I returned to the office Tuesday morning with a fresh sense of purpose and a keenly-honed focus. My long weekend in Japan with Colonel Tanaka had proven to be very beneficial.
Lilah was, of course, still on my mind, but I'd realized that, as the Colonel had told me, whatever was going to happen between us was entirely up to her. If that turned out to be nothing, there was little I could do but accept that and move on.
Still, that didn't mean I wasn't going to at least try. I wasn't prepared to simply give up on the idea of us together—not just yet.
I sat down at my desk and went through my emails and lists of tasks that would need to be completed. First and foremost, was the French account. I had a message from Anton about the VIV Perfume campaign. He was hoping that I could meet him in Paris again and bring whichever member of my team was going to be heading the campaign.
Naturally, that team member was Lilah. After all, she had a friend in Paris in the fashion industry whom we had already spoken to. Of course, now that things had become a bit more complicated between us, informing her that we’d be going to Paris might be a little awkward. Still, we had to act like professionals. She was already deep into the French campaign, so there was no way I could suddenly pull her out now and replace her with someone else.
The Sinclair Agency had already come perilously close to losing a good portion of its prestige and respect with the initial failure of the Harry Winston campaign, and there was no way in hell I was going to risk repeating something like that. No, I needed to have an extremely talented person working with me on this particular campaign and that was Lilah.
I put a call through to her office, and a slight shudder of nerves shot through me when I heard her voice as she picked up her phone.
“Hi, Asher, what can I do for you?” her tone was professional and no nonsense.
“Could you come to my office, please? There's something important I need to discuss with you regarding the VIV Perfume campaign.”
“Sure. I'll be right over.”
A tingle of anxiety immediately began building inside me as I waited for her to arrive.
“Come on, Asher, be cool, be calm,” I said to myself. “You've got this. Put your personal feelings aside and be professional.”
I breathed in deeply as I heard a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I said.
She walked through the door, and I let slowly out the breath that I'd been holding in through my teeth. She was wearing a pencil skirt and a form-fitting blouse that revealed her curves in a tantalizing manner. I could hardly keep my eyes off her. Still, I forced myself to remain cool, and put on an air of calm indifference.
“Have a seat,” I said.
She walked over to my desk, her hips swaying subtly without effort, and took a seat.
“You're fully committed to the VIV campaign, aren't you?” I asked.
“Absolutely. That’s why you put me on point. I've been doing a lot of research and have put together a few ideas that I think could work really well.”
“Excellent. Well, there's no better place to do research than on the ground, right?”
“That's true, but we're a few thousand miles away from the ground at the moment.”
“Yes, we are. However, tonight you're going to need to go home and haul out a suitcase or three.”
“Why is that?” she asked, a curious eyebrow raised.
“You and I are going to Paris.”
Chapter Twenty
Lilah
I sat in stunned silence for a while and stared at Asher.
“We're going to Paris?” I eventually said.
“Yes,” he replied, with the slightest and subtlest of smiles curving across his lips.
“I, uh . . . can I think about it?”