Page 17 of The Flirtation
I slowed down when I saw him standing on the patio, his hands in his pockets, my slate grey suitcase next to him. I didn’t ask him if he’d opened it and he didn’t say. I placed his suitcase down in front of him and picked up my own. He smiled—no, he grinned—and nodded at me before taking his suitcase and turning back towards hissuite.
“Are you married?” I found myself asking. I may have yelled it, because he seemed prettystartled.
“I’m not,” he said, quite plainly, as he turned back to face me. “Areyou?”
“Nope.”
“Good toknow.”
“Listen,” I said. “I mean, look, we’re here forwork.”
“Yes.”
“We work very well together—for work—and we may have, well, a certain dynamic, shall wesay—”
“Exactly,yes.”
“— over Skype, but now that we’rehere…”
“Agreed.”
“Oh?”
“Absolutely, I’m so glad you brought thisup.”
“Youare?”
“Yes, it’s good to know you feel the sameway.”
“Whichis?”
“Which iswhat?”
“Which way do we both feel,exactly?”
“That we must maintain a professional distance while we are in close proximity to eachother.”
“Ah. Yes.”Now that you’ve seen me in person you think I’m an ogre.“Exactly. Indeed.”Fine. Screw you, you’re not exactly James Bond, I’m not exactly swooning overhere.
He headed back to his pavilion. “It won’t be easy,” I heard him say. He looked over his shoulder at me,smirking.
Shit.
Ireturned to my room,closed all of the doors and windows, to make sure no one could hear me when I made my frantic call toJackie.
“Did you have sex with him yet?” she said when sheanswered.
“No, but this is a total disaster. He’s more attractive in person and there are extra large condoms involved and also I forgot to mention to you that I told him I have a boyfriend named Haruki Potter who’s half Japanese and is out of town on electrical engineer business a lot. Don’t judge me, I needhelp.”
She didn’t even laugh. “Don’t call me back until you’ve told him that you told a stupid little lie because you were scared about how devastatingly attractive he is, and he’s buggered you senseless with his king-size cock.” She hungup.
She was right. She was always right. And I knew I’d be calling her back before any of the above happened because they probably neverwould.
Natalie had sent me a text that said:All is well at the office. Stephanie Sloan called again. Told her you’re in Bahamas and can’t be disturbed. Please tell me you have sand between your toes and an umbrella drink in your hand.xx
Bless her twenty-two year old heart. I wrote back:Umbrella drink between toes and sand in hand. Oops. Will figure this out eventually. Contact me with ANYTHING urgent, seriously.xx
I checked my emails and decided to call a particularly neurotic client to discuss the stock market, in an attempt to get myself into an unfrisky state of mind. It almost worked. But the floral arrangement on the side table smelled so sensual. The views outside my windows were screensaver-worthy. I had intended to take a brisk cool shower to wash the airplane stank off of me, but the en suite bathroom was bigger than my entire apartment and I was mesmerized by the tiles on the shower walls. The warm water cascaded down like a waterfall; the body gel was silky and had some sexy tropical beach smell. I found myself cursing Wharton for not offering a course in How to do Business in the Bahamas While Keeping it in Your Pants. Lord knows, it would be wellattended.
As I dried off, I made a mental list of the things I found unattractive about Luke, now that I’d seen him inperson.
1. Haven’t seenbare arms yet, but judging from the way his shirtsleeves cling to his biceps, they‘re a little too big for my taste. In order to look like that he’d have to spend hours at the gym, when he should be at the office.Disappointing.
2. Pecs also seem too well defined. Seeabove.
That’s as faras I’d gotten before realizing it was time to get ready for dinner. I had to look good, but not too good. I needed to chill out, remain professional, and try not to act like a horny idiot. Which simply meant that I needed to stay sober and avoid being alone withLuke.
