The Heartbroker (18 page)

TUESDAY MORNING SWINGS AROUND. I’m working in my office when Stefan knocks on my door before walking straight in.

“Ready?”

Lara Tomkinson, the sales and marketing person from
You: Now
, is due to arrive any moment. Stefan has done his homework, speaking on the phone with her several times in the last week, and has accumulated all the information she requested.

I walk with Stefan into the conference room where Jocelyn is laying out coffee cups: after our last American visitor I’ve ensured we have a pot of coffee at the ready.

“Morning, chook,” she chirps. “Big day.”

“It sure is, Jocelyn,” I survey the room. As everything is in its place, all we need do now is wait for Lara to arrive.

“Hi there, Brooke,” I hear a male American voice say behind me and for a moment my heart leaps.

I turn abruptly around, but it’s not Logan. It’s Brad Stephenson. Brad Stephenson? My stomach does an unpleasant flip.

What is
he
doing here?

My brain seems to have gone into slow motion. Brad Stephenson. Here. In my office. Brad—the man who wanted to steal my company.
Here
.

I gape at him in disbelief.

After what feels like an eternity, I take a sharp intake of breath. If it hadn’t been for Logan’s intervention, we might all be out on the street by now.

Well, figuratively speaking, anyway.

It’s okay, Brooke. You have the partnership agreement in your hot little hand—and the ‘get out of jail free’ break clause, too. I give myself a mental pat on the back for that one.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I saw myself in.” He walks over to me, hand extended, looking as though he doesn’t have a care in the world.

I narrow my eyes at him. He might look like a happy-go-lucky puppet, but there’s something sinister about him.

He’s Guy Smiley’s evil twin.

I take Brad’s hand and shake it. “Guy, err, Brad. Hi. What a… a… lovely surprise,” I lie through gritted teeth. I plaster as pleasant a smile as I can muster on my face. “Where’s Lara?” I glance around to see if she’s lurking behind him. He appears to be alone.

“She couldn’t make it, so I got sent here instead,” he replies with delight. “Any chance to come back to beautiful New Zealand and see you wonderful folks again.”

His smile is so wide, with such perfectly straight, white teeth I almost expect one of those sparkles you see on toothpaste advertisements to ‘ping’, blinding us all.

Knowing Brad was the one who wanted to do the dirty on us, his sudden appearance is unsettling. Why is he here? Could Lara not come, or has there been a change in agenda?

Maybe Brad approached Geoff Friedlander with his plan, only to be shot down in flames? Logan assured me everything was above board. I trust Logan with my life.

And we
did
sign the contract, after all. It’s watertight.

I glance at Jocelyn, who appears as stunned as me at Brad’s unexpected appearance. And she doesn’t know the half of it.

Stefan, on the other hand, looks like he could pop.

“We’re
so
happy you like our country,” Stefan replies eagerly, as he steps forward to shake Brad’s hand. He darts me an excited look that screams, ‘I want this man for dinner!’

He looks like the cat that swallowed an entire pot of cream.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, Brad. A
lot
of time.” Stefan looks at Brad suggestively and I shrink in embarrassment.

Stefan may be an amazing sales and marketing leader, but sometimes he lets his libido take over.

And, yes, I know, I’m the big fat pot calling the kettle black.

Jocelyn appears to have recovered. “Nice to see you, Brad. Welcome back to Godzone.” She smiles up at him.

Being accustomed to acting as interpreter for our American guests, I explain. “‘Godzone’ is our way of referring to New Zealand. Kind of like it’s so special it’s God’s own country.”

“Ahh.” He nods, as though it all makes perfect sense to him. “I love it!”

There’s an awkward silence for a moment, until Jocelyn interrupts. “I’ll leave you three to crack on with it. Coffee’s on the bench.”

The three of us take our seats at the conference room table. God, I wish I could talk to Logan, find out why Brad’s here.

Despite leaving him a number of voicemails, I haven’t heard from Logan all weekend, other than a hasty text, apologizing for having to cut our conversation short. I’ve missed him and could so do with talking to him.

Especially now Brad has unexpectedly waltzed back into our lives.

“Okay, so let’s get this thing started!” Brad begins. “I need to get access to some of your files. I need to check a few things, you know, for our records.”

Alarm bells shriek in my brain.

“Of course you can,” Stefan replies smoothly. “Our casa is your casa.”

I cringe at the butchered expression, the cogs in my mind whirring frenetically.

“You can have whatever you need,” Stefan continues. “We’ve got nothing to hide.”

“Hold on a sec,” I interrupt. “What do you want to see, Brad?”

A shadow passes over his face. “Is there a problem? As equal partner in this operation, I would expect your full cooperation.” He pauses before cracking his broad smile again.

Well,
that
was disturbing.

“Whatever you need, Brad. You let me know,” Stefan coos.

Brad turns to Stefan. “Thanks. Access to your systems would be a start.”

“Sure. Come with me.” Both men rise from the table.

I sit, rooted to the spot, as I watch them leave the room. Perhaps Lara genuinely couldn’t come and Brad does love New Zealand so leapt at the opportunity to return.

I’m probably just rattled by Brad’s unexpected arrival, knowing he was the one who wanted to change the agenda back in Queenstown. Although something doesn’t quite feel right to me, I need to put it to the side and work with him.

What’s the point in entering a partnership with a company if I’m suspicious of their every move?

I walk out of my office to find Stefan leaning a little too close over Brad’s shoulder at his office computer,

“Find everything you need?” I ask.

“I sure did. Stefan’s been very, err, accommodating,” Brad replies.

I bet he has.

