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If we were nearly finished here in California, however, I wanted to get a look at what she had done with her time here. It hadn’t taken nearly the same amount of time that we had had in Florida, and she hadn’t come to ask me for any help with the design, either.
So, I was pretty curious to see how the hotel had come together.
I took an Uber to get over to the new hotel, and I saw Laurel inside talking with the manager. I let myself out of the car and headed inside, surprised with how much the hotel already looked ready to go. I knew they were running on deadlines to get it all opening up around the same time, but I had no idea they would be able to get this much done in such a short amount of time.
As I walked over to where Laurel was, she and the manager were finishing up their conversation.
“And, as you can see, the furniture already came in last night. I was sure it wasn’t going to be able to come in early, but after you left yesterday, the store called me to see if they would be able to deliver earlier than scheduled rather than sticking with the original dates. Something happened with one of their other clients, so they were free,” the manager was saying.
“I’m so glad to hear that,” Laurel replied. “You never know when they call out of the blue like that whether it is going to be good news or not. I’m glad they were telling you that they had an earlier time to arrive rather than they had to postpone it for whatever reason.”
“Exactly, that’s what I was thinking when I spoke to them,” the woman said.
I remained silent throughout the entire conversation, waiting for Laurel to turn away from the woman and address me.
“Hey,” she said with a smile. “What do you think of how the place came together?”
“I’m amazed that it came together so fast,” I told her. “I thought you were going to wind up spending about as long here as you did with the one in Florida.”
“I told you this was going to be easier,” she said with a smile. “And when things just fall into place as they did this time, it just goes a lot faster, you know?”
“That makes sense,” I told her. “What do you have left to do?”
“Not much,” she replied. “I thought we were going to have more of a time crunch to get things done, so I worked ahead last night to send over some paperwork that had to be worked out between the hotel and Jason, and my own boss, too.”
“What’s next?” I asked. “I was bored at the hotel, and I figured the best thing to do to deal with that was to come see if you were in need of help. I’m going a bit stir crazy sitting around in those hotels when you have to be out doing all the work.”
“Technically, you’re on the clock, too,” she said with a smile. “You are getting paid to stick around in case I need anything. If I were you, I would have gone out to see what I could while I was still getting paid to stay here. Why not see as much as you can while you’re still getting paid to do it?”
“Mostly because of the fact I wanted to hang around the hotel in the event you needed my help,” I said. “I didn’t want you to call me for something and have me be way out there and unable to come help you.”
“You’re so sweet,” Laurel replied, rising to the tips of her toes to kiss me on the cheek. “I do appreciate how much effort you have put into being around for me when I need it.”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m being paid to do that, aren’t I?”
She laughed. “Well, I don’t have anything else here I need help with. In fact, this is going to be our last day, so why don’t you and I have some fun? I don’t want to fly out of here this late in the day when we’re just going up the coast. Especially since the hotel won’t check us in until tomorrow.”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked.
“San Diego is a bit of a drive, but I want to go to the zoo. It’s the first time I’ve ever been, so if you want to go with me, I think it could be fun,” she suggested. “Of course, if you would rather not deal with the driving traffic, then I understand. There’s plenty of stuff we could do here.”
“No, I don’t mind at all,” I told her, unable to keep the smile from my face. “I would love to be able to spend time with you, and what better way to do that than to go to the zoo?”
“Can’t think of anything I would rather be doing,” I told her. “Let’s rent a car so we don’t have to worry about someone else driving.”
“Good idea,” she said.
We headed back to the hotel, and I took care of renting a car while she changed her clothes into something a lot more comfortable. I didn’t exactly understand why she had to get so dressed up when she was just going to another hotel to design, but then, if she wanted to be professional, that did make sense. I didn’t bother to do much with my own wardrobe when it came to what I wore to work versus what I didn’t, but then, I flew a plane.
It wasn’t as though I was dealing with a lot of people who were expecting me to look like the captains who flew for the bigger airlines. I could have gone that route if I wanted, but I didn’t want to have that kind of schedule or that kind of pressure. I was a lot happier doing things my own way, so I went with the smaller jets.
I was just getting the keys to the rental car when Laurel reappeared. She had short shorts and a tank top on, and I smiled, letting my eyes slide over her sexy figure. I was sure she was the hottest woman I had ever met, and I couldn’t believe the way she and I had connected with each other over the time we’d had together.
Not that she was very hard to connect with, but still.
The fact that things were going so well between us – and the fact that she wanted to keep spending time with me meant the world to me. I knew I was doing something right with her, and I hoped that it was going to continue to grow. I didn’t know how things were going to be when we got back to New York City, and I worried she was going to break things off with me, telling me that we had had our fun, but that was all we were going to do.
She was the closest thing I had had to a girlfriend in as long as I could remember, and the first thing I had ever considered to have for a wife. Of course, I wasn’t going to talk to her about anything as serious as marriage when we had only been going out together for a month or so, and the entire reason why we were together was because of the fact we were hired to work together while she was on this trip.
