I want You Deeper

Concentrating on work was nearly impossible.

Jeremy kept glancing at the clock on his computer, watching as the minutes slowly ticked upward. First thing that morning, he’d sent Alyssa a text asking her to come over at six o’clock for a gourmet meal. She’d texted an immediate yes, complete with a smile emoji, and the countdown had begun.

He didn’t quite make it to five o’clock, which was fine, considering he’d been at it since six a. m. Working out of his home office was more exhausting than going in every day. Lunch had been a protein bar he’d downed in five minutes before his noon teleconference. He was starving.

And he had a little over an hour to turn the groceries he’d had delivered that morning into the promised gourmet meal. He thought about texting Alyssa, but he decided that might be a bit much. Besides, she had that big meeting today. For all he knew, it was still going on. The last thing he’d want to do was interrupt her.

At six o’clock on the dot, the doorbell rang. Jeremy turned the burner down and rushed for the door. He still had a little left to do, but he could finish it up while she sat at the counter. That was how he pictured it going down, anyway.

“Hi.”

He was always saying that to her, it felt like. Always in that same goofy voice. There was a good reason for that. When he saw her for the first time after being away from her for a while, he was always struck speechless by how beautiful she was.

“Hi.”

Wait. No. Something was off here. She didn’t have a goofy voice or an admiring expression on her face. She looked…mad.

“Come in.” He stepped back, frantically searching his mind for something he could have possibly done. Aside from the text, he hadn’t communicated with her, so it had to be something he’d done previously. Or maybe she wasn’t mad at him at all. Maybe she was mad at something that had happened during her meeting with TravTech.

“I have appetizers.” He followed her down the hallway. She wasn’t speaking. That couldn’t be a good sign. “Hope you brought your appetite.”

Still not speaking, even after his horrible attempt at a joke. Maybe at this point, it was the bad joke that would keep her from speaking to him. He should probably quit while he was ahead.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Suddenly, just as they reached the end of the entryway, she spun to face him. “Why didn’t you tell me you’re partnering with Justin Travers?”

Jeremy stopped just as abruptly. Well, at least he knew what was bugging her. Rightly so. He could clear this up quickly.

“I’m not,” he said. “He suggested it and we’re meeting-”

“You’re meeting. So you’re entertaining the idea?”

“I thought I’d at least hear him out. What’s wrong?”

“He fired me. Did you forget that fact?”

Jeremy shook his head. No, he hadn’t forgotten that Justin had downsized Alyssa, but he had no idea she was mad at her former boss. He’d been with her when she’d gone to a meeting in their offices. Last he’d heard, Alyssa was planning to meet with him on her own that very day.

“You’re mad.”

She shook her head. “I’m hurt.”

And she was. He could see it in her eyes. She saw his decision to meet with Justin as some sort of betrayal. The thing was, if he’d had any idea this would bother her, he would have never agreed to the meeting. But at this point, defending why he’d agreed to it was useless. He needed to find a way to show her that he truly regretted ever agreeing to it in the first place.

“It’s over,” he said. “I won’t work with him. Ever. I won’t even speak to him.”

Alyssa shook her head. “You’re just doing that because I’m mad about it. I want you to be on my side.”

“I am.”

“You hurt me. You hurt me when we were kids, and you’re hurting me now. I just…I can’t anymore. I can’t keep putting myself out there…”

He opened his mouth to protest, but he had no idea what to say here. He didn’t have to worry about it, though. She took off out of his condo, letting the door slam behind her, leaving him to wonder what he could do to make this right.

Alyssa couldn’t sleep.

She tossed and turned for a while before finally getting up and walking to the window. Emily’s apartment had a view of the

the street below through a tiny window covered by a plant in the corner. Quite a contrast to Jeremy, who had those big, open, wall-length windows that made you feel like you were outside without even having to step out on the terrace.

As unreasonable as Emily thought Alyssa was, she couldn’t help how she felt. She couldn’t verbalize it, either. But she was pretty sure it came down to feeling rejected. Not just by her former boss, but by this entire town. A town that saw people like her as expendable as soon as something happened that threatened their ability to take a limo to catch a private plane to have dinner in Paris.

But most hurtful of all was Jeremy. He had the money, the success, everything. Yet he’d entertained the idea of working with the man who had tossed her aside the second money got tight. The jerk of a board member had only added to that. To everyone, including Jeremy, people like Alyssa were secondary characters in their all-too-important lives.

Being a secondary character wasn’t enough. She had to be more.