16. Mary
Mary
Cameron Delahunt – the name suited him much more than John, I had to admit – was standing now and glancing down at me periodically, sending very strong do not dare to leave signals while obviously trying to extricate himself from the emcee who seemed loathe to let him go. I couldn’t blame her, in fairness.
Maggie, who’d rushed off to go to another talk, thankfully hadn’t seemed to notice the intense, silent eye-exchange between Cameron Delahunt and me.
I felt like I had to say his whole name to myself in a bid to negate what had happened between us. That had been John and Elizabeth. Not Cameron Delahunt and Mary Ryan.
He was walking away from the woman now and he looked at me explicitly as he went to the side of the stage, down some steps, then headed along the front row of the chairs until he got to me.
I gulped and stood up. He was even taller and more impressive than I remembered.
My court shoes were only a few inches high and I felt the lack as I looked up, wondering why I felt like I should be apologising.
Hadn’t we both been on board with a one-night hook-up?
Not that we’d really discussed it much. Too busy fu?—
‘So, it’s Mary Ryan.’
I realised he was looking down at my chest. Well, to the lanyard resting between my breasts.
He read the full title with some apparent relish. ‘Mary Ryan, Senior Executive Officer of Erin Recruitment Agency.’
Feeling defensive, I said, ‘My second name is Elizabeth.’
He looked at me and a jolt of electricity went through my blood. ‘And mine is John. My delinquent parents at least left me with solid names and nothing too crazy.’
It came back to me now that he’d revealed his parents hadn’t been around. After I’d more or less spilled my guts about my tragic past. Among all the
fu—
‘Where are you going now?’
I felt a little dazed when he asked that. Where even was I? I looked around. The hall was pretty much empty apart from a few lingering people, chatting and very obviously looking in our direction, no doubt wondering what on earth this god could have to say to me.
‘I have another talk to go to.’
‘Really? You have to? I’m finished. I have a plane waiting to take me back to New York. You should come with me.’
I looked at him. I felt hot. Dizzy. Maybe Maggie was right. Maybe I was sick. I blinked but he was still there, his mouth quirking up a little bit in a way that had become familiar. This time yesterday I hadn’t even known this man existed!
‘Come on,’ he said, cajoling. ‘Haven’t you ever done anything really spontaneous?’
Was he mad? I hadn’t been allowed to be spontaneous since before my parents died and even then I’d been in school, so it hadn’t exactly been conducive to last-minute flits across the Atlantic Ocean.
He was looking at me, waiting for an answer.
I shook my head. ‘That’s totally nuts.’
He kept looking at me.
‘You’re serious.’
‘Deadly. I thought I was never going to see you again and usually after a night with a woman that thought fills me with relief. But I have to admit meeting you again feels a little too serendipitous to pass up.’
My insides somersaulted. It was serendipitous. It’s fate, whispered a dreamy voice. I smacked it away. No such thing as fate. But I had had second thoughts about running out like I had. Feeling shy, I said, ‘I wanted to leave my number, but then I thought last night wasn’t about that.’
‘I think last night … surprised us both.’
That lurch again. My heart felt like it was up in my throat.
Was he really serious? Go to New York? Caitlin and Johnny were there.
I could see them. I could have gone any time, but in truth I was nervous about reuniting with Johnny face to face.
There had been so much tension between us before he’d left home.
But that had been years ago. And we had been reconnecting over video calls.
Feeling myself weaken, I tried to hang on to reality. ‘But I can’t just … leave.’
‘You can do anything you want.’
Another jolt to the gut. Yes, I could do anything I wanted. It was still such a novel sensation. Exhilarating and slightly terrifying.
As if he could hear my inner turmoil, he said, ‘It’s the weekend tomorrow and I believe it’s a long weekend?’
I nodded. ‘It’s a public holiday on Monday, yes.’
‘So then, you wouldn’t have to come back till next week. Enjoy some time off, it sounds like you’ve earned it.’
If I took the redundancy, I’d be facing more time off than I’d know what to do with. A spurt of illicit excitement gripped me. Could I really do this? Dee’s voice in my head: Go for it, Maro – you only live once.
Before I could overthink it, I was saying, ‘I … OK, yes, I’ll come with you.’
His eyes widened. He hadn’t been totally sure of my response and that heartened me. He was so assured about everything.
He smiled. ‘I have a car waiting outside.’
‘I’ll have to go home and get some things … my passport.’
‘Not a problem.’
‘I’ll meet you out front. I need to find my colleague and let her know I’m leaving.’
I walked away before I did something stupid like retract everything I’d just said and scuttle back under my comfortable rock. Or, jump into his arms and beg him to kiss me again.
I found Maggie in another hall and sidled in, sitting down next to her.
She’d saved me a seat. ‘Actually, Mags,’ I said in a whisper, mentally crossing my fingers.
‘I think I will go home. Maybe I am coming down with something.’ More like going down on someone. I ignored the snarky voice in my head.
She looked at me with concern. ‘Yeah, you’re still pretty flushed – I’ll buzz you later to see how you are.’
‘I’m sure I’ll be OK. I’ll text you.’
‘OK, hon.’
I felt bad about lying to Maggie as I sidled out again, but I would explain to her another time when this crazy episode was over.
Cameron wanted to continue what we’d started last night and so did I.
A spontaneous long weekend to indulge in this totally unexpected encounter.
And I could use this as an opportunity to see Johnny and Caitlin, and think about what I was going to do with my future.
And have lots more sexy times with the sexiest man alive in the process.
I was ready to start living for myself and it felt … amazing.