Page 37 of Irresistible

Chapter 17

Richard rose from the bed and got some of his things in order. The room got somewhat disorganized from the fray the night before. He was devastated, although not surprised. It inevitable that Carly would surface again, but he should have predicted that she would come back at the exact wrong time. She had a way of ruining opportunities for him, although none before were as big as this.

He picked his phone up and quickly swiped the nude picture away. One touch of the delete button carried it away into the abyss for good.

“Good riddance,” he whispered to himself.

It felt as though a present had been wrenched away from him on Christmas morning. He hung his head as he pondered how to proceed. Calling Dr. Kim seemed like a natural next step. She was probably wondering how he was doing. The phone rang as Richard second-guessed his decision. He had no idea how he was going to explain this to her.

“Richard, it’s been a few days. That’s not like you. Is everything okay?” Dr. Kim asked expectantly.

“Um, yeah, I guess.”

“I can hear hesitation in your voice. Something’s wrong. What happened?”

“Remember that employee I was telling you about, the one I found myself instantly attracted to?”

“Of course, I think it was the last thing we talked about before you dropped off the face of the Earth.”

“Well, she turned out to be a really incredible person. We hit it off, hung out on a few separate occasions, and we wound up sleeping together last night,” Richard explained.

The line remained silent for a moment. He wondered if the line got disconnected.

“That sounds great, Richard. Why would that be a bad thing?”

“I think things may have gotten messed up. She took at look at my phone this morning and saw something on there that sent her running for the hills.”

“Let me guess. Carly?” Dr. Kim expertly guessed. It was not the first time that Richard frantically called her after receiving unsolicited nudes from his famous ex-girlfriend.

“Naturally. Scarlet thinks that we’re still dating, or at the very least that I still have feelings for her. I don’t know what to do.”

“I think you have to let her make up her own mind. Knowing you, I’m sure you explained the situation. If it’s not good enough for her, you’re not going to change her mind. You can’t force these things. I think you need to take a beat and let this play out.”

Richard paused. He knew she was right. Even if there was anything he could do about it, it would likely just be a greater turn-off for Scarlet. The ball was in her court now.

“Thanks, Dr. Kim. You’re absolutely right. I’ll let things sit and keep you up to speed on how they go.”

The two said goodbye and hung up. Richard was sure that Dr. Kim had better things to do on a Saturday morning than address the romantic concerns of a rich CEO. In fact, he was certain that pretty much everyone had something better to do than that.

He sat down on the bed and started whispering to himself. Richard always did his best thinking when he could talk to himself, but he had to find a way to keep people from thinking he was going crazy. Luckily, there was no one else around. He couldn’t even hear anyone walking down the hallway. Ordinarily, he would have Cody to confirm that the coast was clear, but now he found himself without an assistant. It was an unfamiliar position for him.

“I can’t believe I let her get away,” he whispered to himself.

There was a knock on the door, Richard quickly leapt up and ran to the door to see who was there.

“Housekeeping!”

“I’m all set for right now! Thanks!” Richard said, realizing that he forgot to put a “Do Not Disturb” placard on the door the night before.

Once he heard the housekeeper’s cart roll far enough down the hallway to be out of earshot, he continued chastising himself.

“This probably wasn’t meant to be anyway. If Carly can screw things up, it probably wasn’t that strong of a relationship. I should have never tried it. What was I thinking, hooking up with one of my employees? The board could have my head on a pike this time Monday morning. You go and do that after everything you worked for, after everything that Mom worked for? You’re an absolute idiot!”

He paced the room, hissing various insults and curse words in his own direction.

“Listen to me. You are all about work from now on, you understand? You didn’t sacrifice and struggle all this time just to succumb to a romantic pitfall. This is why you don’t mix work and pleasure!”

Almost an hour passed before Richard stopped berating himself. He knew that if he were going to stay true to his new resolution, he actually had to get back to his normal work routine. While he often slept in on Saturdays, he was well past his normal start time for weekend work. It was almost one o’clock in the afternoon. He took a shower, put on some khakis and a button down shirt, and sat down at the desk on the far side of his room. Wrenching the lid of his laptop open, he could see that he had numerous pressing emails, a familiar sight. He addressed all of them as he usually would.