Torn (19 page)

 

“Sounds great, Court. I will meet you down in the lobby at noon. I can’t wait.” I was actually excited to
look for a yellow dress, but more to see my friend.

 

“Alright, talk to you later then! Bye!” With that she hung up.

The drive must have flown by when I was on the phone; I put my phone in my bag and as I rounded the
corner to my building. I was running a little late; but I wasn’t feeling too bad about 10 minutes,
especially since I had stayed in bed for three snooze alarms.

When I got up to my floor, I was greeted by Ava and her smile that was still lighting up the room. I could
actually feel myself starting to smile.

 

“Good morning, Ava. Or should I say great morning for you?” I chuckled.

 

“Very funny. After the afternoon you had yesterday, you should be smiling too!”

 

I didn’t have the heart to tell her about what happened so I tried to smile it off.

 

“However.” She started. “I do have some bad news. Do you want to get settled in first?” Her smile
started to fade.

 

“Come into my office and tell me.” My heart beat had begun to pick up. I never liked hearing that there
was bad news first thing in the morning.

 

“So, Mr. Rogers, he wants to move the meeting up to this afternoon!”

“Are you kidding me, Ava! I just finished the proposal and didn’t even work on any of the contracts! Why
the fuck is he in such a hurry?” I rarely cussed at work, but I felt like I was going to be a sailor the rest of
the day.

“Ryleigh, I’m sorry. I tried to keep it next week but he said that he’s going to be vacationing in St. Tropez
next week and he wants to get this done. I can see if I can get him to do it later this week?” She looked
nervous; I don’t think that I have ever been angry in front of her. I actually felt bad.

“No, Ava, it’s okay.” I said calmly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap back there. I just don’t know why he is all
the sudden in a hurry, he came to us a month ago and we just got his information a week or two ago. He
must have another offer. I will get his contracts done, what time did he want to meet?” My mind kept
repeating noon, knowing that I was going to have to cancel on Courtney.

“Noon.”

I growled. Of course he wanted a lunch meeting. He was a typical business man whom wanted to have
lunch meetings with companies that wanted to cater to him, because they would really cater to him and
buy lunches. My ideal lunch was not eating it, especially today, with Mr. Rogers.

“Great. I made lunch plans, but I will fit him in. Can you call his assistant or someone down in his office
and find out typical foods he orders in? I will call him personally afterwards and get an order.” I started
typing on my computer with extra force in my keystrokes.

“No problem. Lunch with Caleb?” She asked as she began to walk out.

 

“No. My friend Courtney, we were going to go shopping for her wedding. No big deal, I might sneak out
of here early tonight then. Do I have anything elseset up?”

 

“Nope, just him and then you are free. I’m going to call around his office and I will let you know what I
find.” Ava exited out of my office and I immediately picked up my phone to call Courtney.

 

“You miss me that much?” She joked.

“I wish that was the case, look we are going to have to push shopping back and maybe do dinner? I am
so sorry to do this to you; this client I have been trying to get is pushing his meeting up from next
Wednesday to noon today! I am so pissed right now!” I was gritting my teeth from saying anything
further.

“It’s okay, work comes first. Dinner will work actually, Jason has a dinner meeting and I was just going to
grab a burger, but now I can eat something a little better. What time were you thinking?

“I am going to duck out of here after the meeting, I am not sure when that will be though. He is a
stubborn old man and I need to make sure everything is perfect.” I began to pull up his files on my
computer.

“Alright, maybe an early dinner and then shopping or vice versa. Just give me a call when you are leaving
and we can meet someplace. You knock him dead. Ry,remember, you are amazing at your job!”

 

“One can only hope that I knock him dead. Oh man, that was horrible. I better calm down before he gets
here! Thanks Court. I will call you later.” I foundthat I was really grumpy

We hung up and I began to work on Mr. Rogers’ contracts. I heard my phone buzz but I was really too
involved with this project that I put my phone in my purse and tried not to even pay it any attention.
This was the time when my head was finally concentrating on something rather than personal related
issues.

