Page 25 of Love Off Course

Sheridan

T wo weeks later…

I check my phone for only the tenth time today.

Nothing from Camilo.

God, I am so lovesick. It’s pathetic.

He told me to go. So I left. I just assumed he’d be back for me by now. I’m not the only one who was deep into the thing that was us. He was right there with me.

So why isn’t he here now?

“Miss Reid,” Helen says from my open office door. “The conference room is set up for your meeting.”

“Thank you. Will you be sitting in and taking notes?”

She frowns and nods, eyeing me like I have three heads. “It’s my job.”

“Oh, good. You take way better notes than me.”

“Is everything okay?” she asks, fidgeting. “You’ve been…different…ever since you came back.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No,” she rushes out. “Not bad. Just…”

“Weak?”

“I was going to say nice.”

I flinch at her words. “Nice? I’m not nice?”

Her cheeks flame crimson. “I, uh, that’s not what I meant.”

“No,” I say with a sigh. “I get it. I can be a bit of a monster. You can speak candidly.”

Helen crosses the room and sits in the seat on the other side of my desk. “You’re not a monster, you’re just intensely focused and particular. Lately it seems as if you care about those around you, not just yourself or your dad.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve always been a bitch,” I mutter. “I have no excuse.”

She smiles. “There were other jobs out there. If I didn’t like it, I could have left.”

“I’d have doubled your salary to make you stay,” I tease.

Her laugh is foreign. It’s then I realize I’ve never heard it. I don’t know much about Helen except she’s been my assistant for three years. That’s it. I know nothing else.

“Are you married?”

The smile falls away and she nods. “An odd question, but yes.” She wiggles her wedding ring at me. A simple gold band.

“Children?”

“Morgan and Evan,” she says slowly. “They come in sometimes to take me to lunch.”

I’m drawing blanks, which makes me feel horrible.

“Oh. Are they small?”

“Morgan is sixteen. Evan is almost eighteen. What’s with all the questions?”

“I’m a horrible person.”

“No, you’re not,” she assures me. “You’re just busy.”

“It’s no excuse.” I swallow hard and glance around my massive office. It’s stark white and decorated in splashes of rose gold. I love how bright and cheery it is even if I’m always the exact opposite. “When I went to Daddy’s wedding, things changed.”

“So I can tell.”

“I’m different and I don’t know how to get back to me.”

“Do you want to get back to the old you?”

“Not really. I don’t think I liked her much. It’s hard navigating this new path.”

“If anyone can do it, it’s you. You’re Sheridan Reid. A business powerhouse. Those two men down the hall can’t hold a candle to your fierceness.”

I smile thinking about Daddy and David. They’re great businessmen, but I’ve always strived to be even better.

“Morgan admires you.”

I wince. “How? I’ve never spoken to her.”

“No, but she’s an observant teenager. She sees what you’ve done for me all these years.”

“I’ve done stuff for you?”

She laughs again and I decide I really like her laugh. “Honey, yes. Maybe they don’t seem like much to you, but they mean everything to me. Like whenever you go out of town and let me work from home those days.”

People work remotely from home all the time. No big deal.

“Or when you gave me your old Lexus.”

“I didn’t need it anymore and the dealership would have tried to scam me on the trade.” I shrug. “It was old. And you’re my friend.”

She blinks in confusion. “I am?”

“You and Mark both,” I tell her.

“We’re your and your father’s assistants. Your employees.”

“We’re not friends?”

Her features soften and she smiles. “Of course we are. I can’t speak for Mark, but I know I’d like to be a better friend to you.”

“I made friends in Mexico.” A smile tugs at my lips. “They forced me.”

“Sounds like good friends.”

“The best.”

“Is that why you’re warming up to me and reaching out?” Helen asks.

“I’m finally seeing what’s around me rather than what’s out in front of me. I’ve been so goal focused, I haven’t done much of stopping to smell the roses.”

“They smell sweet. Beautiful too. I used to be like you, you know.”

I frown. “You?”

“Until I met Wayne. I got pregnant and things changed. My career wasn’t as important as growing my family was. Paychecks were nice, but they didn’t make me feel the way my husband and kids did. My priorities became different.”

“I think I can understand that for the first time in my life,” I admit. “I just don’t know what to do with myself. I met a guy…”

She grins and I wave her off.

“It was apparently a fling. Nothing permanent. He changed me, though. I can’t stop thinking about him. I fell in love with him. Fast and hard. But he broke me.”

“A girl like you, Miss Reid, doesn’t break. She might get rattled or knocked down or cracked, but she never breaks.”

“I’m not that tough,” I argue.

“I beg to differ.”

“You think I’m something I’m not.”

