Page 12 of New Girl in the City
I leaned back with a harrumph I was well aware made me appear to be every bit the spoiled princess Liam had called me and shook my head. “He was such a dick.”
“Sometimes people have shitty days?” she tried.
I sighed and relented, but only just. “Yeah, I guess...I mean, I did throw his coffee away. And then I did tell him we were going to sushi and not to be late. So I guess now that means we are getting sushi, no excuses.”
She brightened. “You don’t have to threaten me with sushi. I’m in. Besides then I can see what this asshole looks like.”
“What does it matter what he looks like?” I growled, standing from my seat with too much force at my sudden movement. The chair rocked and I steadied it with a quick tap of my hand that I knew was more aggressive than it needed to be.
I knew it because then Claudia said. “Because you’re acting like an agitated middle schooler. He’s probably hotter than any of the guys on that app, right?”
“Hotness is subjective, Claudia.”
“Yeah, he’s a babe.” She splayed her hands with an excited smile. “Total knockout from that reaction.”
I schooled my features into the picture of calmness and gave her a delicate shrug. “He’s my driver. Who notices that sort of thing?”
“Oh,nowyou sound like a spoiled princess.”
I scoffed and sashayed my way towards her door. “Now you’re on his side?”
“I mean, I bet his side is full of thick thighs and sexy things, so yes. Yes I am.”
“I’m out of here. Sushi at noon, be ready or I’m leaving you,” I tossed over my shoulder and breezed into the hallway intent on playing up the ‘spoiled princess’ act. Well, if everyone insisted on calling me one...
“You can’t get rid of me. I’ll be at yours fifteen before!” She called after me and I laughed in spite of my earlier annoyance. Even if Claudia was right about him being hot, and I knew she was, it would be nice to have lunch out of the office. I could catch her up on the yacht man and maybe get some pointers for the date with this sometimes artist. I’d been out of the dating game for too long, at least in a serious sense, and now it felt different. I didn’t want one night with any guy, I wanted one guy for all of my nights.
But if my memory of dating served me right, it was going to take kissing a lot of frogs before I managed to find the one prince. I frowned and sat at my desk, glancing out the window towards the building next to ours. It was newer, sleek and made of glass in a way that made it stand out as much as our art deco facade set us apart in the neighborhood. It screamed new money, and I watched a man walk down a hallway before he turned into an office and took a seat along the glass fronted building. My eyes lingered on him and I wondered if any of the men on the Dating Diamond League worked there? Could even that man be one of them?
Did those kinds of men have business in such a place? Could it be that I’d crossed paths with some of them and not even noticed it? Maybe we had been on the same street, getting the same coffee and just never taken the time tonotice.Except, maybe when we sat across from each other wewouldfinally notice, and then we would find out that we had been this close all along, just one building away. On the same street, but strangers in the way that a city as big as New York City made people strangers despite the close quarters.
I shook my head and huffed out a laugh. “Get to work. Stop daydreaming about online dating and strangers.” One night on a dating app and my romantic side was already coming out. I hated to think where I was going to be after a good date. I forced my attention away from the Diamond Dating League and back to my work. There were far too many emails to answer before I was able to make a run for it with Claudia at noon.
Thankfully, work was busy with a slew of new emails to answer, projects to update, and calls to answer. I was just wrapping up my last call to the finance department when Claudia announced herself by way of a triple knock that had me looking at the clock in surprise. How was it noon already?
I frowned and glanced at my screen as I set the phone down. I had so much work to do...maybe sushi wasn’t the best idea after all. I paused, took a breath, and opened my mouth to tell Claudia that maybe our sushi date needed a rain check when she snapped her fingers at me.
“Oh no, you don’t. You are not staying and working through lunch.”
“But--”
“Nope. Text that hot ass driver and let’s go.”
I gestured lamely at my screen. “I have about fifteen emails I haven’t touched. There was some debacle at Arington and--”
“Nope. Nien. Nyet.” She crossed her arms and glared at me.
I pouted and then rallied, trying again. “But if I could just--”
“Pick. Up. The. Phone.”
“Goddamn you.”
“Whatever. I’m getting sushi and so are you. I know how you get when you’re all work mode, and I bet you won’t eat anything healthy today. You need this protein,” she paused and wiggled her eyebrows, “And speaking of protein, I wanna see what beef cake is driving you around, so let’s get a move on.”
“You’re impossible,” I grumbled, but I pulled my phone out of my bag and dutifully texted Liam as she directed. I kept it professional and to the point.
“Will be leaving for lunch at Sakara in 10. Meet you out front.”
