"Perfect. You’re hired."
She smiled. "Fantastic. I’ll see you tomorrow. Is there a dress code?"
"Black shirt, black slacks. Something tasteful but not obtrusive. Also, we do bartending for my sister's catering company, if you would be interested."
She smiled and said, "Absolutely."
After they shook hands and she signed a contract, she practically skipped back to Arnold's apartment.
Maybe this was finally the turning point; maybe things were starting to improve. Hard work paid off. She just had to keep plugging away at it. Maybe Carter would actually see that there was something worthwhile in her.
Even the fruit fly infestation in Arnold's studio apartment didn't put a damper on her good mood. She clipped Margot's leash on and took her outside. While the dog poked around at the leaves and trash on the sidewalk, Allie scrolled through the gossip columns on her phone. There was a big fundraising party coming up for the Holbrook Foundation.
Would Carter ask her? Could this be her moment?
She fantasized about what it would be like—walking in on his arm, wearing a beautiful dress, music playing…
Who was she kidding? Carter had never even asked her on a date. There was no way she was going to that party.
30
Carter
Over the next few days, Carter noticed that Allie grew distant. He knew she had enjoyed their morning session—he certainly had—but she didn't stay and linger with him as she normally did, just dressed and said she was going to shower. And she hadn't even wanted to stay late that night. She said she had something else to do. What if she was seeing someone else?
He arrived early the next morning, eager for his Allie fix. She didn't show, and Carter had to take a freezing-cold shower to be able to function.
Allie and Liz were on conference calls the entire day. Carter could barely contain himself while he waited for the floor to clear.
"So," he said, standing up and stretching while looking around to make sure they were alone.
"You're not going out with Vance?" she asked him.
"I've stopped going out," he told her.
"Did you?" she said, not looking up from her screen.
He came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her neck.
"Stop it," she hissed, pushing him away. She looked around furtively. "Someone could see."
Hurt, Carter backed off. But his dick only had one desire, and that was to be buried inside of Allie.
Calm down,he told himself. Trying not to seem overeager, he said, "Do you want to…"
She swiveled around in her chair to look at him. "Maybe we could go out instead," she said carefully.
"For what?" Carter laughed. "Drinks? Dinner? Isn't this good enough? Why do we have to make everything so serious?"
She couldn't be seriously suggesting a date, right? When he had suggested that they go to her apartment, she was so angry. She must have meant something else that was absolutely not a date, right?
He didn't want to seem too needy. He wanted Allie to think of him as a competent, powerful man, not some punk who didn't have his life together. He desperately wanted to ask Grant's advice on how to handle Allie, but he didn't want Grant to tell the rest of his family. They were all so sure that she was going to try to kill him or ruin him.
He would gladly tell them to eat dirt if he knew that it would mean he could be with Allie. But he wasn't so sure that that was what she wanted. She hadn't indicated that she wanted more.
Carter liked what they had, but now that he thought about it, he did want more. He wasn’t going to beg, though, or twist her arm. He figured if she really wanted to go on a real date, he would get some sort of reaction from her to show that she cared. He wanted her to protest and yell at him.
But she just said, "Fine," and stood up.
