Faded Perfection (Beautifully Flawed Book 2) (18 page)

My stomach rolled as I tried to concentrate on the computer screen, but instead of seeing the creatives I needed to get done, all I could think about was Adam. Six months ago he picked me up from this office, swept me off my feet–and for a moment I thought he was going to propose.

Everything felt like it was coming together. Now everything had fallen apart.

I packed my things over the weekend, leaving Adam pretty much everything except my clothes, jewelry, makeup, guitar and my box of Bobby’s things. My eyes glossed over as I thought of the one picture I took off our dresser. It was of Bobby and Adam looking up at me on their shoulders laughing. They were both smiling– exactly the way I wanted to remember the three of us. Not faded or broken– completely whole as three best friends. It seemed like that was the way things always should’ve stayed, but nothing ever stays the same. My jaw clenched as my mind drifted to the check and note sitting on the counter. I hadn’t written much, and I wasn’t even sure if he’d read it. I pushed my fingers into my eyes as I fought back the emotions. Nothing seemed right anymore. I moved my hands to look at the computer screen–not even this. Lately, I was being pulled in so many different directions I barely had time for the part of my job I loved so much — branding. Not only that, what I was putting out felt rushed. I pushed my hands underneath my desk, rubbing them across the soft cotton of my slacks. Maybe it was all in my head. My hands formed fists. I felt like a complete failure at everything.

“Hey, you,” Jesse’s voice came from behind me, and I found myself looking at the ceiling as I bit my lip.

I plastered a fake smile on as I turned to see him standing at the door. “Hi.”

“May I?” he asked, and he pointed to the chair in front of my desk. I nodded, and he moved around me to sit. It was the only awkward part about having my back facing the door. People needed to walk around me to get to their seat. The window view usually made up for that, but today it was thundering and lightening out. I could barely see outside with the pounding rain against the glass. My eyes moved from the window back to Jesse as he cocked his head at me, his hands forming a steeple in front of his face as his elbows rested on the arms of the chair. “You look tired, Riv.”

I ran my hand through my hair, shaking my head. “Sleep alludes me, and I can’t work at night.”

Jesse smirked. “Thanks to your awesome boyfriend.”

My face caved, paling as my eyes went to my desk and my body tensed.

“Oh,” Jesse’s response was barely audible, but I could feel the sadness in the realization.

He liked Adam. I loved Adam. That hadn’t changed, but it just hadn’t been enough.

Jesse cleared his throat before continuing, “I was wondering how that wedding you did went?”

My eyes widened as I leaned back in my chair. It seemed so long ago now, blurred between tears, books and wondering where the hell Adam was. I rubbed my bare arms as I shrugged. “It was alright.”

I enjoyed capturing the moment, and it did distract me from life between the actual day and the several nights it took to go through and select which pictures to keep, toss or edit. It was stressful, though.

I watched as Jesse’s eyes raced over my face. “I have, to be honest with you…I was curious to see if that would fulfill your bug for photography. You’re great at it…”

My forehead creased. “Why would you want to,” I made air quotes; “fulfill my need for photography?”

He leaned forward. “I think we’ve gotten to the point where we need to pull you as a pinch hitter for photography and give you something specific to your marketing talents. I thought maybe if you did photography on the side, that would appease you.”

“You’re worried about my hobbies?” I asked, finding a smile creeping to my lips. Either way, I had a feeling, I’d like where this was going, especially if it was going to Framingham.

“I don’t want you to see this as losing something–you’ll be gaining a lot–but also a lot of work,” Jesse began, and my eyes locked on his as the air in my throat caught. “I want you to be our Framingham Division Director.”

He wanted
me
to start up a new division.

“I know it’s a drive…” His voice drifted as his eyes narrowed on me.

I bit my lip. “Not really… I just bought a condo in that general area…twenty minutes, give or take.”

Jesse’s head tilted as he blinked a few times before leaning back. “We’re offering you $75,000 a year.”

My jaw dropped, and I stared back at him as a smile spread across his face.

“No photography, though?” I asked.

Jesse scratched his chin. “No, but I’d like you to pick a few photographers for the two divisions–that way if one goes AWOL we always have another one to mix things up.”

