Chapter 19
19
At the office, Iris was a hero.
The meet-and-greet tour and the ambassador partnership with Angel had raised the company’s profits, and it seemed that the Turks and Caicos food poisoning fiasco was all but forgotten. As Iris walked through the halls, her colleagues smiled at her and went out of their way to say hello. Dominique started every conversation with, “Here’s my star!” Paloma, who was officially working from home, sent Iris a beautiful bouquet and made plans to take her out to lunch.
And everyone—seriously everyone —wanted to know about Angel. What was he like behind closed doors? Was he nice or was he an asshole? What did they do in their downtime on the tour? Did they hang out? Did he try to hit on her or Bree?
Iris gave the same boring, succinct response every time: “Angel was sweet and very easy to work with.”
No one would have guessed that she knew him much better than she let on. And why would they? She was Iris. Dependable, straightforward Iris. It was like she had a secret, all to herself.
It had been a week since she’d stayed over at his place. While her life had more or less returned to normal—dropping Calla off at day camp, commuting to work—Angel had been constantly on the go. He’d traveled to Los Angeles for business meetings, to London for a movie premiere because he’d been featured on the soundtrack, and from there, he’d flown to Paris with Violet to visit a fashion designer’s showroom.
Iris kept in touch with him through text. Throughout the days, her phone vibrated with alerts. To avoid drawing suspicion, she had him saved in her phone under the name Tom Wyatt.
Monday, 3:21am
Just left the studio in LA. Omw to In N Out. You ever try it?
Wednesday, 3:00pm
This is what the sky looks like in London right now. Nonstop rain!
Thursday, 4:41am
Ayo, Leah just sent me this pic. Maxine ripped one of my Jays in HALF!! Idk what to do with her sometimes. You wanna dog sit? I feel like you could turn her into a proper lady
His texts made Iris smile wide and goofy. Other than her sisters, Angel was the only person she’d texted with consistently in years. It was nice to have someone to message about the random musings of her day, like how she almost always burned her tongue on her tea in the morning, or that she needed specific scented candles for her office because certain scents gave her a headache.
He liked hearing about everything, from what she ate for breakfast to what she did to unwind after dinner. He wanted to see pictures of her office and he teased her about how it looked even more organized than he’d imagined. He wanted to know every mundane detail—things that Iris thought most people would find boring. But through Angel’s eyes, she wasn’t plain, serious, rule-abiding Iris. She was someone who was interesting.
He’d returned to New York late last night. Currently, he was uptown at the recording studio. She wished that she could stop by and see him, but she had other responsibilities. She needed to hop on the express train after work to get Calla from her parents’ house because they were picking her up from day camp. Iris wasn’t entirely sure when she’d see Angel again. It made her skin prickle with longing.
She was rereading their text thread when a knock at her office door caused her to look up.
“Hey, ready for the meeting?” Bree asked. She tilted her head. “You must have gotten some good news. Your smile is on a thousand!”
Iris felt her face grow warm. “Just texting my sisters.”
She grabbed her notepad and followed Bree into the hall. Today’s meeting was a strategy planning session for the upcoming holiday season. Holiday sets were being revealed earlier and earlier these days. Some well before Halloween, and the SFB team needed to capitalize on their sudden renaissance and give the holidays their best shot.
“Here’s our star,” Dominique sang, gesturing toward Iris as she walked into the conference room, like she was a prize on The Price Is Right .
Pat Jones, SFB’s CFO, and Ed Brown, the COO, sat on either side of Dominique. They looked very similar, tall white guys with graying blond hair. In her early days with the company, Iris had struggled to tell them apart.
“Sales are still way up,” Pat said. “Not just on the skincare products but makeup products across the board.”
“Google hits on Save Face Beauty are through the roof.” Ed grinned.
Iris could see the dollar signs flashing in their eyes. Before, she would have eaten up this kind of praise. But as she sat down across from them, she didn’t feel that spark or excitement from an achievement. She’d thought after the meet-and-greet tour that some of her inspiration might come back. But so far, nothing.
