“To everybody who had to work with Easton Schultz before I worked my magic on him, I’m so sorry that I didn’t get there sooner. You deserved better.” I said my goodbyes and started looking for the exit. I was done. I wasn’t even going to tell Easton that I was heading out.
“Missy? Missy. There you are. Are you ready to head out?” I heard Easton behind me. I ignored him and kept walking. He caught up and stopped me. “Hey,” he paused and looked me up and down, scanning my face. “Is something wrong? Are you drunk?”
“Who was that woman?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. The blonde? You were making out with her just now. Who was that?”
Easton laughed. “We were not making out. We were just talking and she’s nobody. She just wanted to tell me how even though she lost me in the auction, she was still interested in going out with me.” That made me mad. I started walking away and Easton stopped me, catching up again.
“Wait a minute, what’s wrong with you? Are you jealous?”
“No, of course not. You were just wasting my time and I’ve been wanting to leave for a long time now.”
“Look, her father is a three-star general in the Army and I was trying to get her to set up a meeting between us for a possible contract. That was all I was doing. She was flirting, but I was talking business. I was networking, isn’t that what these events are for?”
Yes, that was what these events were for, but I was still upset about it. What a handy excuse that the woman’s father was in the Armed Forces as well. I could tell lies as well, she wasn’t special. How awful was it of her to tell him that she had been a soldier as well? She could say that, couldn’t she? That woman, she was jealous, and she was a liar at the same time. A winning combination. Why was I getting upset at her? Easton was the one who had gotten me angry. He didn’t have to stay there and talk to her like they were old friends the way he did. I didn’t like how pleased he was at the fact that I didn’t like his actions.
“Well, good for her and good for him.”
“You really are jealous, aren’t you?” he said laughing. I wasn’t discussing this with him. I started walking and exited the hall. Once outside, it seemed to hit me just how drunk I was. I stumbled a little bit and lucky for me, Easton was there to help me balance myself.
“Oh my God, you are trashed. Let me get you home.”
“Take me home and make love to me for hours,” I said, knowing exactly how reckless that statement was and meaning every single word. I had gotten him in the auction, didn’t that mean he was my property now or something?
Yes, I had decided that that was what it meant. He was mine and I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. I hoped that that little blonde had seen us walking out of the event together and I hoped that she was upset about it.
“Wow, so forward.”
“Oh please, you love it.” He laughed some more, helping me balance as he walked out to the street so we could get a car.
“You know what? I’ve actually been waiting to hear that all night.”
27
Easton
Standing outside the office building waiting for Missy to show up, I felt like a little kid. I kept looking up and down the sidewalk, waiting so I could spot her like I was scared she would stand me up for some reason. I was excited. I was practically shaking. I had a backpack, and my overnight bag in one hand, with my phone in the other, just in case she called. I was less than a block over from my office building, but I just wanted to make sure. She wouldn’t get lost in any case because I had sent a car for her. That car had picked her up already and she was on her way. We had a flight to catch later. Today had taken a surprisingly large amount of planning.
Missy was busier than I anticipated a stylist being. As it turned out, she had gotten a lot of new clients after the night of the charity ball, so she didn’t have as much time for me. I was happy for her, even though it meant that planning this had taken far longer than I wanted. It was good in a way because I wanted to do something that she had definitely never experienced before. I knew the caliber of man that she had dated so I had to beat them at this game somehow. This was the date that she had won when she bought me at the auction. Rather than take her out to dinner at a nice restaurant which, let’s face it, being herself, she had already been to, I had decided on another route.
A car pulled up and parked in front of the building. The driver got up and opened the door allowing Missy to step out. The driver went to the back and got her bag, just one, surprisingly. We weren’t going to be gone very long and I had specified for her to bring only one bag, but I wasn’t sure she would actually listen to me. She came up to me smiling.
“Ready to go?” I asked her.
“I can’t say I’m very excited, but yes, let’s go.” I laughed as we walked into the building.
“What do you mean you aren’t excited?”
“I mean, you asked me on a date and told me to come to an office building in the middle of New York City at eleven o’clock. What am I supposed to make of that?”
“You know what? If your expectations are that low, you’re definitely in for a surprise.” The elevator rose smoothly up to the highest floor of the building.
“They aren’t low. This is just all very unexpected. Unique, how about that? This experience is very unique.”
“That’s better. And don’t worry, we're not actually staying here.” The elevator opened to the bare, open space. Besides random items in storage, all that was in there was a staircase up to the door that opened up to the roof. I opened the door and we were outside. The view of course was breathtaking, but it was about to get better. I would’ve told Missy to come to the roof of our building, but we didn’t have a helipad. Thinking about it now it seemed like a slight oversight. Missy laughed when she saw the chopper.