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Chapter Seven

Nate spent the next two weeks buried under a pile of work that only grew higher no matter how much time he put in and how many nights he stayed up. The deal with La Boulange was driving him insane. Henri Albert kept changing his mind every few minutes, and Nate and Charles spent most of their working hours placating the man and offering whatever they could to keep the merge possible.

Nate might have appreciated the distraction. Except that it didn't even do the job. He keep his mind off Sophie for more than five minutes. Their last encounter replayed in his head like a buffering YouTube video until he was ready to tear out his hair. His fingers itched to dial her number, but there was nothing he wanted to say that he hadn't already said. She'd chosen her job over him. If he wanted to be objective, he might have found it ironic. Funny even..

But it wasn't funny. Actually, it really, really sucked. His chest and stomach felt like he had eaten too many street tacos and was suffering a bad case of heartburn and indigestion. It was even worse than that time Emily left right after his grandfather died. Up until that point, he'd always thought being abandoned by a woman was the worst thing that happened to him. Now he knew that nothing could trump falling for a woman who was wrong for him in every way, knowing beforehand that she was wrong for him, and unable to do a damn thing about it.

There was a knock at his door and Charles stepped in a second later. Nate gave his friend a what-do-you-want look.

"You're still here," Charles said, glancing at his watch. "Good, I wanted to go over some details about La Boulange." Charles grimaced as he plunked down on the sofa. "Henri's worried that the takeover might affect his restaurant's philosophy of staying true to his heritage. He wants us to assure him that we will keep the mission of the restaurant as is and..."

Nate barely heard a word of what he said. It was kind of terrifying, how little interest he could muster for one of the biggest takeovers of his career. This was the restaurant Gramps had been after for decades. But all Nate could think about was whether or not Sophie would like the restaurant, and if she would be willing to fly to France to check it out with him. As Charles prattled on for the next few minutes, Nate mm-hmmed at the right spots and nodded and frowned when he felt he should have. When Charles stood up and buttoned his jacket, he was surprised that he hadn't paid attention to any of the conversation.

"What's this?" Charles asked, picking up a bright red post card that was sitting in Nate's inbox. "Red Sharks Holiday Bonanza. This the company spamming you for marketing services?"

Nate nodded. "They're persistent." Except Sophie hadn't called him at all. Instead, he'd gotten several voicemails from Sal about their packages and offering kiss-ass compliments about Nate's work. "They send an invite to all their major clients." Nate gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "Go if you want."

"You're not going? What about that sales chick, Thomas something? Isn't she going to beat down your door to get you to come to their party?"

Nate gritted his teeth. "Her name is Sophie." His fingers curled around the arms of his chair. "And no." He hoped Charles would let it go.

His COO raised an eyebrow at him. "Just in case you change your mind." He dropped the card back onto the desk.

Nate pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index. When he looked up, Charles was gone. The office felt quiet, but the thought of returning to his cold, empty apartment was even worse. And that was an odd feeling, since Nate loved his pad, with its geometric furniture and the big windows and the view of the ocean. He was craving something else, something more warm and cozy with throw pillows and afghans and the smell of Sophie's lotion surrounding him.

He shook his head and turned to the computer. He clicked on his browser and pulled up Facebook. His heart gave an extra beat when he saw the green dot next to Sophie's name. Without thinking about it, he IMed her.