After working on this project for three hours, Ava finally poked her head into my office.
“Hey, sorry it took me so long. I called everyone in that damn office and found that he orders at random
during his meeting. So I’m coming in here to tell you that I found out nothing. I feel like I just wasted
three hours of both of our lives and I so frustrated right now.” She said annoyed.

“Ava, it is okay. I will just ask him what I can order him when he gets here. Thank you so much for going
through the trouble though. I really do appreciate it.” I said reaching for my phone. “Can I order
something for you as well?”

“No, Brantley is coming up and taking me to lunch today. Thanks for the offer though. I will stay to show
Mr. Rogers into the conference room, but then I will head out. If it’s okay, of course?”

“Oh yeah! That’s fine. Thank you, Ava. You do an amazing job here. I don’t know what I would do
without you!” As she walked off, I dialed up our marketing department to make sure I could get a
projector in the conference room set up.

I also decided to get the okay from human resources; I wanted to give Ava some sort of incentive. The
best way to ever get ahold of those guys was to send an email. They never answered their phones or
seemed to be in their office, but when they got an email they jumped all over it. I never understood
them.

At exactly noon, I had everything finished. I was pretty impressed with myself that I accomplished an
entire presentation in about few hours. I typically liked to be able to take a week to make touch ups and
practice presenting the information.

“Hey, he is in the conference room. I am heading out now; can I bring you back anything?” Ava poked
her head in.

 

“No, thank you though. I’m going to order us food and have it delivered and then that way we can have
a minute to talk about what he wants to have done. I can then stuff my face. Tell Brantley I said hello.”

 

“Will do. See you after your meeting, good luck!” She skipped off.

I headed down to the conference room. I was greeted by an older gentleman who was wearing a
sweater instead of a suit jacket. I would say that he was in his mid-60’s. The television Mr. Rogers was a
slender man, the Mr. Rogers in front of me was a heavier man. He was not fat, but had a bit of a gut.

“Good Afternoon, Mr. Rogers.” I held my hand out for a firm handshake. “I am Ryleigh Andrews, we
have spoken many times on the phone, but I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to have some
face to face time with you. I would love to order us some lunch while we discuss your expectations of us,
me and my team.”

“Pleased to finally put a face to the voice, Ms. Andrews. I would love some lunch.” He shook my hand in
a firm grasp. “That is a grip you have there. I like a woman who knows how to really shake a hand, we
will get along famously.” He winked at me and sat down at the head of the table.
I handed him a few menus and we finally settled on some Italian food. I made a phone call to the
restaurant and asked it to be delivered in a rush and that there would be an amazing tip in it.

We sat for a few moments in silence, and then I felt his eyes set on me. He was watching me fiddle with
my wedding rings.

 

“Forgive me. When we first met, I called you MS. Andrews; I didn’t realize that you were married.” He
said quietly.

“Oh, please, I didn’t even notice. No harm done.” I smiled at him. “While we wait would you like to see
some of the documents that I put together? The slides will explain them a little better, but if you wanted
to look over where we will invest some of your funds and how we will spread it out appropriately.”

“That would be nice.”

I handed him the folder and watched him read every line. Most of my clients skimmed my work and it
made me a little nervous that they weren’t really reading what was going to happen, our charges and
what we can do for them.

Our food arrived just as he was finishing up the paperwork.

We ate with the occasional banter about home life and then I knew that it was getting awkward because
we began to talk about the weather. I did learn that he had been married four times! The man believed
in falling in love but apparently the women he had married believed in falling in lust. He had three sons
that would be taking over his company at some point down the road and while they were all very smart
with his company, money wise they needed some extra help.

After I had finished up my last couple of bites from my spaghetti, I began my presentation. He looked
very impressed with all of my work and continuously made comments about how amazed he was that I
looked so young and could manage to handle this amount of money.

“There you have it, Mr. Rogers. I promise that the moment you sign the contracts, we will have
everything taken care of for you. Your company and family will be in very good hands with us. Do you
have any questions?” I asked as I powered off the projector and took a seat next to him.

