I sat down at my desk, sinking into the chair and leaning my head back against it to stare at the ceiling. My body was relaxed and pleased, but my mind was racing. Everything had happened so fast—finding out that Sloane was the owner of the bakery, arguing with her, fucking her good and hard on my desk while she moaned for me. And now she was gone, and I had no idea what was going to happen, what our future was. I looked over at the contract on the desk, still unsigned.
I sighed, pulling it over in front of me and glancing through it. I still couldn’t believe I’d made such a big mistake in overlooking the fact that Sloane owned the bakery herself. It wasn’t like me—I was always on my game, good at my job, and always on top of what I needed to do. I wondered if the reason she’d thrown herself at me was to get me back for making that mistake, and convince me to change my mind about the development. I ran my hand through my hair and turned the document over, not wanting to look at it, or even think about it. Still, my mind took me back to it over and over—I would have to make a decision and choose between Sloane and my business. Everything I had was riding on this development and my acquisition of the properties I needed, including the bakery.
I went home early that day, canceling the meetings I had planned for the rest of the afternoon. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to focus or pay attention to anything else that happened today. The morning with Sloane had been too eventful. Touching her, having sex with her, had been an extremely pleasurable experience, but I found myself regretting it nonetheless. It hadn’t happened under the right circumstances. I had wanted to be with Sloane, but I had wanted it to be perfect, in my bed with her spread out underneath me, her tight, sweet pussy taking my cock slow and deep inside her. I had wanted to spend hours inside of her body, not a few hurried, frantic minutes on top of my desk, no matter how good they had been.
I spent most of the afternoon at home until a friend of mine called, an old buddy from college who I got together with on occasion to drink and catch up. I considered ignoring it, but I ended up answering anyway, desperate for a distraction.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Xavier said. “What are you up to? Want to get a drink?”
“Yeah,” I said, standing up from where I’d been sitting on the couch doing nothing for hours. “Now?”
“Sure. I’ll meet you in ten.”
I hung up the phone and grabbed my keys, then drove to the bar where I normally met Xavier, a small, out-of-the-way place we’d been going to since college. He was already there when I got inside, sitting down across from him in the old, faded booth.
“What’s new?” he asked. “You look like hell.”
I gave a dark laugh, shaking my head. “I’ve had a hell of a day.”
“I haven’t. I slept all day. Tell me about it.”
“There’s a girl,” I told him, and he raised an eyebrow at me.
“A girl? You’re having troubles with women? When was the last time you actually learned a woman’s name?”
I grinned. “This one is different. There’s something about her that I can’t get out of my head.”
“So what’s the problem?” he asked, taking a swig from his mug. There was one on the table for me, too, that he had ordered before I’d gotten there. I took a swallow of the cold liquid.
“I’m evicting her from her business,” I said, explaining the deal to him, the fact that Sloane thought she owned the building, and the fact that I didn’t know Sloane owned the bakery. He listened to me as he drank, nodding along.
“Wow,” he said when I was finished. “So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to buy the bakery. I think. I’ve got over twenty investors relying on me.”
“Did you talk to your dad about it?”
I shook my head adamantly.
“You know exactly what he would say.”
“He’d tell you not to waste your time on some woman. Yeah. Your dad’s a hard-ass.”
“No time for romance,” I said. “That’s why my mom left him, you know? Because he wouldn’t stop working.”
“I think you should go for the girl.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised. Most of my friends were still single, like me, bachelors into their thirties. Never once had I heard one of them—least of all Xavier—talk about settling down or even imply that it was an option. I had felt the same way once and had probably more than one time highly suggested that one of my friends dump the girl and move in a different direction.
“Yeah,” he said, looking at me. “You’re crazy about her, man. I can tell by the way you talk about her.”
I found myself smiling just thinking about Sloane, unable to help myself. But I shook my head.
“There’s a lot riding on this property development. A lot. I’m not sure I could just drop it for one business.”
Xavier finished his beer and gestured for another one.
“So you two—you know—on the desk, and then she just left?”
“Yes. Didn’t say anything to me. I don’t even know if I should call her.”
“I’d say not,” said Xavier. “Especially if you’re not sure what you’re going to do about the bakery.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
“I am right,” Xavier said, chuckling. “Now finish that beer. That’s the only way you’re going to forget about your girl troubles.”
I laughed, doing as he said. We spent the rest of the night until closing just catching up, but in the background my mind was still on Sloane and the way I had flown into a relationship with her. It wasn’t like me at all. As my friend had pointed out, I never usually got caught up in my feelings for anybody or anything.
By the time I got home, I was still worrying over the thought of buying the bakery. I couldn’t decide what to do with myself, even as I managed to fall asleep later that night after a few long hours of thinking over what I was going to do.