The CEO and Fate✔️

Chapter 16

It was true that New York City was the city that never sleeps. Because after almost a month and half here, I finally noticed the pattern that anything fun that I did happened at night, wether it was going to a club, dinner, or an actual organized party.

But whatever it was, for me each time I ventured out in the night it ended up with me waking up in the morning with a churning stomach and a desire to do anything but try and make sense of what had happened. And especially after Saturday night's party, I was eager to throw myself back into work.

But of course, as hard as I tried, my thoughts kept slipping back to it, the night that could potentially end up as one of the longest of my life.

Every time I was stacking papers and organizing files by meeting, I was thinking about Jake. How he looked at me that night. How he paraded around with me like I was a trophy he won. How his surface cracked when he finally saw Skylar.

And every time I was scheduling appointments and directing the structure for conference calls, I would start to wonder about Blake's drunk words. His sober thoughts. His desire to talk to me again, but his pride that kept him so far away.

And the hardest part of all, when I was listening in on Zane's meeting and taking notes for his clients and business partners, my eyes would blur as I drifted off into the final part of the night, when my senses were ablaze by Blake's touch. For the first time in a long time he had finally let me in again. And I messed it all up and left.

I was thankful that Gretchen pulled me aside halfway through the day to check on me.

"Your eyes are glassy," she noticed. "Are you sick?"

I shook my head. "Just stuck in stupid thought land with singing unicorns and deadly Cupid."

Gretchen smiled. "I knew I had lost you at that party."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I had no idea Jake was going to completely tower over me like that and if I did I wouldn't have invited him because you had been so nice to invite me and I ditched you and—"

"Hey," she laid a hand on my shoulder. "Slow down, girly. You're good. We're good. In fact, you're not the only one to be a little distracted because of the party."

I listed my head. "What happened?"

She frowned. "Well, I texted you that Josh took me home. But, that wasn't everything. When we got there, we were both sober, and I thanked him for driving me, but he insisted on making sure I got up to my apartment safely."

"Oh god, Gretchen, he didn't try anything, did he?"

"What?" She said. "No. Nothing like that. He, uh, he just kinda cornered me. Put me on the spotlight. Confessed his feelings for me and expected to either leave with a girlfriend or never talk to me again."

My eyes widened. "What did you say?"

She buried her head in her hands. "The most immature thing. I pretended to be drunk and asked if we could just talk about in the morning. Because I knew my answer would crush him."

"You don't like him," I frowned.

"Not at all," she mumbled. "And Josh has been such a close friend. But I've never and will never see him as anything more."