Running From Fate (18 page)

“Night Pat, I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Mira gently hung up the phone and cleared her dishes.
As she switc
hed off the music and made her
way upstairs,
she prayed that Pat was right about James
and Kim.  She wasn’t quite ready for motherhood, but she wanted a chance to see if James would return even a portion of her burgeoning feelings.

Mira had been working at
EcoSpace
for almost two weeks now and she
was finding the work
immensely
satisfying.
It was great doing something that she loved and knowing that she was giving s
omething back at the same time. 
If it wasn’t for James, things would have been close to perfect.

It wasn’t anything that he was doing tha
t was the
problem
. 
It
was what
he wasn’t doing.
He rarely eve
r talked to her and when he did
he seemed abrupt and
vaguely
unfriendly, as if
he couldn’t get away from her fas
t enough
. 
Despite his attitude
she found herself waiting anxiously to see
him again.  H
e was like a drug. 
The longer she was around him, the m
ore intense the longing became. 
Something had to be done soon to change the situation or she would go crazy.

She had asked to meet with him on several occasions, not just for her
own personal reasons, but
for the sake of the project she was working on, but he always seemed to be busy.

To a certain extent she could understand his intense focus because her father had been the same way about work, but
it didn’t mean she condoned that kind of behavior
.  Besides, he still managed
to make time for his current girlfriend Kimberly,
‘
call me Kim,
’
Roberts
.
She called all the time, came by the office and interrupted work on a regular basis, but he never complained.

Mira’s hand clenched tighter, mirroring her thoughts, and her pencil slipped,
ruining the angle of her line. 
She swore in frustration and ba
lled up the half finished work. 
If
that man
could make time for that stuck up bitch, he could find the time to see her.
How he expected her to produce a quality product when she wasn’t even sure what th
e client wanted was beyond her.  Over a week ago he had told her through Barry that she needed to change something about her
design, but he had never fully clarified. 
She had been trying to
get in to
see him
since then
, but he had never had the time
. 
He
would make
it
now.
 
Bristling with indignation, Mira threw down her pencil and stalked out of
the room
.
             

With anger dogging her steps, she marched down the hall, past the startled faces of her co-workers, and shoved open the door to Mary’s office.
It hit the wall with a
satisfying thud
and Mary looked up, startled.

“Mira,” she
said questioningly. 
“
Is
there something I can help you with?”

“There certainly is,” Mira
replied
as she walked into the room.
 
“I’m here to see Mr. Kelly.
Is he in?”

“He is, b
ut I think he’s busy right now. 
Would you like to make an appointment?”

“No, I would not like to make an appointment.
He’s been ‘busy’ for
weeks
. 
He
can see me right now.”
She reined in her anger and tried for some courtesy.
“Could you hold his calls please Mary?”

Without waiting for an answer, Mira stalked past Mary’s desk and entered
what she had begun to call the inner sanctum. 
As the door shut behind her, she thought she heard Mary say “Good luck.”

She looked like an
enraged fairy, James thought, as he hung up the phone and watched Mira barrel into the room.
Her
thick
, mink brown
hair stuck up in all directions
as if she had
just
shoved her fingers through it, her petite body seemed to quiver, and her green eyes
were
sho
o
t
ing
fire at
him. 
He should have been angered by her abrupt entrance but, instead, he felt amusement and, although he didn’t like to admit it, even to himself, a strange sense of relief as if some tight knot inside him had loosened.

“Hello Mira,” he said.
 
“
What
can I do for you?”

The amuseme
nt evident in his voice yanked Mira from the temporary daze that had hit her upon seeing him again and
her
pent up
anger
boiled to the surface. 
She marched
toward him
, slammed her hands on
his desk, and leaned forward.
Her mind wanted to be distracted by the beauty of his eyes, the thickness of his lashes, and the dimple that peeked out from one check, but she ruthlessly smothered
the impulse
.
 

“How can you expect me to get any work done
in these kind of conditions!?”
s
he bellowed into his face.

He quirked an eyebrow and tried to contain his laughter.
“I wasn’
t aware that you were having any problems.
If there was an issue you could have brought it to me.”

A
low
growl trickled out of her lips before she could stop it.
Mira took a deep breath and
tried to reign in her emotions. 
“Ah, yes,
” she purred.
“T
h
at’s exactly what I should have
done
,
made an appointment to see you.”  I
f sarcasm had managed to creep into
her voice she couldn’t help it.
She tapped her index finger on her chin
. 
“
Wait
a second I did try that. 
I’ve been attempting to see you for over a week, but you’re always too busy.”
Her voice was edging toward anger again so she took another breath and tried for a more moderate tone.
“Look, you gave this project to me without a whole lot of guidelines.
Then, when I had questions, you refused to meet with me.
How can I work without all the information?”

“You could have left a message for me
,” he said reasonably.
“O
r you could have talked to Barry Sims
. 
He is the project manager.”
  He was getting quite a kick out of pricking Mira’s temper, but it
was time to stop.  It
was a little juvenile
and considering what he knew of her temperament he didn’t want to piss her off too much. 
“I apologize.”

“That’s a little better,”
Mira’s
grouched, somewhat placated
, but she wasn’t going to completely let him off the hook
. 
His
behavior had still been reprehensible.

“Besides,” he ad
ded
. 
“
That
project is
no longer your responsibility. 
I have something else for you to do.”

Utter
ly deflated, she sank backward. 
If there hadn’t been a chair behind her, she might have landed on the floor.
As it was, she ended up almost reclining in the plush leather seat.

“If you’re
calm now?”  He raised an imperious ey
ebrow and watched the emotions flit across her face.  When her expression
finally moved from anger to a weary kind of acceptance he felt it was safe to continue.  “T
here is something
—
another project
—
I want to discuss with you.
I just got off the phone with
a man named
Samuel Williams.
His name is not well known in this country, but he’s quite an influential man overseas.”

When he paused Mira nodded for him to
proceed
.  Her previous anger
was quickly becoming eclipsed by curiosity
.

“
At this time
,” James continued.  “He
is
the
liaison for
a multi-million dollar development
business
that op
erates out of London. 
The company
i
s interested in building an environmentally
friendly
conference center and hotel in
our
area and
they are
considering EcoSpace for the job.”

Mira s
at up a straighter in her chair. 
“What does this have to do with me?”
she asked cautiously.

“Despite all the negative publicity
surrounding your previous employment
, Mr. Williams
’ client
is a big fan of your work.
He was very impressed by
your contributions to
the Raintree Resort outside of San
Francisco
.
The only t
hing is
he wants to meet
both of
us in person first.
That will mean a trip to London.
Are you interested?”