Page 32 of Holiday Hook-Up
From: [email protected]
Date: Sunday, Jan 1 at 10:27 AM
Subject: Happy New Year
Hey Boss,
I heard you were back at the office. I have ears all over the city, remember? Listen, I know we haven’t talked about email-mageddon, frankly it’s awkward as hell. You’re like a big brother to me and the activities in that video… let’s just say I deleted it promptly. I hope you’re okay. I’m worried about you. I know I’m scheduled to have another week off but if you need me, I’ll be there. As your wingwoman, I’m happy for you. I knew she was something special when you called me on Christmas Eve. It will all work out.
Happy New Year, Logan.
-Felicity
Beingbackinthebustle of Manhattan should have felt right. This was my home. I stared out the window in my office on the thirty-fifth floor—watching people speed walk to their destinations, cars swerving around pedestrians, bikers narrowly avoiding crashing. This place wasn’t called the concrete jungle for nothing. At the very least New York always held a feeling of possibility in the air, like something big was right around the corner waiting for me.
Only now, I found myself searching for auburn hair and green eyes in every crowd. I’d found happiness—potentially love—and it wasn’t in New York. It was in a small town near Scranton, Pennsylvania with a woman I didn’t deserve.
A knock at my door pulled me from my thoughts. I wasn’t expecting anyone, it being New Year’s Day. “Come in.”
“Mr. Connor,” Mr. Chapman greeted me. “I have good news and bad news.”
I sighed. “May as well get the bad out of the way.”
“The board has seen the video.”
Fuck. I pulled my hand through my hair and slumped into my chair. “And? Is this going to hurt our investments? Has the press found out?”
“Well that’s where the good news comes in. They don’t know the woman in the video is an employee. By some holiday miracle, that piece of information didn’t make its way to the people who matter.” I scoffed. The people who matter? God, we sounded like a bunch of assholes. He went on. “It looks like other than the employees at the hotel, no one knows the identity of the woman in the video and I intend to keep it that way. I’ve hired a public relations specialist and she’ll spend the next few days smoothing everything over.”
I raked my hand over my face and let out a long exhale. “So other than having to sit at meetings looking at a group of men and women who’ve seen my dick in high definition, the rest is a nonissue?”
A faint smirk peeked through his serious demeanor. “Correct. In all, I feel like some Christmas magic was on your side.” He fiddled with the buttons on his jacket. “May I say something, sir?”
Sir.My mind shifted to thoughts of Emerald on her knees for me.
“Of course.”
“I’ve known you since you were a boy. Knew your father as well as anyone did. Don’t let this bring you down. You’re a good man and hold yourself and your company to high standards. I know that and so does the board. You’re human and everyone makes mistakes.” With a nod, he stepped toward the door. I had a knee jerk reaction to correct him. Emerald wasn’t a mistake. Calling her that made acid churn in my gut.
“Thanks, Ralph. I’ll be in touch.”
He left, leaving me alone with my thoughts. With it still being a slow week and most of my employees off until the third, my workload was smaller than normal. My doorman had been shocked to see me come into the office that morning. Anxious energy rolled through me and without work to occupy my mind, I kept thinking about Emerald and how horribly I’d handled everything. I was miserable without her.
She hadn’t answered my text the other day and I didn’t blame her. Maybe I wasn’t so different from my father, despite how hard I’ve tried. In the matter of a week, I’d managed to fuck it all up.
An email from Eliza at The Dream popped up on my screen. I was supposed to still be in Greyridge, meeting her in person, but now we’d have to chat on the phone. I sat back in my chair and took a centering breath before calling her.
“Eliza, it’s Logan Connor. Thank you for accommodating the change of plans. Something unexpected came up and I had to head back to the city.”
“It’s fine. So, you wanted to chat?” She got straight to business. I liked that quality in a person.
“Yes. After my assistant and I left the club, we’d discussed your ideas and Ms. Handler had some ideas to share as well. To get to the point, I’d like you to take over running the club as a general manager and work alongside my team to implement all the changes you brought up. What do you think?”
Eliza was silent for a second before a muffled squeal of delight came through. I cracked my first genuine smile in days.
“I’d like that very much,” she said.
“Perfect. I’ll have human resources send you everything you need, as you’ll be an employee of Connor Industries now. After the new year, let’s reconvene and assemble a team to get these changes going. For now, I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you’d like to keep the club open until then.”
