The Fall (Colorado Coyotes #6)

Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

Cam

I hardly ever eat out, and if I do, it’s usually at the local pizza place on Wednesday evenings when there’s a half-off special. I had no idea downtown Denver had an Italian place as upscale as Sophia. When I walk in for my Thursday night dinner meeting with Harrison Stevens, I feel underdressed in dark jeans and a casual purple blouse.

“Of course, right this way,” the host says when I tell him I’m there to meet Harrison.

My well-worn leather messenger bag, which I scored a few years ago at a secondhand store for fifteen dollars, is stuffed with Sundrift files. I’m not used to meeting with clients outside of the office, and I wanted to be prepared for anything that may come up. Hopefully I grabbed everything I might need to complete the draft of the contract we’re working on.

Sophia was an interesting choice for a business meeting. The lighting is dim and there are candles burning on every table in little frosted glass holders. A string quartet is playing in one corner.

The host leads me to a private table behind a curtain. Harrison must have requested a private space so we can discuss the contract without anyone overhearing. Another thing I’m not used to worrying about since I usually have all my meetings at the office.

“Cam.” Harrison stands up to greet me. “Great to see you.”

“Hi.”

I set my heavy bag down next to the chair the host pulls out for me, thanking him as I sit down. Once he closes the curtain, Harrison sits back down.

“You look great.”

I glance down at my blouse. “Oh, thank you.”

He’s wearing a dark suit, a white shirt and a light-blue tie. He probably didn’t have a chance to go home and change after work.

He takes a bottle of wine from an ice bucket in the center of the table, about to pour some into my glass when I put my palm over the rim.

“I can’t, but thanks.”

He furrows his brow, looking disappointed. “I think you’ll love this wine. Just give it a try.”

I don’t want to offend him. Retaining the Sundrift account has been my biggest accomplishment since starting my job. I relent.

“Okay, I’ll have a small glass.”

I’ll just sip it very, very slowly. Alcohol and contract drafting are not a good mix. It’s enough that I already worked all day and now I’m working away the evening; I don’t want to be here until the place closes.

I can’t show signs of impatience, though. It’s usually the firm’s attorneys who wine and dine clients, and I’ve seen Kathy in action a few times. She’s always completely engaged with the client, never distracted, and always starts off with personal talk, never going straight to business.

“So how are things?” I ask. “Is your family good?”

“My daughter is loving Stanford, thanks for asking. Now that I’m divorced, she’s the sum total of my family.”

“Stanford, wow. Good for her. What’s she studying?”

“Engineering. And she plays lacrosse.”

I’ve never seen a lacrosse game in my life. Or do they have matches? I’m a Southside Chicago girl and I know zero things about lacrosse. It’s these conversations with the firm’s wealthy clients that make me feel like a giant fraud, playing at understanding their world of luxury.

“That’s amazing.” I try to come up with more small talk, but I’ve got nothing.

“And what about you?” he asks.

“Oh, you know. Just the usual. Work and my kids, my kids and work.”

“You have two kids, right? High school age?”

I laugh. “I have nine-year-old twin boys.”

“Oh.” A flicker of something passes over his face, but it’s gone quickly. “They must keep you busy.”

“Always.”

We both speak at the same time, each of us stopping after a few words.

“Go ahead,” he says, smiling.

“Oh, I was just going to ask if you had a chance to look over the questions I sent in my email yesterday.”

“I did, and I’ve got answers for you.” He runs a hand through his short salt-and-pepper hair. “But, uh...before we do that...I’ve been wanting to ask you on a date for a while now.”

I gape at him, shocked. “Me?”

“Yeah, you. You’re beautiful and you have a contagious laugh. But I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, so I thought I’d ease into it with this working dinner.”

I’m supposed to say something here, but I’m staring at him like a deer facing oncoming headlights. What should I say?

Harrison has always been a nice guy who’s great to work with. But I don’t think of clients or coworkers that way.

I have to say something. The silence is awkward.

“I...was on a self-imposed dating ban until very recently. There was...well, I was stalked, to be honest.”

He pinches his brows together. “God, I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks. He’s in jail now. Or prison, I guess. But...yeah.”

“Well, I’m sure you don’t want to jump right into anything. But if you’d consider even having coffee with me, just to see if...” He laughs nervously. “If I’m crazy for thinking there could be something between us, I guess.”

