Married Without Love

Chapter 19

Hailey

Today, I attended my first partner meeting. All the senior partners welcomed and congratulated me and I gave my buy-in cheque. My family was so proud of me, that I had accomplished my goal. Good wishes, messages, flowers and gifts were pouring in from clients, colleagues, well wishers, fans. It was supposed to be the most exciting thing and yet I felt a bit upset, my husband wasn't celebrating with me.

But I masked my sadness with a huge smile. I was never in need of a husband to lift me up and I don't need one now. Even though, just him showing a bit of appreciation would make me really happy.

'No, you don't need to rely on anyone for happiness, be strong Hailey' I tell myself.

'Who are you kidding, you want him to acknowledge your achievement, for him to tell you he's proud of you,' my subconscious talks back to me.

'No, what he thinks doesn't matter. Why would I make him proud? I don't feel anything about him,' I argue back.

'Keep telling yourself that and maybe one day you'll believe it,' my subconscious teased.

I tuned her out and did what I do best -ignore what I didn't want to deal with. I bottled it all up and forced myself not to think about my husband who I was growing attached to. The last thing I needed right now was unrequited feelings and messy emotional stuff. I am on my way up the ladder of success and don't have the time for dealing with it all now.

I left the conference room and started walking back to my office when I was intercepted by the one and only Harry Lawrence.

"Welcome to the big people table, Hails," said Harry.

"Why, thank you Harry," I responded to his jibe. "Hope there's no hard feelings."

"Hard feelings? No, I was always taught to be gracious and respectful to my juniors."

"Excuse me? Are you saying that I'm your junior?" I asked faking offence.

"Well I did make senior partner much before you did," he shot back.

"Oh, I see. My promotion got your panties in a twist," I continued our playful banter as Harry led me towards his own office. "You feel threatened!" I gasped.

"What makes you think so? I was just congratulating you. Stop flattering yourself so,"

"That's not how you congratulate someone you're genuinely happy for," I told him.

"No?" He asked with a mischevious smirk. "How about this then?"

And before I knew it, he lifted me in his arms, his hands clasped at my waist and he had propped me up so I was leaning against his upper body. I screamed for him to put me down and hit his shoulders with my fists while he just laughed and stalked into his office.

We were both laughing so hard as he spun around with me in his arms. I shrieked. The two of us were so caught up that we didn't realise the presence of the other man in the room until he cleared his throat.

My head snapped to the direction of the noise and I was shocked to see Nathan standing there in all his glory, glaring at the two of us. He was definitely going to get the wrong idea!

Harry put me down and straightened himself, obviously shaken to be caught off guard in such an unprofessional manner by a client. But he quickly composed himself and greeted Nathan.

"Mr Rodriguez," he started. "I didn't expect to see you here today."

"An emergency came up and I wasn't able to reach you, your secretary said you were in a meeting," Nathan said professionally. "Since it was urgent I came here myself, but I am sorry if I disturbed anything."