“Mrs. Andrews.”

 

“Please call me Ryleigh.”

“Ryleigh, this amazing work and I think that I would be a fool not to sign. And please call me Frank from
now on. I have always hated that I had the same name as that dork on TV.” He laughed and shook my
hand.

I couldn’t help but laugh as well. I handed him a pen and went over each page of our contract for him to
sign. After each page was sign, we shook hands again and I walked him to the elevators.
“Frank, thank you so much again for coming down here. I hear that you are off to St. Tropez next week?
I hope you have a lovely time!”

“Ryleigh, I am not going anywhere next week, but in order to see how willing you were to drop your
schedule to bring me in, it shows me a lot of dedication. However, I am going to go golfing in Phoenix
this weekend, so I will have just as much fun.” He winked at me and stepped on to the elevator and
pushed his button. Cheeky bastard.

I headed back to my desk to see Ava on the phone. Iwaved at her and signaled for her to come into my
office. She gave me a nod and I walked into my office.

 

I pulled my phone out of my purse to see I had three missed calls, six text messages and one voicemail.

 

I dialed up my voicemail first, it was Liam.

 

“Hi, it’s me. I am getting on the plane in about 20 minutes. I should be home by 8:30. I love you!”

 

Two of my texts were from him just saying that he was catching an early flight and he was at the airport.

 

The third text was from Caleb. My heart dropped into my stomach at that moment.

 

Ryleigh. Of course I want to be friends, but after last night it would be best if we just cooled off
for a bit. You gotta understand I love you more than anything.

 

That was it. I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute, in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to respond,
but I didn’t want to start crying again. I could already feel the tears building up.

 

“Hey you wanted to see me?” Ava knocked and poked her head in the doorway.

“Yeah, come in. Have a seat.” I had pulled up my emails; thankfully they had just approved my request.
“I just want to thank you very much for all your hard work. You make sure that everything is taken care
of and I don’t know what I would do without you. So I went ahead and had Human Resources adjust
your pay and you should also know that I will be getting a check cut for you, it will be a thousand extra
bucks.” I told Ava as she began to tear up.

“Ryleigh, this is more than amazing! You really didn’t have to do all this for me!” Ava said grabbing a
tissue off of my desk.

“Yes, I did. We’re going to be getting a lot more business with the account that I just signed and it means
that you are going to be quite a bit busier as well. So I know it’s only 2:45, but I want you to take the rest
of the day off, go shopping, get a pedicure, go enjoy your man and come in here tomorrow ready to kick
some ass. Sound good?” I asked with a smile.

“I am not going to argue with you at all!” She stood up and came around towards me. I stood up to give
her a hug and then she headed out.

I pulled my phone out and dialed up Courtney.
“Hey! I just finished up my meeting! Up for a shopping trip?” I asked. I was so ready to get out of here
for the day and be around Courtney. I needed the girl time.

“Yes! I’m actually heading down towards the mall right now; we could meet up and then have
something for dinner down there? Oh hey, Jason is calling on the other line, meet you there in a little
bit.” Courtney then clicked off.

I grabbed my stuff and shut down my computer. Just as I as I was heading out my office line rang.

 

“Shit.” I ran over and grabbed the receiver. “Ryleigh Andrews.”

 

“Hey sweetheart.” It was my mom.

 

“Mom? Everything okay?” I asked. My mom rarely called my work phone, unless something was the
matter.

 

“Oh everything is fine. I was wondering if you and Liam wanted to come over for dinner?”

 

“Funny you mention that, Mom, I was supposed to call and set this up with you. We were thinking of
doing a dinner on Sunday?”

 

“Oh that would be nice. I ran into Caleb’s mom today, I told her that we should all do a dinner! I will
invite them all over on Sunday as well!”

 

“Uh, Mom. I really don’t know if that is a great idea.” I paused; I really didn’t want to get into with her
here in the office.