepted everything and overloaded her schedule, which gave her the perfect excuse to turn her cousins down when they tried to get her to leave her apartment.
Except, this time, work wasn’t cutting it. Simple layout designs and social media graphics weren’t providing the kind of challenge she needed to make her stop thinking about Gabe. They filled the hours, but not her thoughts.
Not only that, Michelle was sad to let the Agility project go. She’d enjoyed working on it, flexing those muscles that she hadn’t used since quitting her job. While she’d drummed up enough freelance work to pay her bills and keep herself busy, she’d stuck to simpler projects that didn’t require a ton of input or creativity from her, mostly just moving text and pictures around on the screen. It had been a while since she’d led a project, doing all the research and ideation, formulating a plan, and she’d missed it. She’d been looking forward to therebrand, too, and had put together a whole package for Gabe to take back to his team.
She’d started drafting at least twenty emails to him, and twice as many text messages, but she’d deleted them all before sending. The bedroom was still off-limits, so she’d been sleeping on the sofa since returning home. It was mostly fine, but her pillow had fallen on the floor the previous night and she hadn’t noticed, so she’d woken that morning with a vicious crick in her neck. Yoga had helped a little, but not enough, especially since she’d been spending so much time sitting at her desk. She’d been thinking about installing a standing desk—or rather, having her dad install it—but she had twelve browser tabs open for different desk options and hadn’t gotten around to ordering one yet.
In short, she was a mess.
Michelle was sending final image files to Jamilette, a regular client who owned a Dominican hair salon uptown, when a new email landed in her inbox, from one Rocky Lim.
Her heart beat double time when she saw the name, and for a second she was sure Rocky was reaching out to her on Gabe’s behalf. But the subject line read “Marketing project,” so that seemed unlikely.
Still, her throat was tight when she clicked on the email to open it.
After skimming the details, she relaxed. Rocky had been impressed with her after their meeting, and he was wondering if she’d take him on as a client to help him launch a men’s cologne.
Michelle jotted down ideas in her notebook as she read through the email again, her mind already whirling. Opening a new browser tab, she took a quick look at other fragrancecampaigns to see which stood out to her, and which were blah. She looked at Rocky’s website, reading over his bio and film credits, then checked out his Instagram. He had a huge following on there, and a ton of modeling shots for other brands and publications. It made sense for him to come out with his own product.
Two hours later, her eyes were glazing over, and she realized she hadn’t gotten up to eat, drink water, or go to the bathroom at all during that time. Glancing down at her notebook, she flipped through the notes and sketches she’d jotted down, and was amazed to see she’d filled six pages.
Wow. She hadn’t even felt the time passing. Her mind had been fully engaged by researching and brainstorming a project she wasn’t even officially attached to yet.
She dashed off a reply to Rocky, letting him know her availability so they could set up a call. Then she closed her laptop and got up to stretch, feeling better than she had in days.
As she took care of basic needs—using her brand-new bathroom, drinking a large glass of water, and eating what was left of her chicken shawarma pita from the night before—she thought about how differently she’d responded to Rocky’s email compared to her current workload. Rocky was asking for the same kind of work she’d done for Gabe, and she could no longer ignore how much she’d enjoyed working on Gabe’s project, and how much more fulfilled she felt when she was engaging those creative parts of her brain.
The truth was, she wasn’t content to do basic layout design for the rest of her life. She wanted to get all up in a project, from the beginning stages to the final steps. She wanted herfingerprints all over it and the freedom to make decisions, instead of the graphic design equivalent of busywork.
