by BWWM Club
“Not at all, Ms. Jones,” said Marco.
He looked intrigued and disappointed, she noted. Did he think that she didn’t remember him? Of course not. He would know that she could never forget him, no matter how long and hard she had tried.
They thrust and parried like the veterans they were. Even if she was functioning at... Well, not quite full capacity, she could admit that, she felt like she was in shock – she knew she needed to drive a hard bargain, and that’s what she would do.
“Exclusivity is one of the problems we have with the current proposal, Ms. Jones,” said Marco.
“Yes, exclusivity is often a problem and can be a deal-breaker,” shot back Janet. She couldn’t have stopped herself if her life had depended on it.
“But I’m afraid that’s one of the points on which we can’t compromise, at least during the initial period. We need to build brand association with our supermarket. This will only be within the state, of course. Outside this state, this agreement will not apply, so there will be no such restrictions, if that will make the decision easier for you,” said Janet, completely professional now.
Marco looked at her thoughtfully.
Janet wished she could be far away and figure out what she was feeling instead of drowning and floundering in all those feelings that gripped her like a vice. She needed time and space so desperately that she wanted to run.
But she sat in that chair, her spine ramrod straight, her eyes direct, her hands steady, her face pale but set and betraying no emotions.
“This arrangement has been considered by lawyers, yours and mine, of course,” said Marco.
“Of course, Mr. Graziani. Though, pardon me, but I didn’t catch your designation,” said Janet.
“I beg your pardon, Ms. Jones. That was remiss of me. I’m in charge of all operations in the US, for all brands under our umbrella. I’m also a full partner in the business. My uncle and I own this whole operation,” said Marco, with a smile.
The smile sent a punch of longing right to her gut. Janet cut that off ruthlessly, refusing to even acknowledge it.
“So, can we come to a mutually satisfactory agreement, here, Mr. Graziani?” asked Janet.
“I’m sure mutual satisfaction would be agreeable, Ms. Jones,” said Marco, and his words were unmistakable.
Janet’s eyes, the color of good whiskey, narrowed at his words, but she gave no other sign that she had even acknowledged the double entendre. She waited.
“However, I think we need another meeting to settle this. I’m afraid I have to be somewhere now, but I’m free for dinner,” said Marco, putting her in a spot she did not appreciate.
“I’m afraid I conduct business during working hours, Mr. Graziani,” said Janet, stiffly.
“It doesn’t have to be all business, Janet,” said Marco, his voice low and intense, with that accent running through it almost like a caress. Janet could have closed her eyes and listened to him talk to her forever.
But she did that in another age, when she had been another person – a young, naïve girl, in love, who had trusted the boy this man had been with everything she was.
“I’m afraid it does, Mr. Graziani,” said Janet firmly, emphasizing the ‘Mr. Graziani’ part.
He sighed.
“All right, we’ll do it the hard way, then. I’ll have my assistant contact you with a time and place that would be convenient. For now, I will take your proposal under consideration,” said Marco, getting up.
Janet remained seated as he turned and began to walk away.
But he turned back to her.
“You look lovelier than even my memories could make you,” he said softly, and left, leaving Janet with her heart beating so hard and so fast that she felt it was trying to escape.
Slowly, she took deep breaths and had a drink of water, determined to be calm, to evaluate.
Marco. Marco was back, she told herself, over and over again.
Suddenly feeling short of breath, Janet got up on wobbly legs and gathered up all her stuff. She nearly left without paying – the waitress had to call her back. Dazed, she gave up trying to get the right bills together and just paid by card.
The waitress asked her something, but there was a buzzing in her ears that was just too loud for anything else to register.
All she could think was that Marco was back. He was back. After everything, he was back, and he was in her life.
She needed Noelle. Frantic now, she took her phone and hit speed dial. Noelle answered on first ring. With a little inner prayer of gratitude for small mercies, Janet said, “Noelle, I need to see you.”
“Janet? What’s wrong? What happened? Are you all right?” asked Noelle.
“Marco,” she whispered.
“Janet? What’s wrong? What about Marco?” asked Noelle, obviously worried.
“He’s back,” she whispered.
“Where are you?” asked Noelle.
Janet gave her the address.
“Wait right there, I’ll be there to pick you up. Call in sick at work,” said Noelle, and hung up.
Functioning almost on autopilot, she sent the standard sorry-I’m-sick email to work.
By the time Noelle got there, Janet had finally got herself back in hand. She was being silly. Of course she was being silly. It had, naturally, been a bit of a shock when she saw Marco walking in instead of… Well, instead of anybody else.
It would’ve been a bit of a shock even if she hadn’t had a history with Marco, Janet reasoned. Marco was tall, built and handsome like the devil. He had dark brown eyes that looked like the richest of good coffee, fringed with sooty lashes that were so thick that girls had envied him in high school. His wavy, dark hair was still thick, though it was now shorter than he had worn it back then. She used to love running her hands through his hair. She knew that it was smooth and silky.
The olive-toned skin was unblemished. The only thing that marred his good looks was his nose, which was a bit crooked. But while it might have kept him from being a Calvin Klein model, it gave his face a toughness and character that smooth perfection would never have managed.
