by Claire Adams
I rolled my eyes but knew that I wasn’t going to get out of giving a little speech. It was one of the things Elizabeth and Renee did every week. They found someone from the company to recognize and then forced them to stand up and talk for a little bit. It was corny as hell, but it did help everyone connect, and I certainly could see that it helped people feel like part of the overall office.
“Well, first of all, thank you to Elizabeth and Renee for bringing me on board. I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself and simply took this job to get back into the workforce. From the moment I arrived, I’ve felt listened to and appreciated, and that doesn’t happen at every company, so I really want to commend you all for the environment we have here. I’m also really excited to be an official employee, starting tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you, Emmi; we are excited to have you,” Elizabeth said as she continued on with the meeting. “Now, as we talked about last week. We really need to keep the billable hours up. But I want you thinking about the client first, always the client. Emmi put together a new business plan that we will be working through and rolling out in the next couple of weeks. The biggest thing I want you all to remember though: the client needs to be happy. No overbilling, no charging when you make a one-minute phone call. We are known for being honest and deadly in the courtroom; let’s keep it that way.”
As I looked around the room, it was clear that I fit in perfectly. Although the company was run by two women, there were plenty of men on the staff as well. We were a diverse mix of people from all walks of life, but everyone got along great. That was all because of the leadership, though. Elizabeth and Renee worked hard to have a cohesive team, and it was evident by the smiles in the room at the weekly checkup meeting.
The morning meeting only took about a half of an hour, and then we were dismissed to go about our day as normal. Just as Elizabeth started to wrap up the points for the week, there was a commotion at the front desk which had everyone looking and trying to figure out what was happening.
“Sir, you can’t go in there without an appointment,” Jenny, the secretary, could be heard yelling as I saw Declan walking past the window to our conference room.
My breath caught, and I was sure I wasn’t breathing at all as he burst through the door and stood looking at our room full of about 50 people. Elizabeth stopped talking and looked at him as well.
What on earth was Declan doing at my office? It was nice to see him, but I couldn’t fathom why he had shown up to talk to me in the middle of the day. He hadn’t called or texted me at all since we had decided to stop seeing each other.
“Can I help you?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m here to see Emmi Shields; is she here?” Declan asked as he held on tightly to a large group of red roses.
He looked around the room nervously until his eyes locked with mine. There was a desperation in his eyes that I’d never seen from him before. It made my heart skip a beat as I felt the emotions pouring out of him. Whatever was going on with Declan, he obviously felt very passionate about coming and telling me at that very moment.
“Declan, what are you doing here?” I asked as I looked back and forth from him to Elizabeth. “Sorry,” I mouthed to my new boss.
Well, hopefully she was still going to be my new boss. After the scene Declan was causing, I couldn’t be sure they’d want to keep me around after this morning. I was still a temporary employee and wasn’t expected to start my new job officially until the next day.
“Emmi, can I talk to you?” Declan said as he tried to catch his breath.
“Not now. I’m working. I’ll call you later,” I said as I tried to get him to go away.
What was he doing at my office, anyways? I hadn’t told him where I worked. We hadn’t even talked in two weeks. He looked good, though. Declan had on a dark gray suit and white shirt without a tie. His scruffy beard was a little longer than I had seen him normally wearing it, but he still looked handsome as hell.
I had thought about Declan every day since that afternoon in his office. Even though I knew I couldn’t have him, I still had such strong feelings for him that it was hard to sleep at night. I couldn’t imagine ever feeling as comfortable with a man as I did that week with him in Breckenridge. Together, we completed each other’s thoughts; we played off each other’s ideas. We were good together; there was no doubt about it.
But we had made our decision. He had to keep working with my father, and my father was too stubborn to give him a second chance. It was decided. I’d spent the last two weeks working with my father and making him understand that I didn’t care about Declan and wouldn’t see him ever again if it meant my father and Declan would be able to continue doing business together.
I lied to my father more in the last two weeks than I’d ever lied to him in all my life. I told him I didn’t care about Declan. I said that it was all just a fling. My father had believed me and was finally going to let Declan have his chance, and now here was Declan ruining everything that I had worked so hard to fix for him.
“Sir, we are in the middle of a meeting. I’m sure you can talk with Ms. Shields at the end of her workday,” Elizabeth said firmly. “Now, please leave the building before we need to call security.”
Declan took a step back and looked like he was about to leave the room, but then quickly changed his mind. He walked straight over to me and handed me the large bunch of flowers. For a minute, I thought he was going to do something crazy and propose to me. I had no idea what was happening.
My heartbeat was in my head pounding as I looked up at Declan and tried to understand why he was there for me at that moment. He was excited, exhilarated to see me. Had my father backed out of their deal? Was there something else going on that I didn’t know about?
As much as I wanted to talk to Declan though, it was going to have to be after my workday. I loved this new job, and I couldn’t afford to lose it over this stunt.
“I love you,” he said as looked me in the eyes, and then, turning toward everyone in the room, he said, “I just came to tell her I love her. You all are my witnesses. I don’t care about the business deals. I’ll go broke if I have to. But I couldn’t go another minute without you knowing how I felt.”
