Later, as I prepared for bed, I sent off another text. Alex responded.
Still at my parents. Mum and I have moved to her home office.
The next two days went like that. We texted back and forth a bit,I miss yousandgoodnights.
Finally, we made plans to have dinner together Wednesday night. I wasn’t sitting around, pining for Alex—much. I kept myself busy, editing my photos, scheduling my social media, and talking with Siviwe, making sure that I was meeting expectations for our deliverables and giving her feedback on my trip. And then, it was looking ahead to my next trip, and sending out pitches for new ones.
I had just sent off my five pitch emails for the day when my phone buzzed with a text. With a sinking heart, I opened up the message. It was from Alex.
Nikki…we’re still working. No end in sight. I have to cancel tonight.
I sighed. At least he was letting me know. I tapped my fingernail on the edge of my phone before typing out a message back.
What if I brought lunch tomorrow?
When the phone rang, I assumed it would be Alex ringing to discuss lunch. Instead it was my mother.
“Annika Elizaveta Kozlova,” my mother began, and gave me a tongue-lashing of Russian proportions. “How could you not tell me you and Alex are dating?”
When she calmed down enough, I filled her in on the mother-appropriate aspects of my new relationship, and she huffed at me. “I had to hear from Natasha!”
“I know, Mum. I’m sorry.”
By the time I soothed Mum’s ruffled feathers, I was yawning in exhaustion.
I brushed my teeth, and Alex finally responded with a gif of a kid jumping up and down in a lawn in excitement.
Dork.
Yes. Miss you.
I had never beento Natasha’s offices before. Boyd Technologies took up the entire building, which was no surprise. This was their headquarters, and with billions in sales every year, they could afford a whole building, even in a prime location such as Camden and Islington.
The security desk buzzed me up, and rather than taking me right to Alex, Paige, the assistant who’d greeted me at the elevator, led me into a huge office with glass windows, a wide, mahogany desk, and a stunning view.
A leather couch sat against the interior wall, which was made of opaque glass that blocked the view and most of the light. I sat on the couch, resting the takeaway on the table in front of it, and waited.
I had been early, but prepared. I had work to do, and I made a note to myself to ask Alex if I could use his desk for work next time I came in to wait for him. I spent some time responding to emails and catching up on social media.
“Hey.” Alex’s voice hit me from the doorway.
I stood up, smoothing my sundress down as he took two long strides and wrapped his arms around me. The hug was a good one, long and the kind that lets you breathe someone in and sink into the way they smell. Alex pulled back, only to kiss me. Any hesitation I felt melted away; Alex and I just had to get into a groove together, figure out how to make two very busy people have a working relationship.
“Thank you so much for bringing lunch. What a treat,” he said as we sat in the chairs in front of his desk. I opened up the containers of Thai food, and we tucked in. Alex explained some of the finer details of the project he was working on, and I told him about planning my upcoming trip to Sri Lanka.
“It’s a yoga retreat in the highlands. Apparently, there’s a chilly climate in the center of the island, and that’s where tea was grown back in the day.”
“So you’ll be drinking tea and doing yoga?”
“And sightseeing.” For the first time, I felt a twinge of guilt. This was a lie by omission; I was leaving out that the retreat was arranging the trip for me.
“What kind of sightseeing?”
“There’s a popular train ride, some historic sights. Safaris are popular there, too, but I won’t be going on one.”
Alex swallowed his bite of pad thai. “I better find some time in my schedule to see you before you go, I should think.”
“That would be nice, but don’t feel too bad about this past week, I’ve been busy too.” One of my pitches had responded positively, and I had nearly sealed the deal on a local event here in London. And I had organized my social media schedule for the next month. Plenty to be done.