I laughed as I stared at him with my head shaking in shock. “So I’ll be doing what you do here–there?”

“Exactly, and you’ll get an officer title too. Vice President–it’s mostly a title, but you’ll get an extra week of vacation.”

I blinked at him. He knew very well I could hardly use the three weeks I already had.

“Okay, I know that’s not
that
much of a benefit to you, but it’s an excellent opportunity.”

I would be doing what Jesse did. I felt my chest tighten and my face heat. I picked up the pen in front of me and tapped the desk. Finally, I let my eyes meet his. I watched as his gray eyebrows rose at me in question.

I opened my mouth before closing it and chewing on my lip. I needed to ask; no matter how bad it sounded. I swallowed. “What do you do anyway?”

“Excellent question,” Jesse replied. “I run the business — review contracts, invoices, make
our
marketing plan and budget, watch our brand equity and provide oversight on projects. I also oversee Media Designers and Media Managers. I let HR handle hiring them, though. Can you imagine me hiring people?” I bit my lower lip to keep from laughing. “Exactly. Anyway,  I basically do everything for this business that we do for other people’s businesses.”

“Sounds good,” I said, giving him a smile that didn’t reach my eyes.

“Do you want to think about it overnight?”

“No, I’m good,” I replied as my body rushed with heat.

“Great, I’ll shoot you over the paperwork. We’ll take a road trip tomorrow,” Jesse said as he stood, straightening out his suit jacket as he did.

I watched him leave before letting my eyes drop to the notebook filled with four pages of to-dos. I felt like I was drowning now, what would those extra responsibilities mean?

I bit my lip.

I kind of wanted to drown.

“This is it?” Jesse asked as he leaned against the door frame with arms and ankles crossed. I smiled, looking up as I put the remaining of my closed project folders into one of the two boxes that contained my entire office.

“Paperless is the way of the future,” I replied, making air quotes as I cocked my head at him. “I think some old guy told me that.”

Jesse rolled his eyes before letting them settle on me. His lips tugged up in the corners, creasing his dimples into his cheeks. “I think some young person prompted the research into our document management system.”

“Seems like she’s pretty smart,” I said with a smirk.

“Don’t let this go to your head,” Jesse replied, and he straightened up, running his fingers over his suit before letting his eyes rise to mine. His lips dropped into a serious line. “I mean it. This kind of power can go to a person’s head. There’s a hierarchy, but no one will ever want to admit that, let alone hear it.”

The smile dipped from my lips, and I swallowed. “Of course.”

Jesse reached forward and squeezed my shoulder. “You’re going to do great. I’ll be with you for the first week, so no worries.”

The first week and then I was on my own.

“You’re going to have a nice relaxing weekend, right? It may be the last one you have in a while,” Jesse said as he leaned down and lifted one of the boxes. I almost stopped him, thinking about his expensive suit, but his eyes narrowed on me, and I got the idea that he wouldn’t listen anyway.

“Yeah, relaxing, that sounds like me,” I replied as I lifted the other one and grabbed my purse from the back of the door.

“I’m serious, River,” Jesse said as we headed down the hall.

When we passed Tara’s desk, I caught her staring, and I felt my whole body go hot. The farewell cake at lunch with all the team members of the building, some of which were also coming with me, was the epitome of awkward. Tara was finally back full-time, but she continued to avoid me, and if she couldn’t avoid me, she shot me cold looks that earned me even odder looks from the others who saw it. We had been best friends, and I was pretty sure no one thought I had it in me to piss someone off that badly– especially not Tara. Apparently, I did, though–even when what I was doing was better for everyone.

“So what are you doing?” Jesse asked, bringing me back to the present. I realized I was staring at Tara as if I could find the words to fix things between us before I left, but I couldn’t. Her eyes rose up, and her lips formed a severe red frown.

I looked away as I replied, “Dinner with my dad at the condo tonight and then wine and a good book the other days, I suppose.”

“Not celebrating with any friends?” he asked as he held the door for me, and we were still close enough to Tara’s cube that she heard. She gave a bitter laugh, stopping me in my tracks as my muscles tensed. She knew just as well as I did I had no friends.

