Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
EVIE
I woke tucked up next to Noah’s furnace-hot body, and for a moment, still drowsy, I luxuriated in his warmth. Then gradually the doubts started to creep in. What had I done? What happened next? How did I—?
Then I told myself to stop being so stupid, I was getting ahead of myself. We’d had sex. Very good sex. That was all it was. I could walk away at any time. Noah might not even want a relationship. Maybe what happened in The Plaza, stayed in The Plaza.
Comforted by this thought, I reached out for my phone to check the time. Six o’clock in the morning. We’d slept all night, although it was hardly any wonder. I smiled to myself, when Noah set his mind to something he was assiduous in his detail.
I scanned the screen and a red dot on my email icon caught my attention. Even though I knew I should ignore it, I couldn’t stop myself opening up the email. What I saw on the screen made my heart sink.
Noah’s hand snaked over my waist, his arm warm and heavy, pulling me back to him.
With my nose pressed to his chest, my hand still clutching my phone, I whispered, ‘I’ve just had an email.’
‘Mmph,’ he murmured and kissed my forehead.
‘From my editor.’
His fingers slid up my back, soothing my skin with quiet reassurance.
I closed my eyes as if that might seal me off from possible bad news.
Maybe if I didn’t read it, it wouldn’t be real.
I felt Noah pull back and rearrange himself, sitting up, dragging his pillows up to support him.
Then somehow, he scooped me up, putting an arm around me and pulling me into his side, his hand squeezing the top of my shoulder.
For the first time in a long time, I was grateful that I had someone to lean on, even if I knew I shouldn’t get used to it.
I sighed a tiny sigh of… I wasn’t sure what it was, but my heart flip-flopped in my chest, sending sweet warmth radiating through my body and thawing out the deepest frozen parts of me, parts that until then I hadn’t realised were still in ice.
Strengthened by Noah’s support, I opened up the email and scanned the words.
I really liked that Noah didn’t try to read them, he let me get on with it, without judgement or putting his spin on things.
He just held me as my eyes tracked the message, key components of the sentences registering like blows.
Contract terminated forthwith. Bringing the magazine into disrepute.
I sucked in a breath as comprehension and the consequent fallout spread fast through my brain.
Out of work. Dispensed with. No longer required.
The rejection was as sharp as the realisation that my job was the one thing that I’d been good at.
The one thing that had given me a source of pride.
The thing that gave me some credibility.
The thing that I’d carved out for myself after I’d lost my mum.
My throat worked as I struggled not to cry.
For the first time since Mum had died, it felt as if I’d finally reached the bottom. For so long I’d survived, tumbling from one ledge to the next, each time clinging on until the next fall. This was the fabled rock bottom, and now I understood what it meant – I had no place left to fall.
‘They’ve fired me,’ I said brokenly.
‘Evie…’ He breathed my name into my hair and kissed me on the temple. ‘I’m so sorry.’
I nodded, not daring to speak because I knew I would cry.
I burrowed into him, telling myself I was buying time to pull myself together, and not giving into the comforting warmth of another human body and the simple reassurance that it brought.
What the hell was I going to do? Would anyone else employ me?
After a while, Noah spoke, asking, ‘Can you get another job? You said you were good at your work.’
‘Like Sophie said, magazine jobs are like gold dust.’
‘Could you do a YouTube channel like she does?’
I shrugged. ‘Like Todd says, finance isn’t sexy.’
‘If anyone could sex it up, you could.’
I laughed in spite of myself. ‘Thanks, Noah, but I think sexing up finance is beyond even my capabilities.’
‘Do you know what I think you should do?’ said Noah, and I liked the way he phrased it, making it clear he wasn’t telling me what I should do, just offering a suggestion.
‘No, I’m not a mind reader,’ I said, trying for humour because I didn’t do feeling sorry for myself.
‘I think you should enjoy every last minute of this trip, and have as much fun as you can. Don’t let this ruin your dream.’
I leaned into Noah and kissed the side of his throat, my lips brushing the stubble emerging through his skin. ‘That sounds like a very good idea. Do you have anything in mind, at this very moment?’
‘Funny you should say that. I normally go out for a run first thing, but in the interests of having fun, I can think of another form of exercise.’
‘And what might that be?’ I asked as his mouth sought mine.