Maybe she was just tired. She probably should have taken a vacation this week.
The marketing team kicked off the meeting, and Iris jotted down notes as they spoke. Her phone vibrated in her lap with a new text from Angel.
Any chance you have time this afternoon to stop by the studio? I’m about to take a break.
Iris bit her lip. If only that were a possibility. After this meeting, she’d eat a quick lunch before her weekly check-in with Bree.
Probably not , she texted back. I’m sorry.
It’s cool , came his reply. I just miss you.
She stared at her phone. He missed her. It meant that she’d been on his mind, that the lack of her presence was felt. She felt the same sense of longing for him. The sound of her colleagues’ voices were drowned out completely as she reread his text.
I miss you too , she responded.
She opened her calendar. This current meeting would end exactly at noon. Her meeting with Bree was at one fifteen p.m. Usually, she worked through lunch and ate at her desk because it gave her a chance to catch up on emails. But she wanted to see Angel. Would it really be so difficult to use her lunch hour to stop by the studio and say hi?
Actually, I’ll come by during my lunch break , she texted. But I can’t stay long.
For real?? Great! Can’t wait to see you.
The rest of the meeting dragged. Iris tried to suppress the urge to bounce her feet. By the time the meeting ended, she practically flew from her seat. Dominique called her name, and Iris sputtered to a stop at the door.
“Want to get lunch?” Dominique asked. “How about Selene? My treat.”
Iris felt like a wide-eyed deer stuck in oncoming traffic. She wanted to see Angel but at the same time, how could she refuse lunch with her boss?
Iris fumbled for a reply. “I—um…”
“You know what, I forgot I have that call with a new investor,” Dominique said, waving her hand. “Tomorrow, yeah?”
Iris released an imperceptible sigh of relief. “Absolutely.”
Angel offered to have a car pick Iris up, but she was worried that would be too conspicuous. Instead, she took the N train uptown. When she reached the studio, Ray was standing outside, smoking. He tossed his cigarette and crushed it beneath his boot. He flashed Iris a wry grin.
“Well, hello, hello,” he said.
Iris cleared her throat, suddenly self-conscious. It hadn’t occurred to her that someone else who knew her might see her here. “Hi, Ray. How are you?”
“I’m doing just dandy. How are you ?”
Oh, the way he smiled at her. He knew why she was really here. She still felt the need to save face, though.
“I’m well. I’m here to see Angel. He left something at the event last week, and—”
“No need for all that,” Ray said, opening the door for her. He tapped his temple. “I know what’s going on. I hope you’ll forgive me for poking my nose into your and Angel’s business. It’s my job to know.”
She nodded silently, cheeks heating, as she stepped inside.
“Had to run a background check on you,” he said.
She whipped around to face him, eyes wide. “You did ?”
“Yep. Don’t worry. You passed with flying colors.” He winked and pointed to the elevator. “Angel’s on the third floor. First door to the right.”
“O-oh,” she stuttered. “Okay, thanks.”
She followed Ray’s directions and exited the elevator on the third floor. She stopped at the first door on the right and knocked lightly before turning the knob. Angel was standing in the recording booth and his producer friend, whom she’d met at the club in LA, was seated in front of the mixing board.
Angel glanced up at her, and the smile that he gave her was worth a million bucks.
—
Angel’s week had been filled with work on top of work and with missing Iris. Wanting her, wishing he could be next to her, and now she was here. He felt an intense rush of euphoria as he looked at her.
He eased off his headphones and stepped out of the recording booth. Iris stepped farther into the room and Angel walked over to her.
“Hey,” he said, once he reached her. He was trying his best to contain the eagerness of his smile. He was physically buzzing with the desire to be closer to her.
“Hi.” She sounded a little breathless as she looked up at him through her lashes.
