NOVGO.NET Chapter 120: The Problem Is Still Him
Chapter 120: Chapter 120: The Problem Is Still Him
The boardroom at the youth academy headquarters was quiet, except for the sound of flipping pages and a ticking wall clock.
Zoya and Jackson were sitting across from each other. They were reviewing Section Four of the youth initiative contract.
They were arguing again.
It was completely comfortable. The sharp, professional rhythm they had established over the last few weeks was in full swing. Jackson disagreed with a travel budget clause. Zoya fired back with legal precedents.
" The travel insurance covers domestic flights," Zoya explained, tapping her pen against the document. "If you want international coverage for the under-sixteen team, the sponsors will demand a higher percentage of the media rights. You cannot have it both ways, Mr. Pierce."
She waited for his rebuttal. She expected him to argue about player safety.
He didn’t say anything.
Zoya looked up from her red folder.
She stopped talking. Jackson was not looking at the contract. He was not looking at the budget numbers.
He was looking directly at her.
He was leaning back in his chair, his broad shoulders relaxed. His silver pen had stopped spinning in his fingers. He was just watching her face. His dark eyes were entirely focused, heavy with something Zoya absolutely refused to name.
"Mr. Pierce?" Zoya asked. Her voice was slightly sharper than she intended.
Jackson blinked. He slowly looked down at the papers in front of him.
"What?" Jackson asked.
"You weren’t listening," Zoya pointed out.
"I was," Jackson replied calmly.
"You were staring."
A tiny, heavy pause hung over the conference table.
"I was thinking," Jackson corrected quietly.
Zoya locked her jaw. "About?"
Jackson looked back up at her. He held her gaze for a second longer than was professionally appropriate.
"Nothing important," Jackson said.
Zoya narrowed her dark eyes. She felt a sudden, entirely unwelcome heat rise in her chest. She quickly pushed it down and rebuilt her icy wall.
"Then perhaps you should think about the contract," Zoya suggested coldly.
"I am," Jackson replied.
Zoya turned her attention back to the document. She stared at the typed words.
But suddenly, the letters just looked like black smudges on the paper. She couldn’t focus on the legal jargon. Now, she was the one completely distracted.
Because she knew he was staring.
And she absolutely hated that she noticed.
Later that afternoon, Zoya was back at her downtown law firm.
She was standing by the filing cabinets, organizing a stack of settlement briefs. One of her female colleagues, Maya, walked into the office carrying a cup of coffee.
"You are free Friday, right?" Maya asked casually, leaning against the doorframe.
"No," Zoya answered without looking up.
Maya laughed. "You didn’t even ask why."
"Because I already know I am not interested," Zoya replied smoothly. She slid a file into the drawer and shut it.
"You are completely impossible," Maya sighed, walking further into the office. "Come with us on Friday. A few of the associates are going out to that new lounge downtown."
"I don’t go out," Zoya stated. She walked back to her desk and sat down.
"You used to," Maya pointed out. "When we were junior associates, you went out twice."
Zoya opened her laptop. "I had poor judgment back then."
Maya rolled her eyes and sat in one of the guest chairs opposite Zoya’s desk.
"Just come, Zoya," Maya practically begged. "You literally do nothing but work and go to the gym. There will be plenty of attractive single men there. You can drink something overpriced, talk to people who aren’t lawyers, and maybe let someone buy you dinner for once."
Zoya immediately shook her head. "I am busy."
"Doing what? Organizing your color-coded tabs?" Maya challenged. She leaned forward. "Zoya, you always refuse. Every single time someone invites you out, you say no. When was the last time you actually went on a date?"
Zoya stopped typing.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
That was the exact question that finally got to her.
Maya kept talking about the lounge, the music, and the attractive men who usually showed up there on Friday nights.
Zoya tried to picture a generic, attractive man. A corporate banker. A doctor. Someone safe, predictable, and logical.
Instead, her mind completely betrayed her.
She didn’t picture a man in a suit.
Her brain went straight to Westbridge University. She suddenly remembered exactly the way Jackson used to look right after football practice. She remembered him walking across the campus lawns in the late afternoon heat. She remembered his messy hair. She remembered the way his gray t-shirt used to cling tightly to his chest.
She remembered his arms when he carried her heavy law textbooks.
She remembered his stomach when he stretched out on the library floor to annoy her.
Zoya’s eyes went wide. She immediately cut the thought off.
Why am I thinking about that? Zoya mentally yelled at herself.
She quickly cleared her throat and aggressively adjusted a stack of papers on her desk.
It has been seven years.
She looked down at her glowing cell phone. She felt genuinely irritated.
Seven entire years, I am a senior corporate lawyer, and I am sitting in my office thinking about Jackson Pierce’s abs?
The sheer ridiculousness of it made her even more frustrated. She closed her eyes for a split second.
Do I really miss him that much?
And that was the actual, terrifying emotional question.
Because this conversation wasn’t really about the blind date. It wasn’t about the attractive men at the lounge.
It was about Zoya realizing something she had been completely hiding from herself. She had spent the last seven years aggressively avoiding intimacy. She had shut down every single romantic opportunity because Jackson was the absolute last person who made her lose control.
Since Jackson, she hadn’t allowed herself to get that close to anyguy.
She hadn’t allowed herself to get close to anyone in that particular way. She went on a few polite coffee dates, but the second things got slightly messy or unpredictable, she walked away.
She had been strictly controlling herself. She built her massive career. She kept her apartment perfectly clean. She kept everything entirely orderly.
And now, Jackson was suddenly back in her life.
He was sitting across from her in a conference room every few days. He was staring at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. He was handing her blueberry muffins in elevators.
Every single meeting was making her control slip just a little bit more.
Zoya stared at her laptop screen.
Maybe going out won’t hurt, Zoya thought quietly.
She didn’t want to go out because she expected to meet her future husband. She didn’t even want a relationship.
She wanted to go because she desperately needed to prove something to herself. She needed to prove that Jackson wasn’t the only man in the entire world who could make her feel something. She needed to prove she still had control over her own heart.
Zoya slowly looked up from her computer. She looked directly at Maya.
"I’ll come," Zoya said.
Maya completely froze. Her mouth fell open slightly.
"Wait," Maya blinked, completely shocked. "Really?"
Zoya calmly stood up. She picked up her heavy leather handbag and threw it over her shoulder. She smoothed out the wrinkles in her sharp charcoal blazer.
"I will meet you there at eight," Zoya confirmed flatly.
Maya grinned from ear to ear. "This is going to be amazing!"
Zoya walked past her toward the office door.
"Don’t make me regret it, Maya," Zoya warned.
She walked out into the busy hallway.
She felt completely satisfied. She thought she was going to a blind date to successfully regain control of her life. She thought she was fixing the problem.
She had absolutely no idea that the real problem was already writing a travel budget clause for a youth football team across the city, completely unable to stop thinking about her.