Page 42 of To Feel Like This Again
“I can’t help myself when I’m around you too,” I respond, without looking at him.
He reaches for my hand and gently kisses it, before resting it against his cheek. “Come with me,” he whispers in my ear.
He holds my hand the entire way— through the lobby, in the lift, pass the couple exiting Room 106 (who whisper to each other as we pass by) and when he opens the door to Room 107, he lets go. Cradling my face in his hands, he kisses me slowly, then tenderly leaves a trail of soft kisses down to my neck before moving on to my shoulders.
This time, we do not disturb the guests in Room 108.
Chapter 27
Nicholas
Ten months’ later, I am promoted to VP – Latin America and Caribbean, meaning I have a dotted line to Lisa in the Org Chart and frequently sit in meetings with her… Lisa being the chair for the vast majority of them.
Under normal circumstances, I’d be ecstatic about a promotion. But these aren’t normal times. Things will become tricky with this development. Adding to my dilemma, I am now employed to State Foods, Inc.
As I said, things will become tricky.
Before the promotion, I was routinely flying to New York once a month for Lisa, including on the weekend of her anniversary. No surprise she chose to spend time with me, forgoing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to eat at the same restaurant she goes to every year for her anniversary and birthday.
“Congrats, sweetie. I’m so happy for you. You so deserve this. Let’s go out and celebrate this weekend,” Emily enthuses, running from the kitchen to hug me. She was anxiously waiting for me to come home after I had shared the news with her earlier.
“Thanks, babe,” I feign nonchalance as if it isn’t a big deal, taking off my shoes and throwing my bag on the couch. She is definitely over the moon; she doesn’t even give me a piece of her mind for throwing my dirty bag on the couch.
“Now, we can finally afford to buy the TV for the kitchen that I asked about yesterday,” she jokes, kissing me on the cheek.
I love her sense of humour and can’t get enough of it. The kiss on the cheek quickly escalates to something more. Like it always does.
After going back and forth with HR and the board of directors for months, Emily finally got approval to work remotely and had moved to Jamaica ten weeks ago.
We rented a two-bedroom house in Jacks Hill with a breathtaking view. And you can’t have a house with a big yard and not have a dog. So, we got a German Sheperd,Chubble. I had suggested the name,German, but she shut it down and choseChubble— an endearing way to saytroublein Jamaica.
After having our fun in the living room, mostly on the couch, we shower together because, what can I say, we’re still in the honeymoon phase. Emily has an urgent deliverable to finish for work so she powers up the laptop and gets to work at her desk.
I am still uneasy about the whole situation at work, so I pour myself a glass of scotch, sit on the couch and browse the internet. Still feeling uneasy about everything — one glass of scotch becomes two glasses of scotch, then two glasses of scotch become three glasses of scotch. Thhhheeen thhreeeee gllllasss of scccottttch…
Somewhere along the line, I get up and make my way to bed, leaving a blurry image of Emily sitting at her desk hard at work.
“Goodnight, babe,” she waves, “I’ll join you in an hour or so.”
I wave back and then collapse on the Alaska king bed.
???
Emily is restless all night, which keeps me awake. I don’t say anything though, instead I lie there wondering what is bothering her.
At some point, I must have knocked out, in spite of her tossing and turning. When the alarm goes off at 5:45am, she is nowhere to be found when I turn in the bed so as to face her. Pulling her close and wrapping my arms around her as we spoon is the best part of our day and I am missing it. During these moments we inhale the fresh morning air, which is especially nice in the hills, and dose off for a few more minutes.
Wait, something is off. And I’m not referring to my headache. I hear the alarm but it’s coming from outside the bedroom. Confused, I roll out of bed and drag myself to the living room where the phone is buzzing on the couch.
Oh right, I had left it there last night.
I turn off the alarm and out of habit unlock the phone to check my messages. A bad habit I need to curtail; checking messages first thing in the morning.
I am shell-shocked.
There is an open email from Lisa in my personal account, “Congratulations. Your promotion is fully deserved and based on merit. I didn’t want you to think I had influenced the decision because of what you mean to me. Can’t wait to celebrate with you. Let me know if you can come to New York this weekend.”
I don’t remember reading this email. But itwasread.
