Page 60 of A Lot to Unpack
I suppose we’ll see, won’t we?
24
If it sounds like a date, looks like a date and plays out like a date, then it’s a date, right? That’s what I’m telling myself, to keep myself in the right frame of mind, to psych myself up to ask Jordan out.
I’m caked in makeup, I’m wearing an incredibly complicated bra that is doing so much I feel like I should be paying it a salary, and I must have spent forty-five minutes with my straighteners, pulling and twisting my long blonde locks to make curls – curls that will surely drop within the hour, but they’ll be there when I ask him out at least. Hopefully that’s enough.
Apparently it could snow (but I am trying to look sexy) so I’ve teamed my black mini dress with my over-the-knee boots. I can throw on my big coat, to head out, but so long as I look fire when I ask then maybe, just maybe, he might say yes. Failing that, if I’m not quite as sizzling as I’m aiming for, then hopefully going out with me will be mildly more entertaining than sitting in a room alone, so he still might say yes.
I strike a pose, leaning on the wall slightly, popping my hip just a little, and then knock the adjoining door.
Unless… oh God. What if he already has plans? What if he’s already got a date booked in? He had what I can only describe as groupies fawning all over him after his speech. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a date – I’d be surprised if he had only one date. Shit.
Too late now. I’ve already knocked. And now I’m staring at the door, wondering whether to panic about the fact he probably already has a date, or that I don’t think I know how to flirt any more. The only thing I got from Paige was that I should bite him.
I can hear movement behind the door so there’s no time to strategise (I’m probably not going to bite him though) and then it opens, Jordan appears, and his eyes widen.
‘Wow,’ he blurts. ‘Look at you.’
My brain goes blank, my mouth goes dry, I can’t move a muscle. I wasn’t expecting a reaction from him and it has completely disarmed me. I’m sure no time has passed at all, but it feels like I’m frozen. What do I do? What do I say? How am I fucking this up already?
Suddenly it occurs to me, Jordan’s speech from earlier, about knowing your worth. If I tell myself that I’m a £6 bottle of water, then maybe I can convince him of that too. I can do this.
‘This old thing?’ I joke.
I try to keep my tone light, easy-breezy. I want to seem casual but with an undertone of desire. He needs to know I want to spend the evening with him, if I want him to say yes.
‘Are you going somewhere nice?’ he asks.
‘I thought it might be nice to go out for dinner, see the city,’ I tell him. ‘I wondered if you had any recommendations for me?’
‘I can think of a few places,’ he replies, leaning on the doorframe, matching my body language. ‘It depends what you fancy…’
What I fancy is him, but I probably shouldn’t say that, should I? Unless it will help…
‘What I fancy is you coming with me,’ I tell him.
And there it is, I’ve said it. I was bold and flirty and not myself, but the genie is out of the bottle now. Now I need to see what he says.
He raises an eyebrow, like he wasn’t expecting me to say that (neither was I) but then he grins, letting me know it’s not an unpleasant surprise.
‘I’ll get ready right now, give me fifteen minutes,’ he replies.
There’s a spring in his step as he dashes into his room to get ready.
Most surprisingly of all, he leaves the adjoining door open. Shit, it’s working, I’ve got his guard down. It does cross my mind that now could be the perfect time to slink in there, swap the contract (it’s in my handbag, it would only take me a second or two to grab it) but the adjoining door is in the main entrance way to our rooms, meaning you can’t really see into the main part of the rooms from it, so I can’t tell if he’s in the bedroom or the bathroom. If he were in the bathroom then maybe, just maybe I could have time to get in there and do it. But if he’s in the bedroom, and I casually stroll in while he’s changing, what would I say? Or worse, say he walked out of the bathroom and caught me in the act – how would I explain myself?
I know it’s going to sound crazy, because I’ve been trying so hard to get this door open, to get in there and shoot my shot but… well, if I mess this up, if he catches me, then our date won’t happen, will it? And I know I’m here for work, not to hang out with Jordan, but I like him, he intrigues me, and if I think with my heart instead of my head, the thing I want the most right now is to go to dinner with him.
Don’t look at me like that. The plan was always going to be to try to switch the contracts after we had dinner, so I’m sticking with that, playing it safe. No point messing things up now, by getting ahead of myself.
Soon enough he reappears, dressed up, hair styled and smelling sensational. I don’t know what aftershave he’s wearing, but diffuse it into my room.
‘Ready?’ he asks me.
I think so…
‘Ready,’ I reply. ‘So, where are you taking me?’