Jesse’s brows furrowed as he looked over my shoulder at her and back to me. My face felt hot as I finally made my feet continue moving.

“What was that about?” he asked as we entered the vestibule and then went out the front door.

I figured he wouldn’t drop it, and it couldn’t be that much of a secret anyway. “I don’t have any friends.”

I kept my eyes straight ahead, but I could still sense the tensing of his muscles.

“Not even from college?” he asked, and I shook my head. “Oh…well, I’m still not unlocking your hours.”

I finally looked over at him. “I wasn’t going to ask.”

“Maybe you should go to the beach?” Jesse suggested as I used one hand to open my trunk.

I dropped my box into it and then turned to look at Jesse. “By myself?”

“You have to have
some
friends,” he said, and his eyes raced across mine as he shut the trunk and I leaned back shaking my head. “None? How’s that possible? It’s not like you’re a nasty person.”

My shoulders lifted to my ears as my stomach twisted. “Drive will sometimes drive away people. Or other things…”

“Other things? Is that why Tara is speaking to you?” Jesse put his hands up. “No, I shouldn’t pry. It’s none of my business.”

“She’s still friends with Adam,” I replied, and his eyes locked on mine.

His forehead wrinkled. “I’m sorry, River.”

“So am I, but I couldn’t change him, and he didn’t try to stop me.”

I felt my hands curl into fists.

Jesse heaved a sigh, looking passed me to the city skyline. He rubbed his neck as he bounced on his heels and his gaze finally came back to me. “I have another friend getting married…” I blinked at him unsure why he was mentioning it. “They asked about you, but I said with your new position it was probably a bit much.”

My blinking increased over my widened eyes. “Did you now?”

“I’ll give them your information if you promise me you’ll try to meet some friends there,” Jesse said, and his eyes narrowed at me as I laughed.

“You’re trying to set me up with friends?”

Jesse lowered his chin. “Just friends.”

It was my turn to look at him with suspicion. “What does that mean?”

“There may be a famous cousin…known to be a womanizer…”

“Who is it?” I asked, and he sucked his lower lip in so I knew he wasn’t going to tell me. I burst out laughing as I shook my head. “I’ll do it so that I can see who this famous toolbox is.”

“Remember to stay away from him,” Jesse replied, and his eyes didn’t move as they focused on mine.

“Do I have newly single across my forehead?”

Jesse scratched the back of his head. “Not exactly.” My brows rose, and he looked up at the sky. “It’s more like you have
I’m a challenge,
which is far more alluring than
I’m single.”

I blinked hard at him. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

My cell phone vibrated its way towards me across my desk, which faced out into the open floor plan office. Jesse made sure I wasn’t going to put my back to my employees. He’d been fine with it before, but things were different now. I was the leader here, and I needed to create a welcoming feeling for my employees. The fact 
I
had employees felt a bit strange. I picked my cell phone up, cradling it against my shoulder as I clicked through the invoices on the screen.

“Hello, this is River,” I said as I hit the approve button and moved to the next one.

“Hi River, this is Maggie. Jesse gave me your number to call about doing photography for my wedding,” the woman replied, her voice bright. “I was wondering if you could meet up?”

My eyes flicked to the corner of my monitor screen, and I found myself leaning back in my seat as I looked up at the ceiling. I lost track of time again. The days just ran into each other now, and I hardly left before six at night. That explained why it was six-thirty on a Friday, and I was still reviewing the week’s invoices. Pretty soon my screen would shut down and say 
Contact System Administrator.
“Sure, when were you thinking?”

“The sooner, the better,” she replied, and I imagined her grimacing as she waited for me to answer.

“Uh, sure.” My stomach growled. “Were you thinking tonight? Or tomorrow morning?”

“I can do tonight — I was just looking through take out menus since Jared is at a conference and won’t be home until late.What do you like?” she asked, and I could hear the sound of paper ruffling.

“I’m not very familiar with the area, to be honest with you. I just moved from the city about a month ago. I grew up in the area, but everything changes so quickly,” I replied as I began to gather up the pieces of paper that made up my to-do tasks.

