Page 6 of The Flirtation
“Like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan inYou’ve GotMail!”
“Exactly!”
“Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan get together at the end of thatmovie.”
“Wait—that’s not fair—I haven’t seenit!”
“You haven’t? How is thatpossible?”
I shrugged. “Too busy watchingWorkingGirl.”
“Whatever. Everyone knows they get together at the end of that movie, that’s how romantic comedieswork.”
“Ugh. That’s exactly why I don’t watch those movies.” It was true. I had steadfastly refused to watch romantic movies since I was fourteen years old, after I’d discovered that all romantic comedy movies were manipulative deceptive assholes—especially the ones from theNineties!
“Okay, we will discuss thatlater.”
I looked at my watch. “I don’t even have time to think about this, I have to get to a meeting. You’ll deal with all of the travel arrangements?” I grabbed my iPad and phone and headed for thedoor.
“Of course. I’ll deal with everything. I’ll call Luke’s assistant and Buck’s assistant to coordinate. You’ll have nothing to worryabout.”
“That’ll be the day. Thanks, Nat…Wait a minute—you talk to his assistant? About me andLuke?”
She blushed and looked down, but recovered quickly, while pushing her hair behind one ear. “I mean, of course, we talk about scheduling for you guys, and there’s a little bit of harmless chit-chatty type stuff, it’s not like we gossip about you oranything.”
“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, just curious.” I had a feeling we were both suckers for posh accents. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one. “Only—I mean, it goes without saying—please don’t tell his assistant we had thisdiscussion.”
“Avery. I wouldnever.”
“Iknow.”
As I passed by her, she said, “Um.Avery.”
“Seriously, we’re just business friends, it’snothing!”
“Cool.” She reached towards the back of my cardigan and I could feel her tucking the sales tag inside. “We can cut this off when you’re back from yourmeeting.”
I rolled my eyes and placed my hand on her shoulder. “I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you.” I start to head off to the meetingagain.
“Um.Avery.”
“What?!”
She raised her eyebrows and gazed down at my lower body. I followed her gaze and gasped. I had forgotten to change into the bottom half of my sexy librarian outfit! I was still wearing plaid pajama bottoms and Ugg boots. In a 1990’s romantic comedy movie I would have put on some heels, rolled up the hems of the pajama bottoms, and started a new fashion trend. In real life, I couldn’t be late for the monthly investment committee meeting, so I was the butt of my coworkers’ not very funny jokes for the next hour (wealth managers aren’t exactly renowned for being hilarious) and I didn’t have time to change until right before I had to leave for my lunchappointment.
Luke
“The Bahamas?!”My head was still in my hands, long after I’d hung up the phone with Howard Kaplan. My assistant William seemed more amused by my anxiety than concerned. “How long is that flight—ayear?”
“Nearly that...” He cringed. “Bear in mind that the end result will be arriving inparadise…”
“Just tellme.”
“Tenhours.”
“God!”
“From London to Florida, and then you hop a flight from Fort Lauderdale to the airport in Freeport—and that’s only around fiftyminutes!”
