April’s big eyes grew impossibly bigger, and Jenna gave me a smartass smirk.

“Oh, I know…I’ll make sure to get two bouquets, and now I know exactly who to throw them to. Won’t that make your men freak out?”

“Speaking of freaking out…have you told Adam you want to keep your maiden name yet?” Kat asked, nibbling on a piece of smoked salmon on toast.

Before I could answer, Alex piped up. “You’re going to keep your maiden name? You can’t do that. Unless you want to add his name, too. That’s okay. But you want to have the same last name as your kids, right?”

I let go of a shaky breath, with no desire to go there, especially with Alex. I wasn’t going to base such a decision such an uncertainty. “I’ve lived my entire life with this last name. I’ve accomplished some wonderful things with this last name. It’s the last name on my college degree. Why would I get rid of it? Besides, I’ve always envisioned myself as one day being called Dr. Strong, you know? Dr. Drake sounds weird. We won’t even discuss Strong-Drake with a hyphen… That one is off the table.”

Jenna laughed. “Yeah, that one sounds a bit ridiculous.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Drake’s gonna be your last name, too, someday, so don’t diss it.”

She blushed furiously. “Back to you and your wedding…”

“You know what a lot of women in business do?” April offered, her fork poised in the air like a lecture pointer. “They take both names legally and use their maiden name for business and their married name socially. So you could be Dr. Strong at work and Mrs. Drake when accepting invitations to social galas and the like.”

Because we knew I’d be attending so many of those in between lectures, labs, and exams. But it was a good idea. “That’s a perfect solution. I will be bringing that up with Mr. Type A himself tonight.”

April smiled wide at me, clearly happy to have been useful.

We finally got down to business and talked about the shower. Since we weren’t going to have a massive local affair for the wedding, the shower would stand in for a nice luncheon with great food and live entertainment at a beachside restaurant. The girls all happily took to the planning of it. More power to them.

Finally, we made our way home. Or rather, a driver took us. Someone had made a good call and organized that, considering all the breakfast cocktails.

A fun time was had by all. Now to stop procrastinating and get to the bottom of this Jordan and Adam business.

 

 

Chapter 9

Adam

“Jordan would like to meet with you sometime today,” my assistant, Maggie, stated during our usual late morning check-in.

I rubbed my head, fearing the beginning of a migraine. I felt like shit, and I knew that lack of sleep was catching up with me. But after my morning workout, that general crappy feeling was joined by a sharp pain in my shoulder. Great. I must have pulled a muscle or agitated an old injury.

And it was Monday. And I had the week from hell laid out in front of me—including yet another board meeting. My lawyer had not delivered good news where that was concerned, but I was not giving up, pursuing multiple opinions.

I planned on bringing him to my next meeting regardless. It was time to ready for battle. I’d even made a note to pull out my favorite book and reread it. The Art of War may not have served me well when applied to personal relationships, but it was absolutely applicable to business.

And since I expected an ultimatum soon, it was time. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

“I don’t have time.” I sighed.

“He’s getting testy. He complained that you canceled on him twice already.”

“Please inform him that the position of CEO of this company is rather time-consuming,” I snarled.

She shook her head. “How about you send him an email?”

“And what do I pay you for?” I asked with a lopsided smile.

She sighed heavily, punctuated with her own smile. “Fine. I’ll send him the email. But he listens better when it comes from you.”

Maggie and Jordan didn’t see eye to eye very often, so I assumed it would be no sweat to her to put him off. If he was getting bitchy about it…not my problem.

“Make sure and mention that I’m doing a review of IT performance again today. That should keep him away.”

“Can I at least mollify him with a slot tomorrow or anytime later this week?”

Only if you warn me so I can cancel it beforehand. I almost said it. Instead, I nodded to placate her—which I cared more about doing than appeasing Jordan.

“Friday afternoon,” I stated. “Late afternoon.” That should send him the message. I had no fucks to give him.

This issue, along with the ongoing drama in IT with my slacker director, was enough to be migraine-inducing. But, of course, the onslaught of wedding plans continued. Work was turning into drudgery. I generally loved my job—a lot—but nowadays, everything was starting to feel empty and pointless.

This sucked. And every day sucked harder.

Maggie was watching me with narrowed eyes. “Are you feeling okay? You don’t look so good.”

My breath escaped with a hiss. “I’m fine. We’re done here, right?” I reached over and opened my laptop.

“Yeah, we’re done. Apparently, I have some emails to write.” She got up to go then turned back toward me before leaving the office. “Drink some water, Adam, and maybe catch a nap? You don’t want to get sick…”

I waved her off, already engrossed in my laptop.

Later that day, I found myself in play testing, remembering that I hadn’t gotten to the bottom of that surprise quest. Emilia had asked me about it again last night. The devs were on a deadline, and I usually stayed away from their neck of the woods during that time. They got punchy when they saw me lurking around and found it hard to concentrate on their work.

But the play testers knew about every quest in the game, thus, I could easily get to the bottom of this mystery here.

Except that when I walked into their section—nicknamed the Den—it was half empty.

“What—” I scanned the room, noting the half-dozen empty stations that were normally filled with heavily caffeinated game testers.

A tall, skinny kid—Lucas, my lead play tester—jumped out of his seat and trotted up with a smile. “Hey, Adam. What brings you to our cavernous wasteland?”