“How the hell do you meet so many girls anyway, Sanderson?”

Sometimes, I called Kayla by her last name. She always pretended to hate it, but I knew she loved it. I’d overheard her on the phone one time, telling someone that it made her feel like she was part of a team.

Groaning, she said, “It’s called dating apps, genius. You should try one.”

“Not gonna happen.” I wasn’t opposed to dating apps for other people, but there was something about them that didn’t appeal to me. They were the very last thing I could ever see myself doing.

“Well, how did you find the women you sleep with now?” she asked.

I realized that I’d never really talked about this with Kayla before. While she knew far more about my life than anyone else, that always felt like crossing the line. I hesitated before she prodded.

“Just tell me. I know everything else about you.”

I huffed out and said it all in rapid-fire before I could second-guess and stop myself. “One lives in my building, and the other one is an old business associate.”

“How convenient.” She sounded a little annoyed while I sat there, surprised that she could even understand what I’d said in the first place. I chalked it up to another one of her female superpowers. “Well, for the rest of us, we have to use dating apps. Do you know how hard it is to meet someone?”

“No,” I answered honestly because it was the truth. “Because I’m not trying to meet anyone, remember?”

“Ugh! See, you’re not even open to the possibility of love. This is why your mom is never going to leave and live her life. Ever. She’s going to sit here and babysit you until she dies. And you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”

She was baiting me, pushing my buttons, hoping I’d snap. But my assistant knew me better than that.

“I’m not open to love right now.” I emphasized the timing. “I’m still earning our clients’ trust and trying to expand our company internationally. You know that. My mother knows that. I don’t have time for a relationship. It wouldn’t be fair to expect anyone to try to be with me right now.”

My dad had built an empire with Martin Staffing and Management in New York, but it was my dream to take it abroad. The majority of our clients had multiple offices located across the globe, and it was a missed opportunity to only focus on their stateside ones. It’d become my goal to expand our company to Europe—London specifically—and I didn’t have time for distractions. Not until I made this a reality.

“I know, but your mom needs to think that you’re trying to have a life outside of this building.”

“So, what do we do?” I acquiesced because I knew I had no choice.

“Let me go back to my desk and think about this for a second. You have a meeting in five minutes anyway. We’ll reconvene after it ends,” she said.