Page 5 of The Flirtation
“Oh.” I was not expecting that. “I mean—five days though? I can’t leave here for five days! What about my otherresponsibilities?!”
“You mean your personalresponsibilities?”
I scoffed. “Of coursenot.”
“Well, he called it a ‘workation.’ I mean, Buck’s a businessman, I guarantee you he’ll have great reception and Wi-Fi out there, we’ll check the website for the villa, but I’ll bet you anything there’ll have full-scale business facilities. His assistant sent a link to the website. It’sincredible.”
She shuffled over in her four-inch heel boots and shoved her iPad in my face. The villa did indeed look incredible, though I was skeptical about the amount of Photoshopping that could have been done on the photos. Or they could have been taken thirty years ago. Or maybe I was just a cynical New Yorker who really needed a vacation. Regardless, it was not some shack on the beach. “Thanks,” I said, as I opened up my schedule. I hesitated before asking this next question, because I didn’t want my assistant to think I was an idiot, but I didn’t have time to look it up. “Is the Bahamas another country? Do I need mypassport?”
“Interesting question!” Natalie straightened up her posture, like she was an expert being interviewed on a PBS show. “The Bahamas is a British commonwealth country, and technically US citizens are allowed to enter without a passport, however they can’t re-enter the US without one, so yes you’ll need yourpassport.”
Before I even started to ask my next question, she continued, “But you can use US dollars there, at par! Also,” Natalie offered, “Howard did tell you to delegate to Sylvia for theweek.”
“I can’t delegate to Sylvia for an entire week! What kind of message would that be sending to theclients?”
“Um. Well, you haven’t taken a vacation since you’ve been here,right?”
“Exactly.”
“I mean, everyone takes vacations, Avery, it’s not like anyone’s going to think you’re slacking off oranything.”
I knew she was right. Of course she was right. But every cell in my body was dreadingthis.
Line one rang. Natalie answered from my phone. “Avery Davis’s office…She’s on her way to a meeting, can I have her return?...You got it.” She hung up the phone and rolled her eyes. “Stephanie Sloan’s officeagain.”
I wrinkled my nose. Stephanie Sloan was Bucket’s junior lawyer and for some reason she’d been calling me every day for a week, grilling me about his finances. It was like being bludgeoned to death by a Victoria’s Secret model. “Have Sylvia return that one,” Isaid.
She winked at me. She was probably going to do that anyway. “Is this aboutLuke?”
“Is what about—Luke who? I wasn’t even thinking abouthim.”
“Right. You were just dreaming about him,” she grinned, as she closed my office door and then slowly re-approached mydesk.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” My older sister Jackie referred to Luke as Sir Flirty McFlirtson. I have regretted the bottle of wine that had led me to telling her about him, but she was the only person I could talk to about him. But I had to talk about him now. I needed to talk about him. I felt I could trust Natalie, and that I could use a twenty-two year-old’s perspective for a change. It was happening. I was about to make girl talk with my assistant. “We just have a pleasant business rapport,” I’dsaid.
She laughed. “A business rapport? Please. I’ve listened in on your calls. You guys practically disrobe each other with yourvoices.”
“That’s just what his voice is like—he has a sexy voice, I’m sure he’s like that witheveryone.”
“He’s not, actually, I asked hisassistant.”
“Shut up—really?”
“He said Luke has a big stupid grin on his face for an hour after he talks toyou.”
My face erupted in a massive smile. The thought of him being as happy as I was after we connected filled me with unadulterated joy. I immediately covered my mouth and started organizing my desktop. “It’s just a little transatlantic flirtation. I mean, everybody flirts at work, it’s no big deal, it just makes things more fun and easy, it doesn’t meananything.”
“Youdon’t flirt, ever. I’ve literally never seen you flirt in the year that I’ve worked for you. Like,ever.”
“I flirt! I flirt witheveryone!”
“No, you don’t. You flirt with no one,ever.”
“I know! It’s just with him—it’s so weird! I don’t even try, it just happens! He just makes me feel so pretty and special or something, and I hear that accent and I can’t stop smiling and being clever and trying to make him like me. Ugh, it’s so stupid. I have to stop. It’sgross.”
“It is not gross! You’re twenty-seven not seventy-two and it is exactly how thingsshouldbe between you and a man of the opposite sex and you definitely don’t have to stop.” Dammit, that was what my sister alwayssaid.
“I’m glad I don’t have to stop, because apparently I can’t. I mean it’s barely even a flirtation, it’s a work friendship really, based entirely on communication throughtechnology.”
