A Second Chance

Chapter 9

He was in trouble. His mind was going to places it shouldn’t. Yes he was seeing Miranda, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Ally. Yes some of it was pure lust. His attraction to her hadn’t faded. What was going to be harder to suppress were the memories of how happy he had been when they were together. “I understand.” He finally found his words. “My only stipulation is that Kiana can’t know about our previous relationship. You will be living in the guest house. It would be unrealistic to think you won’t meet...and I just got a text that she is pretty sure she heard a parrot in the guest house?”

“You know Benny,” she responded “and of course I would not drag your daughter into our drama.”

“She will be obsessed with Benny,” he replied. “Thank you for respecting our boundaries.”

An awkward silence rolled into the room. He could see her trying to bring her laptop out of sleep mode. “So Coriene gave me some of the basics of the project, but can you bring me up to speed?” She had flipped into business mode.

“We have a workforce communication platform that has been left in the dust by our major competitors…especially during the pandemic,” I started to explain. “We are hoping to revamp and relauch our product by giving end users functionality they don’t have with our competitors currently to make collaboration. I’ve asked each of the team members to put together a proposal to share.”

She typed some notes into the her computer. “I’ll need information on each team member and a one on one scheduled with each of them. Then we will meet as a whole team.”

“Of course. We will get that sent your way,” I replied. “We have set you up with an office on our floor. You will have access to our administrative assistant. Our working day is 7:30-4:30. If there is anything you need, please let me know.”

She smiled again and asked to be taken to her office. The silence was painful. She just kept looking ahead only breaking her forward stare to occasionally glance at her phone. She made no attempt at small talk. He knew he deserved this.

Ten years ago he just walked away. He thought he had found his future, but one bark from his mother, he abandoned it all. He didn’t give her an explanation or even a proper good bye. All the times he picked up his phone to call her, he chickened out. He left her behind with no answers and a broken heart.

He was haunted by the look in her eyes. Everything was perfect, and then it wasn’t. His mother treated her like some peasant unworthy of her son. Even as she stood there offering to give up her life in Minneapolis to come to Chicago and be part of the solution, my mother was heartless. She couldn’t believe I was truly in love with Ally. All that being said, I was still the worst person in the room. I stood there and did nothing to stop Mom. I did nothing to defend and protect Ally.

As I dropped her at her office door, she shook my hand and then disappeared behind the door. This was going to be a long few months.