Anything You Say: An Enemies to Lovers Standalone Romance

by Chloe Finch

  Right now, he was looking for Grace, hoping that she wouldn’t skip out on the rest of the evening after she fled the meditation room earlier. The second half of his apology was planned for the banquet, and it’d be a disaster if she didn’t show up. He was mindlessly picking at a miniature tart and looking around like his head was on a swivel when Brad approached him, two drinks in hand.

  “There he is,” Brad said. “Salesman of the year for the fifth year running.”

  “I haven’t won yet,” Zach said. “It could still be Mike, you never know.”

  Brad snorted. “If it’s Mike, I’m quitting.” He held out one of the cocktail glasses to Zach.

  “No, thanks,” Zach said. “I’m not drinking.”

  “Not drinking?” Brad said, surprised. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard those words come out of a Smith’s mouth before.”

  “You’ll probably hear it a lot more.” He hadn’t been looking forward to having this conversation with basically every person he knew, especially because all of his friends drank like fish. “I quit.”

  “Wow, good for you, dude,” Brad said. He took a sip from each glass. “More for me.”

  That was easy. He had been sure Brad would give him a hard time. If Brad’s reaction meant anything, this was going to be a lot easier than he anticipated. Even more surprisingly, he felt good.

  “You haven’t seen Grace, have you?” He couldn’t help asking. He was starting to get nervous she might not actually show up.

  “Yeah, I just saw her out in the lobby with the other girl. She looks smoking hot. You trying to get that after the banquet?” Brad was already halfway through the first drink.

  Zach ignored the comment, preoccupied with the immense relief that Grace would be at the banquet. Now all he had to do was not fuck up part two of his apology.

  * * *

  Grace

  Jessica agreed to stay with Grace in the lobby during cocktail hour to avoid running into Zach. She hadn’t told her about the apology yet. She needed to take some time to really think and figure out how she felt before she talked to anyone else about it. After they met in the lobby and Jessica wolf whistled at the sight of Grace in her slinky dress, she tried to convince Grace to go to the bar anyways so Zach could see what he was missing. Grace was adamant about not going to the cocktail hour though.

  For the dinner portion, they had been allowed to request who they sat next to, and Grace was blessedly next to Jessica. Zach was across the room with his back to her. No risk of accidental eye contact, thank god.

  Throughout dinner she was distracted, trying to figure out what to do about Zach. The food was lackluster. A tiny salad with a single crouton, followed by a good-smelling but limp main course. She wanted to believe him. Wanted to take him back. There was just this pesky thing called self-respect standing in her way. No matter how she sliced it, she couldn’t get past the fact that he hadn’t made up for letting everyone at work think he hated her.

  When the waitstaff started clearing the dinner plates, the speeches began. Grace turned her chair toward the CEO, who had just begun talking, and it made her feel exposed to not have anything between her and the dance floor. Her heartbeat quickened. There was a 99 percent chance Zach would win something, which meant he’d be right in front of her.

  The CEO gave a generic speech about how proud he was of everyone and how great they were doing with sales this year. The standard corporate rah-rah speech every CEO gave. Grace had given a couple of those speeches herself. She flagged down a server and asked for another gin and tonic. Then, it was Joes turn. He patted the CEO on the back and shook his hand as he passed him the mic.

  “Hey, guys,” Joe began. “Time for your favorite part. Awards and money!”

  People cheered. The CEO’s speech was short as far as those things went, but the room was getting restless anyway. Everyone was half-drunk and in high spirits, ready for the real party to begin.

  Joe made a down gesture with his hand. “All right, keep it under control here, folks. We’ve got five awards to give away tonight, so let’s get it started.”

  The first award was for best sales team. Zach and June’s team won. June whooped when they announced it, and a couple of people laughed. Zach, June and the other three people on their team went to the front of the room to accept their plaque and posed for a photo with Joe. It was the first time she’d seen Zach since the meditation, and a sizzle of electricity ran down her spine.