‘Sure you haven’t got that mind-reading thing down yet?’
‘Funny you should say that,’ I murmured as I felt my body stirring in response.
* * *
Half an hour later, I opened the curtains. It was amazing how being with someone else and sharing your problems made things feel a little less insurmountable.
‘It’s snowed!’ I squealed to Noah. ‘Proper snow. We have to go out. We need to build a snowman.’
‘We do?’ He came to stand behind me, looking out of the window over my shoulder, his lips nuzzling my neck.
I turned in his arms, gave him a hard kiss on the mouth. ‘Snow time,’ I said firmly and pushed against his chest.
‘What about breakfast? Coffee?’ he asked plaintively.
I rolled my eyes. ‘Snow fun first.’
‘Okay. I’ll go back to my room, shower and dress.’
I beamed approvingly at him, glad that he’d got on board with the programme so quickly. ‘That was easy,’ I said with a teasing grin.
‘I’m getting to know which battles are worth fighting with you,’ said Noah with one of his easy smiles. The words touched me. Not only getting to know them, but respecting them too. Noah was very good at letting me be me.
‘I’ll see you downstairs in twenty minutes.’
‘Twenty minutes?’ I grumbled.
‘I’ve got a couple of things to do,’ he said, tapping my nose. ‘Miss Impatient.’
‘Always,’ I said.
He smiled. Kissed me and pulled on my robe.
‘I’ll bring this back later,’ he said over his shoulder. I sighed at the sight of him in the white robe, pure sex on legs. He opened the hotel door and went back to his room next door.
* * *
The water in the shower pulsed over my body, the warm touch reminding me of all the places Noah had touched last night.
I felt well used and relaxed, with an overdose of smug satisfaction.
He certainly knew what he was doing, and he wasn’t a man to be hurried, even though he’d worn my patience to its absolute limit, racking up the tension and torturing me until I could bear it no more.
His skill with his tongue and fingers more than equalled his fancy footwork.
Once out of the shower, vanity dictated that I take a bit of time to put on a little makeup. Just for any photo opportunities, I told myself, as I applied a careful layer of mascara and slick of lip gloss. With a few minutes to spare I hurried to the lift to meet Noah in the lobby.
There was no sign of him, and I hadn’t heard him leave his room. I’d even knocked because it seemed the logical thing to do but there’d been no answer.
‘Morning, Evie,’ called Carol from the front desk with her usual friendly smile.
‘Morning! Have you seen the snow?’ I called, bouncing over to her. As always, she was immaculately turned out, but this morning, in a nod to the approaching holiday, she was sporting bright-green enamel holly-leaf earrings with berries dangling from her earlobes.
‘Hello, some of us had to get through it to get here this morning,’ she said, a reproving roll of her eyes.
‘Sorry. It’s just we don’t get snow very often in England. Not like this. I love your festive jewellery. Very classy.’
‘Thank you.’ She flicked them with one finger and then her gaze slipped beyond me. She sighed. ‘Now that’s one gorgeous man looking very fine this morning. And bearing caffeine.’
I turned and there was Noah, his dark hair flecked with snow, holding two takeout cups in his hands. My heart, still tender from our night together, stuttered at the sight of him.
‘Cappuccino,’ he said and pushed one of them into my hand. ‘Keep us warm.’
‘You went out and got coffee?’ I asked.
‘Despite your enthusiasm for snow, I thought you might need one,’ he said. ‘I might have a cookie in my pocket, too.’
‘I bet you say that to all the girls,’ I joked, but I inside I was touched by the gesture, warmed all the way through by his care.
Carol was obviously equally impressed because she piped up, ‘You’re a keeper, Noah. Want to marry me?’
‘I think your husband might have something to say,’ said Noah with a boyish smile.
‘There is that,’ agreed Carol dolefully, and as she turned to answer the phone beside her, she handed him a small plastic bag, which he tucked into his pocket. My eyes narrowed at the exchange but before I could ask about it, Noah took my spare hand.
‘Ready?’ he asked and led me out through the hotel lobby into the snow-softened morning.
White flakes whirled their way down from the thick cloud cover, caught like feathers on eddies of wind that funnelled through the skyscrapers around us.
I tipped my face skyward and they landed on my skin like crisp ice kisses.
