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Colin
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IN TYPICAL BUSINESS fashion, an emergency came up the day after the proposal. Everything had gone wonderful and I whisked her away to a hotel room I’d booked in Minneapolis. Her parents hugged our necks before we ventured off, and I spent all night murmuring in her ear, telling her all the reasons I thought she was perfect. I kissed all along her curves and marked the places on her body that made her squirm. I denied her the pleasures of my tongue until she was crying with tears of frustration, then I sent her over the edge with rolling climaxes that swept her under for a restful slumber.
But instead of the morning sunlight waking us up on that chilly winter morning, the sound of my cell phone did.
I apologized profusely before I packed up my things and left. I told her she had a few more days before she needed to be in L.A. and I told her when the moving truck was going to be there. I could see the disappointment in her eyes as I walked towards the door, and it every part of me ached to leave her. But if we were going to make this work, then these types of distractions were what we needed to get used to.
She kept in touch with me the entire time the move was taking place. I instructed the drivers to bring all of her things to my address, then paid them overtime to haul them up into my penthouse apartment. I convinced Abby to fly to L.A. and let me ship the car to my place, and I was thankful she let me do it.
I was not keen on her driving a twenty-eight hour trip by herself, and neither was her father.
Meeting after meeting took up my attention as my cell phone rang off the hook. Every time Abby stopped, she sent me a message. Every time she ate, she sent me a message. I wanted to be with her. With every picture she sent me, I tried to imagine myself at her side. I understood these meetings were necessary. I knew this European marketplace bullshit was becoming more complicated by the second.
But I hired specialists to take care of these problems so I wouldn’t have to oversee every single one of them. What was the point of paying them if I couldn’t even enjoy moments like my engagement?
Three days later, Abby was flying into Los Angeles. I was in yet another meeting I had no business being in, and I was two and a half ticks shy of firing the person sitting in front of me. I had hired an outside project manager to come in and try to work out the kinks in this project. It seemed like every time we jumped one hurdle, there was another one waiting for us to slam right into it.
He had reassured me he could get this done, and now I was staring at his guilty-ass face from across a table.
Reluctantly, I sent a car to pick up Abby from the airport. I sent her a message apologizing for not being there, and all the while my blood was boiling. I hadn’t even announced my engagement to anyone yet because I was neck-deep in meetings I’d hired someone else to field!
What the fuck was going on?
“Excuse me,” I said. “Just—can I have a second?”
I looked over at the man sitting across from me and I motioned for him to meet me outside. He followed me like a lost little puppy, his head hanging low and his lack of a spine showing for all the world to see.
He knew what was coming, and I knew it had to be done.
“I hired you to keep these issues under your own management,” I said.
“Yes, Mr. Murphy. I know.”
“So why am I now sitting through days of non-stop meetings?” I asked.
“These issues, they’re far more complicated than I expected. It’s going to take all hands on deck in order to get this done,” he said.
“Well, your hands won’t be on that deck. I’ll pay you for the rest of the week, but you’re dismissed as of now.”
“Mr. Murphy, let me—”
“Goodbye.”
I watched as the man straightened up his back and sighed. He handed his notebook over to me and I took it before I watched him backtrack down the hallway. I could feel everyone in the meeting room staring at me as I cracked my neck, then I turned towards them all and sighed.
I was so ready to be in the arms of the woman I loved.
The meeting wrapped up within the hour and I took all of my former employee’s worthless notes and tossed them. I walked into my office and grabbed my things, thinking of all the ways I would lose myself in Abby’s beautiful body. I couldn’t wait to caress her skin with my fingertips and bury my face into her hair. I couldn’t wait to feel her sit in my lap and steam the room with our desires and intimate passions.
But when I stepped out of the office building, I saw a familiar car pull up in front of it.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Abby said.
I felt a grin spread across my cheeks as she made her way up the stairs.
“You didn’t think you could lock me away in your ivory tower until my first day of work, did you?” she asked.
“I suppose I should’ve known better,” I said.
Wrapping my arm around her, I tried to draw her in for a kiss. But what I got instead was her quickly pulling her face away from mine. Her eyes looked hesitant as they darted around, and she quickly scrambled out of my arms. She straightened herself up and cleared her throat, a smile plastering itself back onto her face.
“We should probably keep it professional here,” she said.
“Oh. Right,” I said. “That’s probably a good idea.”
But the hesitant gaze was still there even as I ushered her into the building.
I gave her the guided tour and showed her all the conference rooms. People waved at her and welcomed her with open arms as I introduced her, letting everyone know that she was my new P.R. representative. I was elated that she was here and it warmed my heart to watch her interact with everyone, but I could tell she seemed a bit off.
She was a bit stiff and a little more removed than I’d expected.
“Want to see your office?” I asked.