My face flushed red at his words, and I looked over at Elizabeth in hopes that she wasn’t too angry with me. She seemed amused by his profession of love and sat down in her chair and watched the scene. What was I supposed to say to the man with a room full of strangers watching us? How was I supposed to respond when I knew that admitting my feelings for him would mean his business, as well as my father’s, wouldn’t be able to go on? I couldn’t say it. No matter how much I cared about Declan, I just couldn’t say it back to him.
“Okay, Declan, but you have to keep running your business. We figured this all out already.”
As much as I did love Declan, my mind was swirling with everything that was going on, and I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t want to give in to the love I had for him if it meant that his company couldn’t keep going forward, yet my body pulled me closer to him, and I reached out and held onto his hands as I urgently tried to come to terms with what he was saying to me.
“Nope, you figured it out. You were the one with the idea to break up and I’m not okay with it. I told your father today that I’ll give up the business deals if he can’t handle it, but I’m going after you. If you’ll have me. I can’t imagine not giving this a try.”
“What? Declan, no. I can’t do it. I won’t let you ruin everything. Go on; we can talk later. This isn’t the right place. Now isn’t the right time.”
I turned away from him and let him stand there for a minute. Everyone was looking at us, and I was embarrassed by the scene he had caused. These were my new coworkers, and I’d basically just hijacked their meeting with my personal life.
“I’ll go now, I guess,” Declan said softly. “But I’m not giving you up; it’s that simple.”
“I’ll call you later,” I replied, and
avoided looking at him.
I couldn’t bear the thought of him giving up his business and my father ruining his all because of feelings I had for Declan. It was all too much for me. If Declan had professed his love for me to my father and walked out of their meeting, he had basically ruined the whole deal. I couldn’t take it and felt tears starting to well up in my eyes.
As Declan walked slowly toward the door, everyone in the room looked at me sadly. It was as if I had done something wrong. I couldn’t exactly run off with him in the middle of my meeting. I had just been offered a full-time job at the company; how would it look if I was already leaving to hang out with a guy?
The door shut behind Declan and everyone turned toward Elizabeth so she could finish the meeting. They avoided eye contact with me, which was a good thing, because I felt only moments away from breaking down into tears.
“I don’t know about you all, but I’ve never witnessed such a display of affection before,” Elizabeth said. “I think you should go after the guy. If I had a guy willing to act a fool like that for me, I’d certainly be running after him.”
I looked at her and then at my coworkers around the table. Their expressions brightened up, and a few of them even clapped their hands. I wanted to go after Declan, but I wasn’t going to risk my job. Was she seriously telling me I should run after him?
This was a law firm based on strong women who didn’t need anyone’s permission to go after what they wanted. Both Elizabeth and Renee had married men who were supportive of them and pushed them in their careers. I wanted to believe that she was being supportive, but something inside me also thought it was a test to see if I really wanted my career.
“Get out of here, Emmi,” Renee added. “You can start work tomorrow.”
I looked from Renee over to Elizabeth, who had a huge smile on her face. She shook her head in agreement, and I stood up slowly as I thought about actually leaving. Renee was pointing to the door and practically shooing me out of the room as I looked back at Elizabeth for more confirmation.
I’d never been around supervisors who actually understood how life could get in the way sometimes. It was jarring to think that they were actually supporting me and this crazy moment with Declan.
“Go,” Elizabeth ordered.
I could still see Declan standing by the elevators and waiting to leave. I hurried out of the boardroom and down the hall toward him just as the ding of the arriving elevator sounded. My legs were shaking as the adrenaline rushed through me. All I could think about was getting close enough to wrap my arms around him.
Every day that we had been apart, I worried that my decision had been the right one. Would I ever find someone else that I’d connect so deeply with? But maybe I didn’t have to give up on what we had? Maybe we could make things work, and he could keep his company going? My heart thumped with excitement as my feet pounded the carpet and I got closer to him.
“Declan,” I yelled. “Wait.”
He turned toward me and stopped without getting onto the elevator. His lips curled into a frown for a moment, but his eyes flashed with the love I knew he had for me.
“I love you too!” I yelled.
His sad expression quickly turned to a smile as I threw myself into his arms and kissed him. He held on tight to me and twirled me in a circle, and I saw everyone from my meeting standing near the window so they could see what was going on.
“What about my father?” I said as I pulled away from him.
“I told him I loved you. I told him I had to give us a try or I’d always regret it. He agreed and said we could still work together.”
“He agreed?” I said as tears fell from my eyes. “He said it was alright?”
“Yes, we are going to work things out, Emmi. He was proud of me for standing up to him, and he liked that I cared about you so much I was willing to give up my business dealings.”
“Oh, Declan, I can’t even believe this.”
“It was the truth. I’d go broke for you in a second,” he said as his arms wrapped around me and held me close to him. “I don’t know what our future will bring, but I know there’s no one else in this world that I’d rather do life with.”
