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"Oh, dear…" She sat back, tilting her head to one side. "You overheard Sharon and I yesterday," she said and sighed. "I'm so sorry about that. I didn’t mean for you to hear our gossip. Yes, I met with Josh just after he found out about his father's will. It was a shock to him, because none of the boys had any idea they wouldn't be splitting the family fortune. Instead, their father created incentivized trust funds for them. In order to get a disbursement, they had to fulfil certain requirements. The first was they had to get married and stay married for at least a year. If so, they'd each get $25 million dollars on their first anniversary and every anniversary that they stayed married. It was their father's way of encouraging them to give up the bachelor's life and settle down."
"Is that even legal?" I asked, for it sounded like blackmail or extortion.
"Yes, it is entirely legal. Josh wasn't happy about it. He recently had a very hard breakup as I'm sure you know. He wasn't at all keen on getting married or looking for a wife. He even joked that I should find him a wife because he was too b
usy. I said, why not? I could do it because I have files on hundreds of very capable young women, many of whom would be more than happy to meet Josh and get to know him. Maybe become his wife."
"And?"
"And, I tried my best. I provided him with the very best candidates I had on file at the time. Women from very privileged backgrounds, with degrees and who were attractive and successful, and who agreed to meet him. He turned each one of them down, finding excuses. One wasn't nice enough. One was too nice. One had a career that was trifling. One was too serious."
"Did he ever say anything about me?" I asked.
"No," she said, frowning. "He never indicated he was seeing anyone, but now that I meet you, and learn that the two of you have become involved, I suspect he was comparing all the candidates to you, and finding he was just not interested in anyone else."
She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.
That thought made me smile. I covered my mouth with a hand, hoping to hide it because it felt too proud and there was no way of knowing if she was right about him. Still, a little zing of happiness went through me at the thought that Josh had compared me to the women Marcella found for him and turned them all down as a result.
"I was wondering why he was being so reluctant," Marcella said, her eyes narrowing. "Now, I know. He had you as his comparator. You have good breeding, coming from a powerful political family in New Hampshire. You have a degree from an Ivy League College. You have a career and ambition. You're lovely on top of it. I can see why he wasn't interested in anyone else."
Marcella smiled at me, a look of glee in her eyes. "It's a loss for me because I could have made some money off his desire to find a wife, but I've always been fond of Joshua. He's a wonderful person and upstanding young man. It makes me personally happy to know he found you on his own without any help from me."
I shook my head, because she was getting way ahead of herself.
"Wait," I said and held out my hand. "We just started seeing each other. It's not like that."
"Maybe not for you, but I suspect it is for Josh. Besides, your relationship with him was important enough for you to come and speak to me, to hear what I had to say. It was important enough to Joshua to admit what happened and send you to me with his blessing. I'd say there's something between you two that is more than just mutual attraction." She wagged her eyebrows. "Maybe you just don't realize it yet."
I tried not to grin, because the idea made me very happy. It surprised me, but I hadn't realized how much I felt for Josh, in addition to being incredibly physically attracted to him. Thinking about us becoming a couple sent a surge of excitement through me, and a feeling of desire mixed with affection. Of a deep need for him as a man.
I saw his face in my mind's eye – his handsome face, masculine with blue-gray eyes, a well-trimmed beard, his hair long on top, falling into his eyes in this sexy way. His incredible build. His intensity as a lover.
I felt a jolt of desire when I thought about going away to Bali for a weekend with him, alone on a tropical island all-inclusive resort. Nothing but sun, surf and sex…
"Thank you for being so open about this," I said and stood up, deciding I'd heard enough and still feeling quite awkward to be talking to Marcella about it. "I have to go, but I appreciate your willingness to meet with me so quickly."
She stood and escorted me to the door. "Please, feel free to contact me in the future if you are looking for a different opportunity. I'm sure with your credentials, I could land you a plum position with a publishing house."
I smiled and we shook hands before I left. Then I took the elevator down to the main floor and walked out into the late afternoon pedestrian traffic.
I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and the pedestrians walked around me, flowing like a river of people. I had dreamed of being here, in Manhattan, in Mid-Town Manhattan in particular, the publishing world's center of gravity. Now, here I was – working for a major publisher, living in a cute studio apartment in Chelsea, and I had one of the wealthiest bachelors in America inviting me to spend a dirty weekend with him in a tropical paradise.
"Hey, lady, get the hell off the middle of the sidewalk!" a man called out at me, bumping into me. I came out of my trance of happiness and quickly went to the side of the building, out of the way of the thickest pedestrian traffic.
I didn’t go back to my place right away. Instead, I went to Central Park and walked around the lake, trying to clear my head and figure out what I should do.
I sat on a bench by the pond, and watched some geese swimming around. On the street, a couple of horse-drawn carriages clip-clopped by, the sound of their hooves making me think of when I was a child and used to go on hayrides in the fall.
I was filled with a sense of melancholy, and wished the answer would come to me so I could finally feel settled, but there was no bolt of lightning or clear message from above, telling me what to do.
I had to figure it out myself.
I took out my cell, and checked my messages.
Sure enough, there was one from Josh.
JOSH: I'm standing outside your apartment with a bouquet of roses in my hand, hoping you'll let me in so we can talk this over.
