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LILY
If I’d thought he looked mad before at the airport, it’s only because I hadn’t seen him really mad. Right now, with his black brows slanted together and his face so tight that the skin stretched over his bones, he looked positively fearsome.
I took a step back, regretting it already. I knew it was a bad idea, but Halley had been so insistent. Her coaxing words came back to haunt me. “Oh, come on, Lily. He really wants to take you to lunch. No, he is not intimidating. He’s my dad! That means, as my big sister, he’s practically your dad.”
I’d nearly swallowed my tongue then. “No, he isn’t!”
But she’d laughed and coaxed and of course I’d gotten off the phone with her, completely convinced that I’d read Con all wrong and that he really did want to take me to lunch. Now I realized that my first impression had been right. I should have eaten alone at my cubicle after the cliquey, narrow-eyed, whispering crew of Brand Development left for the lunch they planned next to my desk without inviting me.
“I’m sorry,” I said instinctively. I wasn’t sure what I was apologizing for, but in my experience, when someone looked at you like that, it was because you’d done something terribly wrong.
Con’s eyebrows lowered further. “For what?” he asked, sounding as mad as he looked.
“For…” I gestured uncertainly. “I’m not sure, I guess.” I laughed out of pure nervousness. “You just look really angry.”
I could tell I’d surprised him because for a minute, he just stared at me. Then his features relaxed, and he even gave me a reluctant half-smile. “I am, but it’s not because of you.”
“Oh, well, if this is a bad time…” I was already backing up another step. I’d be so happy to eat alone in my cubicle. Thrilled to watch the others file out without me. Anything to avoid spending an hour alone with this intense, darkly handsome man who always seemed on the verge of anger.
“No, it’s not.” His voice snapped out like a whip, stopping me in my tracks. He glanced at the clock. “I have an hour.”
“Great,” I said weakly. An hour. How on earth was I going to sit across from him for an hour? Nervousness burbled up in my throat as we walked back to the elevator in silence. This was like the car ride all over again, but worse. He didn’t have traffic to distract him, and I didn’t have a GPS ticking down the minutes to stare at.
I cursed Halley again when we walked down the block to a restaurant I couldn’t afford in a million years. “You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” Halley’s dad asked, frowning.
I shook my head, half wishing I was. This place looked nicer than the steakhouse my mom had taken me to after my college graduation. Halley had come with us and called it so cute. Now I could see why. Morton’s Steakhouse did look like a cute younger sibling, dressing up in its big brother’s clothes compared to this place.
The front desk was manned by a maître d' instead of a host, and he knew Con immediately. “Mr. Walker, Maureen just called to let us know you’d be dining with us today. We have your table ready.”
The place was airy but intimate. The booth he took us to was tucked into a corner, discreetly hidden from view of the entrance. I slid in and murmured my thanks when he handed me a leather-bound menu. I opened it, hoping there would be an appetizer or side that I could order for my meal without looking conspicuous.
There were two narrow pieces of cream paper secured to the leather folio with gold bands in each corner. One side was entirely dedicated to wine and whiskey, priced by the bottle, and the numbers made my stomach drop even before I even looked at the food. When I did, it was worse than I expected. The least expensive item was the starter Caesar salad for twenty-five dollars. The most expensive was a steak that came in just under a hundred dollars, but that didn’t include sides.
Con must have sensed my shock because he said without looking up from his own menu, “This is on the company. We take every new employee out for lunch.”
I wasn’t sure I believed him, but the knots in my stomach loosened slightly. I ordered the least expensive entrée and water. I didn’t hear what Con ordered because I was too busy trying to think of what I could ask him to prevent another awkward silence from falling between us. I’d just decided that I’d ask him how he started his own agency when I realized that the waiter was gone and Con was staring at me.
He’d said something, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was.
“I said, how did you and Halley become friends?” he repeated, a small smirk curling the edge of his mouth in a way that made his face look the opposite of friendly.
“We met at rush week,” I said, latching onto the topic happily. Of course we should talk about Halley. It was the only thing we had in common. “She was a freshman fall rush. I became her Big.”
“I have to admit, I was surprised when she wanted to join a sorority.” Con took a sip of water, his eyes latched onto mine over the rim.
I bristled. I’d heard that tone a dozen times before. A seemingly innocuous comment except that it was underlined with derision. “Why is that?” I asked, keeping my voice bright and upbeat with effort.
He shrugged his broad shoulders negligently. “I just didn’t think she was the sorority girl type.”
“The sorority girl type?” I repeated, still determined not to let annoyance creep into my voice. I couldn’t be annoyed with Con. He was my boss, he was paying for this lunch, and most importantly, he was Halley’s dad. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Vapid,” he said bluntly. “More concerned with parties and boys—” here his lip curled down “—than going to class.”
I took a sip of my own water, cooling the hot words that wanted to spring to my lips. He watched me carefully, and I had the feeling he was amused. “I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea about sororities,” I finally said with as much saccharine sweetness as I could hold on my tongue without gagging. “Probably because you’re in an industry that doesn’t really understand the bonds of sisterhood and therefore reduces women to bimbos and sluts.”
He raised one eyebrow laconically. “Well please, enlighten me.”
This part was easy. I could list a dozen ways that sororities were beneficial. The hard part was keeping the irritation out of my voice when he was so clearly trying not to smirk. “Some sororities might focus on parties and boys, but not all. Ours was about community. We did volunteer work and held fundraisers. It’s about learning to be a leader. I was the vice president, so I basically learned how to run a household of forty girls, which taught me about budgeting and conflict resolution…”
