Mine to Steal (Mine to Love) (2 page)

It’s been six months
, I remind myself before walking to the large window behind my desk to stare at the street below. I wasn’t in love with Em, but I don’t like to lose. When you want someone the way I wanted her, it’s hard to let it go. I’ve gone out on a few dates, but none of them have been memorable and all of them remind me how easy my time with Em was. But it was only easy because I never had to commit; maybe that was the true appeal of Emogen Kane.

I’ll say one
thing; all this stuff going on with her has been good for work. Business is the foremost concern for me and with my level of focus; our client load has increased to the point where I’m going to need more help to manage it. If I’m not at the office nailing down a new client, I’m at home working on campaigns and contracts or clearing my head with my daily run.

I look over my shoulder when I hear the speaker click on from my desk, interrupting my thoughts. 

“Emogen’s here to see you, Trey.” Hattie’s voice strains over the speaker, concern laces her tone. Once again, my head swirls in confusion. I can tell she’s nervous about my reaction, considering only a few moments ago, I ignored Em’s attempt to contact me.

What the hell is she doing?

I check out my watch, distracted from my thoughts, but before I can respond, Em blazes through the door as if she owns the place. I have only a moment to gather my wits, but she gives me the look that says she already knows what I’m thinking.

“What a
re you doing here?” I ask, because it’s the only thing that springs to mind since I’m surprised by her interruption.

Her hands are fisted on her hips
, and she appears mildly pissed off, but damn cute.
Get that thought out of your head
, I remind myself.

“Is that all you have to say to me? You’ve cancelled our last three lunch dates. Care to explain?”

I exhale an exaggerated breath in annoyance and walk back to my chair to take a seat. “Well, hello to you, too.”

She cocks her head to the side and gives me a sarcastic smile, “Hello, Trey. Now what’s going on? Are you avoiding me?”

“Emogen, I’ve been really busy-” I start, but she interrupts.

“So I’m Emogen now? What the hell, Trey? We’re supposed to be friends,” she argues.

“Look,
Em
,” I say her nickname, hoping to appease her, but her body language says it’s not working. “I’ve been really busy lately, and I don’t have time for any dates, lunch or otherwise.”

“Bullshit
.” She crosses her arms and glares at me.

“Excuse me?” I ask, stunned by her outburst. She isn’t
normally one to push back so harshly, but then again, how well do I really know her?

“You heard me, I said
bullshit
. You’re avoiding me, and I’d like to know why.”

This is
it; this is my chance to send her away. For good.

“You’d like to know why?” I repeat to buy myself more time. I take a deep breath in an attempt to quell my growing frustration.

“I think you owe me that,” she demands, which only increases my annoyance.

“I
owe
you?” I repeat, for clarification, shocked at her nerve.

“Are you going to repeat everything I say? Yes, you owe me
,” she responds simply, walking to take a seat across from my desk to make herself comfortable. She crosses her legs and fixes a knowing glare on me as she waits.

“You asked for it,” I offer in warning, because I have no plans to hold back
, at least not if I want to make my point. When she offers no interruption, I continue, “Well, where do I start? Let’s see, I fell for a girl who was, and is still, unavailable. I waited around to see if something would happen. She can say whatever she wants, but I know she felt something, too. Hell, I flew out to Utah to be her date for her sister’s wedding and left.
Alone
.” I walk toward her on the other side of my desk and sit on top of it, crossing my arms and look her square in the eye before I finish.

“But
-”

I throw my hand up to stop her interruption.

“Does that sum it up enough as to why I’m avoiding you? If not, how ’bout if I put it this way, I’m trying to move on, and if you’re around, I can’t do that.”

I know she’s hurt by my words, and as much as I’d like to take them back, I can’t. She raises her hand to move a strand of hair behind her ear
, and I see the engagement ring is back on her finger. “Congratulations,” I say, when I stand up to walk back to my seat.

“What are you talking about?”

“You and Ryan. I see you’re engaged again.” It’s not a question I’m looking for her to confirm, it’s an observation that reinforces why I’m doing what I’m doing.

She gives me a weak smile, and I know she’s really happy, “I’m
sor -”

“Em,
I really don’t want to hear your apologies. You have nothing to apologize for. I may not like the way things worked out, but I know you’re happy and this pretending you’re doing is insulting. I’m glad things worked out for you, but I really do have a lot of work to do, and my brother is coming in to town this afternoon.”

“Oh, right,” she says with a weak tone. “I’ll let you get back to it, then.” She stands up and adjusts her purse over her shoulder before she starts to walk out of my office. She turns back to
look me and I close my eyes, ready for this whole exchange to be over with. “It’s just, well, I miss you. But I guess that’s selfish of me to expect you to want to be around me after everything.”

I run a frustrated hand through my hair and
glance up to the ceiling hoping to find answers or the words to make her understand. But there’s nothing. When my eyes fall on her again, she’s wringing her hands together nervously and appears embarrassed by her own words
.
I can tell from the uneasiness in her tone I’ve hurt her feelings and while a part of me wants to make some grand gesture, anything to make her look at me the way I see her, I can’t bring myself to do it. I’ve never begged a woman to be with me, and I’m not about to start now. Especially when she so clearly has other ideas. Regardless, this conversation has gone on long enough.

Clean break.

“Don’t you get it? Look, I know you have this idea we can be friends, but I think we both know it’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?” she asks in protest.

