“You mean you weren’t going to invite me like a regular guest? I thought I meant more to you than that.”
Xander dropped into his leather office chair and pressed his free hand over his eyes. Maybe Judy was right about this, too. Even if he didn’t have any plans to find a nice girl and settle down, the cost of keeping up his image was becoming too high. Some of the women had been truly hurt when he never called them or asked them out again. He hated seeing the disappointment at the end of dates when he gave a cool goodbye and made no promises to call again.
Most of them didn’t have his personal number and he wished that he hadn’t given it to Olivia. A huge lapse in judgment on his part, since she had been hounding him for weeks now under the guise of needing information for articles.
“I can get you an invitation if that’s what you want,” Xander said. “The press pass would be easier but let me know. I’ll have my administrative assistant take care of the details.”
“Xan, that sounds so impersonal. I thought maybe I might be your date. But then when I didn’t hear from you, I at least thought I’d be invited to your big event. I really thought we connected.”
The only connection had been the kiss she plastered onto his lips when he walked her to the door of her building. She had practically shoved him up against the wall, her doorman looking horrified. Xander felt like he was lucky to escape with none of his clothing ripped off when he had jerked away.
Normally he would have pulled the plug completely on even answering her calls, but she had started hinting that she would use her position with the press to drag him down. Until the gala and the official launch of the foundation, Xan couldn’t afford anything negative in the press.
“Liv, sweetie, I’m afraid I’m not interested in a relationship with you. But let me know if you’d like the invitation or the press pass. Either one. I want to make sure you have what you need to cover the event.”
“I need to get some quotes from you. Maybe over a dinner…”
“I’ll have my admin assistant get you set up with a time for a phone interview sometime this week. Talk with you soon, Liv.”
Xander could hear her protesting in a whiny voice as he hung up the phone. “Wyatt, I need to make sure that Olivia Prescott has a press pass and is on the guest list as a guest.”
“She needs both, sir?”
Xander sighed. “She is very needy, yes.”
“It’s done,” Wyatt said. “If you don’t need me for anything else at the moment, I need to go over some details. I’m going to make the calls from the conference room.”
“That’s fine. By the way, your bonus was also deposited into your account today. I hope I don’t need to remind you that I still need you on top of your game until the gala is over. Then we’ll have one more week and Christmas vaction.”
Wyatt grinned as he closed his laptop. “Thank you, Xander. Uh, I mean, sir.”
Xander held back a smile at Wyatt’s slip as he darted out of the room. He had almost earned the status of getting to call Xander by his first name. After Jake left, Wyatt had quickly become almost his replacement, at least as far as conversation and companionship. But it was too soon to let Wyatt know or to create a higher position for him. Soon, but not yet.
Xander sat behind his desk, looking at his daily schedule on his phone. A text from Olivia popped up and he ignored it. Next week the gala would be over, and he could more officially and firmly let Olivia know not to call or text him again. She would probably make him pay publicly in the pages of the paper. Xan could take it as long as it didn’t hurt the Foundation’s launch. He also knew one of the higher-ups at the Tribune. If it came to that, he could have a word with him. Maybe that could prevent Olivia from doing too much damage.
He could only hope.