When he handed it to me he told me that the doormen had a standing order to let me in the building if I ever showed up. He also made it crystal clear that if I ever needed a
place to crash, I should consider myself welcome in his guest room.
I stayed the night there twice before. Once when my power was out because of a breaker issue and the second time was when the city came to a standstill because of a snowstorm. I didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to find a ride back to my place, so I slept in the plush bed reserved for guests. Both nights, I slept like a baby.
"I don't want you to cancel and you're not getting thrown out." I smile. "I love having you as a roommate."
"So you'll change and get ready for the party? Trey Hale's not in the line-up tonight. Do you think he'd want to come over? My friends would freak."
Trey would love to but he's sitting in the dugout tonight watching his teammates take on the team ranked second in their division. He called me right before I left work today. I didn't answer so he left a message asking me if I wanted to watch the game from the team owner's skybox. I texted him on my way home telling him that I had to take a rain check.
Our relationship hasn't progressed beyond meeting for dinner or coffee yet. He did kiss me goodbye after we met at a café yesterday, but there wasn't even a spark. It was a close-mouthed, uninspired meeting of lips and nothing more.
"Trey's at the game tonight." I dip my chin down. "I think I'm going to take off. You can have the place all to yourself. I won't be back until tomorrow after my shift."
"Someone has a hot date with a smoking hot baseball player after the game."
"That someone isn't me," I say simply. "I'm going to go hang out at a friend's place."
Her gaze narrows. "Why do I feel like I'm chasing you out of your own home?"
"You're not." I shake my head to reinforce the point. "I want you to have a good time with your friends. This is as much your home as it is mine."
"Does that mean we can use your bedroom for any extracurricular activities?" Her eyebrows dance. "I mean I only have that one queen size bed in my room."
"I'm locking my bedroom door before I leave." I smile as I jingle my keys in my hand.
"I was totally joking," she says, nudging my shoulder. "It's mostly friends from high school coming over. Friends who are girls."
I laugh. "I'm still locking my bedroom door."
"Thanks for letting us hang out here. You're the best." She leans forward to hug me. "I hope your night will be as good as mine."
Chapter 10
Crew
I spent my day in a meeting with the manager of the Matiz store in Vegas followed by five hours on a plane that had run dry of whiskey, beer and anything harder than a non-alcoholic white wine. The only redeeming part of that flight was the man sitting next to me. He owns a shopping complex in Boston. I've been scouting the city looking for a space for our newest Matiz boutique.
I'll fly there next week and buy him lunch. Fate does shine her bright light on me occasionally.
"I'll have someone bring your bags up, sir." The driver I occasionally use smiles as he opens the car door so I can exit. "It won't be more than ten minutes."
It better not be. I want a hot shower and a scotch. I'll have to squeeze a shave in there somewhere. My five o'clock shadow has grown into a light beard over the past few days.
I made the decision to come back to Manhattan as soon as Lucia stomped out of my suite with an impressive trail of curse words falling from her lips. I called the airline myself, since rousing my assistant from bed at three in the morning would earn me a shitty attitude from her once I showed back up in the office. I didn't see the need to wake the woman up in the middle of the night to handle a call I'm perfectly capable of taking on myself.
I should have risked the blowback and called Nancy.
The airline booked me on a connecting flight through Atlanta first thing in the morning. I was packed, ready and eager to board when the flight was cancelled.
Shit happens so I got the gate agent to rebook me on a flight an hour later. It had two connections and an empty seat in coach so I was on board, until I wasn't.
I was bumped onto the standby list for the next flight and by then, Nancy was at her desk in New York. I called her. She took care of it and got me on a direct in the afternoon. That gave me time to revisit the manager of the Matiz store in Vegas to talk about the launch of the fall line of products that will hit stores before summer is half over.
For a day that started out in hell, it's ending in heaven.
I'm home.