“I’d love to,” she said, smiling.
But her smile didn’t reach her eyes which didn’t go unnoticed by me.
I took her up to the top floor where my office was. I was beaming as we walked off the elevator. This was the best part and I couldn’t wait to show her. I’d secured her the office across the hall from mine. A beautiful view, a spacious atmosphere, and it would be easy for us to have some late-night time with one another if we both had to pull odd office hours.
However, Abby looked less than impressed when I showed her around.
“There isn’t, I don’t know—a public relations level or anything?” she asked.
“Not like there was back in Minnesota, no,” I said. “You’re not the P.R. for the company. You’re my personal public relations representative.”
“Ah,” she said.
“If you don’t like the office, I could—”
“No, no, no. It’s wonderful, Colin. Really.”
She stood onto her toes and placed a chaste kiss on my cheek that left me worried rather than settled.
Was she second guessing the proposal?
“Are you hungry? I have dinner reservations for us, but—”
“I’m starving. I fell asleep on the plane ride and didn’t eat much before the flight.”
“Then let me treat you to one of the finest dinners in L.A. then,” I said.
All throughout dinner, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Abby was telling me about the plane ride and how she was impressed that nothing happened to interfere with the flight. She even made some quip about the smooth flight happening because I wasn’t on it and dubbed me her own personal ‘bad luck charm.’ She tossed me a sultry little grin across the table that sent my heart racing, and as I reached over to take her hand I could feel her trembling.
“Abby, are you all right?” I asked.
Her eyes rose to mine as she set her wine glass down. The light from her eyes faded as she drew circles on top of my skin. I braced for the worst as my brain prepared my body for the rejection it was about to face.
But instead of rejection, I got something completely different.
“Do you think people will take me seriously?” she asked.
“What?”
“This personal public relations position. It wasn’t something you originally had, right?” she asked.
“Not until Beddingfield started stirring the pot making all his crazy statements about me. Media-baiting me and stuff like that. I knew I needed to create a position then. Most prominent businessmen have a position like this one, which I’m sure you know. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
But I knew what was worrying her and I thought knew how to settle her mind.
“Abby, you are—first and foremost—completely qualified for this position. You are a brilliant P.R. representative and overqualified for any other P.R. position we have except this one. It is well-deserved given your educational background and your experience in the field.”
“Even my screw up at the magazine?” she asked.
“Especially that one. True character is realized in our moments of failure. It makes no sense to hire a P.R. representative that doesn’t have a decent character.”
I watched the hesitation slide from her face, but there was still a bit lingering behind her eyes.
“I’ve missed you,” I said.
“It’s only been a few days,” Abby said, snickering.
“It has seemed like forever, I said.”
Her eyes rose to mine and I could still see silent questions rushing behind her beautiful brown eyes.
“How about this?” I asked. “Why don’t we get our dinners packed up to go, then head back home? We can curl up next to the fire, I can open up a bottle of wine, and we can enjoy this food from the comfort of our own couch.”
“You mean your couch?” she asked.
“What?”
“You said ‘our couch.’ You mean ‘your couch,’ right?”
“Um, yeah. Yeah, my couch at my apartment,” I said.
“I think that would be nice.”
I signaled for the waitress who quickly came and boxed up our food. Relief was washing over Abby’s features, but her words were weighing heavily on my mind. Semantics. Public relation representatives dealt with semantics on a daily basis. It was the difference between a decent public image and a repulsive one. As a media representative, Abby was not only good with twisting bad truths to look like decent ventures gone wrong, but she was also good with verbiage that communicated lines that needed to be drawn in the sand.
Abby was drawing lines with me that made me very uncomfortable, and it made me wonder if she even knew she was doing it.
“Ready?” I asked, as I offered her my arm.
“Ready,” she said.
She took my arm and I escorted her out of the restaurant. I felt her clinging tightly to me as we made our way to the parking lot. The bag of food was clutched at my side as I led her to my car, but a sound in the bushes caught my ear.
A clicking sound that Abby was already trying to locate.
“Hello?” she asked, as she released my arm. “Is anyone there?”
“Abby, don’t. Just get in the car.”
“There’s someone in the bushes, Colin. I can hear—”
Just then, a man with a camera jumped out of the bushes and started taking rapid pictures. Abby jumped with a fright as I ran towards her, my arm wrapping around her waist. Her eyes were wild as I tried to shield her from the paparazzo, his camera shutter rapidly clicking as I opened up Abby’s door.
I shoved her in and gave her the food before I ran around to my side.
Opening the throttle, I quickly pulled out of the restaurant as Abby sat quietly. She was clutching the food tightly to her as her wide eyes stared out the window. I reached over and took her hand, feeling her fingers trembling against mine.
But no matter how much I urged her to, she wouldn’t turn to look at me.