He hugged her and was careful to keep his touch light, knowing that Malik was watching. Only he and Iris knew the truth about their relationship. And Ray, of course. He had to tell him. And Leah. And he figured her sisters probably knew by now too…
Iris felt so soft as she hugged him back, and she smelled amazing.
“You remember, Malik, right?” he said, reluctantly pulling away. “Malik, this is Iris.”
Malik stood and shook Iris’s hand. “Sorry again about my boy splashing you that night.”
Iris smiled. “It’s okay. Already forgotten.”
Malik told Angel that he was going to grab food and would be back later. Once they were alone, Angel and Iris turned to each other. Her gaze roamed his face. He wondered if she knew how starved she looked for him.
He opened his arms and she stepped into his embrace. He held her closely, tightly like he’d been wanting to. He used his index finger to tip her chin up, lifting her face toward his. He bent down and kissed her deeply.
“How’s your day been?” she asked when he pulled away, brushing her fingers across his collarbone.
“Hectic.” All week he’d been running around like a wild man—a well-dressed, supremely groomed wild man—but that was his life, where the world felt like it was spinning at three times its normal speed. “How about you?”
“It’s been okay.” She walked over to the mixing board and ran her hands over the keyboard. She leaned down and peered at the computer desktops, which showed his layered vocals. “What have you been working on?”
He walked closer. “You wanna hear?”
She nodded, shoulders hitching up in excitement. She was so adorable, he couldn’t help himself as he kissed her again.
They sat down, and Angel played back the song they’d been working on for the past few hours. He’d temporarily titled it “Us, Me, You.” It was a song about seeing a girl every day by chance and loving her from afar. He’d written it while on the flight from Paris. It had a slow, funky beat, sort of Marvin Gaye but with a modern R & B feel. He watched Iris’s face as she listened quietly and nodded to the beat. He bit his lip, anxious to know if she liked the song. He wanted to impress her, this woman who was not so easily impressed.
When the song ended, she beamed at him. “I love it.”
“Really?” At first, he tried not to show how he hung on her praise, but then again, he was never one to play it cool. He pulled her close and kissed her. She laughed, cradling his face in her hands, kissing him back.
“I’m glad you like it.” He leaned his forehead against hers before he pulled away. He sighed. “The label won’t.”
“Right,” she said quietly, placing her hand over his. “You said they want you to stay in the same lane.”
He sighed again, rubbing his jaw. “Yeah, and as a creative, there’s no excitement in that. But I don’t want my sales to drop. That’s what they’re worried about.”
“I think that you know yourself better than anybody at your label,” she said. “And I witnessed firsthand how much your fans adore you. I think they’ll love whatever you put out, so why not make the music you want, especially if it’s this good?”
She had such a clear-cut way of seeing things. He wished he could be the same. He slid her chair closer to him. He toyed with the hem of her skirt. “You make good points.”
“I usually do,” she said, smiling. “Everybody at work keeps asking me about you.”
“Hmm.” He smirked. “What do you tell them?”
“That you were a pleasure to work with.”
He raised an eyebrow. “A pleasure . Wow.”
She laughed. “Honestly, I kind of like when they ask about you, because it adds some excitement to my day. Otherwise, at work, I feel so…blah.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Blah?”
“Yeah. You’d think that with the success of the skincare-line rollout, I’d jump at coming up with some new ideas, but I don’t have any and I don’t really want to spend time working on a new project, which is so wild to me, because I used to live for that. I’m bored .” She looked at him and laughed wryly. “I know, it’s a corporate office job, so boredom is to be expected. But I used to come to work energized every day.”
“It’ll come back,” he said. “Or you’ll find something else.”
“Something else,” she repeated. “It’s weird but for a long time, I haven’t imagined anything other than being at SFB.”
“Well, if you decide to leave, I know any other company would kill to have you.”
He spread his hand over her thigh, and he watched as goose bumps appeared on her skin at his touch. Over the past week, he’d thought of them naked in his bed more times than he could count.