Noelle drove up. She must have driven like she was possessed to get there that fast.
“Janet. You look better than you sounded, but you’re still pale. Drink here or want to go home?” asked Noelle.
Janet smiled. Bless Noelle for her practical nature, she thought.
“Home, I think,” said Janet.
They were silent on the drive home. Noelle knew that Janet needed time to collect herself before she could talk about it.
“So, what happened?” asked Noelle.
Janet sighed.
“There was this meeting today. It was fairly routine, though bigger than usual. An Italian company that makes authentic Italian food, and does gift boxes with them. I was supposed to meet a rep today. I thought I’d have to do the usual dance of meeting two or three utterly useless reps before I finally got to meet somebody who could make an actual decision. But I was met by one of the partners of the umbrella company that owns this one. Marco Graziani,” said Janet.
“He just walked in on you, with absolutely no warning?” asked Noelle.
“Yep,” said Janet.
“No wonder you needed a breather,” said Noelle with a whistle.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to do my job,” said Janet.
“Janet… That wasn’t really what I was asking about, and you know it,” said Noelle.
“I know. But that’s all I’m going to do. I will do my job and I will do it well,” said Janet firmly.
Noelle was quiet for a minute.
“You wouldn’t have had the reaction you did if it were that easy and that simple, Janet,” said Noelle.
Janet looked at her steadily.
“He dumped me and just took off to Italy. He didn’t even keep in touch with me. Hell, he didn’t even tell me why he was going. He just left, as if I was two-day-old bread and he’d had en
ough. Now he blindsided me and tried to find a personal connection again. But there is no personal connection. He killed it himself, very deliberately. However I felt at seeing him again, I will handle it. The next time I see him, I will be prepared. But I will do my job, Noelle. That’s all I will do.”
This time, Noelle didn’t question the finality in her tone. Janet obviously needed to believe what she was saying.
Tactfully, Noelle changed the subject and chatted about nothing, resolutely ignoring how uncharacteristically brittle and fragile Janet looked.
If Marco hurt her again, he would have to deal with her, Noelle thought to herself as she viciously stabbed her spoon into the carton of ice cream.
Chapter 2
Janet, to be honest, was feeling a bit ashamed of herself when she woke up in the morning. She had just fallen apart, and now, for the second day in a row, she had a hangover. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had two hangovers in two days like that. But Noelle and she had gone through two bottles of wine and an entire carton of ice cream between the two of them.
The thought made her queasy now.
Janet looked over and saw that Noelle was sleeping on the other side of her queen-sized bed. She would have a headache when she woke up, too. Janet got up and walked to her kitchen to make a pot of coffee. She sat by the kitchen window as she waited for it to be done.
Her kitchen was neat and full of character, just like the rest of her home. Copper pots and pans hung around the island, with a small rack of wine glasses alongside it. She loved the smooth granite work space there.
Janet cooked quite a bit. Marco’s influence, again, she knew that. Marco’s mother had been a wonderful cook, and had made really delicious dinners for Janet once in a while. Janet had fallen completely in love with Italian food. Once, after Marco left, she had been invited to Nita’s home for dinner and had ended up crying over her pasta, much to her mortification. So Janet, in her typical way, had set to work at overcoming what she saw as an obstacle.
She had learned to make excellent Italian food, and she had learned to stop associating it with Marco. She had gone on to learn to cook several different cuisines after that. As it turned out, Janet really loved cooking, which came in handy in her job. She knew what she was doing as far as sourcing food products was concerned. Nobody could pull wool over her eyes.
That was how Janet dealt with problems. She faced them, and then she faced them down. So she was mortified at how she had fallen to pieces when she saw Marco again.
Taking a deep breath, Janet pressed her hand to her stomach, willing the butterflies there to settle down. She couldn’t afford to let herself feel things. She couldn’t let herself feel things for Marco. Even resentment, she knew, could be a backdoor to stronger feelings, and she couldn’t do that. If she let herself feel, he would have power over her. That couldn’t be allowed. That wouldn’t be allowed. She had let herself feel once before, and he had held all the power in that relationship. She had been like a little pet, doing whatever he asked, going where he wanted, until he had gone where he’d wanted and left her behind.
No, she would never let herself be in that spot again. Not ever.
Janet poured two mugs of coffee and walked back to the bedroom, resolute. Determination was obvious in her stride, stubbornness on her face.
Noelle woke up as Janet walked in and took a good look at her best friend. She sighed. The evening had obviously helped Janet harden her heart, but Noelle didn’t think that she was facing her problems the way she obviously thought she was by doing that.
“Oh, God, coffee, thank you my angel from up above,” said Noelle.
Janet smiled. Noelle always claimed that she woke up a zombie who came to life thanks to coffee. Janet wasn’t quite as bad, but she appreciated it, too. Marco’s eyes were almost black, like that coffee.
Janet brushed that thought away quickly. No, she was not going to think about things like that. She had better things to do and think about, like the business they had. She would knock his socks off. She would skin him. He would regret the day he ever tried to cross swords with Janet Jones. Did he think she was tough? She would show him what tough meant. She had jerks like him for breakfast. For pre-breakfast snack.
