Page 80 of Best In Class
I step out of the boat. “This is beautiful,” I say, and I mean it.
“So are you,” he replies, and he means it, too.
I look away, a smile tugging at my lips. “Charmer.”
He retrieves the backpack and picnic baskets.
We settle beneath a cypress tree, its branches trailing moss like lace curtains. I help him spread out the blanket while he inflates a pair of cushionsso that we can lie around like sheikhs.His words.
“I doubt sheikhs have cushions with the REI logo on them,” I tease.
“Well, you know, I once did work on a project in Saudi Arabia.”
“Tell me.”
He flops dramatically onto one of the cushions and folds his hands behind his head while I get to work on unpacking our picnic.
“It was a hotel project in Riyadh. My client was a veritable sheikh.”
“Wow!” I pull out the bottle of champagne.
“Yeah! And he insisted onmodern desert minimalism.”
“What on earth does that mean?” I pull out champagne glasses and set them on top of thefoodpicnic basket.
Dom sits up and takes the bottle from me, and starts to open it. “It means glass floors, gold fixtures, and a retractable falcon perch in the lobby.”
I give him a quizzical look. “A falcon perch?”
The cork comes out with a pop. “For his falcon.”
I laugh and hold a glass out as he pours golden bubbles into it. “He’s attached to Aladdin. That’s the name of the falcon.”
“Of course, it is.”
He sets the bottle back in the cooler, and I hand him a glass of champagne and take one for myself.
“Aladdin came to site meetings,” he pauses dramatically, “in a Gucci harness.”
I burst out laughing, nearly losing my drink. “You’re making this up.”
“I still have the email where the sheik CC’d his falcon’s handler. Subject line:For Aladdin’s approval.”
“Please tell me you printed that.”
“I framed it.”
I shake my head, grinning at him, enjoying him. “Did the sheikh pay well?”
“I bought my Fifth Avenue apartment right after,” he replies.
He holds his glass up.
“To wealthy sheikhs with golden falcons in Gucci harnesses,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Nah! Not our first toast.To you, Moonbeam, because no one looks as beautiful as you do when you laugh.”
Lord, but the man is laying it on thickandit’s working. Like,reallyworking.
