“I’ll be honest with you, Melissa. He’s drop-dead gorgeous, but honestly, I’m not looking for a relationship right now. Even if he sees my photo and says okay, I’d only agree to go out if it’s just as friends.”
“Hey, you’re not obliged to do anything you don’t want to. Let’s go out and have some fun, what do you think?”
“Alright. If it’s as friends, I’m in.”
“Okay. Now we need to finish lunch. We have to go to HR, hand in your documents, and schedule the medical exam. Let’s get your health insurance set up.”
Chapter 14
The Next Day
I haven’t spoken to her since I left her in the lobby two days ago, although I have captured a few images of her around the hotel, alongside Melissa.
After putting Nina to sleep, I try to convince myself that I’ll just send a message to check if everything is okay so far. After all, I am responsible for Olívia, in a certain way.
But instead of doing the right thing and just sending the message, before I can think clearly, I press the button to complete the call. The phone rings a few times before she answers, and her voice sounds slightly breathless, which puts me on alert.
“Olívia?”
“Guiller . . . um . . . Mr. Guillermo, is something wrong?”
“Where are you?”
“In my . . . room.”
“Alone?” Why the hell did I ask that? Besides being none of my business, I’ve just completely violated her privacy as my employee. But when she answered the phone breathing heavily,a strange sensation spread through me, along with the urgency to check where—and with whom—she was.
“Yes, alone, I . . . um . . . was dreaming.”
I swear I don’t usually have such dirty thoughts in my head. The problem is that now different images are parading through my mind: Olívia, lying on her bed—in a nightgown or naked—her long hair spread over the pillows. Without a bra? Oh, yes. In my fantasy, definitely without a bra.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” That was a big lie. I did want to, but not over the phone.
Christ, what’s happening to me?
“Everything’s fine. It’s too early to go to bed. I got out of the shower and passed out. The day was quite full.”
I froze when she mentioned getting out of the shower and falling asleep. Now I’m sure she’s definitely sleepy. I don’t think she’d tell me something so intimate if she were awake.
Before I say something I’ll regret, I decide to end the call. “Anyway, I shouldn’t have bothered you at this time of night.”
“No, wait. I don’t mind you calling. I just realized how lonely I’ve been feeling since I got your message the day before yesterday and after spending these days talking to Melissa. What you said about us being friends—I’m not sure how it would work, but I would really like that.”
“It would work like all friendships work, Olívia. I was serious about wanting to get to know you better.”
I thank God she steered the conversation to a neutral topic, but her next question throws my plans out the window.
“Wouldn’t that be inappropriate? The two of us, I mean . . .”
If it were up to me, yes.We would do many inappropriate things, beautiful.
Unfortunately, I can’t propose anything like that and push the desire to the back of my mind.
“No. We can do whatever we want.”
She pauses for a second, and I notice she’s already breathing normally again. “I do want that, but in the hotel . . . I wouldn’t want people to talk about us . . . about you and me . . .”
“No one will say anything. Now, go back to sleep. See you tomorrow.”
