Page 16 of Emani's Way

***

“Maddox Reid, I take back everything I said about you,” Anderson McNair says vigorously, shaking my hand.

“Don’t apologize. You haven’t gotten my bill yet,” I reply. “Y’all have my number if you need anything else.” I nod with a smirk as I exit the mediation building.

Anderson McNair is a tech millionaire whose employee decided to make up some asinine harassment story when she didn’t get what she wanted. Anderson is one of the most upstanding men I know. But when people think they can get a dollar, they go out of their way to lie about shit.

Just when I’m about to exit the building, I see a familiar figure walking in another door. I turn around so fast I bump into a guy who is following way too close, and I almost knock him over.

“Excuse me.” I hurriedly rush back inside the building.

I don’t scream her name like a lunatic, but I damn near run to catch up to the woman so that I can see her face.It has to be her!

“Emani! Emani Jackson!” Even though I’m not yelling, I speak louder than what is acceptable in a place like this, but I don’t give a fuck even though people are looking at me strangely.

When the woman turns around, my heart nearly leaps out of my chest!It’s her!

“Emani.” I can hear the relief in my voice.

Damn, I never thought I’d find her. I’ve been wrapped up in my cases, and I haven’t been able to have a meeting with Niro to update him on intensifying the search.

“Maddox? What…” Emani doesn’t finish her sentence.

Her beautiful face morphs from shocked to a coolness that I didn’t expect from her. I thought she’d be happy to see me, or maybe it was my hope.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” I confess before I think better of it.

This woman has me in a chokehold, and she doesn’t even realize it.

“Really?” Emani puts her hands on her hips and sucks her teeth.

Now, I’m not a body language expert, but I definitely know when a woman sucks her teeth, and her hands go on her hips, you’ve royally fucked up somehow.

“Yeah. Really.” I’m confused as to why she’s mad because if I remember correctly, she’s the one who snuck out of my house like a thief in the night.

As a matter of fact, I should be the one with an attitude. Hell, I had to swallow my pride and admit that even though she left without a word, I still wanted to see her again. And I’m the asshole who actually paid for somebody to find her.

“You have a funny way of showing it. I haven’t heard from you…” Emani looks around and lowers her voice, “I haven’t heard from you since our one-night stand.”

“First of all, it wasn’t a one-night stand. I’ve been looking for you for weeks.” My voice gets louder than I intend and I take a deep breath to calm down. “Look, are you busy? Can we please go somewhere and talk?”

Emani looks around and fidgets a little. “Well, I was trying to catch up to someone before they left.”

“Well, I can wait until you finish. We really need to have a conversation.”

There has been a breakdown somewhere, and I’ll be damned if I let this woman go anywhere without finding out what happened. If she doesn’t want to see me after we talk, I’ll be mad, but I’ll get over it. But I still want to talk to her.

“Okay, let me find Anderson. It should only take me a minute.”

“Wait… Anderson McNair?” My eyebrow raises.How the hell does Emani know Anderson?

“Yeah. Do you know him?”

“He’s my client. I just closed in mediation. How doyouknow him?” I suspiciously question.

Emani is definitely Anderson’s type. Sweet, smart, kind as hell. With an out of this world body. Yeah, she’s definitely his type.Hell! Emani is every man’s type.

“He’s my best friend’s boyfriend. Well, her ex. I mean, it’s complicated. But, I was coming to give him some help.”