“I hear you– I just realized like half of the places I have menus for are gone already. What’s your favorite place in Boston, maybe then I can figure out where we should try?”

I laughed, and I felt my muscles relaxing after a day of being tense. “Vanek’s.”

“Oh! They have the best milkshakes. We should meet at Central’s then– it’s probably about fifteen minutes from your office. They have these amazing fries. I’m a freak. I like to dip my fries in my shake.”

“That’s my favorite thing to do,” I replied as I stood and tucked my MacBook into my oversized purse. I put my to-do file into a drawer, knowing it would be useless to bring it home for the weekend since I didn’t have login rights.

“And I thought I was the only person who enjoyed that! I’m about thirty minutes out if you want to finish up whatever you’re doing,” Maggie said.

“Dangerous proposition for me–you’d likely be waiting for me until tomorrow. I’ll get there a little early. I’m sure they’ll be slammed, and it’ll be that much less time for you to wait,” I replied as I stood and shut the light off to my office. The rest of the desk lights laid out in front of me were off, and only the overhead lights remained. This whole setup was novel to me–there were no cubicles, just open desks. Luckily, although my door was glass, like the wall next to it, I at least had some way to tune people out.

“Sounds good! I’ll see you in a bit, do you need directions?” Maggie asked.

I laughed genuinely at the idea. “Even if you gave them to me I’d get lost. I’ll just pop it into the GPS.”

“Alright! See you soon.”

I drove the short distance in silence, only interrupted by the GPS signal to turn left or right. I somehow managed to find a parking spot and then went inside to find there was a forty-five-minute wait. I sat down and began going through an application with a collection of idea boards for photography among other things.  I was so invested in looking for new wedding inspiration I didn’t notice the woman coming towards me until she said my name.

“River?” A pretty blonde stopped a few feet away, and she bit the inside of her cheek as if she wasn’t 100% sure who I was. I wasn’t sure how she had some clue who I was in the first place.

I stood and held out my hand. “That’s me, so you must be Maggie.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “That’s me. Jesse described you to me via text message, so I wasn’t sure if I had it right. Especially when ‘always has her nose in her phone’ describes nearly every person on the planet.”

I looked around us and realized she was right. Everyone was on their phone. I needed to get that little habit in check a bit.

“So what gave me away?” I asked just as the device the hostess gave me began to buzz.

“I just had a feeling,” she said, and her cheeks burned red. “It would’ve been mortifying if it hadn’t been you!”

I laughed as we walked up to the hostess station. Maggie was a little taller than me, and her curves weren’t hidden despite her flowing blouse and black trouser jeans. Her round cheeks were accentuated by the red of her lips and her bright blue eyes popped against the pink of her top. She was gorgeous– the way I imagined country singers might look.

“You’re braver than me. I would’ve searched Facebook until I found you,” I replied as we followed our hostess.

Maggie’s cheeks flamed red, and I realized she did just that–except I didn’t have one. “Can’t say I’m not guilty of trying.”

“Sorry about that,” I said as I smiled up at our hostess and thanked her for my menu. “I don’t do the photography thing enough to have a website or anything.”

“I saw Anna’s pictures. They were amazing, but it must be a lot with your day job,” Maggie replied as she began looking through the menu. Her eyes drifted up to mine. “So how do you do it– photography and being a Marketing Director?”

I laughed a little as I ran my finger around the rim of ice water the hostess poured. “Newly single.”

And friendless.

“Ah,” she replied, and her full lips dipped down. “Long-term relationship?”

“Something like that,” I replied. I supposed knowing someone your whole life and being in love with them just as long must qualify as long term. My eyes blurred as I stared down at the menu with my muscles tensing. It was July. It was a year in June, and I hadn’t even realized it.

“You look like whatever you’re thinking of just caught you off guard,” Maggie said, and her voice was soft as I shook my head, coming back to reality.

I gave her a small smile. “Pretty much that’s my life right now. Nothing goes as planned.”

She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “Plans are for suckers. My wedding is in three weeks, and I don’t have a photographer.”

I squeezed back, my smile growing. “Well, now you do if you’ll have me.”

