?” In his voice there’s no lightness; each word is charged with the intensity of a truth so powerful it’s almost devastating. “I will take care of you, I will love you, I will make you the happiest woman in the whole Earth. I swear it.”
“Just stay by my side, always…” I whisper, knowing that Apollo is now my whole life. There is no me without him.
“Always, Ashley. Always.”
121
Epilogue
"Oh my God, babe!" I squeal as Natalie walks into the bar.
It's after work and I'm sitting with my friend Alicia at Sir Harry's at the Waldorf Astoria.
Sure, everything about this bar screams older man taking a younger woman out on the town before he has really bossy sex with her...so that's probably why we're here after work.
"Alicia?" Natalie says as she sees us. "Oh my God, girl how have you been?"
The two hug and then Natalie turns to me and gives me a hug as well.
"I've missed you so much!" she squeaks.
"I mean, because the last time we got together was like so long ago...like last month," Alicia says, rolling her eyes.
Oh, right. I forgot to tell you. Alicia can be kinda a smartass sometimes.
"Are we drinking, ladies?" Natalie asks, playing the part of the older and wiser person even though she's actually six weeks younger than me.
"We already started babe," I tell her as I sit. But I can't just keep it at that. "Tell me all about your new job!"
Right. I should just give you a rundown of where we are a year after the day that Apollo made me squirt...errr, announced he was buying the magazine.
Okay, so let's see. What happened.
Blush began hiring back all the people that got laid off up to Apollo's announcement. That made everyone happy. Apollo also stuck to his word and completely upgraded the equipment we all used as well as gave each department more control over its budget. We expanded our online presence too, and a whole new group of people for that too.
And I'm serious it's like business just boomed. Almost like someone put something in the water, people started to focus even more on their jobs and it started to show.
We began to win awards. Circulation shot through the roof. We began to hire people to keep up with all the things that Blush was doing.
I think six months ago is where we moved to newer offices. Still in Times Square but now in a sleeker building with the rest of the companies that were controlled by Apollo. Although this one, he controlled himself so we didn't have to put up with all the other corporate bureaucratic nonsense.
Right around when we moved was when Natalie got a really sweet job offer to work for a Public Relations firm on the East Side of Manhattan. Apparently they did a lot of work with the United Nations and since she had studied Comparative Politics in college this was right up her alley.
"The new job is actually good," Natalie says as the waiter brings over the cosmo that she ordered. She takes a drink and continues, "Although I think they're going to be placing me as the liaison for Prince Ian from St. Albans, sooo....not really looking forward to that."
"Oh my God, you're going to be working with Prince Ian Carrington?" I ask Natalie, my eyes widening. The guy is a celebrity just for being a celebrity.
"He's so fucking hot," Alicia chimes in and the three of us nod sagely. I mean, I have my Apollo, don't get me wrong. He's the love of my life. And I wouldn't trade him for anything.
But Ian Carrington is just a different sort of guy that makes you wonder. He's cocky, arrogant, and built like a war horse, and...
No, I'm totally happy with Apollo. Besides, I haven't told you about...
"I mean, I would totes have sex with him if I had never met Derek, you know?" Alicia says and I roll my eyes.
Ever since she met and fell in love with her billionaire client over at Carter Jeffries, she can't help but go around telling anyone and everyone how much the two of them are in love.
Barf.