She was going to die of embarrassment.
Her first mistake had been asking for a second drink. Then a third. And so on. She couldn’t hold her liquor, as evidenced by her behavior the night before. Or by how little of it she remembered. She groaned and squeezed her eyes tight. No matter what she’d done—or hadn’t done—it chafed her that she’d lost control. Blair did not lose control. Ever.
But there was still the question of why he’d spent the night with her. She couldn’t help wondering if they’d had sex and then redressed. She couldn’t imagine Garrett staying with her otherwise. But if that was the case, she’d cheated on Neil. Regardless of whether anything had actually happened, she couldn’t ignore the fact that she still wanted him. Even after all these years and what he’d done to her. She wanted him, and that in and of itself was the same as cheating.
The thought made her want to throw up.
She was just like her father.
She shuddered, and the flight attendant was at her side in moments. One of the perks of business class. “Do you need a blanket, Ms. Hansen?”
Blair smiled up at her. “No. I’m fine. Thanks.” Of course, she was anything but fine. She prided herself on never falling to pieces, no matter what the situation, but now she felt like a shattered sheet of glass. And she had no idea what to do about that.
Her plane landed after nine, and she checked her phone to see multiple missed calls during the flight from the office and one from Neil. She groaned as she pulled her carry-on bag from the overhead bin. She hadn’t called anyone the night before to tell them about being grounded in Phoenix.
She called her assistant as she walked to the terminal.
“Oh, my God, Blair!” Melissa gushed as soon as she answered. “I’ve been worried sick. I tried to call you last night, and you never answered.”
“I’m sorry. I got stuck in Phoenix overnight—gusting winds or some such shit. I just landed, but I’m going to be late. Stall Lopez for the deposition.” She chuckled. “That shouldn’t be too hard. I doubt he’s eager to see me after our last encounter.”
“Um . . . Lopez couldn’t make it. They’ve sent someone else from his firm, but he’s going to be late too. He says he should be here around eleven.”
“They change attorneys last minute, and the new guy can’t even bother to show up on time? Never mind.” Blair shook her head, getting angry as she maneuvered her rolling bag through the mass of people standing at the gate. She wasn’t going to be on time either, but it was the principle of the matter. “Then I’m going home to shower. I slept in my clothes last night, and I don’t have a clean change of clothes in my bag.”
“But you have an appointment at ten forty-five with Ben Stuart. In his office.”
Her heart skipped a beat, and she stopped moving, causing a man to slam into her back. He broke out into a string of curses as she moved to the side. “Wait. Ben? Why?”
“He didn’t say, but he told me to keep it secret. Off the books, even.”
She sucked in a breath. Ben was a junior partner, and although he’d introduced Blair to Neil two years ago, they rarely spoke, and they never had meetings.
She started walking again. If she was meeting with Ben, then she definitely needed a shower and a change of clothes. Something was amiss. “But I was supposed to be in the deposition at ten. When did he request the meeting?”
“He came down here looking for you this morning. He found out about the deposition delay and told me to have you swing by his office at ten forty-five.”
“You didn’t tell him you didn’t know where I was, did you?” she asked in a panic.
“Do you take me for an amateur? No, I covered for you.”
True, she’d been in L.A. for a work matter, and she couldn’t help the plane delays, but no one at Sisco, Sisco, and Reece liked to hear excuses. And Blair did her damnedest to make sure she never needed one. While Ben was only a junior partner, he still had voting power, and it was rumored he had influence with the senior partner Robert Sisco Sr. himself. “Thanks, Melissa. I owe you,” she said as she hurried through the sliding glass doors and out into the August heat.
August was miserable in Kansas City. It was hot and humid, and it was landlocked besides, so there was no escaping to the beach. Why Neil’s parents had insisted on an August wedding was beyond her, but it wasn’t worth fighting over. She wasn’t one of those girls who made a huge fuss over wedding frills, although that wasn’t to say she wasn’t obsessed over the details. The senior and junior partners at the firm were invited to the wedding, and they and their wives would critique every detail, down to the distance between the tines on the salad forks. Blair wasn’t about to give them a single reason to deny her partnership.
Melissa lowered her voice. “There are rumors going around that they’re about to offer someone a partnership. Maybe the meeting is about that. Just take me with you when you get Rolland’s corner office, and we’ll call it good.”
While Blair hoped it was true, she couldn’t see how. A senior partner would be offering her the position, not a junior partner. “You know I wouldn’t dream of leaving you behind. I can’t function without you. Speaking of the corner office, have you checked with the caterer?”
“Yes, he left a message that they’re substituting shrimp for the crab. I plan to call him and let him know there will be absolutely no substitutions. His contract says they are part of the menu, and the fact that they’ve gone up in price isn’t our concern.”