Chapter 10
I felt like I had accomplished enough on my trip, so after giving my files a quick look-over, I took the rest of the weekend off.
I traded my business attire for yoga pants and a sweatshirt and went to the gym for a sweaty session.
After showering and dressing, I went at the store for groceries to restock my fridge, did laundry, and lounged in my favorite comfy chair with a new book.
Sunday, I called my grandmother for our Sunday time. I had much to tell her.
She was like a hungry chicken pouncing on a fat worm when I told her about Jack. She wanted to know all about him and what had happened in Arizona. I tried to tell her everything, but I held back my feelings about the situation. How I was conflicted, see-sawing between irritated and twitterpated.
We hung up with our usual kisses and I promised to keep her apprised of the Jack situation. Which wasn’t a situation. Obviously. It was a weird, isolated incident. What happened in Arizona stayed in Arizona.
The whole weekend, the thought of Jack was always close to the surface in my brain.
It was almost like a dream that it had happened.
I should have taken his picture on the plane while he was asleep.
Then I would have had tangible proof that it had been real.
But deep down, I knew I didn’t need proof.
I remembered the way he smiled at me, and that was enough.
I walked into the office the next morning with my arms full and my brain fizzing.
There were so many memories jostling for mental space, competing with the plans for the next phase of the Duvier/ Luxe deal.
I tried to stuff the Jack part of the past week into a closet and lock the door so that I could be professional.
As she caught sight of me, my PA, Diane, jumped up from her desk with a big smile. “Welcome back, Miss Lambert. I hope you had a good trip. Here’s your coffee.”
I had been a bit unsure when I’d hired Diane 3 years ago.
I wasn’t confident that she’d project the right image—for corporate and for me.
Where I preferred muted colors, classic designs, and minimalist jewelry, Diane tended toward bold colors, textured fabrics and chunky jewelry.
But I’d been impressed with her eye for detail, her work ethic, and her ability to throw together travel arrangements on the fly, and I hadn’t regretted a day of her time with me.
She maintained a very professional relationship with me.
In public. In private was another matter.
Following me into my office she shut the door behind us and squealed, “Eve! Stephanie in legal says you’re dating Jack Garcia! And Andrea in accounting says you’re sleeping with him! Girlfriend! Dish the dirt! What’s happened to Miss I-Don’t-Have-Time-For-Relationships?!”
I put my laptop on my desk and muttered yet another curse at Jack for so thoroughly pulverizing every aspect of my life.
I hadn’t considered that word of my “boyfriend” would follow me back to NY.
But of course it would. People talked and news travelled and if that gossip happened to be about a handsome celebrity, it travelled at the speed of light.
I waded into the conversational rainbow, heart, and sparkle eyes emojis that was Diane’s milieu. “Hi Diane. Thanks for the coffee. It’s good to be back,” I said slowly, stalling for time. How much should I share, knowing that Diane herself was a link in the chain of gossip?
“Well??” she demanded, arms, crossed, foot tapping. “Spill the beans! Did you do the dirty with the totally drool-worthy Jack Garcia?” She rolled her eyes in a swoon.
I laughed and shook my head. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Diane. There was no dirty going on with Jack. We just met and…hung out.” It sounded so lame when I put it like that, but I didn’t even know how to encapsulate our time together.
It had been just a couple of days, but it felt like it could have been a couple of weeks.
I shrugged regretfully. “I’m sorry there’s not more to tell. ”
Diane’s pinched face showed she was disappointed. She was forever trying to set me up, sure that I was just one man away from happiness.
“Are you going to see him again?” she asked, like a terrier with a chew toy, refusing to let go of the idea of me and Jack together. #Forever. Heart Heart Heart.
“Honestly? I doubt it. We’re both in New York, but it’s a big city, so not very likely we’d bump into each other in the produce aisle of Whole Foods.”
“No, I mean, will he call you? Ask you out? Propose and give you gorgeous babies with big brown eyes?”
I laughed at her enthusiasm. “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, Diane. Let’s just wait to see if he calls. And in the meantime, how about we do our jobs?”
She shot me a grumpy look from under her eyebrows. “I’m very disappointed in your lack of details, Eve.”
Shaking my head, knowing I’d regret it, I said, “He wears plaid boxers. Now go and get me the Kingston files.”
Diane squealed, clapped her hands and practically skipped from the room. Sigh. It was going to be a very long day.
I was arranging my work on my desk when Diane came back with the files. To forestall her questions about Jack, I went on the offensive.
“How are things going with, who’s the current love of your life, is it Tim?”
Diane’s romantic entanglements were legendary in the break room. The number of men she could keep on a string at any given time was amazing, but she never seemed to be able to just pick one and settle down.
She rolled her eyes at me and blew out a puff of air that set her severely chic bob-cut bouncing. “I am so over him. He’s a waste of planetary resources.”
“What happened? I thought you two were getting on really well.” I queried.
“Oh, we were. At least I thought we were. Till I found out he was going for Tinder frequent-swiper miles. Yeah, I’ve got no time for that, so I gave him the boot.” She made a shooing motion with her hands, dismissing the wandering Tim.
“So, who is the replacement?” I asked, knowing that there was already at least one adoring suitor in line.
“Well, there is this guy,” she confided as she half sat on my desk. “His name is Nigel and he’s ah-mazing. He’s British, so he’s got that whole sexy Brit accent going, and he’s super funny and smart. And as a bonus, he’s only in town for about a week out of the month.”
