Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Andrew
Drinks with Tristan had been fine. Good, even. Yes, I knew I’d go back to London and face a subtle inquisition from the rest of the guys, but it was good to see Sofia in a social situation. She was relaxed and charming and so fucking sexy I couldn’t wait to get her back to the hotel.
At some point from leaving Tristan to reaching the hotel, something had shifted. Sofia had grown quiet. She was upset.
And I didn’t know why.
The lift doors opened on the fifty-third floor and I stepped out after her.
“Now that we’re alone, are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” I asked.
“Who said anything was wrong?”
I pulled my key card out of my wallet, ignoring her. She didn’t have to tell me what was the matter, but there was no point pretending everything was fine.
“Are you coming inside?” I asked, holding open the door to the suite.
“It depends,” she said, folding her arms and leaning on the door. What the fuck had crawled up her arse when we left Tristan? I wish she’d just spit it out.
I met her gaze and waited.
And waited.
“I have questions,” she said finally. “Questions for you. Things I don’t understand.”
“Okay,” I said carefully. I suddenly felt I was surrounded by landmines, and only complete stillness could keep me from being blown to bits. I hated the coldness in Sofia’s voice and the look in her eye that suggested we were . . . strangers.
“You’ll answer them?”
She knew me better than to think I’d commit to answer questions before I knew the exact nature of the information requested. “Can we do this inside? I want to change and enjoy the view rather than skulk around in hotel corridors.”
“On one condition. No one’s getting naked until I’ve had my questions answered. And maybe not even then, because I might choose to go watch Netflix in bed by myself.”
I sighed. Where had this evening gone so wrong? What had soured her mood? “Fine.”
“Fine,” she said, and slipped past me into the suite.
I toed off my shoes, grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the bar, and handed one to her before taking a seat opposite the New York skyline. I was ready for her questions.
Ridiculously, she sat in one of the occasional chairs opposite me, as if this was an interview.
“What is it you do in your office from six to twelve?” she asked.
Okay, I’d braced myself for questions about Goode, about how much money I made, about how many women I’d slept with or was sleeping with, but my morning office routine hadn’t even been on my thousand-mile radar. “Sun salutations, according to you. What do you think I do?”
She shook her head and stood. “I’m leaving if you’re not going to take this seriously.”
I caught her hand as she walked past and yanked her down onto the sofa next to me. “What the fuck, Sofia? You’re throwing your toys out of your pram because I’ve not told you why I don’t like to be disturbed until midday? What’s going on?”
She shrugged, but at least she stayed seated. “Natalie just pointed out that—”
“Ohhh, right. Natalie. I think she hated me most out of all my assistants. So tell me, why exactly does Natalie think I don’t want to be disturbed before twelve?”
“I asked first.”
I shifted around and put my hands on her shoulders so she was facing me. “I want to focus. I want to think. And I want to do that without interruption.”
Sofia scoffed. “For six hours every day? Oh, that makes perfect sense.”
I let go of her. “If you think me a liar, that’s your business, not my problem.”
“You’re telling me you’re in there . . . actually meditating? My guess was closer than I realized.”
“Partly—though I assure you, there’s nothing tantric about my morning routine.
Meditation normally only takes twenty minutes right at the beginning of the day.
Then I work out my priorities, reassess strategic goals, and go to work.
In case you haven’t noticed, as soon as midday rolls around, I’m back-to-back meetings, phone calls, and interruptions.
If I didn’t draw that line in the sand, I’d have no time to do anything of value. ”
“So you’re just working?” she asked, with an expression of frank disbelief.
“Yes. What else would I be doing? What did Natalie suspect? Forget it, don’t answer that, I don’t even care.”
“You’re spending six hours meditating and working . . .” It wasn’t a question—more like she’d found the solution to a puzzle and was repeating it out loud.
“Next question.”
“Why do they call you James at the bar?”
I collapsed back onto the sofa. That one was a little more complicated.
“And I noticed you always pay cash.”
“Yeah. That’s deliberate. I don’t want them to know my real name.”
“Why not?”
“For lots of reasons.”
“Hit me with your top five.”
She wasn’t going to let this go. And in her shoes, I’d admit, it looked a little weird.
“First, privacy.”
“Come on. Yes, you’ve been in the financial pages, but you’re not Harry Styles.”
I chuckled. “I know. I don’t mean that kind of privacy. I’ve run into situations before that staff have Googled my name on my card and figured out who I am and . . . I’ve made a lot of enemies doing what I do.”
She put up her hand to stop me. “Whoa, there, buddy. You’re saying that bar staff Google your name off your card? What kind of—” She stopped herself. “Oh, right. Women. Female bartenders.”
I stayed silent. She’d figured it out, as I knew she would.
“And what do you mean, you’ve made enemies? You’re not a child molester.”
“No, but I’ve taken over companies and had to make a lot of very hard decisions.”
“To save businesses.”
“Not everyone sees it like you. And that’s not surprising.
I’ve had to fire people, make people redundant, shut down divisions and product lines.
