“Arik.” His ass barely had time to get comfortable when he heard his name.
He stood. “Hi. Hope I’m not bothering you.”
“Not at all,” Natalie said. “I thought it might be you. Anything I can help you with?”
Was she being polite and businesslike stuffy? Yep.
But he also noticed some of her staff looking on.
He dipped his head and lowered his voice to be considerate. “You can have lunch with me,” he said. “Or dinner. Whatever works for you. You know, as you said, reach out.”
She smiled, her brown eyes brightening. “I did say that.” She looked at her watch. “Fridays are normally crazy, but lunch could work between people checking out and coming in.”
“That is what I had hoped for. It’s still early unless this works.”
“Why don’t we try for noon? If you don’t mind, we could eat in your room and I’ll bring our food from one of the restaurants?”
He wouldn’t take offense at the fact that she might not want to be seen with him. This was her place of employment.
Pushing too early rarely worked in anyone’s favor. Especially if the person you were nudging along had weights in their shoes. At least that was how she’d been in college.
“Sure,” he said. “Do you want me to pick something now? I don’t have a way of reaching you. Unless I call the desk or tell them again.”
Her pursed lips went to the side as if she had to mull that over first. “I’ll give you my cell number.”
Exactly what he’d hoped for.
He pulled his phone out, put in the number she’d read, then sent her a quick text with his name on it.
“I’ll go pick my food and let you know,” he said. “I’m assuming you can figure out what room I’m in?”
“I know you’re on the third floor.”
So she had looked. Points for him.
“So you know how long I’m here?” he asked with his eyebrows up.
“I do. I thought it was odd, but maybe it’s not to you.”
“Nah,” he said. “Some of those things we can talk about. You know, catching up.”
“We can do that. I really should go now. I’ve got a few things to take care of.”
“See you soon.”
He left and returned to his room, looked over the menu, then sent his choice.
It’s not as if he had to clean the place. He hadn’t been doing much to make it messy and the cleaning crew had been here already. Talk about thorough.
He’d left the room for them to do their job the past two days, walking the grounds mostly. He didn’t have anything else going on and had to figure that out soon.
He could only sit around doing nothing for so long and he’d reached his limit.
An hour went by as he was checking the stock market when he heard a knock at the door.
He jumped up quickly, then opened the door.
There she was. The reason he was here.
