The Goy Next Door (Girl Meets Goy #2)

Chapter 2 The chicken salad scoop

Leah held her breath and the phone. She called his office line in hopes she’d have a better chance of him picking up. She waited while it rang and rang and eventually went to voicemail.

Think quickly, she told herself. Should she leave a message? It was right after noon so he was probably out to lunch too. She slammed down her office phone and decided she would just try again after lunch.

Her stomach grumbled and she got up to grab herself something from the deli downstairs. With hundreds of companies with thousands of employees, every place was packed during lunchtime. Usually, Leah didn’t mind because she’d wait with her friends and they’d gossip and laugh until it was their turn to order. But today, as she stood there alone, it seemed like the line was taking a particularly long time.

When it was finally her turn, she stepped up to the cashier and opened her mouth to place her order.

“Chicken salad sandwich on wheat,” someone said from behind her before she could order her favorite sandwich. It wasn’t just any someone. She turned around with her mouth still open.

“Did I get it right?” Gabe asked with a big smile on his face. “I always wondered when I would see you here.”

Gabe’s office building was next door to hers. But even with the thousands of people going in and out of buildings and passing through the same streets, the magic of Manhattan always ensured that you’d somehow run into people you knew, usually people you didn’t want to see. The less you wanted to see them, the more likely you were to run into them.

It truly had been a wonder that Leah hadn’t run into Gabe yet since they broke up. They lived in the same neighborhood, took the same commute daily downtown, and worked in adjacent buildings in companies in the same industry. Gabe worked at WinterRock Capital, a hedge fund that Club Business often wrote about in their daily newsletters and magazines. The fact that the universe had kept them apart so long was truly inexplainable.

“How long have you been behind me in line?” Leah asked, wondering if he had been standing right there the entire time she impatiently waited to place her order.

“I just walked in the door and saw you standing there,” he said. “I still have to get in line. Great seeing you.”

He turned and walked toward the back of the line and Leah was about to place her order as the heckles from the other impatient people waiting in line started to come.

“Wait,” Leah said timidly over a soundtrack of “Hey!”s, “C’mon!”s, and “Are you going to order already or what!?”s.

Gabe stopped and looked back at her. “I actually need to talk to you,” she said. “A professional matter,” she quickly added before he could start making assumptions about what she wanted to say.

He shrugged and came back to her side. “Two chicken salad sandwiches on wheat,” he said to the cashier and handed over his card, the sighs of relief very audible from the line behind them. “On me,” he said to Leah before she could protest.

“Thanks for the sandwich,” she said as they stepped away from the counter to wait for their order. As she smiled at him, she could feel the butterflies waking up and flittering in her stomach.

“How are you?” he asked. “Are you enjoying spring in Manhattan?”

“I’m good,” she responded, wondering how much she should elaborate. He didn’t even know she had broken her arm right after their breakup. She was already out of the cast and healed. He also didn’t know she was back together with her previous ex.

She was about to tell him what she needed to speak with him about when their sandwiches were ready. Gabe grabbed the bag and they walked outside to find a table on the street. They sat down and Gabe handed her a sandwich, brushing her fingers with his. The touch lasted less than a second, but the feeling sent shockwaves from her pinky to her heart and then down to her legs, which she couldn’t help but picture wrapped around him.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Gabe asked as he bit into the sandwich. He didn’t look as affected by their accidental touch. She wondered if he had even noticed it.

“I heard you’re buying the debt of Zoomburger,” she said before nibbling on her sandwich. She wasn’t so hungry anymore.

Gabe laughed. “You and everyone else in the industry. You’re late, Rosenberg! Your competitor Bloomberg News called me hours ago.”

Leah tsked her tongue and reprimanded herself for procrastinating her call to Gabe. How could she let a different news outlet get the scoop before her from someone she knew personally?

“What’d you tell Bloomberg?”

“That they could read the filings with the SEC,” he responded and Leah breathed a sigh of relief. At least he hadn’t given Bloomberg her scoop.

“And is there more to the story you’d like to share with me?” She smiled, trying to look professionally flirty. Like she was trying to get him to reveal information, but not so flirty that he might think she wanted him.

He laughed. “Is that how this works? You break up with me and I don’t hear from you for two months and the minute you need something, you’re nice to me again?”

“I didn’t break up with you! You broke up with me!” She exclaimed. “Don’t you remember my email?”

After their blowout at her cousin’s wedding, Leah tried to write a silly email in the style of Club Business’ newsletter, which she knew Gabe received and read daily.

NEWS ALERT: New terms proposed for PE-backed merger which almost broke down last year

Despite defaulting on a previous agreement, counselor for merger requests second chance to enact deal. Counselor pledges new terms to avoid default. Can they strike a new deal?

Counselor assures that merging party is the first lien.

“And don’t you remember mine?” Gabe responded.

Counselor considering deal and may propose his own terms shortly. Default is not forgiven and breach may be irreconcilable.

“You never responded to me,” Gabe said. “That’s pretty much breaking up with someone.”

“I was waiting for you to propose new terms! To forgive my breach!”

Gabe laughed. “That’s not how it works, Leah. In this world, when you want something, you have to go out and get it. You don’t just wait for the other party to offer it to you. If you want new terms, you propose them. You negotiate, you fight for them. You’re too used to be a reporter, who just sits on the sidelines as an observer. If you want to play the game, you have to get in there and go for what you want.”

“Note taken,” Leah responded. She didn’t have time to think about whether she should have fought for Gabe more because she knew she had to get back to work and she really needed a scoop on Zoomburger.

“For now, can you tell me anything about WinterRock’s plan with the debt?” she asked hopefully.

“I’ll tell you what,” Gabe responded as he crumbled the paper wrapper from his sandwich. “I’ll give you a story if you meet me at Stone Street Tavern for happy hour after work.”

“Of course!” Leah couldn’t bottle her excitement. “But can you give me the details now so I can write the story before Bloomberg and impress my boss?”

Again Gabe laughed. “You’ve become a real New Yorker, Leah. I’ve never seen you so impatient.”

She felt her cheeks turn red.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you the scoop, but you better not bail on me for happy hour,” he said.

“I promise,” she said. “You can trust me.”

She pulled the notebook and pencil she always carried with her from her purse and scribbled away as Gabe gave her the details that could make her journalism career, or at least give her the biggest scoop in the industry that day.