One Kiss: An Office Romance

I bite my tongue, literally.

“So anyway,” she continues, in a huff, “Sunny says that I am such a pleasure to have around, and such a big help to her, that she wants me to stay.”

“Yeah, but you…”

My voice trails off.

“Yes, she wants me to stay all the way up until the baby,” Landry fills in for me. “And then after the baby. Me and the baby. Up here with Sunny. She says that I am a big help to her, and with me around she could stay in her home which she loves.”

I swallow back a bunch of objections, but what can I say? Apparently they have had conversations about this.

“So you’ll stay there even after the baby comes?” I ask timidly.

“Yes! I just told you!”

“Okay, okay, I’m just asking.”

“You know, not everybody thinks that a baby is some giant burden, Clarissa. Not everybody thinks that I am some kind of stupid loser who got knocked up and has to run away. I am a good person with lots of potential! I can do this!”

“Of course you can! I never said—”

But there’s no point in continuing. The line is dead.

Staring at it like I’ve never seen a phone before, I try to process all the things that Landry just said to me. There are too many. I can’t process this all at once.

Just then, my office door swings open and Maxwell comes in, followed by a tall, dark-haired man with heavy cufflinks and a decidedly wealthy swagger.

“Clarissa?” Maxwell smiles. “Do you have a moment? I’d like to introduce you to Raj Abnar.”

My mouth goes dry. I knew he looked familiar. I’ve seen Raj’s picture in Entrepreneur and Wired a half-dozen times. He has been in Crain’s Chicago Business almost continuously over the last year.

I’m not sure about the details, but his family is fabulously wealthy in the Middle East. He was born here, and uses his family’s money—oil money, I think—to finance huge projects. The kind of projects where people by up a city block and demolish everything on it to build a skyscraper. Bigger than anything this company has done before.

“I’m so glad to meet you,” I choke out.

He shakes my hand and though I feel embarrassed about it, I watch him for signs of sexism. I hate to say it, but sometimes men in this city don’t care to do business with women. And somehow when women observe that, we are the sexist ones. Go figure.

But I don’t sense any of that here. He shakes my hand firmly and smiles in a professional, calm way. He doesn’t try to look down my shirt or drop my hand too quickly. He’s completely respectful.

“Maxwell tells me that you are the woman I need to negotiate with to get the marina lots.”

My eyebrows go up, way up. So far up that I can feel them stretching my eyes open.

“Um, yes, of course!” I blurt out, recovering about halfway from my shock.

“Well, I don’t have time today, but I will be back in the city on Monday. Can you arrange a meeting for Monday afternoon, about two?”

Another man appears in the doorway, and Raj glances at him, nodding curtly.

“I’d be happy to,” I smile as he steps away.

“Well, wonderful to see you again, Maxwell. I will be back next week.”

After Raj leaves I slump against the corner of my desk, fanning my collar with my hand. Maxwell grins broadly.

“You okay? You need a glass of water or something?”

“That was Raj Abnar!” I