Thanks,
Sophia
I regret the final line as soon as I’ve hit send. It wasn’t pithy. It wasn’t clever, and it wasn’t professional, either. But here I am, the email sent, never to be undone.
I focus on the heroine in the movie. She’s standing, sad and beautiful, in line to board an airplane. Then the movie cuts to the hero racing across the terminal building to get to her.
She’s sad because they can’t be together for some banal reason that barely made sense to me the first time I saw this movie.
I want to shake her.
You have a man who’s good and true and you’re not willing to put in a little work?
I want to shake him, too. It had taken him long enough to realize his feelings, and now he’s running through a damn airport, cutting it too close.
It’salmostlike the filmmakers timed his great realization for maximum dramatic effect. I sigh. They’re probably going to get married and then divorced a few years later when one or both of them cheat. Or when they realize they actually have nothing in common and wake up as strangers one day.
I look down at my laptop. There’s a new email. Mr. Winter has responded to my stupid message.
Subject:RE: Access to the archives
Don’t apologize. I’m the one who chose to check my emails. As for hotel empires, they don’t design themselves, either, it seems. I take it my project is so challenging that you need to work nights?
Emperor
A shaky breath escapes me. So I hadn’t messed this up. The wordsspecial friend of the CEOring out in my head. And then I see him, ordering food from one of the most exclusive restaurants in New York with a quick phone call. He’d written “Emperor” facetiously, picking up on the lame joke I put down in my own email, but it’s not untrue. He rules the Winter Corporation.
Subject:RE: Access to the archives.
The best projects are challenging, but that’s what makes them exciting. Yours more than most. It’s distracting me from the movie I’m watching, as opposed to the other way around. That’s a good sign.
Enjoy the rest of your evening,
Sophia
I send it off, and then wait with bated breath for another email from him. A response of any kind. But I hadn’t asked a question, and what would he even respond to?What movie are you watching?
I shut the laptop and shove it under the pillows in the corner of my couch, refusing to look at it again. Instead I bury my hands in Milo’s soft fur and try to enjoy watching the couple make up on the screen, confessing feelings that have been obvious to anyone with eyes for the last hour of the film.
It isn’t until the next morning that I read his response. Because he had responded.
Subject:RE: Access to the archives
That probably says more about your choice of movie than the project we’re working on. Enjoy your night off, Sophia. The hotel will still be there tomorrow.
I’d still give you a raise, if it was up to me.
Isaac
5
SOPHIA
The Winter Hotel in DC isn’t as old as the original New York location, but it’s larger, built in a place where square footage isn’t a species on the endangered list. It has most of the same grand features, with a gym twice the size of the one in New York, but it’s clear it’s built more for utility than glamour.
“You can tell it’s designed for visiting dignitaries,” Jenna comments that morning, as we eat breakfast. “I saw them adding signs on the breakfast buffet in Mandarin.”
“Are they hosting a summit?”