“I know exactly who you are. You’re a daddy’s girl who lost her mother at a young age. You spent your entire life clinging to your father and trying so hard to show him how wonderful you are. He sees, sweetheart. The man can talk my ear off for days about how perfect you are.”

My eyes well with tears and I laugh. “I’m his princess.”

“He wants you to be happy,” she tells me. “You’re strong and resilient, but he wants you to be soft and vulnerable. To experience love and happiness like he’s known with both your mother and Mona. You deny yourself of basic human emotions, honey. It’s time to feel.”

“It hurts to feel,” I snap.

She doesn’t flinch, simply shrugs. “It’s better than being numb.”

I close my eyes and allow the pain to seep into my bones. God, I miss him. So much. “Doesn’t feel all so wonderful,” I grumble.

She laughs. “In life we take the good with the bad. It’s not all or nothing.”

“Why have you been holding out on all this life advice, Helen? We totally should dock your pay retroactive for three years,” I tease.

“Is it too late to quit and take that doubling my salary offer?” she jokes back.

“You quit and I’ll hunt you down,” I threaten with a grin. “This company needs you.”

Her phone buzzes and she perks up. “We can negotiate my salary later over lunch one day. Right now we have a meeting with Mr. Birch and Miss Villegas.”

“We can’t let Damian distract me,” I tell her as I stand. “He gets onto the topic of hot pilots and I forget what we were talking about.”

She chuckles. “Crack the whip and keep the meeting on task. Got it. This is why you pay me the big bucks.”

“Double the big bucks,” I say with a wink. “Now earn that money and make sure to mute that boy the moment he starts talking about his glittery glowstick.”

“His glittery what?”

“Don’t ask. Seriously, just mute him.”

She shakes her head. “You got it, boss.”

I walk over to her and hug her. “Thank you for the talk.”

“That’s what friends are for.”

“Hey, beautiful,” David says from my office doorway, dragging my attention from the email Damian sent me.

“What?”

David smirks and saunters into my office. He’s handsome for an older man, but the attraction I once held for him is absent. “You. You’re beautiful. You always have been, though I only noticed it when you turned eighteen.”

I roll my eyes. “Okay.”

“I’m being serious.” He flashes me a devilish grin. “Have dinner with me tonight. I could take you dancing or whatever it is you young people like to do. We’ll make it fun. I’ll abstain from drinking so if our night takes a heated turn, I won’t embarrass myself this time.”

The one time we had sex is a distant memory. After all the intense, unforgettable moments with Camilo, it’s easy to forget I even went to bed with this man.

“I’m busy,” I tell him.

“Fine,” he says with a shrug. “If not tonight, tomorrow? I can go check your schedule with Helen and see when you’re free. She can pencil me in.”

My phone buzzes and I look down, hoping to see Camilo’s name. It’s Estefania instead.

Estefania: My tour ends in a month!

I grin and respond.

Me: Thank God! I miss you!

Estefania: I cannot wait to see you!

Me: Drinks by the pool for days. Maybe we’ll let Damian come along for entertainment.

Damian: Bitch Barbie, this is a group text. Of course I’ll be there for the entertainment. I learned some new dance moves I’m teaching Kyle.

Estefania: He showed me. Naked.

Me: TMI!

Damian: A video or FaceTime? If it’s a video, send it to me. I need to critique his movies.

Me: You just want to see Estefania’s boyfriend’s dick.

Damian: Sue me, princess. A pretty boy like me has needs.

Estefania: FaceTime. All for my eyes. Sorry, baby.

Damian: Forgiven as long as he shakes that pert booty for me in his swim trunks on this supposed vacation we’re going to take.

Me: It’s not supposed. It’s happening. Can you get off then?

Damian: Sugar Tits, I can get off any time with a snap of a finger. Just show me some of that pilot porn and I will prove it.

Me: Gag!

Estefania: They make pilot porn?

Damian: Of course they do! Let me send you the link!

Me: Do not send her the link!

Estefania: I want the link!

Me: I’m telling Kyle!

Kyle: This is a group text. Unfortunately.

Damian: He’s frowning at his desk. I’m watching him frown. He’s jealous of Estefania seeing the big pilot dicks.

Estefania: Kyle’s dick is the biggest.

Damian: Dammit, female! Now I need to see it. Kyle, as your boss, I demand to compare your peen to the pilot porn peens.

Kyle: I’m muting this conversation now.

Me: Me too.

Damian: You can’t mute me though. I’m on my way to your desk!

“You’re smiling.”

I jolt from my texting to find David is no longer in my doorway and it’s Daddy instead. He looks relaxed and happy. Mona is good for him.

“Damian,” I tell him as though it explains it all.

