“Ha! Is this a bad time to say that Lukas is texting and wants us to leave now for the Hamptons?”
“No, it’s not a bad time, because I’m thoroughly done talking to you,” I joked, ruffling her hair as we got up from the benches. “Go furnish that beautiful beach house of yours, you domestic little thing.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with? I can tell Lukas to wait till five.”
“Absolutely not. You’d hit rush hour. Also, I’d puke out the window within the first two minutes of watching you two googly eye each other.”
“We do get pretty gross sometimes,” Lia admitted with a snort. “Alright, woman. Then enjoy your Friday and the rest of your weekend without being a Negative Nancy, alright?” she said firmly, narrowing her eyes at me. “No overanalyzing things while I’m not here to talk it out with you. Just…” She held her hands out in some zen meditation pose. “Enjoy the now.”
“I’ll enjoy the now even more if you get out of here already.”
“Rude. Hug me goodbye!” Lia demanded, which I of course did, throwing in a bunch of kisses on the cheek before sending her off.
After a long day of conference calls with Colin and the people from the Biarritz resort, I was exhausted. It felt like the realest day of work I’d had thus far, and it didn’t help that Julian was out at meetings since the morning. I didn’t realize how much slower time passed without him around to occasionally glance at.
Or, of course, sneak office quickies with.
“Wow. Weather’s gonna be nice this weekend,” Colin said, looking at the forecast on his phone as we headed for the elevator. “Any plans?” he asked.
“Actually, no,” I realized with a wince of disappointment.
“Aw man. Why not?”
I laughed. “Probably because I’m still not used to having weekends. I worked at least six days a week at my last job, and if I had Sundays off, it was strictly for decompressing,” I said, silently marveling at how incredibly long ago that felt. “Also, now that I actually have some free time, my best friend is the one who’s always busy. She and her boyfriend just bought a house out in the Hamptons, so they’re always out there.”
“Wow! Very nice,” Colin remarked as we stepped in the elevator. “On the bright side, we get to go to sunny Biarritz, France on Monday.”
“Yes! God, it came up so fast. I really can’t wait. I haven’t been out of the country in ages.”
“Well, you’ll love it there. And Julian’s pretty cool about giving employees time to explore when they’re on business trips.”
“Yeah?” I smiled. “That’s nice of him.”
“Yeah, he’s a great boss. Can’t really beat working for him.”
I nodded and went quiet.
It was an innocuous remark, but it was yet another reminder that at some point, I would no longer be working for Julian. And as ridiculous as it was to miss something before it was even gone, I was very much starting to do that.
“Alright, Sara, enjoy your weekend!” Colin waved goodbye when the elevator finally opened to the lobby.
“You too!” I called after him as he rushed out of the building, presumably to meet his roommates he mentioned having plans with.
Walking through the lobby, I listened to the thunderous clacking of what sounded like a thousand pairs of shoes on marble. It was the usual Friday dash, when tower employees controlled their urge to just race for the doors and start the weekend already. It made me naturally antsy to walk faster myself, despite the fact that I had gorgeous eighty-degree weather and absolutely nowhere to go.
Balls. I made a face to myself, realizing how bummed I actually was about this.
But when I emerged from the tower, my eyes were immediately drawn toward a gleaming black sedan parked directly in front of its doors.
For reasons I couldn’t understand yet, a smile twitched onto my lips.
I had never in my life felt as if a car was watching me, but for some reason, I felt that now as I squinted at the tinted backseat windows. I didn’t even realize my feet had gravitated across the sidewalk to the car till I was standing at its passenger door and watching the window roll down.
“Hi there,” Julian greeted me from the far end of the backseat.
“Hi,” I returned, unable to restrain my smile. He looked so sexy just sitting there with his jacket on but his tie off, and those blue eyes glinting at me with a hint of mischief. My heart skipped because I knew right away that he’d been waiting for me. I read his intentions from the first second I saw him. But for perhaps the sake of amusement, we went through the formality of small talk.
“How was your day?” Julian asked.