A hotel room key to the Ritz-Carlton New York - Central Park. 50 Central Park West.
Adrenaline coursed through me and I had to actually catch my breath. I picked up the keycard and turned it over. Inside was the room number. I googled the room number and saw it was a room on the 9th floor overlooking Central Park. There was a small yellow sticky on the back of the envelope holding the keycard.
It read three thirty that afternoon.
Oh, my God...
Of course, the first thing I did was text Steph.
ELLA: OMG he left a key card to the Ritz-Carlton Central Park on my desk. I'm supposed to meet him at three thirty today...
STEPH: Told ya! You go, girl! That story must have really impressed him.
ELLA: I don't know what to do.
STEPH: What? ARE YOU CRAZY? Go! Enjoy. You deserve it.
ELLA: I've told you how I feel about office romances.
STEPH: Pffft. That was then. This is now. This is your fantasy, kiddo. He wants to fulfil your fantasy. How could you turn that down? Go and get some for all us single ladies.
ELLA: What he must think of me...
STEPH: He probably can't stop thinking of you and had to jerk off several times after he read your story.
ELLA: You have such a filthy imagination.
STEPH: No, I have three brothers and lived with a guy for three months once.
STEPH: DO IT! You know you want to...
STEPH: Write me back with all the deets when you're able.
ELLA: Okay. If I go. And I'm not 100 percent sure that I will.
STEPH: You'll regret it the rest of your life if you don't. GO.
ELLA: Later. XOXOX
STEPH: XOXOXOMG
I smiled and leaned back, a most definite ache in my core at the thought that Josh would be waiting for me at the hotel room.
He must have really liked my story...
Chapter Eighteen
Joshua
I wasn't going to accept no for an answer.
I wouldn't be a dick about it, but I wouldn't just give up. I'd keep running into her, accidentally on purpose, and I'd be as charming and as gallant as I could possibly muster. I enjoyed her too much to give up without a fight. We had definite chemistry. Our brief interlude at the apartment was testament to that fact. We were both recovering from a bad relationship and needed each other as solace. That was how I saw it, anyway. Now I just had to find a way to convince her to my way of thinking.
The whole boss-employee thing was an inconvenience, but I was totally a hand's-off kind of boss so it wasn't like we'd be working together on a regular basis. In fact, I had very little to do with the book publishing arm, and focus my efforts on Macintyre Broadcasting Corporation and its print news division.
My cell rang and I checked the caller ID. It was Marcella. No doubt with my first 'date', but in truth, I was in no mood to meet one of her carefully-selected candidates for the position of my life partner.
I was too focused on convincing Ella that she really did want to boink me, as she called it.