“Ummm… Janet? Who’re you plotting to kill? Do I need to get us alibis?”
Noelle was only half-joking. Her friend looked fierce.
Janet snapped out of her reverie.
“Oh yes, sure. So, aspirin?”
“Bless you again,” said Noelle gratefully, swallowing it and chasing it with coffee.
“Man, I need some kind of detox after the last two days. Especially with Nita’s hen party coming up. You know how that’s going to be.”
Noelle was obviously trying to cheer Janet up, and she appreciated it.
“Yeah, a juice detox for the both of us, maybe. Except it sounds pretty disgusting. I tried this organic juice detox kit that we’re about to start stocking, and Noelle, I kid you not, it’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had. Kale is awful.”
Noelle laughed.
“Do you think wine counts as a kind of juice?” she asked hopefully.
Janet laughed, and for a moment, things were as they had been before the fateful meeting.
But then Janet’s beautiful eyes clouded again, and Noelle wished she could punch Marco in his already crooked nose.
She was spared having to say anything because Janet’s phone beeped. Sighing, Janet grabbed it and opened the email that had interrupted their conversation.
Noelle knew immediately that it was something to do with Marco. Janet’s face hardened. Her eyes flashed and snapped. Noelle had always thought that Janet would probably make an excellent general in a war. She looked like it at the moment.
“Janet?” she asked, tentatively.
Janet’s face became carefully blank, as if she had wiped off all the animation that usually danced on her even, strong features, in her dark golden eyes, in a smooth and brutal stroke.
“Marco’s assistant, Lilah, has asked if I’m free for another meeting. Today, at five, which is just the end of working hours, but not late enough that I can say it’s after working hours. So I’ll have to say yes, of course.”
Noelle decided to take a chance and ask Janet something that had been on her mind since the day before.
“Janet… What do you think Marco really wants?”
Janet raised her eyes to Noelle, and she saw the hurt in them before Janet masked it with skill acquired from far too much practice.
“I don’t know. All I know is that I won’t give him more than what I can. It’s business. It will remain business,” said Janet, and the finality in her voice was unmistakable. Noelle backed down immediately. She knew that Janet hated to be pushed, and she could definitely empathize. She hated it, too. So she would wait until Janet was ready to talk, and then they would talk.
*****
Janet waited until she was in the office before she replied to the email. She was dressed for confidence – an emerald green business suit with a white blouse that showed off her flawless skin and her curves perfectly. Her hair had been pulled into a smooth chignon, and that hadn’t been an easy task. She had done her makeup carefully, even if the meeting wasn’t until evening and she would have to touch up. She somehow felt like looking good was a weapon in her arsenal even when he couldn’t see her. She wanted to look good even when she replied to the email, silly as that might seem.
“Wow, Janet, you look… Wow,” said Bess as she walked in.
Janet grinned. She hoped that Marco would be even more wowed.
“You’re in early. Got lots to do?”
Bess shook her head.
“Not really. There wasn’t nearly as much traffic as I thought there would be from the gym. I’ve started taking my clothes to the gym and changing there, then coming to work.”
Bess pointed to her gym bag.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Bess, but I will point you to the near
est Laundromat if that begins to stink,” teased Janet.
Bess made a face that only made her look cuter. Really, ten years ago, Janet would have absolutely hated Bess.
“I promise it won’t stink. Anyway, I brought air freshener, too. Just in case,” she replied with a grin.
Laughing, Janet was about to go into her office when Bess stopped her.
“You didn’t come back to work after your meeting yesterday. I heard you called in sick. Are you all right?”
Something flickered in Janet’s eyes, but she hid it so quickly that Bess wondered if she’d imagined it.
“Oh, yeah, just a stomach thing. I’m all fine now,” said Janet, trying to brush it off as if it were nothing.
But Bess looked doubtful. Janet tried to put more feeling into it.
“No, seriously, I’m fine now. Noelle came over last night and we ended up binging on ice cream and wine, so it was obviously a one-hour bug, and I’m completely fine. Except that I need a detox. Don’t start,” she warned as Bess looked enthusiastic. Bess loved detoxes. It was one of the many things Janet found unaccountably weird about her.
“Fine,” pouted Bess, and let it go. But she decided that she would call Noelle and make sure that everything was all right, anyway.
Janet settled down at her desk and wrote out a professional email to Marco’s assistant. She agonized over what words to use, and even whether she should use a semicolon. Finally, irritated with herself, she just sent something short and to the point.
Five is fine. I shall be at Galavan’s, as requested. Kindly inform me if Mr. Graziani requires extra information or data of any kind.
There, it was done. She knew Galavan’s. She had made sure that they knew it was all business by adding that line about extra information. She had covered her bases, she assured herself.
But she found herself getting more and more nervous with every minute that passed. She oscillated between getting completely angry at Marco and even angrier at herself for being affected by Marco. She switched it up for variety by being really angry at Fate. She wondered if she should finally make up her mind about the existence of God so that she could decide whether to be angry at a higher power, too. Being agnostic, she couldn’t really decide if it was worth the energy.