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“That he is,” Carly said, knowing her reply before she even uttered the words. “Send him up, Reggie.”
“Yes ma’am,” said the front desk clerk, sounding mightily relieved.
Carly stood abruptly, peering at her reflection in the floor to ceiling office window beside her and licking her lips to moisten them before flouncing her hair. She had time to reach for the jacket slung across the back of her chair but preferred to greet him on more casual terms – in just her pencil skirt and sleeveless blouse.
She couldn’t deny the heightened pulse that pounded just beneath her skin, nor the flush that rose to her face when she heard the elevator doors ding open in her outer reception area. By the time he rapped, surprisingly gently, on her office door, Carly was feverish with anticipation and self-loathing.
How? she wondered in the half-second it took her to respond. How could she be this excited to see a man who wanted her just to discard her after his needs were fulfilled?
“Come in,” she managed to utter in a voice both cold and curious, her negotiation skills still on point.
He did just that, pressing open the double doors dramatically and standing just inside her spacious office, as regal as he was unexpected. He wore a black suit, the kind that would take an extra five minutes for her to peel off, as polished and shimmering as his thick soled shoes.
“Thanks for seeing me on such notice,” he said, voice uncharacteristically soft and slow. “And at such a late hour.”
She smirked. “I’ve got to work twice as hard as the next guy if I don’t want to get outbid next time, now don’t I?”
He bowed deferentially, beaming when his eyes met hers. “I guess that’s why I’m here,” he said.
“To gloat?” she asked, pushing away slightly from her desk to cross her legs and lean back in her chair. With a hand, she waved at the wing chair across from her.
“No,” he said, sinking into it with a practiced ease. “To confess something.”
“What?” she sighed. “That you bought a tech company you didn’t really want just to get back at me for not sleeping with you?”
Carly enjoyed watching him recoil, his eyes widening, his fingers tensing on the arm rests of the comfortable leather chair. “How… how did you know?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I may have lost the SoundCloud account to you, Rahm, but I’m not stupid. Although, my only question is how you knew I was interested in the company in the first place.”
Suddenly it was Rahm’s turn to smirk. “The same way I bought SoundCloud out from under you, Carly: money.”
“Ah ha,” she said, waving a finger and surprisingly playful for someone who’d just lost an account she’d spent weeks studying. “So you admit you bought a tech company you didn’t really want just to get back at me for not sleeping with you?”
He shrugged, sinking back into his seat and seeming to enjoy her more playful side. “How else could I get you to see me again?” he asked, filling Carly’s heart with a surprisingly bubbly emotion. After all, he’d just admitted he’d spent nearly $30 million just to get her attention. A damn stupid waste of money, she thought, but effective – and romantic – all the same.”
“Why would you want to see me again?” she purred, sinking back even deeper into her chair. “All we ever seem to do is talk business?”
Rahm grew coy, squirming furtively in his expensively tailored suit. “I thought maybe if we went… somewhere… together, somewhere public and safe, we might talk about something other than business.”
She nearly snorted at his butchered come on. “Are you… asking me out? On a date?”
He nodded almost bashfully. “I suppose so,” he admitted. “I’ve never actually asked a woman out before.”
She smiled knowingly. “Never had to before, have you Mr. Farzik?”
“No, Carly, I haven’t,” he said, face – and voice – growing serious. “I’ve never had to before, but neither have I wanted to before. A man of my means doesn’t necessarily have to go looking for companionship, and yet the… companions… I’ve kept since coming to America have been of a sort. You understand?”
“You mean, the sort you meet in nightclubs?”
He nodded as if grateful he hadn’t had to say it himself. “Like we did?” she pressed, enjoying teasing him.
“Yes, well, not exactly. We met over business, you see. But neither the corporate nor the nightclub settings have done us any favors, have they?”
“No,” she admitted, growing serious – and flattered – as well. What she wouldn’t give to sit across the table from Rahm, somewhere quiet, simple… and public. “No they haven’t. So what do you suggest?”
“Something simple,” he said, “Don’t you think? I mean, it is our first date.”
“First?” she asked. “I’m not sure I follow your math seeing how many times we’ve seen each other recently.”