This impacts real people. It’s not just a line item on a spreadsheet.
It takes away the ability for men and women to provide for their families.
It’s never going to be a popular thing to do, no matter the reasons behind it. ”
“But you’re doing what’s best for the majority.”
“I used to think knowing I was doing what was best to keep the entire company from failing was enough. But it’s not. People are still going to feel aggrieved if they’re laid off. The reasons why don’t matter. I learned that lesson the hard way.”
“The hard way?”
Even now I didn’t like to think back to that night.
“I was ambushed in the car park of the office one night. Maybe they thought if they got rid of me, they could get their jobs back. Maybe they were just trying to vent their anger and frustration at the person they saw as making the decisions that were causing them pain. Either way, I ended up in hospital, battered and bruised with a broken jaw. I learned my lesson that night.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, did they find the guys?”
“I knew who they were. But the last thing they needed was to end up in prison. I took my punishment. Not for laying them off, but for not listening to my father. He always said, ‘The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.’ A real Art of War fanatic, if you know the type. Those men weren’t to blame.
I’d misjudged the situation. Now I handle things differently. ”
“So you go around pretending you’re someone else.” She sighed like she got it but didn’t like it.
“No. ‘Invincibility lies in defense.’ I’m not pretending to be anyone I’m not. I use cash and a different name when it doesn’t matter—like when I’m having a drink at a local bar. I’m still myself. It’s just my way of keeping a low profile.”
“When it doesn’t matter, huh? I thought you pretended to be a different man with me because somewhere in that head of yours, you could justify being attracted to me if you weren’t Andrew Blake—my boss. But if you use ‘James’ when the stakes are inconsequential . . .”
“No. You were never—that is, what’s between us isn’t—” I paused for a deep breath. I wasn’t accustomed to muddling my way through a conversation. “I’m saying this badly.”
She tilted her head and gave me a small smile. “Yes, you are.”
“This might sound harsh, but I never saw you as more than my assistant in the office. Not really. I have that side of me switched off completely, out of respect for the men and women who work for me. But then when I heard you talking about me at the bar . . .” I paused, thinking back to that night.
“Something shifted. I was entirely attracted to you. From that point, you’re right—I needed to not be your boss in order to let myself have you.
” I’d kept my gaze steady on the skyline out the window while I spoke, but I needed Sofia to hear what I was going to say next—hear it, and know it was true.
Finding her eyes was easy, since she was already watching me.
“You are not inconsequential to me, Sofia. You matter very much.”
After a beat of silence, she shimmied her shoulders like she was shaking off a chill. “Tell me why your boundaries are so tightly drawn.” She looked at me with a softness I’d not seen in her before.
“It’s easier to keep work separate from my private life.”
“But everyone spends so much time in the office. Isn’t it natural to form personal relationships?”
“Piranhas are natural. Volcanos. Hurricanes. Just because something’s natural doesn’t mean it’s salubrious.”
“Piranhas? We talk about intra-office romance and your mind goes to flesh-eating fish? And salubrious? You have an interesting brain, Andrew Blake.”
“I’m just saying, sometimes you need to swim against the tide.”
“It’s an unusual stance. Or at least it’s unusual to be so rigorous in adherence to such a rule.” She put on a weird accent which I guessed was supposed to be British but actually sounded like an American who’d had one too many limoncellos.
“At the beginning of my career, I got sacked when I ended an affair with a female partner at the law firm I was working for. She wasn’t happy and decided revenge was the best way to work through her feelings.
I don’t want that to ever happen on my watch.
” It was a long time ago and losing that job had ultimately led to good things, but the situation hadn’t been fair.
I’d vowed at the time that when I was the boss, decisions should be taken on ability—not personal vendettas or really, personal feelings at all.
The only way to ensure the integrity of the work environment at Blake Enterprises was to ensure the office was about work and work only.
“Your boss fired you because you didn’t want to be her boyfriend anymore?”
“It was a little more complicated than that, but pretty much.”
“Oh, well . . . now I feel like an asshole.”
“Don’t. I’m unusually strict about that particular boundary.” I sighed. “In my head, if I was James, I could give in to my desire to take you to bed.”
A small smile curled around her lips.
“How much longer will this interrogation last?” I asked. “I’m just wondering whether or not I need a whisky.”
She swung her legs over mine. “I’m done,” she said. “Thank you for being honest with me.”
I slid my hand over her calf. “Thank you for asking questions and not just assuming Natalie’s theory was correct.”
We’d had our first fight and come out the other side.
It felt like we’d reached a crossroads and chosen the turning together.
I just wasn’t sure where that turning would take us.
Whatever was between us was more than fucking, but we weren’t dating—were we?
Part of me wanted it all when it came to Sofia, but it wasn’t a part I was accustomed to heeding.
“Tomorrow morning, I’m taking you on a tour of my city,” she said. “I’m going to show you all the places tourists never get to see.”
I shifted and crawled over her on the sofa, laying her on her back as I slid her dress up her thighs. “If we have time. I plan to keep us very, very busy.”