I straighten dramatically, “As your boss, I’m ordering you to do so.”
“Ugh, I knew I shouldn’t have asked,” she hands me my phone. I note how thin and long her fingers are, how cool to the touch.I almost ask if she’s cold but stop myself. She already thinks so little of me, I mustn’t add finger-temperature-stalker to the list.
“Thanks for this,” she says as I start to twist away from her and back to the waiting crowd. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“See you,” I say casually, even though it doesn’t feel casual. It should. She’s an acquaintance, not a date. She’s not new, not particularly friendly and not at all interested in spending more time with me. And yet I think…I think, even as a bloke who makes thrill seeking a part-time career, I’m more excited now than I have been in ages.
_____
I smile at the woman, who may or may not detest me, as she breezes out of her hotel lobby toward my limo.
“Darling, we meet again.”
“Food,” is all she says.
I snort and open the door for her. She climbs in and I follow.
With both of us inside and the door shut, I say, “Thank you for asking, love, my afternoon was dreadfully dull without your elbow jabs and eye rolls. And yours?”
She smirks, “It was awesome. I fell asleep in million-count thread sheets to the sounds of women being catty on the TV. I can’t remember the last time I took a nap.”
I frown, “What exactly do you do on the weekends, then?”
“Chores? Errands? All the things I didn’t have time for during the week when I was doing this weird thing called WORKING.”
“For me. At my condiments empire,” I smile, she glares and we freeze that way, her refusing to be charmed by me and me refusing to be ruffled by her.
My driver clears his throat, “Sir?”
“Oh, right,” I mumble. We’ve just been sitting here, blocking traffic. “Where to?”
“Sushi?” she asks.
“Whatever my employee wants, she gets!” I say loudly. “To Nobu!”
“May take a while to go down the strip at this time, sir?”
“You can go round the other way,” I tell him. Janie looks over at me so I ask her, “Unless you want to drive the strip? See the sights? It seemed like I ought to get you to the food as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, food first,” she agrees.
“Why are you all way down here at the Strat anyway?”
She shakes her head slightly and looks out the window. “I’m guessing because Mellman’s Mayo is pretty low on the Clark Industries totem pole.”
“Hm,” I don’t disagree.
She lifts an exposed shoulder in the same tight but work-place-acceptable one-piece halter thing, this time with a light sweater over top, as she says, “I get it. It does feel very small-town Mom-and-Pop. I was surprised it was one ofyours.”
“That was meant to offend me, yeah?”
She glances over, “Not really. I mean, maybe a little.” Her eyes twinkle in the passing lights. “But I’d also be surprised if it was part of Procter and Gamble or—”
“How dare you mention P&G aloud!” I cut her off.
“Oh right! Sorry. They warned me about that. That and Unilever and—”
“Stop, woman, my ears are bleeding!” I joke again.
