Page 75 of The Business of Love Box Set 1: Books 1 - 4

RICK

C hessie passed me a miniature-sized hot-pink denim jacket to put on the doll resting across my knees.

We’d been playing with her collection of dolls for half an hour after our usual Sunday breakfast ritual.

Cartoons were playing in the background as I sipped my third cup of coffee for the day and struggled to get a pair of tiny plastic arms into the sleeves of the tiny denim jacket.

Once I’d succeeded, I held it up and placed the doll’s feet on my hands like she was standing.

“What’s the verdict, kiddo?”

Chessie looked up from her work. She sat cross-legged on the living-room carpet.

Her doll was a Chinese princess and she wasn’t having the easiest time getting the small, lavish, ruby-red dress on.

She gave up, put the doll down, and nodded at mine.

“I like it. She’s ready for her first day of school. ”

“And where is your doll going?” I asked.

“She’s going to become a queen,” Chessie said proudly, like she’d raised the doll herself to be such a wondrous success.

I could relate to such a feeling of pride, and my daughter was only seven.

“I can tell she’ll make a great queen,” I said. “Look at that posture.”

Chessie beamed at me. “Okay. Now you have to pack her bag for school and I have to make sure my princess gets counsel before she ascends.”

I blinked. “Counsel? Ascends?”

“Yes. It’s when a prince or princess steps up to become the—”

“I know what it means,” I muttered defensively. “I just didn’t realize my seven-year-old daughter did. What movies have you been watching?”

My joke went over Chessie’s head as she immersed herself in our imaginary game.

I let her play and pretended to pack a mini backpack that didn’t exist. I made a mental note to try to find a doll-sized bag somewhere to surprise her with.

Maybe some miniature books and what not as well to complete the look.

I was about to tell Chessie what I’d packed my doll for lunch—a ham and cheese sandwich, mini carrots, and a chocolate-chip cookie—when there was a knock on the front door.

I sat up and propped my doll against the sofa cushions so she was sitting up watching Chessie play.

“You watch her,” I told the doll. “Make sure she behaves.”

Chessie’s giggle followed me as I went to the front door. I was grinning like a fool when I pulled it open.

Standing on my threshold was Kim. She was wearing leggings, a white T-shirt, and a brown suede jacket with a wide collar. Her arms were crossed over her chest and there was a taxi sitting in the drive as if it was waiting for her.

I leaned one shoulder against the doorframe and nodded past her at the cab. “Don’t plan on staying long?”

Kim shook her head.

“You should,” I said. “Chessie and I are playing dolls and I bet you’d be much better at it than me. I’m a sailor lost at sea out there.”

“Rick? Can you come outside with me? We need to talk. Privately.”

The air rushed out of my lungs.

Needing to talk privately had never been a good thing in my experience. I always walked away from these kind of conversations disappointed. Or broken hearted.

“Is something wrong?” I asked as I stepped out and pulled the door closed behind me.

Kim wouldn’t meet my eyes. She looked everywhere but at me. “Have you been online at all this morning?”

“No. Chessie and I have been spending the morning together. I haven’t bothered to—”

“You should.”

Frowning, I fished my phone out of my back pocket. I had a couple of missed messages. Two were from Shawn asking if I was okay, which was strange. Another was from Verity. And all it said was:

Hahahahaha.

I glanced up at Kim. “What’s all this about?”

“The media has my name and face plastered on every cover of every magazine, Rick. They’re singlehandedly destroying my reputation in a matter of hours. I’ve already lost a client.”

“ What? ”

Kim raked her fingers through her hair. “Yes. For a wedding for next fall. She messaged me and said she doesn’t want to risk me ‘catching feelings for her man and sabotaging her wedding.’”

“She sounds like a dimwit.”

“She sounds like the majority of the type of clientele I work with. I’m not in the industry to plan your average Joe Blow wedding, Rick.

I’ve spent years building a client base with wealth and reputation.