  While he accepted the award, she could stare freely. He looked great. His face was finally healed all the way, and in that tux he wouldn’t look out of place on a red carpet. After the past few weeks of watching him mope around, she almost forgot how good he looked when he was smiling. Even more surprising, in contrast to everyone else at the banquet, who were starting to look a little sloshed, he was bright-eyed and alert. He had been serious about not drinking.

  Next was an award for individual salespeople in each team. They got a bonus and another plaque. Zach won that one too. Then there were the awards for being with the company for five, ten, and fifteen years.

  “Last one,” Joe said. “The big one. Salesman—or woman—of the year. This person had the most sales of anyone in the organization last year. They smoked the rest of you guys actually, winning three million in new business on their own. Second place was one million, so take notes, people.”

  A few people cheered. Joe continued, “He’s winning this award tonight an unprecedented fifth time. Since we’ve never had a five-time winner before, we figured we should sweeten the pot. For his efforts, he’s getting a hundred-thousand-dollar bonus, and a two-week trip anywhere in the world.”

  There was a murmur throughout the crowd. It was an incredible prize, even for Sterling. More than some of them made in an entire year. Certainly more than the fellows made, with their fifty-thousand-dollar, no-commission salary.

  “Yeah, I know it’s a lot of money,” Joe said, shushing them. “If you want it, get hustling and win salesperson of the year five times, and then we’ll talk.” There was scattered laughter. “If you guys have been paying attention at all, you already know who it is. Zach Smith, get up here.”

  The crowd cheered, and Zach strode up to the dance floor with a huge grin on his face. He was positively beaming. She’d never seen him so elated the whole time she knew him. The guy loved winning.

  Joe and Zach exchanged a half-hug, arm pat on the back thing that guys do. Because her table was so close to the dance floor, Grace could hear when Joe said, “Good job. I’m proud of you.”

  Joe addressed the crowd. “Now I’m going to let this guy give a speech, because there’s a lot you all could learn from him. Clearly.”

  He handed the microphone to Zach and stepped to the side.

  “Thanks, Joe,” Zach began. “It’s an honor to be up here for the fifth year in a row. Sterling has done right by me and completely changed my life, and for that I’m incredibly grateful.”

  There was polite clapping.

  “I think Joe is probably expecting me to talk about closing, because I’m winning a sales award and all, but he technically didn’t tell me I had to stay on topic. Sorry, Joe, I’m going off script.”

  There was laughter from the crowd. Joe made a good-natured show of shrugging like what can you do?

  “Instead I’m going to talk about something that happened to me this year. For the past two months, I’ve been mentoring this year’s class of fellows. It’s been great to see all the new guys coming up. There’s one fellow in particular who I want to talk about: Grace Lockwood.”

  She froze, no longer an anonymous observer, but suddenly part of the speech. What was he doing? There was some murmuring from the tables of non-fellows who were probably trying to figure out who the hell she was. Zach was staring at her, and she wanted to vanish from her seat. She took a big gulp of her drink.

  Jessica stood up and pointed at Grace.

  “Right here!” She yelled.

  More laughter. Grace s
hot her a look.

  “Thanks, Jessica,” Zach said. “Grace is, without a doubt, the most incredible person I’ve ever met. She is brilliant—she started her own company while still in college and managed to raise four million in VC funding before she was twenty. She’s a killer salesperson. She’s way in the lead in the fellows class already. You probably haven’t heard her talk about it, because she’s humble. You won’t find her bragging about being on the cover of Forbes while the rest of us were screwing around in college. And on top of all that, she has a big heart. As a certified asshole myself—”

  The comment drew some laughs, and one guy yelled, “Yeah you are.”

  Zach smiled at the heckler and continued, undeterred. “—I thought being kind was a weakness, especially in the sales world. But Grace has shown me time and time again that’s wrong. It makes her not only a better human than me, but it’ll make her a better salesperson than me.” Then after a beat, he added with a smirk, “Eventually.”

