It was probably just my imagination going into warp drive, but it sure felt like everyone's eyes were fixed on me as I trotted down the hall, anxious to reach my office where I could hide behind the closed door for the remainder of the day.

It was just after nine on Friday morning. We'd been back in New York since Tuesday night, and although everyone at Advantage Republic had heard by now that we'd lost the partnership with Integrity, Jesse and Erica had been kindhearted enough to not tell my coworkers about my seething string of insults during the meeting. I was positive that the way I'd spoken to Michael Roth had been the deciding factor in the deal being broken. Jesse had tried to make me feel better, telling me later that day that they probably would've declined Roth's offer in the end anyway, considering he wasn't willing to play fair or compromise. That did nothing to quell my shame, however. I was convinced I'd fucked up the entire thing for Advantage.

Erica and I hadn't spoken a whole lot since my outburst in Los Angeles, but she didn't seem to be disappointed with me. I assumed she was just upset about losing the deal, and rightly so. I knew she and Jesse were both fearful for the future of the company, as was I and everyone else. The one thing I couldn't understand was why on earth neither of them had fired me yet, and I kept wondering if I should just go ahead and offer my resignation. Even Haley had said she'd probably quit if she was in my position, simply out of embarrassment, if nothing else. But every time I thought about quitting, I was reminded of my financial responsibilities and how much of a toll my joblessness had already taken on Haley before I'd found Advantage. I couldn't do that to her again. It wasn't fair.

My office was dark and quiet. It was a stormy day with lightning dancing across the horizon and loud booms of thunder that seemed to shake the Chrysler Building with every rumble. A perfect setting for another day filled with guilt.

I left my lights off, allowing the gloomy weather to be the only light source aside from the glow of my computer screen. Jesse had asked me to send a few emails to clients regarding our predicament. Apparently, these few clients were his most prized and they had been counting on Jesse and Erica striking a wonderful deal – otherwise they'd told him they would take their business elsewhere. I knew he'd only asked me to inform them because he was expecting to be drowning in legal work with his attorneys all day, but in a way, it felt like a punishment to have to be the one to tell these people. Thankfully, I could save myself the embarrassment of explaining why no partnership was entered into. Jesse had instructed me to simply tell them we were unable to reach an agreement.

Trying to relieve some of my depression, I shuffled my favorite playlist on iTunes and listened to happy, upbeat music while I typed. The music was contradictory to the weather, though, and I soon found myself switching over to sad songs that tugged at my emotions.

It was getting pretty hard to concentrate and I was thinking of taking the rest of the day off to go crawl in bed and be sad after I finished the emails. Then came a knock at my door.

"Come in," I called in a somber voice, my eyes fixed on the screen in front of me.

I thought it would be Aly coming to pile up some files on my desk like she'd done the last couple days, but to my surprise, it was Jesse in an untucked shirt with dark circles under his eyes.

"Good morning," he said softly, and I could pick out the underlying frustration in his tone.

Though we hadn't discussed the future of our relationship, or if we even still had a relationship since the meeting, Jesse had continued to treat me like his feelings about me hadn't changed. I didn't take his tone as being directed at me, but rather, I figured he was very worried about his company and finding a way to save his employees' jobs, which would understandably take precedence over our relationship. I understood that and I couldn't be upset about it, but there was a growing concern in the pit of my stomach that Jesse would end up telling me it wasn't going to work out before we'd really even gotten a chance to try anything.

"Morning," I mumbled, continuing to type.

Jesse made his way toward my desk and flopped down into a seat across from me with a tired huff. I knew he hadn't gotten much sleep since Los Angeles. Neither had I.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

His words surprised me and I glanced up from my screen, confused. "What?"

"Do you want to talk about what happened on Monday?" Jesse clarified, leaning forward in the chair. "I know you're overloaded with stress. So are Erica and I. It might help you to talk to me."

I slapped my laptop shut with a groan and fully gave him my attention. "What's there to discuss, Jesse? I feel like shit for what I did. At the time, I was sure I was doing the right thing, but I hadn't expected everything to go to hell the way it did. I guess, somehow, I thought you or Erica could save the situation and that maybe I could just talk some sense into Roth. I didn't think I was going to destroy the whole future of this company."

There was a long, uncomfortable pause between us, and then Jesse laughed. Laughed! What the hell was funny?

"Why are you laughing?" I stared at him in disbelief.

He shook his head with that award winning smile that melted my heart every time I saw it. "Vanessa, you didn't destroy the future of Advantage. Honestly, you said what we were all thinking. I can't be mad about that. I'm proud of you for standing up for all of us, to be completely honest. Michael Roth is an asshole. He was never going to work with us. I was foolish to think it was worth our time to go to L.A. and try to talk him into changing his mind about a few provisions and zeros. That's on me for wasting all of our time. And frankly, we were going to go out anyway. At least you let us go out with a bang. It was refreshing to see him put in his place."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He wasn't pissed at me at all? Did Erica share his sentiments? Surely not. She was so invested in this company's success. Maybe Jesse was just biased because we were in a relationship, I thought to myself.

"I embarrassed this entire company within my first week on the job," I said in a regretful voice. "I lost you your only chance at redeeming Advantage financially. You can't not be mad about that."

Jesse shrugged and leaned back in the seat, running both hands through his wavy hair. It was messy like he'd just rolled out of bed and come straight to the office.