I devised my own business model to ensure I climbed the ranks and could compete with the most elite wedding coordinators out there, and now?

Now it’s all slipping through my fingers because a bunch of strangers think they know what happened between us. ”

I opened my internet browser and immediately started searching for magazines. Tons of covers caught my eye, all of which had terrible pictures of me and Kim slapped on them, shielding our eyes against the sun as we got off the yacht yesterday morning and tried to get to the car.

I let out a low growl of frustration. “These dicks never know what they’re talking about.

They just latch on to whatever they think will incite the most drama and they run with it.

” I put my phone back in my pocket and took Kim by her shoulders.

“This will pass. Things like this? People have short attention spans. Someone else will break up or start dating or get pregnant and they’ll abandon us in favor of whatever is trendy that day. We just have to wait for this to pass.”

“But will my business survive?” Kim asked.

It was then that I noticed her eyes were glassy and her nose was pink.

My gut rolled over. “Have you been crying?”

“Of course, I’ve been crying!” Kim threw her hands in the air, clutched her head, and massaged her temples.

“I don’t know how to handle this, Rick. I’ve never been exposed to something like this and I had no idea how quickly it could blow up.

I refuse to be one of those women who throws away everything she worked for so she can have a relationship.

I’ve sacrificed so much and given so much time to this career.

I’ve made myself crazy over it. And now I feel like I have to choose. ”

“Between me and work?”

She swallowed again. “Yes.”

“Kim,” I breathed. “Please. Let’s talk about this.”

“What is there to talk about?” Her voice strained around her words and her bottom lip trembled. She took a deep breath and got herself under control. “I should have thought about all of these factors before I got in too deep with you. This isn’t the life I want, Rick.”

Shit.

She searched my eyes. “I should have considered that in the beginning. I made a mistake. I’m sorry I pulled you into it.”

“It didn’t feel like a mistake,” I said.

“Not at the time.”

“I don’t want this to be over,” I said, feeling more vulnerable than I had in a long time. “I shouldn’t have taken you on the yacht. I should have known they’d catch up with us. We can lay low. We can—”

“I can’t, Rick. I have to focus on my career. Clients won’t hire me if they can’t trust me. And I know you aren’t the kind of man who would ask me to choose between you and my job, but if I have to choose, then…”

I understood why she would choose her work.

This thing between us was fresh and it was what was causing so much upheaval in her life, where her career was the opposite.

It provided stability and purpose and fulfillment.

It was the embodiment of her work ethic.

Everything Kim had in her career was hard won by her and her alone.

No, I would never ask her to choose me over that.

“I understand.” Those were the hardest words I could ever recall saying.

She looked down at her feet. “Thank you. I knew you would.”

But I don’t want to.

She sighed and her shoulders slumped forward a little. “I have to go. The driver refused to stop the meter.”

“Okay.”

She stepped in close and wrapped her arms around my waist. Her cheek rested against my chest and I gave her a tight squeeze. “It was amazing while it lasted,” she whispered. “The timing just wasn’t in our favor.”

I couldn’t think of a single thing to say back to her that wouldn’t sound petty or self-serving. So I kept my mouth shut and held on to her until she stepped out of my arms, wiped away some tears, and offered me a tight-lipped smile that didn’t brighten her eyes.

“I’ll see you around, Rick,” she whispered.

“See you around.”

And with that, she turned and walked back to the cab. Kim didn’t stop to look back before she got in the back seat. She slid in and closed the door, and I stood there watching as the yellow car reversed out of my driveway and took the woman I loved out of sight around the corner.

“Shit,” I breathed.

Just like that, it was over.

And it was because of outside sources that were completely out of our control. How was I supposed to get closure with a breakup like this where neither one of us wanted to break things off but one party felt forced to?

I wouldn’t. Simple as that. I would always wonder what could have been with Kim.

Would she wonder the same thing about me? Or would she immerse herself so fully in her work that she was able to drown out the sorrow of a love story never written?