Chapter Twenty-Two
Emmi
“As we get this week’s meeting started, I want to recognize Emmi Shields and her amazing job. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but I’ve already given her a full-time offer, and she accepted this morning. Please give a round of applause and officially welcome Emmi to our team,” Elizabeth Allen said as she stood at the front of the meeting room.
It had only been two weeks, but I already knew I was going to be happy at Allen and Huff. Elizabeth Allen and Renee Huff were running one of the top law firms in all of Los Angeles. Landing a temp business manager job with them was fate, and I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect pairing.
From the jerk of an employer in New York to my new job, it was like night and day. Everything at Allen and Huff was what I had dreamed of in a company. My salary was going to be amazing; I had really awesome women as my bosses. The lawyers and other employees at the firm valued each other’s opinions. This was a place I could see myself staying for many years to come.
“Speech, speech,” Renee said from the other end of the large table. “I think Emmi should give us a little speech.”
I rolled my eyes but knew that I wasn’t going to get out of giving a little speech. It was one of the things Elizabeth and Renee did every week. They found someone from the company to recognize and then forced them to stand up and talk for a little bit. It was corny as hell, but it did help everyone connect, and I certainly could see that it helped people feel like part of the overall office.
“Well, first of all, thank you to Elizabeth and Renee for bringing me on board. I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself and simply took this job to get back into the workforce. From the moment I arrived, I’ve felt listened to and appreciated, and that doesn’t happen at every company, so I really want to commend you all for the environment we have here. I’m also really excited to be an official employee, starting tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you, Emmi; we are excited to have you,” Elizabeth said as she continued on with the meeting. “Now, as we talked about last week. We really need to keep the billable hours up. But I want you thinking about the client first, always the client. Emmi put together a new business plan that we will be working through and rolling out in the next couple of weeks. The biggest thing I want you all to remember though: the client needs to be happy. No overbilling, no charging when you make a one-minute phone call. We are known for being honest and deadly in the courtroom; let’s keep it that way.”
As I looked around the room, it was clear that I fit in perfectly. Although the company was run by two women, there were plenty of men on the staff as well. We were a diverse mix of people from all walks of life, but everyone got along great. That was all because of the leadership, though. Elizabeth and Renee worked hard to have a cohesive team, and it was evident by the smiles in the room at the weekly checkup meeting.
The morning meeting only took about a half of an hour, and then we were dismissed to go about our day as normal. Just as Elizabeth started to wrap up the points for the week, there was a commotion at the front desk which had everyone looking and trying to figure out what was happening.
“Sir, you can’t go in there without an appointment,” Jenny, the secretary, could be heard yelling as I saw Declan walking past the window to our conference room.
My breath caught, and I was sure I wasn’t breathing at all as he burst through the door and stood looking at our room full of about 50 people. Elizabeth stopped talking and looked at him as well.
What on earth was Declan doing at my office? It was nice to see him, but I couldn’t fathom why he had shown up to talk to me in the middle of the day. He hadn’t called or texted me at all since we had decided to stop seeing each other.
“Can I help you?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m here to see Emmi Shields; is she here?” Declan asked as he held on tightly to a large group of red roses.
He looked around the room nervously until his eyes locked with mine. There was a desperation in his eyes that I’d never seen from him before. It made my heart skip a beat as I felt the emotions pouring out of him. Whatever was going on with Declan, he obviously felt very passionate about coming and telling me at that very moment.
“Declan, what are you doing here?” I asked as I looked back and forth from him to Elizabeth. “Sorry,” I mouthed to my new boss.
Well, hopefully she was still going to be my new boss. After the scene Declan was causing, I couldn’t be sure they’d want to keep me around after this morning. I was still a temporary employee and wasn’t expected to start my new job officially until the next day.
“Emmi, can I talk to you?” Declan said as he tried to catch his breath.
“Not now. I’m working. I’ll call you later,” I said as I tried to get him to go away.
What was he doing at my office, anyways? I hadn’t told him where I worked. We hadn’t even talked in two weeks. He looked good, though. Declan had on a dark gray suit and white shirt without a tie. His scruffy beard was a little longer than I had seen him normally wearing it, but he still looked handsome as hell.
I had thought about Declan every day since that afternoon in his office. Even though I knew I couldn’t have him, I still had such strong feelings for him that it was hard to sleep at night. I couldn’t imagine ever feeling as comfortable with a man as I did that week with him in Breckenridge. Together, we completed each other’s thoughts; we played off each other’s ideas. We were good together; there was no doubt about it.
But we had made our decision. He had to keep working with my father, and my father was too stubborn to give him a second chance. It was decided. I’d spent the last two weeks working with my father and making him understand that I didn’t care about Declan and wouldn’t see him ever again if it meant my father and Declan would be able to continue doing business together.
I lied to my father more in the last two weeks than I’d ever lied to him in all my life. I told him I didn’t care about Declan. I said that it was all just a fling. My father had believed me and was finally going to let Declan have his chance, and now here was Declan ruining everything that I had worked so hard to fix for him.
“Sir, we are in the middle of a meeting. I’m sure you can talk with Ms. Shields at the end of her workday,” Elizabeth said firmly. “Now, please leave the building before we need to call security.”
Declan took a step back and looked like he was about to leave the room, but then quickly changed his mind. He walked straight over to me and handed me the large bunch of flowers. For a minute, I thought he was going to do something crazy and propose to me. I had no idea what was happening.
