Page 183 of Untouchable

They stared at each other for a full minute. Then Caleb got back into the car.

It immediately pulled out and drove away.

When she got back into her own car, Kelly sat behind the steering wheel for a few minutes before leaving.

She’d been planning to say goodbye to her parents this afternoon.

She hadn’t been planning to say goodbye to Caleb.

And it felt like that had just happened.

39

Caleb stared at his inbox,filled with new emails flagged by his assistant for immediate attention, and couldn’t summon the energy to even begin reading them.

If possible, he hated email more now than he had before, and not even his work ethic could force him into beginning this morning.

For the past two weeks, ever since Kelly had come to see him in his office and asked him to make a different choice, everything in his life had a pall that nothing would remove.

Working in his office, going to meetings, driving his car, eating dinner, walking Ralph in the park—none of it was satisfying anymore. All of it had a gaping hole that simply wouldn’t be filled.

Kelly had done this to him.

He had done it to himself.

Both were equally true.

He turned his head when there was a tap on the door, and his assistant, Linda, stepped into his office.

“Hey,” he said, trying to sound friendly although he didn’t feel that way. “Is it still just eight thirty on Monday?”

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’m afraid so. You’ll want to look at the message from George Farmer right away.” She nodded toward his computer monitor, where she could obviously see he’d not made any headway on the email.

“Thanks.”

He took the pages she walked over to hand him and glanced at them briefly before he signed each one.

He stared down at his signature on the last page for a long time, for no particular reason.

“I think it gets better,” Linda murmured when he made no move to hand the papers back.

Startled out of his reverie, he straightened up. “What does?”

She looked suddenly self-conscious and dropped her head. “I’m sorry, sir. It’s none of my business.”

He waved away her apology. “It’s fine. What were you talking about?” He knew, but he wanted to hear what she would say.

She looked like she wished she’d never brought the topic up, but she replied, “A breakup like you had. I think it does eventually get better. Not that I’d know.”

She was single and evidently had been all her life. Her world seemed to revolve primarily around working for him. Until the past couple of months, his schedule had been so rigorous she wouldn’t have had much time in her life for anything else even if she’d wanted it.

“Yeah,” he breathed out, hoping it was true but not really believing it.

His life wasn’t any different than it had been before he’d met Kelly. His schedule was back to normal, and work had become his top priority once again. He hadn’t fucked anyone since her, although he’d tried. He’d had a call girl visit him last week, but for some reason it had felt wrong and empty, so he’d sent her away before she’d even stroked his cock. Then last night he’d come on to a woman in a bar—hoping to feel more like hisold self again. She was beautiful and more than willing, but he couldn’t summon any interest at all, so he’d left without picking her up.

Otherwise though, his life was basically what it had been before Kelly. It just didn’t give him any satisfaction anymore.

That would change eventually though. Surely it would change.