“It’s… a very complicated assignment, Mama,” I said, suppressing my sigh at my desk.
“Tell Robin you can’t work any more Sundays. Tell her that will put less pressure on you, and you’ll have more energy,” Mom said, referring to my boss at June. My ex-boss, rather, and the woman who had smiled coldly and told me I’d amount to nothing on the day I quit. The sound of her name made my teeth clench.
“I’ll talk to her about it,” I said just as I saw Julian coming up the stairs from his lunch break. He had the jacket of his three-piece suit off, giving me a better than usual view of that tapered torso. Glancing down at his Rolex, he then looked up at me, wearing a slight frown that asked why I hadn’t left for lunch yet. He knew I was starving, but I’d been stuck on a long conference call with Colin and the people at the resort before, so I wasn’t able to leave.
Then once I was, my mother called.
“Listen, Ma – Robin’s coming by, so I gotta get off the phone,” I said hurriedly under my breath, but I knew Julian heard me because I caught the quizzical tilt of his head before he disappeared into his office. “Yeah. Okay. I promise I’ll call you tonight to talk longer. Okay, will do – bye-bye.”
I hung up and sat frozen with my hand still on the receiver, listening to the footsteps of Julian coming back outside, hands in his pockets as he stood in front of my desk. I lifted my eyes off his shiny belt buckle, trailing them slowly up the buttons of his fitted grey vest till I was smiling back at the teasing look he had on for me.
“I’m almost certain my name isn’t Robin.”
“Yes. It’s not. It’s just, um…” I cleared my throat. “The thing is that – ”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain if you don’t want to,” he said earnestly despite his look of sheer amusement. “I only came out here to see if you wanted to join me for lunch.”
My eyes fluttered. “I thought you just had lunch?”
“I spent it in poor company. I’d like to do it over.”
“Oh.” I took my hand off the receiver and sat straight. “Is this so we can discuss the Biarritz itinerary?” I asked.
“No. Remember, we’ll be doing that with Colin at three in the conference room. I reminded you this morning.”
“You did, I just – ” Wanted to see if this was a business lunch or a… lunch-lunch. “Never mind,” I gave him a smile and grabbed my purse. “Let’s go eat.”
Creamy leather chairs and walnut tabletops graced the enormous dining room of the restaurant Julian chose for our power lunch. Upon sitting, I was unsurprised to find that like the maître d’, the servers knew Julian by name. A little more surprising,
however, was the fact that he remembered all of theirs.
“Do you come here often?” I asked once we finished ordering.
“Not as often as other places. Why do you ask?”
“You know everyone’s names.”
“I try to remember names once they’ve been given. It’s only ever been helpful to me, especially when it comes to running a business.”
I lifted my brows. “That makes sense. Is that the trick to owning the empire that you do at your age?”
“One of several,” he smiled. “It also took a fair amount of sleepless nights and busting my ass. Nothing you don’t know about though.”
I grinned at the way he sat back and let his eyes settle on me. I wasn’t sure what I had done or what I was doing to deserve the way he looked at me, but I didn’t question it.
“Yes, of course, all your ass-busting led to where you are now, whereas mine was apparently all in vain,” I said with a wince. “I don’t know why I put so much time into that company when they treated me like shit.”
Actually, I did know why, and I prayed to God Julian wouldn’t press me for details on why I stayed. He didn’t.
“I take it you don’t want me to get you your job back there when our contract is finished.”
“No, actually. I don’t,” I laughed, realizing that only just now.
“Are there any other magazines under Hoult Publishing that you’d like to work for?” he asked.
“Several,” I answered so fast and vigorously it made him laugh. I blushed a bit. “Actually, one magazine in particular is the reason I even switched majors to journalism in college.”
“Really?” He leaned forward with interest. “Which?”