Maggie tilted her head back to laugh, and the noise warmed me. “I think we’re going to be good friends.”

“I think that was Jesse’s plan,” I replied as our waiter came up.

“Jesse always has a plan,” she replied before giving the waiter a smile.

He looked between the two of us as he pulled out a pad of paper. “What can I get you two lovely ladies to drink?”

Despite the fact our heads were still pointed in his direction, Maggie and I’s eyes met, and we both smiled. Maggie wiggled her eyebrows at me. “You first,
single
lady.”

My eyes widened at her before I looked back up at him. His hands were behind his back now, flexing his chest against the buttons of his shirt as he smirked down at me, light brown eyes locked on me.

Single sure seemed to be working for this guy, and for some reason, the idea of talking about him the second he walked away made me blurt out the first thing my eyes fell to on the menu.

“Excellent choice,” he replied. “That pairs nicely with our house brew.”

“I’m not much of a beer person,” I replied, leaning forward, so my head was in my hands. “What else do you recommend?”

He looked up at the ceiling, the corner of his eyes wrinkling with thought. His gaze fell back to mine, and the thoughtful contour of his lips tilted up, causing dimples to appear on his cheeks. “We have an amazing pineapple margarita.”

“That sounds good,” I said as I glanced over at Maggie from the corner of my eyes.

He wrote it on his pad of paper and then pointed his pen at me. “Frozen with sugar on the rim?”

“Nailed it,” I said, and his tongue darted over his lips before he turned to Maggie.

“I’ll take the same — margarita and all.”

“Great,” he said, taking our menus, his hand brushing over mine as he did. “I’ll get you some guacamole and chips on the house.”

I watched him walk away, my eyes drifting lower than I meant them to.

“You totally just checked out his ass!” Maggie said, laughing. “And he looked like he wanted to nail something other than your food request.”

My face burned bright red, and I realized exactly why Jesse referred Maggie to me. She was a lot like Tara; the complete opposite of me–someone who could bring me out of my recluse shell.

“He’s cute,” I replied, glancing to the table he was now taking orders at. He caught my gaze and winked at me, causing my stomach to do little flips. I forgot how amazing that felt.

“And you were flirting!”

My jaw went slack as I realized I still knew how to do that. I shook my head, but Maggie’s widened eyes made me laugh. “Maybe a little bit.”

“Wait until Beck sees you,” Maggie said as she twirled her straw in her glass of water. Her eyes came up to mine. “He’s going to make a beeline at you.”

“Is Beckham the famous cousin?” I asked, and Maggie’s cheeks flushed as she shook her head. “And why don’t I believe you?”

She made a zipping motion with her hand. “Jesse told me not to mention it…and to tell you to stay away from him.”

I put my palms up. “How am I supposed to prepare myself for meeting him?”

Maggie chuckled to herself. “It’s probably better you didn’t anyway. I don’t think anyone can ever be prepared for him. He’s both attractive and friendly– but he’s a challenge.”

“And why do you think he’ll like me?” I asked, pursing my lips at her.

“You’re a lot alike,” she replied, and I shook my head. She signaled for me to lean forward and then ran her finger over my forehead. “Challenge.”

“I was just openly flirting with our waiter,” I said, my voice high pitched in my rebuttal.

She leaned back, and her brows rose up into her side swept bangs. “He knows he doesn’t have a shot in Hell. Beck likes not having a chance in Hell–but for different reasons than most people think.”

I sighed, sitting back in my chair. “You’re talking in circles.”

Maggie shrugged. “He’s who is he. That’s pretty much all I’m willing to say.”

“Now you have me intrigued. I’m going to have to look up every famous person named Beck on Google.”

“It won’t get you far, seeing that’s just his nickname,” Maggie said, and my lips moved down. She pointed at me with narrowed eyes. “Oh, you hate surprises. Even better. This way you’ll be super excited for my wedding.”

“I already am,” I said. “And that has more to do with you than the famous mysterious cousin.”

Maggie laughed, and I joined her. I was going to have to thank Jesse on Monday. I hadn’t laughed like this in a long time, and I hadn’t realized how good it felt.