He laughs because over the past couple of weeks, he’s gotten to know the flamboyant reality TV star. “Oh, Damian. What now?”

“You do not want to know. Trust me. What’s up?”

“Let’s go to lunch, baby girl.”

Without hesitation, I shove my phone in my purse and then walk over to my dad. We chatter about nonsense all the way out of the building. Rather than going to one of our cars, we walk to our favorite pizza place. Once we’ve ordered and are sipping on our beers, Daddy smiles at me.

“What?” I ask.

“Just observing you.”

“Not creepy at all.”

He laughs. “You’re a brat.”

I stick my tongue out at him.

“You’re not happy,” he says, his smile falling. “And it kills me.”

I frown. “Of course I’m happy.”

“With me and our company, yes. With your new friends, yes. But…”

Camilo.

My throat aches and I swallow, fighting tears. “But nothing. I’m happy.”

“Do you love David?”

His question throws me off. “W-What? No.”

“Good,” he says with a chuckle.

“He’s your best friend.”

“He’s also a manwhore. And old like me. Not good enough for my baby girl.”

“Daddy…”

“I told him that too,” he tells me, smirking. “When I saw him flirting with a waitress not hours after he asked for my blessing to date you, I walked right over to him and punched him.”

My eyes bug out of my head trying to imagine this. “He told me you punched him, though his story varies some. I still can’t believe it.”

“Believe it and my story is the correct one.”

“You punched him because he said he was going to date me and you gave him your blessing, but then he flirted with another woman?”

Daddy scoffs. “I didn’t give my blessing. I told him no.”

“Daddy…”

“I’ve been friends with the man forever. I’d be stupid to not know how much you idolized him. But, as your father, I wasn’t about to let him ruin everything by dating you. You deserve more.”

“Maybe I deserve him,” I argue. “We’ve known each other forever. There’s history there.”

“You need Camilo.”

His words are a punch to my stomach. “I was with him for less than two weeks. I don’t need him. We were a fling.” The lie is sour on my tongue.

Daddy sees through it. Fatherly senses and all.

“Did you know I fell in love with your mother in three days?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I did. I was in town for work, stopped into a bookstore to grab a coffee and a few moments of peace, and saw the most beautiful girl in the world.”

“Mom worked in a bookstore?”

“Focus, child,” Daddy teases. “There she was with her messy hair and her wide smile looking so pretty I couldn’t look away. I walked right over to her and asked her out.”

“And she said yes?”

“She told me she had to work and she couldn’t just leave.”

“You tried to make her leave?”

“It was destiny and I wasn’t about to wait for it.”

“So what happened?”

“I had to wait six long hours for it. Sat in the bookstore drinking coffee after coffee, unable to look away from her. When her shift ended, she finally gave in. I took her to dinner and…” He grins and shakes his head.

“The details of the rest of the night are ours, but just know I fell madly in love with her. I couldn’t get enough of her.

Within months, she was pregnant. Before you entered the world, I made her a Reid. I made her mine.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“I want that one day.”

“You’ll have it.”

“With someone like David?”

“With Camilo.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so.”

“A dad knows these things.”

Forcing a smile, I shrug. “We’ll see. So how is the Wexler account coming along?”

Daddy reaches across the table and takes my hands. “It’s time, baby girl.”

“Time for what?”

“To cut the strings.”

“Cut what strings?”

“The ones that have you tethered to me. You’re wasting away here, unhappy, when you could be out there.

I’m cutting you loose and I want you to fly out of here.

Don’t just see what’s out there in our big, bad world, but find what you truly love.

Harness it and keep it. It’s time to free yourself from your dad’s side and live your own life. ”

“You’re trying to get rid of me?” I challenge, my chin wobbling.

“Yeah, baby. For your own good. You won’t leave, so this is me pushing you from the nest.”

“You’re firing me?”

“No, I’m freeing you.”

“I’m scared,” I admit.

“Are you, though?”

Hope and excitement are already tugging at me. The tiny seed he’s planted is already taking root and growing.

“I’m a Reid girl. We don’t get scared.”

“Damn right.”

“What if I fail?”

“You won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I raised you to fight for what you want in this life. You haven’t let me down yet.”

“I’ll visit a ridiculous amount of times and bug you endlessly,” I threaten, swiping away my tears. “Pull you out of meetings to go eat pizza with me.”

“David can handle it.”

“It’ll be worse,” I tell him. “Way worse because I’ll miss you. I’ll be the neediest kid ever. Just wait and see.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Where will I go?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He smiles at me. “If you need a little nudge in the right direction, follow the birds.”

“The birds?”

“When the world is too cold, the birds fly south.”

South.

I could use a little warmth in my world.

“I love you, Daddy.”

“Love you too, baby girl.”