“You can’t be serious, Em,” I object, surprised by her stubbornness. “I
do
want to be around you, but not as your
friend
. So you have to leave me alone. Maybe someday we can be friends, but today is not that day, and I can’t promise you it
will
happen. Besides, Ryan would have to be stupid to think you and I being friends is a good idea.”

“Ryan trusts me
-,” she begins to argue, but I interrupt which causes her to narrow her eyes at me.

“
But he doesn’t trust me and he shouldn’t. Smart man.” She shakes her head, but I continue speaking. “Someone told me once that men and women can’t be friends, and I thought it was a stupid idea. But the thing is, it’s true. One is always interested in the other and if one is in a relationship, maintaining the friendship is trouble. So as much as I’d like to say it’s possible to be friends, I think we both know it’s not. You decided to get back with Ryan, and I respect your decision. And I respect you enough to know my presence in your life,
would
cause problems at some point. So I think it’s best if you stop contacting me.”

“You don’t mean
what you’re saying,” she responds as if I have knocked the wind out of her.
She can’t really be surprised by my reluctance.

“I do, Emogen. I really do wish you and Ryan all the best, but I can’t be a part of your life anymore.”

“If that's how you really feel -”

“It is.” I walk to my office door to open it for her and watch as she grips her purse a little tighter. I know I’ve shattered her idea of what friends are, and she may not see it now, but I
am
doing what is right by her. I know what I feel for her, and I know what she
doesn’t
feel for me, and it’s the reason why I have to let her go.

When she’s standing in front of me, she pauses for a moment before turning to me. I brace myself for whatever words may come from her, but she surprises me by throwing her arms around my neck and hugging herself to me. “For what it’s worth, I’m going to miss you,” she whispers.

My arms wrap around her waist, despite myself, and I allow the last chance for her to infiltrate my fantasies. In another moment, Em will be out of my life for good. I inhale her scent, and note she smells of her signature flowery perfume and shampoo.
They could bottle that shit and make a fortune.
Everything about her,
about us
, feels so right, but her heart belongs to someone else, and there’s nothing I can do to change it. “I’ll miss you too, Em.”

I hear a sniffle escape her
, and I do my best to ignore it. It takes everything in me to remove my arms from around her, to let her leave me again. But somewhere inside, I know it’s the right thing to do. When I finally release her, I kiss her forehead, my last act as her friend, someone who could have been in love with her. But not before giving her a warning.

“You need to walk away now before I kiss you.”

She looks up at me and gives me a lopsided smile, one that tells me she doesn’t quite buy my words. But when my expression doesn’t change, her smile fades at the truth behind them. She gives me a small nod and turns to the door.

“Thank you, Mr. Miller.”

And with those words, she crushes me. The door latches shut behind her and a loud sigh escapes as I walk back to my chair. I think she understood what I was trying to tell her, and maybe now, she’ll stay away. I wasn’t lying when I told her work is busy. Hell, the reason Jett is coming in to town is to help with the workload. My brother being in town will be a nice distraction, but my brother in my apartment is another story.

Through the door, I can hear Hattie’s muffled voice speaking to someone and I wonder, for a moment, if Em is still out there. As I get closer, I recognize the voice belongs to a man, and swing it open to find Jett, fresh off the plane and flirting with my assistant.

“What the hell are you doing here already?” I ask, stepping through the threshold to hug my little brother.

“Not good with greetings are you?” He says, slapping my shoulder. “Caught an earlier flight, so I had a cab bring me here.”

“Hattie,” I nod to my brother who is giving her his biggest smile. “This is Jett, my little brother.”

She smiles at him and
nods her head. “Yeah, we just met.”

I glance at my brother who gives me a shrug and walks past me and into my office. When I look at Hattie, her gaze follows behind Jett and I shake my head and stifle a laugh. He’s always done this. Women think he’s
attractive, and then he speaks.

“Hold my calls, please
,” I inform her before following after him.

I’m barely in the office before he spins on me, hungry for information. I’m going to have to lay the rules out for him, like no dating the staff. But before I can start in, he speaks up.

“I saw some chick leaving the office when I came in all cryin’ and shit. What was that about?”

She was crying?

I shrug my shoulders and give him my best,
‘I don’t know’
expression, but he knows me better than that. He walks to the chair Em was occupying moments before, sits down and puts his feet on my desk. “I’ve got time.”

I slap him on the back of the head like I did when we were kids as I walk around my desk
. “Feet.”

“Yes, sir,” he salutes, flipping me off. “So, what’s the deal
there? She was pretty cute, except for the red nose and leaky eyes.”

“
She’s no one” The words come out, but I’m not sure he’s buying it.

“Impressive, bro
.” He smiles, leaning forward. “Hooked up with some
strange,
and she wanted more?”

“She was never
‘strange
.’ Hell, I’m not even sure you could say we dated.”

He’s quiet for a moment while he mulls over the information I shared, but Jett is an ass and letting things go has never been his thing. Sometimes I swear he’s a girl with the way he latches on to anything that could be construed as gossip. “Did ya tap that?”

“No,” I answer curtly. “She’s a nice girl, but she went back to her ex and now she’s engaged.”

“So then you’re
flyin’ solo?”

“It would appear so,” I respond without
giving him any more information. I shuffle some papers on my desk and wait for his next words.

“Nice! We’re going out
.”

I glance at my watch and look at my brother as if he’s lost his mind.