Ten Days of Perfect (November Blue #1)

“Yea, that’s him. You know him?” Bo’s tone told me he read my face just right.

Monica composed herself quicker than I could. “Yea, we both know him. He had a lot of public relations classes with us at Princeton; we were in the same study groups and whatnot. He’s an incredible asset, you’re lucky to have him. We’ll have to thank him for the connection!”

She’s good.

“OK,” I continued, immediately needing this meeting to end so I could go scream into a pillow, “Thank you so much for squeezing us into your busy week. David, I’ll have Carrie get in touch with you on Monday to arrange an overnight in New Hampshire.”

“Sounds great. Thank you Ms. Harris, Ms. Pierce.” David shook our hands and headed toward the door.

“I’ll catch up with you later, David.” Bo told him, slowing down while gathering materials.

Shit, does he want to talk to me about last night, this weekend, my reaction to Adrian, or all of it?

By the time the sound of David’s car faded to the distance, the three of us hadn’t moved from our seats.

“Bo, could you hang out here for a couple of minutes, I have to talk to Ember in my office.” Monica attempted the most graceful exit possible under the circumstances.

“Sure.” He shifted uncomfortably.

The searing neon blinking “Adrian” sign overtook my brain and I wanted to run and scream. We left the door to the meeting room open, but shut the door to Monica’s office.

“Holy shit! What the hell?” Monica said in the loudest whisper known to man.

“Did you have any idea?” I was breathless, my eyes darted around the room.

I knew Monica was friends with Adrian on Facebook, but she never spoke of him. I also knew she’d tell me if he mentioned he was working with someone and referring us to them, but I was grasping for any explanation.

“Get a grip, Em. You know I’d say something to you if I knew.” Monica rolled her eyes, annoyed.

“I guess it’s totally possible he was just doing the fellow-graduate good deed thing by showing us preference in the search process.” That really was the most likely explanation, had we not cried during break-up sex.

“Yea, let’s go with that for now. At least until we have a chance to talk with him.”

“Agreed, I guess we will have to talk to him. I suppose I should be the one to call him; he’d know I was avoiding him if you called.” Uneasiness regained its footing in my gut.

“Smart. OK, I’ll get his contact info, email Carrie about our meeting, and then stay here until you’ve finished talking with Bo,” Monica said, motioning to the door.

“Oh shit!” I had completely forgotten he was waiting for me.

In the meeting room, Bo was leaning against the window with his hands in his pockets. The light sought out and illuminated his deep blue eyes as he turned to me.

“Hey, sorry about that. Today has been ridiculous.” I shut the door behind me.

“It’s OK.” He smiled so sincerely I instantly felt my throat tighten. “How’s Monica?”

“Ugh,” I sat down in the closest chair and rested my elbows on the table while my hands held my head, “my heart is actually breaking for her, Bo.”

I wanted him to tell me that I would never feel what Monica felt. I certainly didn’t intend to make him ever feel that way. He, however, didn’t know how I felt about him. I was at an unfair advantage with the information Monica had given me.

He left the window and sat in the chair next to me. “What happened?”

Leave out the thousand lifetime’s thing, whatever you do. My eyes met his as I rested my chin on closed fists.

“He just…he told her that if there was a soul-shifting, core-quaking love for everyone…” my breath caught for a split second, “he wasn’t sure she was his.”

I broke his gaze and glanced out the window.

“He didn’t even look her in the eyes when he told her, Bo. He couldn’t even give her the respect of a little eye contact as he shredded her soul.” My cheeks burned, fighting the tears working their way to the surface of my eyes.

“Damn,” he said, closing his eyes briefly. I wondered if he was relieved that I didn’t seem to know his part in that conversation. I wondered if he felt bad at all, even though it wasn’t his fault.

“Do you believe him? Josh, I mean, about the soul-core thing?” he asked. I nodded and rubbed my forehead.

“I really do.” I opened my eyes and found him studying my face.

“Does Adrian Turner have anything to do with that look on your face?” It was barely a question.

Well, that didn’t take long.

“Yes, but not in the way you might think,” I said softly.

This wasn’t the place I wanted to talk about Adrian. I didn’t really want to talk about Adrian at all, but my hand was forced in more ways than one.