I nodded silently, because her plan all sounded good to me so far.
“Third, if not maybe first, we must make sure it was actually him.”
My head snapped up in surprise, but she cut me off before I could even protest.
“I know you think you’re sure, but it was a bizarre situation, a unique kind of tryst. You were drunk, love, and he doesn’t seem to recognize you. We must be absolutely positive. Do you recall anything about him that stands out, any specific evidence that tells you it was absolutely, undeniably him?”
I thought about it for a moment before my face lit up in delight. “Ink!” I shouted.
“Excuse me?”
“He has a tattoo, some sort of sexy, numeric symbol I couldn’t really make out in the darkness. It’s on the left side of his chest.”
She nodded quickly and actually scribbled down notes on a legal pad, as if it was yet another case file for us to finish. “Sublime! That’s exactly the proof we need. Chances are slim that two men who look so similar to one another would have the same body art in the same place.”
Proof? I bit back a smile, because Madison made it sound l
ike we were writing an exposé or something rather than just gently reminding the man of my dreams how much he enjoyed having sex with me.
“Then first things first. We will glam you up to remind the foolish boy of exactly what he’s missing. Then, we’ll figure out a way to find this alleged ink of his.”
I nodded quickly, eager to get started, but the end of her plan left a lot to be desired, as far as I was concerned. “Wait,” I said, staring nervously across the desk. “Just how are we going to do that?”
True to form, Madison shrugged, as if getting out boss half-naked would not be any sort of problem. “Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps we’ll accidentally-on-purpose spill hot coffee on him or something. In my time here at Cross, I’ve found it isn’t exactly difficult to entice men to disrobe at the office.”
Pour hot coffee on my new boss? How can I possibly seriously consider that? Besides, shouldn’t it be hot Earl Grey instead?
“So...how about it?” she asked cheerfully. “Are you in?”
I banged my head silently against the wall.
“That’s the spirit!”
Chapter 10
The next morning, I leapt out of bed to my early alarm, prepared to embark on my newest mission: to make the man of my dreams remember me all over again.
The world of London’s corporate overachievers was an exclusive one, highly competitive even for those who had already weaseled their way into it. I practically had to move heaven and Earth to get into that inner circle, and now that I was there, I had no intention of letting it slip through my fingers. For that reason, I vowed to myself that I would never get to the office even one minute past seven a.m., but to make it there by my targeted time of six thirty, I had to get up at five.
To accomplish this, immediate caffeination was required, so the first thing I did was fire up the coffee maker. I poured a huge mug of coffee, then took measured sips of the scalding liquid. Next, I fired up the treadmill and snapped on the news so I could catch the headlines while I raced through a quick two miles, besting my usual time by about thirty seconds. Who says jittery nerves don’t come in handy?
By the time I stepped onto the tile floor, I was clean, scrubbed, and properly awake. Nevertheless, just to be sure, I poured a second mug while simultaneously throwing on sweats and securing my hair in a damp, messy bun on top of my head. After a quick look in the mirror, I was out the door, and I only spilled a little of my third cup when I raised my hand to hail a London cab.
I could already say that I really loved that city. The pace was just as relentless as New York, but there was a softer side to it as well, a sense of community that I could only assume came from everyone having grown up on the same tiny island. The air was crisp, scented with coffee and smog. Everywhere I looked, people were scurrying about just like I was, trying to catch at taxi or a train on their way to work. That, coupled with the fact that I didn’t have to watch out for homicidal hotdog vendors, I was basically hooked. I did see one guy with a fish-and-chips cart, but he wasn’t exactly out serving that up for breakfast.
As it turned out, Madison lived in an exponentially nicer part of town, even though it was only a five-minute cab ride from my flat. My eyes widened as I peered out the window, watching the townhouses streak by. I had seen ritzy neighborhoods like that on television and in the movies, but I’d never actually been in any. Just for fun, I’d even googled them when I first considered my hop across the pond, but I found all of them laughably overpriced, so much so that even if I thrived at my new job for the next five years or a decade, I still wouldn’t have enough for a down payment.
Still, Madison managed. Maybe there’s hope for me, I thought with a sideways grin as I glanced at a particularly lavish home with perfect landscaping.
The doorbell rang a toneless tune the first time I pressed it. The second time, I was greeted by a vicious chorus of dog growls. My pulse quickened as I took a hasty step off the doormat—a mat that was simple and plain, with no happy little greeting to beckon anyone inside. I found it somewhat odd that Madison owned dogs, because she didn’t seem like the type to want to deal with any kind of pets. Really, if the dog hair didn’t annoy her to death, I assumed she was too busy to even remember to feed her animals, but from the sound of it, the huge beasts obviously hadn’t starved yet.
“Just a second!” a high-pitched scream called.
The dogs stopped barking, and a second later, I heard movement on the other side of the door.
“Hey! You made it!” Madison greeted enthusiastically as she opened it, beckoning me inside.
I hesitated on the mat, staring cautiously around her legs. “Where are your Rottweilers and pit bulls?”