Anna: Later. Okay.
Me: Let me know when you’re at the hotel. I should be back by midnight.
Three hours later and I’d just come off the least useful conference call in my career. At least it hadn’t generated more work. The ball was in the court of the Chinese. We had the weekend off.
Back at my desk, I checked my phone.
Anna: At the hotel bar.
The text was sent over an hour ago. The hotel bar, for Christ’s sake? It was close to 9:30. No doubt a million sleazy guys had hit on her.
Me: On your own?
Anna: You haven’t died then.
Me: On your own?
Anna: I’m making new friends.
New friends? New friends with dicks? My fists clenched. Jesus. I was going to end up in prison by the end of the weekend if I wasn’t careful. I put some paperstogether quickly and left the office earlier than I should have.
I sawher as soon as I entered the bar. She was sitting at the bar, her head tipped back, and she was laughing at something the bartender had said to her. He looked like he’d just hit a home run. I knew how that felt—it lit me up when I made her laugh. I didn’t like that he got to feel that, too. I’d never felt jealousy over a woman before now.
I came up behind her and rubbed her back. She was mid-laugh and she jumped when I touched her. I hated that.
“Hey!” she said a little too loudly and both her hands flew into the air. “He’s here,” she said to the bartender.
The bartender nodded at Anna and turned to me. “Can I get you a drink, sir?”
Anna interrupted my response “You’re here! I’d thought you were gone and now you’re here! My New York lover.”
“I think she’s had enough for both of us,” I said.
“No! Have a drink. I have lots of new friends to show you. Which one do I like best?” She looked imploringly at the bartender.
“You like them all, ma’am.”
“I do. I like all these cocktails. They are my friends. My New York friends.” She pointed at a list of at least twenty drinks.
“Tell me you’ve not served her all these?”
He shook his head. “Just the first five or so. She was working her way down the list.”
“Come on, beautiful. Let’s get you to bed.”
I signed the tab and helped her off the stool.
“My case, my case, my case,” she said as she spun around and went to grab a small silver suitcase, which I took for her. I put my free arm around her waist and guided her back to the elevator bank.
“Why didn’t you leave it in the room?” I asked.
“No key, no key, no key.” She was pretty unsteady on her feet, but her mouth was working just fine, if a little slurry.
“Did you lose your key?” I asked.
“No, of course I didn’t lose it. I left it in the room because of your weirdness this morning.” She prodded her finger into my cheek. “And then I wouldn’t have to bring it back and run into you when you dumped me, which would definitely happen because I have theworstluck with men, and that would be weirder and awkward so I left it, and then you texted me and then it was weird and now I’m here. I’m so tired.” She slumped against the elevator door.
That was a lot of information to process in one go. “We’re going to get you to bed, beautiful,” I said and pulled her against me. I kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry for being weird this morning.”
