He grabbed her wrist. “No, wait. You can’t drop that and leave. Give me an example. How can I change for the better if nobody ever corrects me?” He flashed his most boyishly charming smile.
The rest of her cheek flamed.
Battleship sunk.
She raised one eyebrow and considered. “For one thing, you’ve taken up smoking.”
“You’re offended by my smoking?” He reached into his pocket and retrieved the pack, thanking the gods he happened to still have it on him. “Fine. I’ll quit.” He crumpled the package into a ball and shot it toward the large trash can at the edge of the building. His shot fell short, and they both laughed.
“That was easy enough, Dane. But you can’t just claim to quit. You’ll buy another pack tonight. You’ve never been able to deny yourself whatever you want.”
Her eyes narrowed, and he wondered what she meant by that. Was that a dig at the night he spent with Val that New Year's Eve? It wasn't like he'd cheated on her with Val. He’d taken his solace there, as misguided as that turned out.
“I won’t buy another pack. But if you don’t believe me, you can keep a watch on all the smoking areas tomorrow, and for the rest of the week. If I’m so incorrigible, I won’t be able to make it through the entire work day without a smoke.”
She tilted her head at him. “It’s none of my concern whether you choose to smoke or not. Why would I spend any time monitoring your activities?”
Something in the way her eye twitched when she objected triggered a suspicion in him. Was she having him watched? Impulsively, he took both her hands in his. “Be my saving grace, Noelle.” He chuckled. She surprised him by laughing, too. “And if I fail, then nothing will have changed. But I’ll lay you a wager: if I can make it until Friday without a cigarette, I get to take you out to dinner.”
She drew her hands back. Her movements were slow, however. She didn’t appear repulsed, but her control troubled him. She stood and laughed awkwardly. “Mr. Russ, quitting smoking is its own reward. And I don’t know why I’d lay a wager that I can in no way win.”
“Fine, I’ll up the stakes. If I fail, I won’t ask you to dinner. Ever again.”
“You know I could report you for harassment and get that same result.”
He held a hand over his heart. “Shots fired.” He let his most innocent smile spread across his face. “How about this: If you win, I won’t bother you at all about anything that isn’t work related ever again.”
She tilted her head back and appraised him through narrowed eyes. “And you’ll keep your word? If I catch you smoking at work, you have to respect my space.”
“And if I make it through Friday, you will join me for dinner.”
She hesitated. “That might look—”
“Like old friends catching up.”
”Friends . . .”
He cut his eyes over to the trash can. “And besides, you’re so sure you’ll win.”
She bit the inside of her lip for a beat. “Okay. That’s a fair wager.” She reached out her hand, and they shook. “I’ll see you around the smoking court.”
“I’ll see you Friday at seven.” He winked. “Dress nice.”
When she disappeared around the corner, Dane tapped his phone and dialed L’Etoile. “Andre, I’d like a reservation for two on Friday at seven-thirty.”
Continued from Page 6
. . . met Val Montgomery and signed up for the Finance lecture she was attending, hoping to find common ground to talk with her. Although he had no trouble getting up to speed in the class, he soon discovered that Val’s understanding of the material far surpassed his own. In order to keep up, he began reading everything he could find on the subject, and eventually he could maintain a conversation with her on diverse financial subjects.
But with his newly acquired interest in the world of finance, he began to consider ways to leverage his skills with the computer to make formerly inaccessible market analysis understandable to the average person. What began as a simple program to project bond yields grew into a more complex system for aggregating stock trends.
When he revealed to Val what he’d been working on, she immediately saw the value and suggested building a system where users could manage their own investments, trade stock, and maintain a portfolio of their own. Their first platform launched on . . .
Sophie,
One of the interns had an article about Dane and Val on his desk. I’m attaching a scanned page because there’s a beautiful picture of Dane that looks more like him than any others I’ve seen before. He really does have teeth that white. His suits always look like he came straight from the tailor. Let’s just say he’s easy on the eyes. But there’s something about him I can’t place. We had a company social yesterday, and he just sat by himself. Val took us over to say hello (she’s so gregarious and full of positive energy), but he looked like his mind was on something else. I bet he thinks in computer code all the time. And still, if he’s half the financial genius Val is, there must be so much he can teach us. I’m still hoping he’ll take some of us (me!) under his wing.
The attached article should prove that I’m not the only person who finds him worth discussing. I am not “mooning” after him as you put it. He’s way too old for me anyway. He’s like thirty-five. Just because you think I talked about him a “little too much” back at school doesn’t mean I’m going to develop a crush on the man. You know he actually was a subject of conversation in my finance classes. And other than one short visit, he’s barely acknowledged our existence.