  There was more laughter. Some people in the audience looked lost, likely wondering where this whole speech was headed. Grace counted herself among them.

  He looked directly at her again. “The reason I’m telling everyone all this is because I am in love with you, Grace. I’ve been falling for you since the day I met you.”

  A few people clapped, and someone whistled. She smiled an embarrassed smile at the attention, unsure what to do with her face with everyone staring at her.

  “But I fucked up, really badly. For those of you in the fellows class, you know what I’m talking about. For the rest of you, well, do me a favor and don’t ask a fellow about it. I said some awful things about you, Grace. That isn’t a reflection of you, it’s a reflection of me. I thought I was protecting you from problems in my personal life by lying about how I felt about you, but I realize now what a bad idea that was. I didn’t know it would get back to you, and I certainly didn’t know it would be made public. Even if it had stayed private, it was still cruel and unnecessary.

  “You’ve always been a better person than me, right from the start. I’ve never been nice to you, and you don’t owe me anything. I guess as the asshole in all this, I’m going to ask you to be the better person again. I’m so sorry, Grace. I love you and I want everyone to know. I hope you’ll give me another chance I don’t deserve, and let me show you I can treat you right.”

  Grace didn’t even notice the tense silence of the crowd, she was too focused on Zach. He actually just said all that in front of everyone. She believed him. The ice-cold wall she’d been so diligently building around her heart shattered. Her instinct that deep down he was a good person was right after all. He made it hard for himself, but damnit he was good. And incredibly hot. And he loved her.

  She did the only thing that made any sense at all. She stood and walked straight across the dance floor. Up close, the faint trace of his split lip was still visible. Time stood still.

  “I’m in love with you too,” she said. And then she kissed him.

  The room erupted in cheers. He wrapped his arms around her and picked her up, spinning her around. What a show-off. They were making out in front of the entire banquet hall of coworkers, and she didn’t care one bit.

  Joe came back on the dance floor. “All right, all right, lovebirds. Save it for the honeymoon.”

  They broke the kiss, and Zach handed the microphone back to Joe, keeping one arm securely wrapped around her waist like he was afraid to let go. He looked ecstatic, triumphant, and not one iota embarrassed. She gave Joe a sheepish look. “Sorry,” she mouthed.

  Joe waved the apology off, then spoke into the mic. “Let’s get the music started before they make a Sterling baby up here.” He signaled to the band, and the first, optimistic notes of Uptown Funk began.

  Epilogue

  Six Months Later

  Grace

  If there was one thing the past few months had taught her, it was that you could have fun and savor life while still kicking ass at work.

  And there was so much to savor, like Zach wearing footie pajamas, sitting on the floor of her parents’ living room Christmas morning. New pajamas were a Christmas Eve tradition in her family, and when he opened them, Grace burst out laughing. Her mom went all out with a reindeer onesie, complete with a tail. Before bed he’d gamely put them on and then playfully tackled Grace when she again dissolved into a laughing fit. He made a pretty hot reindeer, especially with those shoulder muscles she loved so much practically busting out of the fleece.

  Since they got together for real after the banquet, it was like a mask came off. He was still Zach, the cocky, arrogant guy she felt guilty for being so attracted to. Now he was also the guy who listened to her and was trying really hard and was comically nice to her at work. Like, ridiculously over-the-top. She didn’t mind though. She considered it his penance for being a jerk before that. His default state was no longer angry. Right now, for example he actually looked relaxed. He was smiling at her, reclined on an elbow, admiring her Christmas gift to him—custom silver collar stays with messages engraved on them. Her secret messages to him.

  When he opened it, he said, “This is the best gift anyone has ever gotten me,” and then kissed her maybe too passionately for being in front of her parents. If they minded, they didn’t say anything.

