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Toby gently licked her hand before falling asleep.
In the morning Nicole dressed and headed for the office early, with a determination to embrace the real world.
There was only one more appointment scheduled with Jordan, on Thursday morning. They were going to visit a set where a television ad was being filmed. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have gone since it was with seasoned clients and a film crew with whom she was familiar. However, Jordan thought it would provide good photos for the PostModern articles. He claimed it would be more interesting to readers if they could identify a Seattle landmark, so she’d agreed to be at the site where the Space Needle could be caught in the background.
“Hi,” she said, coming through the door.
“Good morning.” Chelsea’s voice was bright and relaxed.
“You seem to be in a good mood.”
The new office manager’s smile was shy, but it made her face glow.
“I am. Things are going really great.”
“Terrific.”
“And you?”
“Just fine.” It was a lie, but she couldn’t tell Jordan’s sister the truth.
* * *
ON THURSDAY NICOLE felt like a model again as Jordan took picture after picture. There was little else for her to do, though the models and photographers seemed pleased to have her there.
“Enough?” she finally asked.
“Sure, but how about going up in the Space Needle?”
“Any particular reason?”
“More pictures. And besides, have you ever gone up? It’s quite a view.”
“No,” she had to admit.
“Isn’t it time you do? Come on, it won’t take all day.”
Her objection was less about seeing the sights and more about ending the session with him. There would possibly be a few follow-up visits or phone calls, but she longed to have space for her aching heart to heal, at least on the surface.
The plaza was busy, but when she headed toward a ticket booth, Jordan said he already had them.
“On the off chance you could go, I reserved a launch time, as they call it,” he said. “To save time.”
Before long they were viewing the Seattle area from the heights. Jordan snapped pictures as she concentrated on the beautiful vistas, trying to figure out where the agency and her house were located.
“Nicole, there’s something—”
“He called you Nicole? I wondered… Nicole George,” a voice interrupted. “That’s who you are, right?”
There was an excited murmuring and a number of people converged around them. Nicole signed several autographs and three people wanted to take selfies with her. Jordan had immediately stepped back and was snapping more pictures. While tourists continued talking, she was aware that he was getting photo releases from the first group who had approached them.
“Thanks for the interest, folks,” she finally said, edging away. “I hope you’re enjoying yourselves.”
Soon they were descending in the elevator.
Jordan said nothing as they walked back to where the car was parked.
“That’s the first time we’ve been in such a public setting,” he commented once they were on the road. “Does the excitement and selfie thing happen often?”
“All it takes is one person who recognizes me and then others get interested in someone they think might be a celebrity. But even when I was modeling full-time, it wasn’t as if everyone knew who I was. It was more common when I was at a photo shoot. The activity alerted passersby that something might be going on.”
“And I was taking lots of pictures up there.”
“I suppose.”
It was before the start of rush hour traffic, so they arrived back at the agency in good time.
“How about dinner this evening?” Jordan asked. “There’s something I want to discuss.”
“Sorry, on Thursday I always have a video conference with my colleagues.” She would rather have met with him and gotten it done, but it wasn’t easy rearranging the schedules of four people located in different corners of the world.
“How about Saturday night?”
She wondered what he was doing on Friday and felt an unreasonable stab of jealousy that it might be a date. Brother, had she lost her mind.
