Page 7 of The Flirtation
“What?”
“The villa is on the Grand Bahama Island. It would take longer if you flew London to Nassau, Nassau to Freeport, for somereason.”
“Unholy! I don’t even want to know the timedifference.”
“London’s five hours ahead. Same as if you were in NewYork.”
Five hours ahead. I’d have to start working at three in the morning there, which meant I’d have to go to sleep at eight-thirty, which I’d never be able to do, so obviously I wouldn’t be getting any sleep, which meant I’d be making bad decisions, and I couldn’t afford to make bad decisions around Avery Davis, that I knew for certain. “What terrible thing did I do to deservethis?”
“I don’t mean to speak out of turn, sir, but I would literally cut off my right arm if it meant I could go to the Bahamas for a week, all expenses paid, to stay at an exotic private villa with a champion surfer and a beautiful American lady,sir.”
“Please don’t call me ‘sir.’” Now I felt anxiousandold. I sighed and straightened myself up. “Point taken. I’ll make the best ofit.”
“Glad to hearit.”
“But that’s two full travel days. I’ll have to reschedule an entireweek.”
“Indeed. Well, I’ll have to reschedule it for you. Should be interesting. You’ve only ever been out of town on bank holidays since I’ve beenhere.”
“I haven’t taken off a day of work sinceI’vebeen here.” I had been at this consulting firm for fiveyears.
“Should be very interesting! First class flight, you ought to be able to sleep for most ofit.”
“Of course, right. Okay. You win. I’m done complaining.” All of my posh mates and clients jetted off to the Caribbean all the time. I knew it was possible to get work done around there, I mean if Sir Richard Branson can run his empire from a hammock, I could service my clients from a beach for a couple of days. I didn’t know why I was so resistant. That’s not true, I knew preciselywhy.
William showed me the website for Bucket’s rented villa, which was, indeed, exotic. “So you think Avery is beautiful, doyou?”
My assistant snapped out of some private little reverie. “Avery? Oh yes, Avery. Well certainly, I mean I’ve only caught glimpses of her when you’re Skyping, but her face is genuinely lovely, despite the tension in her jaw, rather tight shoulders and dark circles under her eyes from an obvious lack of sleep, but she is, without question, a very attractive woman by anyone’sstandard.”
“She is, isn’tshe?”
“Not my type, ofcourse.”
“Nor mine, ofcourse.”
“Ofcourse.”
William’s face scrunched up. “The only problemis…”
“I know, I know, she lives inAmerica.”
“No, I mean the only problem about you going to the Bahamas is that—aren’t you meant to visit Chiara this weekend? You have Valentine’s Day plans with her on Tuesday. I suppose you could be back in time forthat.”
Chiara.Bellisima, pazzoChiara. I hadn’t seen her in four weeks and was half-hoping it meant the end of our liaison, given that she had spent most of our last mini-break explaining how emotionally closed off I was and that I needed to live life more “through my penis.” It was a one-way argument. She certainly wasn’t wrong. I mean, what manwouldn’twant to live life more through his penis? I just had no intention of changing for her, and could see that she had no intention ofnotyelling at me in public. After she’d returned to Rome I hadn’t heard from her for two weeks, but then she called out of the blue to say I should join her for Valentine’s Day, which was the following Tuesday. She told me to make the dinner reservations and then described in great detail what she planned to do to me under the table during dessert. It would have been impolite to say “no.”
Now I would have to call and cancel our plans. I covered my ears, in anticipation of the pain that would soon be inflicted upon them. It wasn’t even the yelling that I was dreading, believe it or not—it was knowing that I’d be letting a woman down. Growing up with my mother and sisters, I’d seen firsthand what happened when women’s hearts are broken and I’d rather be honest and disappoint women upfront so they know what they’re getting into rather than fool them into thinking I’m some prince who’s going to give them their Happily Ever After. I wanted to believe that I’d never make a promise that I cannot keep, and I’d managed not to cock anything up for long stretches of time, but it felt like I was now hovering at the edge of a very slippery slope. It was a slope that would begin with me sliding past a beautiful hot-blooded Italian woman and end with me crashing into Avery. I had no idea what might happen afterwards, and wasn’t sure I was ready to findout.
