My head throbbed again and I held up a hand. “Let’s put the fact that your friend has a jet on the backburner for a minute. It’s not the money for a plane ticket I’m worried about. It’s the fact that the wedding is in a differentcountry. That means it’s not just an evening together. We won’t be able to meet each other there and go home to our separate houses after. We’ll have to get a hotel and—”
“That’s already been taken care of,” he said. “We’ve got a room at the venue. I’m the best man. I told you that. The best man isn’tnotgoing to have accommodations.”
“Okay, but what about the best man’s date? You just said we havearoomat the venue. A room, Parker. As in one. Which means we’ll be sharing said room. That definitely wasn’t part of the deal. How long will we even be gone for?”
“Four days,” he replied. “Don’t flip out, please? It’ll be fun. Plus, look on the bright side. Just think about how much work we’ll get done on the trip.”
“Don’t flip out?” My voice was moving ever closer to a screech. “Are you serious? We’re not going on a trip to Italy together and sharing a room when we get there. That’s insane. How did you not mention this before I agreed to be your date?”
“Well, you asked if we could get back to work if you went with me, and I said yes. We didn’t discuss the details of what being my date would entail. We just got back to work. It was what you wanted.”
I stared at him in total disbelief. “You’re kidding. There’s no way you’re pinning this on me. You could’ve taken one minute to tell me the wedding was inItaly.”
“To be fair, if I had told you, you probably wouldn’t have agreed and then we wouldn’t have gotten back to work. That would’ve made you angrier with me.”
“That’s not an excuse. What the hell were you thinking? How did we get from no small talk or going out together to you thinking it would be okay to trick me into going to Italy with you?”
“Hey.” He lifted a finger, shaking it at me. “There was no trickery involved with that. The trickery was getting you to tell me your address last night. I absolutely did not trick you into coming to the wedding with me. You volunteered to be my date. I didn’t ask. Didn’t even consider asking.”
I sank back on the sofa, shaking my head slowly but repeatedly. “I’m not going. This doesn’t count as backing out. It’s not me finding a loophole not to have to stick to my word. It’s a material change in the conditions of our agreement.”
He chuckled. “There were no conditions to our agreement. It’s not like we spent any time laying down any rules. You said you’d come with me.”
“Well, now I’m saying I’m not coming with you.”
“Yeah, I can’t agree to that.” He lifted his phone off his desk and keyed in his passcode before pulling something up and turning the screen toward me. “This is a picture of you last night. If you don’t go along with me, I’ll blackmail you.”
The humor sparkling in his eyes told me he was joking about the blackmail, but I still couldn’t let him have a picture of me looking so sloppy. “Give me that.”
“No way.” He yanked his hand back, and before I knew it, I was on my feet and striding toward him.
I reached the desk and tried to grab the phone out of his hand. He let out a bark of laughter and jumped up, racing away from me. I followed, unable to believe that I was chasing a client around his office trying to get his phone so I could delete a damn picture.
When realization dawned that that was exactly what I was doing, I slammed to a stop. “Fine. Keep the damn picture, but if it ever sees the light of day, I’m coming for you.”
Obviously not trusting that I wasn’t going to try taking the phone again, he fled from the office when I walked toward him, but I only headed for him because he’d been standing near the door. Laughter rang out after him when he jogged down the corridor toward the stairs, but I didn’t follow.
He really could keep the fucking picture, but I would get him back for this. For all of it.
As I marched to my own office, I was fuming, but I was also a little amused. Working for Parker was definitely turning out to be an interesting job. Perhaps the most interesting one I’d ever had.
Okay, and maybe it was even a little fun. I wasn’t used to working like this. It was entirely out of my comfort zone, but from moment one, I’d known this wouldn’t be like any other project I’d ever taken on.
More accurately, he wasn’t like any other client I’d ever taken on. When Parker was focused and working, it was a sight to behold. He had laser-like focus and nothing escaped his notice. I couldn’t accuse him of not doing his part.
It was clear to see from all the documentation I’d looked over that he’d really had his nose to the grindstone for years now. He and I weren’t so different at all in that respect. I’d seen emails with timestamps late into the night or ridiculously early in the morning. There were notes on some of his documents with digital footprints showing that he’d been working on Christmas Day, over Thanksgiving weekend, and on New Year’s Eve.
He might come off as a bit of a goofball who didn’t take anything too seriously, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t serious about his business. The big difference between us was that he still seemed to find a way to relax, to loosen up and have fun while working his butt off.
Me? I didn’t have that ability. I’d lost sight of the lighter side of life. Fuck, it was entirely possible that I’d never even had it in my sights before.
Maybe I can learn from him.Just maybe, I could actually figure out a way to find joy without jeopardizing everything I’d worked for. It seemed unlikely, but he was growing on me. I was starting to realize that I liked his outlook on life.
I still needed to keep him focused and we still needed to actually get his sale done, but while we did it, maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to take a trip to Italy. Besides, I’d always wanted to visit.
This was a free ride, and maybe it would be stupid of me to turn that down.