"Actually, we have had other offers. That's why I wouldn't sign an N.D.A. with Integrity," he explained, to my surprise. "I wanted to shop around and see what other potentials there were. I got a few good ones, a couple terrible ones... The reason I pursued Integrity is because they offered the highest number. Granted, they are the largest investment firm I inquired with. But I could still strike a deal with one of the lesser offers. As it turns out, when Integrity lowered their offering price, it ended up being about the same as Morgan Taffey's offer, which is still on the table. I never told them no."

My brows drew together as I struggled to understand his reasoning. "Then why the hell are you having me tell these clients that we couldn't reach an agreement with anyone? If you've still got an offer on the table-"

"It's not worth it," Jesse cut me off. "Morgan Taffey made a good offer, but it's too low a number. Even if we partner with them, Advantage won't be able to climb back out of the hole. It's just not feasible. I targeted Integrity because, even though they lowered their offering price, I thought there was a decent chance I could talk Michael into raising it again. I wanted to give him examples of why Advantage would be a good investment for his company and give him a good reason to pay more, but I was naïve to think he'd go for that. The only reason I thought we had a shot with Roth is because his father invested in my dad's restaurant when he first started and they've been working together ever since. Now my dad owns several restaurants all over the city and on Long Island. I just hoped that Michael would do business the same way his father did. I should've known better."

It all made perfect sense now, but it didn't make me feel any better. I wanted to provide Jesse with a good alternative. It wasn't my job to go investment hunting. In fact, it was entirely out of the realm of my job scope and way above my paygrade, but I suddenly felt compelled to fix this problem, or at least give it my best shot. It appeared I would be out of a job soon enough anyway. It couldn't hurt to try, considering I had nothing to lose.

"I wish he would've been willing to work with us," I finally responded, fingering the ends of my hair – another old bad habit of mine when my nerves were eating at me. "I'm sorry, Jesse."

He dismissed it with a soft smile and rose from the chair, stretching his arms into the air with a yawn. "Like I said, I can't be mad at you, Vanessa. You did a good job and you voiced all our opinions, which I really think Michael Roth needed to hear. Who knows. Maybe it's the tough talking to that he's been needing. If that didn't straighten him out, I don't think there's any hope for the asshole."

"Maybe you're right..." I muttered, unsure of what else to say.

Jesse smiled and smoothed out some wrinkles in his button-up. "Shitty subjects aside, are you still going to be my date to the fundraiser tomorrow night?"

I'd completely forgotten about the fundraiser! How the hell was I going to attend an event like that after a week like this?!

I stammered, trying to figure out if I even still wanted to go.

"Don't worry about it," Jesse said sweetly, headed towards the door. "Just let me know later."

"Okay..." I managed and watched as he trekked back down the hall to his office.

Frustration enveloped me once more, but I focused my attention on my earlier idea to make my best effort to save Jesse's company. How I was going to do that, I had absolutely no fucking clue. I wasn't a negotiator. I'd never even tried. But I did have one trick up my sleeve.

I remembered the name Morgan Taffey. It hadn't hit me immediately, but after several minutes of wracking my brain, it occurred to me that Morgan Taffey was the investment firm that my former employer in Dallas, the tax firm, had been in business with. The founders of both companies were old college friends. At the time that I'd left the firm, they'd been working together for at least two decades. Surely, they had a great relationship to be conducting business for that long. And I did recall the C.E.O.'s daughter, Eliza Morgan, being considered for the C.F.O. position then.

Eliza and I had gotten along very well. She'd always taken the time to hang around the office and chat with me about the way business was going, and somewhat about her personal life. I'd always thought she was a sweetheart.

Reopening my laptop, I opened the file containing all the offers Jesse had received, and then a quick Google search brought me to Morgan Taffey's website. Scrolling through the "about us" section which listed all the firm's executives, it didn't take long to spot who I was looking for: Eliza Morgan, Chief Financial Officer. She'd secured the promotion.

I jotted down the firm's phone number, the familiar 469 area code churning a feeling of disgust in my stomach at the memories associated with it.

A deep breath later, I found myself dialing the number and asking to be transferred to Eliza's office. Here goes nothing...

The phone rang six times and I was pretty sure no one was going to answer, but then I heard the familiar voice.

"Eliza Morgan's office."

"Eliza?" I asked, twirling a pen between my fingers.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"You probably don't remember me. This is Vanessa Hamilton. I used to work for-"

"Of course, I remember you, Vanessa!" she said in a joyous voice. "My gosh! I haven't seen you in ages! How are you? Are you still working here in Dallas?"

I was surprised that she would remember me, but that alone was already putting me on the right track to a potential something good.

"Uh, no." I cleared my throat, trying to figure out how best to word what I wanted to say. "I've done some traveling since I last saw you and now I'm working in New York City, in the Chrysler Building, actually."

"Oh, that sounds great! You made it all the way to the big city!" Eliza said in a cheery voice. "I'm happy for you."

"Thank you. Actually, my job here is what I'm calling you about," I said, hoping it didn't sound too stupid. "I work for Advantage Republic. Your firm made a generous offer to acquire the company."

"Yes. I remember. I'm the one orchestrating the proposal," she informed me – a detail that made my chances of working with her even better. "I have yet to hear from your chief executive. Jesse Reese, I believe?"

"Well, that's why I'm calling," I told her in the nicest tone I could conjure. "I'm Mr. Reese's executive assistant and I'd like to discuss the proposal further with you. Could we schedule a teleconference?"