“Yeah.” I threw myself into my chair. “Just Ralf.” I hadn’t flown all the way to New York to be thought of as the girl who went around kissing colleagues and nothing else.
“What did he do?” Suddenly, Elliot’s laid-back demeanor was gone, and he was half out of his chair.
“N-nothing.”
“Are you sure?” Elliot demanded. “Because if you need me to—”
“I don’t need you to do anything!” I yelped. The last thing I wanted was for him to speak to Ralf. In fact, I needed to keep them far away from each other. “Please.”
Elliot glared back at me. “You’d tell me, right? If he ever did anything that made you uncomfortable or …” He trailed off, swallowing audibly. “Anything.”
The room shrank away to nothing around me, because all I could see was Elliot’s earnest, pleading eyes. “Sure.” I lifted RJ’s script notes with a weary sigh. “For now, we have work to do.”
When I checked the time, I thought I was seeing things. “Shit, it’s almost midnight!” We’d spent the entire day catching up, thanks to the junket and Elliot’s mysterious vanishing act eating into the time we had until RJ’s deadline. We’d ordered in lunch as well as dinner, so I’d barely moved from my seat and my muscles were cramping from having been hunched over my laptop for such an extended period.
Elliot looked over at me from the sofa. He had attempted to recline back on it as he reviewed the day’s work, but his sizable frame barely fit. “I know.”
I was proud of our progress though. Somehow, we’d managed to get through the day with only minor bickering and a whole lot of collaboration. Elliot had actually taken my suggestions on board with just the occasional grimace and although he’d taken the lead with the writing, I was happy with my contribution. I stood, wincing as my stiff muscles protested. “Do you think RJ will be happy?”
“I think we’ve done enough.” Elliot concertinaed his body in an awkward movement to get himself off the sofa. “But we should do a review first thing before we hand it over.”
“Home to bed then.” I was strangely wired, with a desire to get some fresh air. “I think I’ll walk.”
“The hell you will.” Elliot paused midway through shoving his laptop into his bag. “Get a cab.”
“My flat is only a few blocks downtown!” I said with a snort. “Besides, I need to move my body, get some air.”
“If you think I am letting you wander the streets solo then you’re crazy,” Elliot said.
“I’ll stick to Tenth, I’ll be perfectly safe.” I’d honestly never felt safer out and about than I had since coming to Manhattan.
“I’ll pay for an Uber, seriously.” Elliot began tapping at his phone.
“It’s not the money!” I said. “It’s more that I cannot face sitting down or being immobile right now. I want to move, shake the day off.”
Elliot shoved his phone back in his bag. “I’m walking you back, then.”
“You don’t need to!” I squeaked, it was awkward to be on the receiving end of such chivalry.
“I’m downtown too,” he said with a shrug. “So, it’s kinda on my way.”
“You don’t—”
His glare silenced me. “No arguments.”
We made it out into the night. Despite the lateness of the hour, the city was still alive. As we turned onto Tenth Avenue, I could hear cheers and chatter from a bar a few yards away, while a queue snaked out of a loud little takeaway pizza place.
“Busy,” I remarked.
“It’s New York,” Elliot mumbled as we sidestepped a trio of smartly dressed and very tipsy women. “It’s kinda famous for, you know, not sleeping.”
“God, I can’t imagine sleeping right now,” I said with a nervous laugh. “As tired as I am, I have all this weird energy.”
Elliot stopped, gazed down at me. “Weird energy, huh?”
“Yep.” I avoided his eyes. In London, I’d be reaching for the dating apps right about now, seeing if someone warm-blooded and willing was available to iron out the kinks in my brain.
Elliot grinned. “Follow me.” He led me a few yards down the street to a fenced-off area, where a narrow bank of steps led to a dimly lit, leafy overpass.