“Can I go in the booth?” she whispered, pulling his mind from his fantasies.
He smiled. “Yeah, come on.”
He led her into the booth and placed the headphones on her ears. “I’m gonna play a beat,” he said. “You can sing, rap, whatever you want.”
“Sing?” she said, turning to him with a laugh. “You know I can’t sing.”
“Your voice isn’t terrible ,” he said. “Could you use some lessons? Probably, but I’ll give them to you for free.”
She playfully smacked his arm, and he returned to the mixing board and turned up the volume on her headphones. He played one of Malik’s beats, and Iris held the headphones to her ears. She couldn’t hear him while in the booth, so he held up his fingers as he counted her in. She nodded along to the beat and started to rap.
“My name is Iris, and I…like Angel. He looks so good…I want a bagel.”
Angel burst out laughing. Iris covered her mouth with her hands, laughing too. Her smile softened as she looked at him. His laughter quieted as he gazed back at her.
Come here , he mouthed, curling his index finger and beckoning her to him.
She took off her headphones and left the booth, returning to him. He pulled her into his lap and brought her lips to his. Their tongues brushed against each other and Iris adjusted herself, moving closer, and he grew hard instantly. He pulled back and used the pad of his thumb to remove the smeared lipstick from her chin.
“You’ve got some lipstick on your face too,” she said, gently brushing her fingers over his mouth.
He kissed her fingers, and his heart pounded at a steady rhythm as his hands roamed down her waist to her thighs. She leaned forward and kissed him again, pressing her breasts against his chest. She began to rock in his lap, a sensual back-and-forth motion that drove him mad. He adjusted her so that she straddled him. She gazed at him, biting her lip.
“Do we have time?” Iris asked, breath hitching.
“Yes,” he said, against her mouth.
They kissed again, groping at each other, knocking hands as she hiked up her skirt and Angel reached for his zipper. He kept one hand on her as he leaned down to retrieve a condom from his leather duffel bag on the floor. He turned, eager to kiss her again.
“Wait, wait. I meant to ask, are you seeing anyone else?” Iris said. Her chest fell and rose quickly on deep breaths. “I should have brought this up before. But it just occurred to me to ask, and if you don’t mind, I would prefer to be exclusive—”
“I’m not seeing anyone else,” he said, pulling her close again as he slipped on the condom. “Only you.”
Her relief was obvious, and it touched him. “Only you,” he repeated.
She reached down and brushed her fingers against his hardness. He slid her panties to the side, and she lifted up and sank down onto him slowly. He loved being inside of her. The exquisite feel of her made him see stars. She moaned quietly and let her head fall back as she rode him, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was no match for her when he watched her like this. He touched her at the space where they were joined, feeling her wetness. As her quiet moans grew more ragged, she whispered his name, and he came hard, unexpectedly. She kept riding him until she found her release as well.
Then she lay against him and they breathed deeply, hands clasped.
An alarm sounded on her phone, startling both of them.
“I have to get back to work,” she whispered.
Angel hooked his hands behind her back, kissing her, wishing that she could stay. But he knew he’d have to let her go. He sighed, and Iris slowly eased off him. They stood and righted their clothes. He tossed the condom in the trash bin, reminding himself to dispose of it before Malik came back. Although what he and Iris had just done felt amazing, he wanted more than just a quickie with her in the middle of the day before they both went back to work.
He wanted more from her in general. She wanted to see where things went. The question mark hovered above his head, and he craved a more definitive direction for them. But he knew that if he were to ask her for more, it might not end well. If she wasn’t ready, she might shut them down altogether. He rolled his shoulders and shook off those thoughts, focusing on how she was here with him now.
She smiled sadly. “I’m sorry I can’t stay longer.”
“It’s cool,” he said, hugging her close. “I’ll call you tonight. It might be late.”
“I’ll answer.”
They shared one last hug and kiss before Iris slipped out of the room.