  Grace’s mother was sitting on the ottoman behind them, her father on the armchair off to the side. They were both wearing bathrobes and drinking coffee and beside themselves with happiness. She couldn’t remember seeing either of them this pleased on Christmas morning since the days before she started her company, when she started dashing out the door after breakfast. This year, by late afternoon, all of them were still wearing pajamas. In the center of the room was a gigantic, picturesque, fake Christmas tree Grace’s mom had for years and always decorated with white lights and all-white Christmas bulbs inherited from her grandmother.

  It all seemed like a postcard of someone else’s perfect life. She had an unbelievably hot boyfriend who got along with her family and supported her career ambitions. It’s true it wasn’t perfect all the time, but what was? She still had some trust issues, and when Zach got stressed, he started slipping back into asshole mode, but they were working on it. And in other important ways, things were unimaginably good. The sex for one. Grace had been spending more and more weeknights at Zach’s new apartment in the city, and she hoped it was as soundproof as he said it was, because otherwise the neighbors were eventually going to call the police on them.

  Zach was still sober. Grace suspected he made it seem easier than it was, to make a point about Derek. He was going to therapy to work on the anger and family issues too.

  For her part, Grace had been working on her own guilt with her parents, trying to come to terms with the fact that she would pay them back as much as she could, yet wasn’t obligated to. She tried to internalize that when they’d made the investments in her company, they were adults who’d known the risks, and it wasn’t her personal responsibility to make the money back. That said, Grace was kicking ass in the fellowship. Let’s just say, even though she didn’t qualify for commissions until the spring, she was already gearing up to give Mr. Salesperson of the Year a run for his title. They were shaping up to be quite the power couple.

  They were still hooking up in his office every now and then, though they had to be even more careful now that Zach had been promoted to their division’s VP of sales and everyone knew they were a couple. Sometimes she felt like a high schooler sneaking away to make out in the elevator or the supply closet. And practically every weekend they were on Zach’s motorcycle headed to his cabin or the beach or anywhere.

  She was excited for what the future held again, knowing that whatever came next, they could handle it, together.

  * * *

  Zach

  Zach could hardly believe he’d gotten lucky enough to get another chance with Grace. It turned out her family wasn’t half-bad either. It made him kind of nauseous how supportive her parent
s were with their plastered-on smiles and therapist-style talk, but it was clear they meant well. To his shock, they actually liked him. Grace must not have shared much with them ahead of time. They even got him a Christmas stocking, which he had never had before.

  It was his turn to give his gift to Grace. He handed her a small red box with a silver bow on top.

  “What is it?” Her eyes were wide with excitement.

  “Open it and find out,” he said. He flipped the hood up on his pajamas so the reindeer head was visible.

  Grace sat on her knees and petted the reindeer ears. She had the perfectly wrapped box in one hand. “Did you wrap it?” She asked.

  Zach laughed. “Of course not. Best left to a professional.”

  She undid the ribbon and carefully tore off the paper. Inside was a turquoise box, the most recognizable shade in the world: Tiffany blue. She gasped when she saw it, and looked up at him with wide eyes.

  “Zach…” she said cautiously. “This isn’t what I think it is, is it?”

  Grace’s mother impatiently patted her on the arm. “Open it!”

  Grace lifted the lid. Inside was a gorgeous silver necklace. Grace let out a breath.

  “Oh thank goodness. I thought it might be…well, never mind.” And then, upon inspecting the necklace closer, she said, “It’s gorgeous.”

  “I thought you might like it,” Zach said. “And, for the record, that isn’t even the shape of a ring box.”

  She leaned over and kissed him. Then, instead of going back to the spot she was sitting, she curled up against him, leaning against his chest like a lounge chair. Unexpectedly, it was those little moments he liked the most. The wild sex was great, but the casual moments, like when she leaned across the table to brush lint off his shirt or when they were watching TV and she curled up under his arm, or when she ran her hands through his hair—those were the best moments of all. Who knew.