He’s a client. I can’t shut him down. And maybe the fact that Harrison isn’t someone I’ve ever found myself attracted to is exactly the reason I should give him a chance. I’m batting .000 with men by trusting my gut. I should try giving my head a shot at being in charge.

“I’d like that,” I say.

He exhales heavily and grins. “Phew. You had me sweating there.”

I’m probably sweating myself. I’m still kind of stunned about what just happened. I offer Harrison a quick smile and then move on.

“Tonight, though, we do have to knock out this contract. I told Kathy I’d have a draft for her by noon tomorrow.”

He nods, looking much more relaxed. “We mustn’t disappoint Kathy. Let’s get to work.”

We start discussing the contract, but in the back of my mind, I’m freaking out a little bit. Harrison Stevens wants to go out with me. I’ve always thought of him as a serious, smart client. Emphasis on the word client. When I try to look at him through a dating lens, it’s...strange. I think he’s at least forty-five years old. If he has a daughter in college, his daughter is closer to my age than he is.

Half an hour into our discussion, I’ve only drank about half an inch of the wine in my glass and I’ve stress eaten half a loaf of bread. I excuse myself to go to the bathroom, where I frantically dial Tess from inside a stall.

“Hey, you okay?” she says in answer.

“No,” I whisper-hiss, leaning my back against the stall door. “The client I’m meeting with wants to date me and he’s a lot older than me and why am I so awkward?”

“Hang on.” She moves the phone away from her mouth. “Hey Zee, keep an eye on the boys for me. I’ll be back.”

“He’s an engineer. I said I’d have coffee with him.”

I hear a door close on her end. “Okay, so you like him, then.”

“I have no idea. I’ve never thought of him in a romantic way.”

“Oh.” There’s a frown in her voice. “Then why did you say yes?”

“The company he works for is a huge client of the firm. I don’t want to offend him.”

She scoff-laughs. “You can’t date him just so you don’t offend him.”

“I mean...I don’t know if I like him. Maybe I do? Or would if I tried? He seems like a nice guy.”

A few seconds of silence pass.

“Tess? Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“And?”

“I don’t know. You sound more panicked than happy.”

“Because I am panicked. I didn’t see this coming.”

She laughs lightly. “Didn’t you say he made a reservation at Sophia?”

I groan. “I don’t know shit about fancy places, you know that.”

“Okay, my advice is to relax. It’s going to be okay.”

A woman in a stall next to me grunts and I side-eye the wall between our two stalls, lowering my voice even more. “You think so?”

“You’ll have coffee with him and see what you think of him in a nonwork setting.”

“Okay.” I breathe in and out, steadying myself. “I should get back.”

“Sneak a picture of him and send it to me.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Come on.”

“I have to go.”

“Wait! Have you talked to Rowan?”

I furrow my brow, confused. “No. I told you he sent flowers, I texted him and he never responded.”

“Oh.” She sounds disappointed. “Is the engineer as hot as he is?”

I roll my eyes. “Is anyone?”

“Well...Dom.”

“I have to go.”

“Okay, you can catch me up on everything that happens when you get here.”

That’s exactly what I won’t feel like doing after a long evening of work. I’ll just want to pick the boys up and get them home to bed.

“Nothing’s going to happen. This is just a meeting. I’m hanging up now before he thinks I climbed out the bathroom window.”

I end the call and put my phone back in my bag. After a quick check of my reflection in the mirror, I leave the bathroom and go back to the table.

When I pull back the curtain covering our table and step inside, I see that Harrison has taken off his tie and undone the top two buttons on his shirt.

Two. Not just one. The dark tuft poking up from where the second button was opened is my first encounter with a client’s chest hair.

There’s also another bottle of wine on the table. I hide my alarm and sit back down.

“Okay, back to the contract.”

“Don’t you like the wine?” Harrison asks.

“I do. It’s delicious. But I need to be able to concentrate.”

He nods. “I understand. We won’t have to worry about work getting in the way next time.”

My blood pressure cannot be good right now. I’m sweating and my heart is beating rapid-fire. It’s not like the nervousness I felt with Rowan. This is more of a what the hell am I going to do kind of thing.

I need my job. And I need to keep a good working relationship with the Sundrift employees I work with. How can I do that with Harrison now?

Whether we decide to date each other or not, I have a feeling this is going to end badly for me.