The Proposal (Forever Bound Book 2) by Bree Callahan

friendship with the added benefits of sex?”  She shook her head slowly.  Up until she heard Damian use the word, love, she wouldn’t have thought about it, but now…it all seemed so strange.  “I suppose the notion hit me once or twice, but honestly…I don’t think I would’ve ever contemplated it.  The feelings haven’t been as strong as they’ve been with…” her words trailed off and she bit her tongue.  It was too late to take it back, as Ana captured her meeting.
    “They haven’t been as strong as your feelings for Derek?  Is that what you were about to say?”  Charity nodded slowly.  Why hide the obvious?  “Do you still have those feelings?” Ana asked, again she kept her judgment voice out of the equation.
    Charity sighed, wanting to say she lost all feelings for Derek once she found out he lied to her, but she couldn’t lie about it.  Instead, she nodded her head. “I wish I didn’t.”
    Ana draped her arm around Charity and pulled her to her.  “No matter what you do, it will be the right decision.  You have to trust your heart.”  It was like a saying in a greeting card, but Ana was right.  That was the only thing she could do.
     
    ****
     
    This wasn’t like Derek.  He couldn’t sleep after talking to Charity and not getting through to her.  Three days passed by and the only thing he could do was repeatedly tell Amanda that he didn’t want her to set out looking for any more applicants, go to meetings and think about Charity and everything he still wanted to say to her and toss and turn in his bed because he was getting nowhere. 
    It was the slowest three days of his life.  When day four arrived, he decided he needed to do something more to try to fix things with Charity.  He went to Jesse.  He wasn’t sure how Jesse could help, other than he could at least see if Jesse was able to get through to Ana.  So, he went to Jesse’s office.  When Jesse looked up from his phone call he was on, a look of surprise washed over his face.
    “That’s right!” he said into the phone.  “Alright.  Give me a call if you have any questions.  Talk to you later!”  He hung up the call and stood to his feet.  “Derek?  This is a surprise.”
    “Hey!  Do you have time to talk?” Derek asked.
    Jesse glanced at his watch and nodded.  “Will it take more than a half hour?”
    Derek shook his head and shut the door to Jesse’s office. There were plenty of people around Jesse’s office that would hear every word, and he wanted to make sure things stayed between the two of them.  “Ana…have you tried contacting her?” Derek asked.
    Jesse raised his eyes at Derek’s question.  “Not within the past few days.  Why?”
    “Well, I’ve talked to Charity.  I went back to the apartment.”
    Jesse stood up from his chair and leaned against his desk.  “Hm…interesting.”  He paused, before explaining his nonchalant attitude.  “Honestly, I thought giving her space would be the correct answer.  She didn’t return my calls before this method, so I’m trying out something new.”
    Derek heaved a sigh.  “I get that, but my thought was that we could help one another out.  If you get through to Ana, then maybe Charity wouldn’t be so angry with me.  If I get through to Charity, then maybe Ana wouldn’t be so angry with you.”
    Jesse chuckled.  “Do you think that will work?”
    Derek shrugged.  “It’s worth a shot.  After all, can it go any worse?  She’s not buying a single word I’m saying to her, and I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive me for this lie.”
    Jesse crossed his arms, before asking a simple, yet hard question.  “Why do you think she’s so angry?” he asked.
    Derek thought about that, then shrugged.  “She’s angry because she was duped…I suppose.”
    Jesse nodded.  “Well, that’s one way of looking at it, but do you think she’d be this upset if she didn’t care one way or another.”  Derek frowned and didn’t