My heartbeat was in my head pounding as I looked up at Declan and tried to understand why he was there for me at that moment. He was excited, exhilarated to see me. Had my father backed out of their deal? Was there something else going on that I didn’t know about?
As much as I wanted to talk to Declan though, it was going to have to be after my workday. I loved this new job, and I couldn’t afford to lose it over this stunt.
“I love you,” he said as looked me in the eyes, and then, turning toward everyone in the room, he said, “I just came to tell her I love her. You all are my witnesses. I don’t care about the business deals. I’ll go broke if I have to. But I couldn’t go another minute without you knowing how I felt.”
My face flushed red at his words, and I looked over at Elizabeth in hopes that she wasn’t too angry with me. She seemed amused by his profession of love and sat down in her chair and watched the scene. What was I supposed to say to the man with a room full of strangers watching us? How was I supposed to respond when I knew that admitting my feelings for him would mean his business, as well as my father’s, wouldn’t be able to go on? I couldn’t say it. No matter how much I cared about Declan, I just couldn’t say it back to him.
“Okay, Declan, but you have to keep running your business. We figured this all out already.”
As much as I did love Declan, my mind was swirling with everything that was going on, and I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t want to give in to the love I had for him if it meant that his company couldn’t keep going forward, yet my body pulled me closer to him, and I reached out and held onto his hands as I urgently tried to come to terms with what he was saying to me.
“Nope, you figured it out. You were the one with the idea to break up and I’m not okay with it. I told your father today that I’ll give up the business deals if he can’t handle it, but I’m going after you. If you’ll have me. I can’t imagine not giving this a try.”
“What? Declan, no. I can’t do it. I won’t let you ruin everything. Go on; we can talk later. This isn’t the right place. Now isn’t the right time.”
I turned away from him and let him stand there for a minute. Everyone was looking at us, and I was embarrassed by the scene he had caused. These were my new coworkers, and I’d basically just hijacked their meeting with my personal life.
“I’ll go now, I guess,” Declan said softly. “But I’m not giving you up; it’s that simple.”
“I’ll call you later,” I replied, and avoided looking at him.
I couldn’t bear the thought of him giving up his business and my father ruining his all because of feelings I had for Declan. It was all too much for me. If Declan had professed his love for me to my father and walked out of their meeting, he had basically ruined the whole deal. I couldn’t take it and felt tears starting to well up in my eyes.
As Declan walked slowly toward the door, everyone in the room looked at me sadly. It was as if I had done something wrong. I couldn’t exactly run off with him in the middle of my meeting. I had just been offered a full-time job at the company; how would it look if I was already leaving to hang out with a guy?
The door shut behind Declan and everyone turned toward Elizabeth so she could finish the meeting. They avoided eye contact with me, which was a good thing, because I felt only moments away from breaking down into tears.
“I don’t know about you all, but I’ve never witnessed such a display of affection before,” Elizabeth said. “I think you should go after the guy. If I had a guy willing to act a fool like that for me, I’d certainly be running after him.”
I looked at her and then at my coworkers around the table. Their expressions brightened up, and a few of them even clapped their hands. I wanted to go after Declan, but I wasn’t going to risk my job. Was she seriously telling me I should run after him?
This was a law firm based on strong women who didn’t need anyone’s permission to go after what they wanted. Both Elizabeth and Renee had married men who were supportive of them and pushed them in their careers. I wanted to believe that she was being supportive, but something inside me also thought it was a test to see if I really wanted my career.
“Get out of here, Emmi,” Renee added. “You can start work tomorrow.”
I looked from Renee over to Elizabeth, who had a huge smile on her face. She shook her head in agreement, and I stood up slowly as I thought about actually leaving. Renee was pointing to the door and practically shooing me out of the room as I looked back at Elizabeth for more confirmation.
I’d never been around supervisors who actually understood how life could get in the way sometimes. It was jarring to think that they were actually supporting me and this crazy moment with Declan.
“Go,” Elizabeth ordered.
I could still see Declan standing by the elevators and waiting to leave. I hurried out of the boardroom and down the hall toward him just as the ding of the arriving elevator sounded. My legs were shaking as the adrenaline rushed through me. All I could think about was getting close enough to wrap my arms around him.
Every day that we had been apart, I worried that my decision had been the right one. Would I ever find someone else that I’d connect so deeply with? But maybe I didn’t have to give up on what we had? Maybe we could make things work, and he could keep his company going? My heart thumped with excitement as my feet pounded the carpet and I got closer to him.
“Declan,” I yelled. “Wait.”
He turned toward me and stopped without getting onto the elevator. His lips curled into a frown for a moment, but his eyes flashed with the love I knew he had for me.
“I love you too!” I yelled.
His sad expression quickly turned to a smile as I threw myself into his arms and kissed him. He held on tight to me and twirled me in a circle, and I saw everyone from my meeting standing near the window so they could see what was going on.
“What about my father?” I said as I pulled away from him.
“I told him I loved you. I told him I had to give us a try or I’d always regret it. He agreed and said we could still work together.”
“He agreed?” I said as tears fell from my eyes. “He said it was alright?”
“Yes, we are going to work things out, Emmi. He was proud of me for standing up to him, and he liked that I cared about you so much I was willing to give up my business dealings.”
“Oh, Declan, I can’t even believe this.”
“It was the truth. I’d go broke for you in a second,” he said as his arms wrapped around me and held me close to him. “I don’t know what our future will bring, but I know there’s no one else in this world that I’d rather do life with.”
“Me too, Declan. Me too.”