Brad, Stefan and I spend the rest of the morning together, going through our business, sharing any detail Brad requires, as agreed in the partnership agreement. Thankfully, Stefan seems to have his hormones under control for the duration, and we get through a mountain of work with impressive speed.

“Let’s take a break, grab some lunch,” I suggest.

“That sounds fantastic. I’m famished,” Brad says, sitting back in his chair.

We put on our jackets and the three of us head towards the door.

“Brooke, phone for you,” Jocelyn calls out, holding her hand over the receiver.

“Take a message, please,” I instruct, and continue walking away.

“You’ll want to take this one, love. You’ve been trying to get in touch with this bloke for a while.” She gives me one of her winks.

Realising she must mean Logan, I turn to Brad and Stefan. “You two go on ahead.”

Stefan looks like I’ve just given him free license to have his wicked way with Brad. “Sure,” he replies. “We’ll be just fine, won’t we Brad. Just us two guys. Together.”

“Yeah,” Brad says uncertainly as they walk to the lift together, carrying his briefcase.

That’s odd. Why would Brad need his briefcase at lunch?

“Your call’s on line one,” Jocelyn says, interrupting me.

“Logan?” I’m inside my office with the door shut. Only Jocelyn knows about our relationship at work, and I want to keep it that way.

“I’ve been trying to call,” he says, irritably.

“Oh, sorry. I’ve had my phone off.” I’m a little put out by his gruff tone. “It’s nice to talk to you now, though. Where are you?”

“I’m in Estonia, about to board another flight.” I hear a muffled announcement over a loud speaker.

“Okay.” I’m crestfallen. We haven’t spoken in days and now I only get a few moments to talk to him. “I had better get back to Brad, anyway.”

“Brad’s there? Brooke, I—” he begins but cuts out. “—you.”

“What did you say? You’re breaking up.”

“I—so sorry—have happened—tomorrow—you—” He’s making no sense whatsoever.

“Yes, let’s talk tomorrow. If that’s what you said?”

The line goes dead. I call him back immediately, but, once again, it goes straight to his voicemail. I hang up in frustration. This long distance relationship thing is starting to annoy me. I want him here, where I can see him, where I can talk to him, where I can touch him.

* * *

Stefan, Brad, and I spend the rest of the day ensconced in the conference room, barely coming up for air. Brad is one hard taskmaster, wanting to cover significant ground in a very short amount of time, and, despite my tiredness come the end of the day, I have a begrudging respect for him.

“Here are all the files you asked for.” Stefan, hands over a memory stick to Brad as we’re packing up.

“Excellent. Thanks.” He pockets it before putting on his suit jacket.

Despite a feeling of crushing tiredness, as Brad is our out-of-town guest, I suggest we all go out to dinner together.

“Thanks, guys, but I’m going to catch up on some other work back at my hotel, if it’s all the same to you.” He smiles that full, white-toothed smile at us and I can almost feel Stefan swooning next to me.

He picks up his laptop, placing it on the table. “Well, thank you both. Have a great evening.”

“Good night, Brad. It was great working with you today,” Stefan says.

“Drink?” I ask Stefan once Brad has left. “I think we deserve it.”

“Yes, please. A big fat one.”

Five minutes later we’re at our favourite after-work drinking hole.

“That went well,” Stefan comments. He takes a sip of his glass of red wine.

“I can’t quite believe we got through as much as we did today. Although he did ask a lot of questions that didn’t seem relevant to our partnership.”

“I suppose he wants total transparency,” Stefan suggests. “Brad’s great, isn’t he?

I smile at him, shaking my head. “Really? You think?” I don’t try to hide my sarcasm. “I hadn’t noticed you liked him.”

“I mean at his
job
.”

“Of course you do. What else could you possibly mean?” I widen my eyes in mock innocence.

“Okay, he’s hotter than his namesake, Brad Pitt, isn’t he?” he replies, excitedly with a glint in his eye.

“Brad Pitt? That’s a bit old school, isn’t it?”

“Sexy is sexy, babe. No matter what the age.”

“Well, he doesn’t do it for me. And he doesn’t play for your team, does he?”

Stefan takes a deflated sigh. “No. But I can fantasize about him, at least.”

“Of course you can,” I reply indulgently, as though I’m telling a child they can have an extra scoop of ice cream.

I finish my glass of wine. “Right, I had better go. Another big day tomorrow.”

“'Night, babe.” He gives me a kiss on the check. “I’m going to stay here for a while. Who knows, maybe Brad will come bursting through that door over there and profess his love for me, whisking me off into the night?”

“Stranger things have happened at sea.”

* * *

“Where can he be?” I ask for the fourteenth time as I pace around the conference room. “Try him again,” I instruct Stefan.

Stefan dials Brad’s American cell phone number once more, again hanging up after a few moments. “Voicemail.”

It’s almost midday and Stefan and I have wasted most of the morning waiting for Brad to arrive.

“I’m going to call the
You: Now
offices in San Francisco,” I say agitatedly as I check my watch. “It’s still the afternoon there. They might know what’s going on.”

“Okay. Let me know if you find anything out. I do hope Brad’s all right.”

“I’m sure he is.” But as I head to my office those alarm bells I felt yesterday ring out louder than ever.

I return to the conference room a few moments later.

“Well?” Stefan enquires as I walk in, deep in thought.

“They say they’re expecting him back in the office first thing tomorrow.”

Stefan asks the very question buzzing around my head. “How can he get from here to San Francisco in such a short amount of time? Isn’t it a twelve-hour flight?”

I sit down in a chair opposite him, rubbing my chin in the age-old gesture for thinking. “Unless of course he never had any intention of coming here today.” I look directly at Stefan.