I knew what she meant. She got bored easily and having a boyfriend who wasn’t constantly hounding her for affection was a draw for her.
“So, what’s wrong with him?” There was always something wrong with them.
“OK, don’t take this the wrong way, but…he doesn’t rinse. And it kind of grosses me out.”
My forehead wrinkled as I tried to figure out what she was talking about. “Doesn’t rinse? Like in the shower he gets all lathered up and then doesn’t rinse?”
“Euw, no! That would be disgusting. I’m talking about his dishes.”
“You mean he doesn’t rinse them before putting them in the dishwasher?”
“No. He doesn’t have a dishwasher, so he hand washes everything and after he puts a plate in the soapy water and scrubs it, he doesn’t rinse it.
He just sets it in the drainer to rinse.
He says that the soap will just slide off as it dries.
It doesn’t. He made me a spaghetti dinner, and it tasted like Dawn. ”
“You could just eat all your meals out. Or get him a dishwasher. Is this a deal-breaker?”
Diane nibbled on her lower lip. “I’m not sure. He is hot and sexy and British…I’ll have to think on it some more.”
Having successfully derailed her planned interrogation, I motioned to my desk full of work and said, “I’d better get on this. Mr. Frank will want to hear all about the Luxe meeting.”
“Right! He said he’d like you to come to his office as soon as you got settled. I meant to tell you that right away, but…” she said with a guilty smile.
“It’s OK. I’ll go now.” I gathered up the pertinent information and tucked the files and my laptop under my arm and walked down the hall to the boss’s office.
While my office was beautiful with a deep pile carpet, a solid wood desk, a small sitting area with chairs and a sofa, and a breathtaking view of Manhattan and a sliver of Central Park, Merrick Frank’s office was on another level.
All of the executive offices were large and elegant, but Merrick’s was the plum, the corner office with an amazing view of the city skyline and a large patch of Central Park.
Louise, Merrick’s long-time secretary, assistant, and right arm was at her desk outside of the inner sanctum. She gave me a warm smile when she saw me and stood to give me a hug. “You look like you saw some sun in Arizona. Did you have a good time?”
“I did, thanks. Is he busy?” I asked.
“No, he just got off the phone. Go on in.”
I knocked lightly on the door and Merrick called out “Come in! I’m hoping it’s my amazing VP of Mergers and Acquisitions.” Merrick was one of my favorite people. He was a truly good boss. And it didn’t hurt that he looked like Santa Clause.
Smiling broadly, I greeted him with, “C’est moi.”
When I had graduated from the Sorbonne, my grandmother’s long-time neighbor and poker companion, Bernard, had introduced me to his good friend, Merrick Frank. With Bernard’s recommendation, Merrick had hired me straight away, for which I was eternally grateful.
Merrick rose from behind his desk and walked with me to the conference room attached to his office so we could go over my information.
As I spread out my notes and opened my laptop, Merrick kept up a steady stream of talk about how everything he’d heard from Luxe was marvelous.
I showed him my presentation, the contract, and then projections.
He nodded at all the appropriate points and asked pertinent questions.
When I finished my summary, he clapped his hands and rubbed them, like he was trying to start a friction fire. “Outstanding, Eve! I sent you to bring home the bacon and you brought back the whole hog with an apple in its mouth!”
“I’m so glad it all went so smoothly, sir. They were such a delightful team to work with. I think this is going to be an excellent partnership.”
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that taking Jack Garcia along as a bit of bait was a stroke of genius, Eve.
An absolute inspiration! I feel fairly certain that they were prepared to sign anyway but adding him to the offer really sealed the deal.
Well done!” he said, patting me on the back.
“I don’t know how you managed that, but I’m impressed! ”
I felt a bit faint, both from the overload of praise and from the knowledge that my boss knew that I’d spent my business trip with Jack.
Sleeping with Jack, if Andrea from Accounting was to be believed.
I smiled weakly and gathered my things, thanking Merrick for the compliments as well as the chance to represent the Duvier brand.
I hastened back to my office, my heart hammering in my chest. Did EVERYONE know?
Was I to be forever haunted by the specter of this man?
Surely, it would all die down. People would forget and move on.
It’s not like I was actually dating him.
Or would even see him again. I took a deep breath.
I just had to survive the next couple of days.
There would be curiosity and speculation, but I could politely brush it all aside and then people would move on to the next juicy morsel of gossip.
I spread out my work on my desk and sat down to work on the files that Merrick had pointed out.
I was very familiar with the numbers, but it did require concentration, so when Diane brought me a salad from the deli down the street for lunch, I surfaced only long enough to thank her and then put my head back down to the spreadsheets.
It wasn’t until I saw Diane putting on her coat that I realized it was 5:00. Where had the time gone? I was in the middle of a calculation, and it would be much easier to just finish than to try and get back into the groove tomorrow, so I decided to stay until I was done with that section.
I waved goodnight to Diane and was just looking back down at my desk when my phone rang. It was upside down on my desk to keep distractions to a minimum. The ringtone was not one I recognized. In fact, it sounded like…oh…no…
I turned my phone over and saw the handsome face of Jack Garcia. Grinning, of course. Because somehow, he’d hijacked my phone, taken a selfie, and put in his contact information. Oh, the nerve of that man!