“Me too, Declan. Me too.”
Epilogue
Declan
“Sir, I need her to wake up so I can ask a few questions before you get on the plane,” the TSA officer said as he stood over Emmi and I while we waited to board the jet to Breckenridge.
“If I could get her to stay awake, she’d be all yours. We had a long night last night,” I joked.
Emmi’s ability to sleep through just about anything was a running joke with us now. She’d even fallen asleep while we were sitting in our seats at the Oscars. I’d been invited because I gave a lot of money to a charity. We’d spent days finding the perfect outfits and Emmi had been up since before dawn getting ready. Then when we had to sit down and wait for all the celebrities to load into their seats, Emmi had literally fallen asleep. There wasn’t much that could be going on around her that she would stay awake for if she was truly exhausted.
“Ma’am, can I ask you a few questions?” the officer said as he gently shook Emmi.
“Yes, I’m me. Yes, I packed my own things. No, I don’t have a bomb,” she said with her eyes still closed. I couldn’t help but laugh at how she answered him without even bothering to sit up or look at the man.
That was good enough for the officer, as he turned and went back to his desk in the corner of the private jet waiting area. I could only imagine his job wasn’t easy with the VIPs and celebrities that flew through Los Angeles International Airport on their private jets.
“Darling, I’m not carrying you to the plane. Why don’t you get up for a few minutes until we board,” I said as I softly stroked her hair. “Okay, I will carry you if you absolutely insist,” I laughed. She knew I’d carry her if that was what she wanted. I’d do nearly anything for her.
“Why are we going out so early? The party isn’t until 8 o’clock tonight,” she moaned.
“Because I want to meet with the staff and look around before all the rooms are booked up. You know you want to see it all finished just as badly as I do. Plus, you’ll sleep the whole flight out there anyways.”
“Very true,” she muttered as she sat up and curled up next to me on the couch. “I’m actually excited to see it all finished. The pictures Rosa sent looked absolutely amazing.”
Emmi’s phone rang just as the crew opened the door for us to walk out to the plane. It was a normal occurrence that Emmi was on her phone nonstop the last few weeks. We were only a month away from our wedding date, and the planner had dozens of final things for Emmi and me to weigh in on. I had proved to be useless in the decision-making, so the planner turned to calling Emmi whenever there was a new issue.
“Hello,” she said as she held onto my hand and walked with me toward the jet.
“We are just heading out to Breckenridge. The black ones, I guess,” she answered and then waited for a minute while the planner must have been talking. “I don’t think it’s an issue. Just seat them wherever.”
As Emmi hung up and put her phone back into her purse, she opened her eyes a little and walked with me onto the plane. I was a pro at traveling on the private jet, but Emmi had been way too busy with her job to take very many trips with me.
She had a great job though, and I was really happy for her. They paid her what she was worth and listened to her ideas. Her supervisors gave her time off when she asked for it, but Emmi didn’t actually ask for time very often. She was committed to the firm and to showing them that she was willing to work hard, even thought she was busy trying to plan our wedding.
“What was that about?”
“I’m not sure. An issue with the napkins and some cousin who didn’t want to sit by another one. It’s ridiculous, really. Why are we paying the planner if I’ve got to make every decision?”
“You’re doing a great job. But you know it would be easier if you
didn’t have that darn job filling up every day. You really don’t have to work, you know. Even if we aren’t married yet, what’s mine is yours. You don’t need the money.”
Suddenly Emmi’s eyes shot open, and she didn’t look happy at all as we found our seats and buckled into the seatbelts. By the anger that was filling her eyes, I knew I had said something very wrong.
As her fiancé, I knew better than to get her worked up only a few weeks before the wedding, and I hadn’t meant the comment to be disrespectful. I winced as the anger played with her face and worried that I’d said something so stupid that she would indeed be angry with me.
“Oh, I don’t need to work?” she asked, goading me into responding. She was smiling and playfully angry with me, but there was a truth under it all that I was a little scared of.
“You know what I mean. I just thought if you wanted to relax and clear your schedule a little, you didn’t need the job for the money.”
“Declan McMillan, you know I’m not the kind of woman who’s going to be barefoot and pregnant, right? I love my job. You know how much I love it. I’m not going to stop working simply because it’s more convenient for you.”
“Baby, I didn’t mean it like that. I know you’re really good at your job and I want you to keep working,” I backpedaled in an effort to get out of trouble.
“Ha, you just wanted to get me all worked up, didn’t you?” she laughed. “Fine, I’m awake now.”
“I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean anything by it. I just hate seeing you so tired and stretched so thin between everything that’s going on.”
“I wouldn’t be so tired if someone hadn’t kept me up all night long,” she said with a playful smile.
“Oh, I can’t help that.”
“Well, it’s good to see you two again,” Marvin said as he brought us some bottled water.
“Marvin, it’s good to see you too. You’ll be happy to know that I’ve asked that we fly into Denver instead of straight to Breckenridge,” I said in reference to our bumpy flight the last time we were with Marvin.