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“It’s your job site, Beau. Run it how you like. But honestly, it’s no big deal for me. Happens all the time.”
I will move on with her and speak to him later. No need for her to think about any of that. I prompt her, “As you were saying...”
“Right, I’d like to get a few good shots from there, and then I’ll get Trigger up in the air and have a better idea of what we’re working with.”
“Sounds good.”
She hikes up the knoll, where I picture either a gazebo or a fountain—I’m not sure which—and when she gets there, I run through all the things I want to say to Ricky. How interrupting a woman’s work so he can impress her is not okay, and interrupting me so he can flirt is also unacceptable. Acting as though she doesn’t know what she’s doing with her own equipment is condescending and sexist. That if he wouldn’t treat a man that way, then he shouldn’t treat a woman that way either. And how he should stay away from Elsie, because she and I work together, not him. She’smycoworker, and he can just fuck off. If he harasses her again, he’s fired.
Why do I feel the urge to protect her from Ricky? She handled him beautifully and cut him down to size. If it doesn’t bother her—no. I need to say something to him. He cannot treat women that way, and he needs to stay away from Elsie. Ricky is good-looking and rugged, and if he gets the idea that her response was a tease, he might come after her, and then where would I be with Elsie?
Nowhere, genius. Exactly where you’ll always be with her, because she is not an option. Not ever.
I shake off the errant thoughts and watch as she flies the drone. She flies it well, though I don’t have much experience to judge. Still, it’s nice to see her doing her thing. So, she was three minutes late. So what? If this is what I get for three minutes late, that’s fine. Plus, I appreciate the innovation of using a drone for this. Far better than what the other architect pulled. I think he used a sextant and a compass, for god’s sake. A drone is a vast improvement.
Trigger. What a name. And after Willie Nelson’s guitar? I didn’t peg her for a country music fan.I smirk to myself and watch as she brings Trigger in for a landing. She rejoins me. “I think I have enough to go on around here, but I’d like to see the site from those trees over there.”
“Let’s go.” I am not sure how to make conversation at the moment, so I pick something mundane. “How are you liking Somerset Harbor?”
“It’s fine.”
“Once more with feeling.”
She laughs. “I’m not big on small towns, so it’s an adjustment.”
“Ah. I get that. It’s a vast change from Manhattan, I’m sure.”
“Oh, yeah.”
We end up under some elms, and she turns to look from that angle, snapping pictures with a massive camera. “And the city approved the resort for how many rooms total?”
“Four hundred and fifty, with leeway for more.”
“Good thing the groundworks are almost done. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
With Pavel, it wouldn’t have felt like work. It would have felt like creating art.I sigh, before realizing this doesn’t feel like work, either. It feels more like a date.Nope, nope, nope. Got to snap out of that thought.
“So, Elsie, Walter mentioned you had to take care of some things back home before coming out here. I hope this wasn’t a huge inconvenience for your boyfriend.”
She laughs. “He didn’t mind.”
Damn. She isn’t single. Well, that puts an end to all my musings. Best to just focus on the work ahead. What a relief—now I can give all my attention to the resort.
“That’s good of him. Is he used to you being gone for long stretches like this?”
“He doesn’t exist, so he does whatever I tell him.”
“Huh?”
She looks away from her camera and smirks up at me. “I don’t have a boyfriend, Beau. I was just being facetious.”
“Oh, I shouldn’t have assumed. A girlfriend?”
Her attention diverts to her camera once more. “I don’t date anyone.”
And with that, I have no clue what to think. Aromantic? Asexual? I always get those confused. Either way, she is not the woman for me, and my priorities shift once again.
But I can’t think about the resort when I can’t stop staring at her ass in those jeans.
