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"Travis, I don't think I can pretend that we're strangers."
"But we are strangers," he said with a chuckle, throwing his head back slightly as his fingers met mine on the glass and suddenly I could barely breathe. His fingers were warm and protective and teasing.
"I mean, we're kind of strangers. We only met last night at Foster's, well, I guess your party?"
Travis grinned at me. "Well, it wasn't myparty. It was a charity auction. We were just at a table that I sponsored, so technically you were my guest. My very pretty guest."
"I know, I know. You were raising money for a literacy program in New York, right? That’s what Foster told me." I grinned at him. Foster was the boyfriend of my friend Alice and one of Travis’s top employees at his Hedge Fund. "But we met last night so pretending that we're strangers now just feels weird to me."
"This was your idea," he said, staring at my lips.
"I mean, it was kind of my idea."
"No, it was your idea. I asked if you wanted to go on a date or to come home with me last night." His blue eyes stared at me in the way they had the evening before, promising a night of pleasure I would never forget.
"I'm not that sort of girl," I said quickly, though that wasn't true. I'd been out with men before and had one-night stands, but I wasn't going to tell him that. It wasn't like you vocalized you were sometimes a hoe to one of the most attractive and richest men you've ever met in your life. I’m not stupid. I mean I’m not ashamed of it either and if we were to date, I’d tell him the truth. But this fantasy wasn’t based on any sort of promise for long term commitment.
"Yeah, that’s what you said...remember what you said next?"
"I said, 'Thank you for the offer.'" I smiled at him sweetly.
"Yeah. And after that you said..."
"I said, 'I don't know,'" I said, sipping on my Sprite quickly, trying to not to remember the stupid things I'd said the night before. I'd been drunk and totally flirtatious, even more flirtatious than I normally was.
"You said to me you would give me a date if..."
"I didn’t ask for a date," I said quickly.
"I'm just quoting what you said," he said with a smile. "You said, 'I'll give you a date if we pretend we’re strangers meeting at a bar for the first time' and I was picking you up for..."
"Oh, don't remind me," I groaned, feeling mortified.
"Why?" he said, laughing. "Is that some secret fantasy that you've never admitted to anyone before?" He started laughing then.
I turned to him and folded my arms. "It's not funny, Travis. You don't even know me well enough to laugh at me like that."
"I just think it's funny that when I asked you for a date, you came up with a date that turned out to be a secret fantasy that you're so ashamed of that now your face is turning bright red."
I bit down on my lower lip, unsure of how to answer because the truth was this had been my fantasy, but not it all felt a bit weird. I was too sober to pretend to be picking up a stranger in a bar; especially when the man was pretty much a stranger to me.
"I'm sorry, Molly Malone, but-"
"But nothing. I should go," I said, jumping up.
"No. No," he said, touching my arm. "Don’t leave. We still haven't had our date."
"Yeah, but this feels weird. I mean, maybe we could just pretend we never met and start again normally."
"But we have met and you're going to be working for my company soon."
"I know, but..." I sighed. "It's not really professional for me to date someone that owns the company I'm going to be working for." Especially because my skillset really shouldn’t have gotten me the job, but I wasn’t about to add that part.
"You're going to be part of the apprenticeship program," he shrugged. "I don't really have much to do with that, so..." He gave me a look that told me, I’m the head of the company, I don’t deal with the nobodies.
"But you're still my boss."
"You'll have several bosses," he grinned. "And hey, wouldn't most women want to sleep with the boss?"