Around us the snow blanketed every surface, softening the hard edges of the city and muffling the usual, harsh metropolitan orchestra of sound.
Clutching our steaming coffees we headed towards Central Park.
Ahead of us, I could hear a group of children calling and shouting, and through the trees I saw them bundled in brightly coloured snowsuits, wearing Wellington boots and scooping up snow with their mittened hands.
I smiled at the sight of them and their unfettered delight at the first snowfall of the year, as they kicked their way through the fluffy carpet.
Our feet crunched in the snow beneath our feet with a waxy squeak as we strode along Central Drive.
We came to a large playground. Today it was deserted, and the large area where people normally played football was empty, unmarred by a single footstep.
‘This looks like the perfect spot,’ I said gleefully.
I began rolling a snowball, which very rapidly grew, and Noah took pictures until it was so big I needed his help to push it. Once I deemed it big enough, I started on a second ball, grateful that I had Noah to lift it onto the first.
‘He needs a name,’ I said, studying his blank face.
‘Frosty,’ suggested Noah, straight-faced.
I shook my head and sighed disparagingly. ‘You can’t call him that. It has to be something better. Something that suits him. You can’t name him until he has a face and some other bits…’ I looked around for inspiration and then scouted round for twigs for the snowman’s arms.
‘Of course we can’t,’ said Noah, smiling at me.
With a flourish, he pulled the bag from his pocket and produced a carrot, six black buttons, a marker pen and two brown cardboard coasters as well as a length of red fabric, which on closer inspection turned out to be a table runner embossed with tiny Christmas bells and holly.
‘Allow me,’ he said.
‘Where did you get those?’ I asked delightedly.
‘I asked Carol on my way out if she could procure me a carrot and anything that I could use for eyes. She outdid herself.’
‘She certainly did,’ I said, taking the red makeshift scarf from him and tying it around the snowman’s neck. Next, I stuck the carrot in and arranged the buttons in a curved smile underneath it.
I coloured in semi-circles in the coasters to give the snowman a quizzical expression, which I was rather pleased with. It gave him a distinct personality and now I was ready to christen him, but first I had to give credit where it was due.’
‘Thanks, Noah. You thought of everything.’
‘Carol’s the star. The staff really do go the extra mile.’
‘They do. They’re amazing. You probably think this is a crazy idea, but I was wondering if I should throw them a Christmas party. Very low-key. Invite them up to my room for drinks. Do you think they’d come?’
‘I’d come.’
‘I’m not offering to have sex with them,’ I said, and he let out a shout of laughter.
‘Evie Green!’ he leaned in and kissed me. ‘Of course they’ll come. Because they like you. They love you because you take the time and trouble to notice them and talk to them. You’re nice to them when not everyone is.’
I shrugged, uncomfortable with the praise. I was just being me with them, not trying to impress anyone.
‘I can’t decide between Sid or Norman,’ I announced to change the subject.
Noah shot me a perplexed frown.
‘For his name.’ I thought some more. ‘I know, Snorman the Snowman.’ It was a good compromise between the two and these things were important.
‘Snorman’s not a real name,’ Noah said with a laugh, shaking his head.
‘He’s a snowman, he can be anything I want,’ I declared, grinning up at him.
‘I’m fascinated by the way your brain works,’ said Noah, smiling.
‘Admit it. I’m a lot of fun.’
‘I’ve already admitted that,’ he said, grinning.
‘And I’m sorry I misjudged you.’ He shook his head.
‘I didn’t know you and I judged you. Unfairly.
I didn’t understand the context. And I didn’t look beneath the surface.
It’s funny, the first time I saw you skating I made a completely different judgement about you, even though I thought you were a stranger.
You’re a good person. A really good person. ’
‘I try. So, will you help me put together a party? I’m going to need to do some shopping and planning.’
‘Of course I will.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Don’t forget. We’ve got a hot date at the toy store this morning. We could get anything you need after that.’
‘I haven’t forgotten twinkle toes,’ I said. ‘We’d better head back.’
‘Ahem?’ said Noah waving his phone.
I shook my head. ‘No. No photos today. This is for us. Real fun. Just us. Don’t you agree?’
Noah put his arm around me and kissed my cheek. ‘I do.’