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I nod my head. “We’ll certainly be more comfortable there than we would here. We can leave early, so we can get some work done this evening, and I’ll bring you back on Sunday night.”
“You want to leave this afternoon?”
“We’ll need to, if we’re gonna stand a chance of getting this proposal finished by Monday morning.”
She nods her head. “Should I go home and pack a bag?”
“Yes. I’ll come by and pick you up in…” I check my watch. “In an hour from now.”
“Okay.” She stands. “I’d better give you my address. It’s apartment twelve…”
“It’s okay. I already know where you live.” I regret the words the moment they’ve left my lips.
“You do?”
“Yeah. It’s… it’s in your personnel file.”
“Oh… of course.”
That was close. I almost gave away that I’ve been following her to and from work all week… but at least now I know her apartment number without having to look it up.
She turns to leave, but I reach out and touch her arm. She spins back around, looking up at me.
“I wasn’t coming on to you.” I was, but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable with me… especially not now. “You’ve had a horrible time this week and I just… I just want you to know, you’ll have as much space to yourself as you want this weekend. The house has six guest rooms for you to choose from, plus there’s a separate apartment, which my sister lives in when she’s home… and a guest cottage, which is a couple of hundred yards away from the main building. My brother lives there when he’s not jetting around the world.”
“It’s quite a small place, then?” she says, smiling.
“Yeah… it’s just your average family home.” She shakes her head and I step closer. “What I’m trying to say is, apart from when we’re working, you won’t even have to see me… not unless you want to.”
She opens her mouth, like she’s going to say something, but then snaps it shut again. Was she about to say she wanted to?
God… I hope so.
Chapter Eight
Livia
Hunter told me the journey would take about an hour and a half, and although the scenery is pleasant enough, I’ve spent most of my time absorbed by what’s inside his car. His Ferrari is beautiful, but so is he, and watching him drive is mesmerizing.
I’d only just finished packing when he knocked on my door, and I opened it to find him standing there, still wearing his jeans and shirt, and I felt relieved that I hadn’t changed. I hadn’t been able to decide if I should, but in the end, I ran out of time. Since getting home, all I’d done was try to work out what to take with me, while doing my best not to read too much into the things Hunter had said in his office.
I have to admit, I was disappointed when he said he wasn’t coming on to me. Especially as he said it twice. Although there was something about the look in his eyes, and about the way he fumbled over his words. I’m not sure what it was, but at least I stopped myself from saying I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. It was a close call. I think I even opened my mouth, remembering just in time how good I am at misunderstanding, and I snapped it closed before I completely humiliated myself.
Again.
His car eats the miles, and during the journey, he spends some of the time talking with Preston, never losing concentration on the road, but going through the brief that Preston emailed over, to make sure he’s understood everything. They’ve been talking for quite a while already and I’m doing my best to keep up.
“Thinking about their social media,” Hunter says, “do they want us to place the ads as well as designing them, or will they be doing that in-house?”
“They want us to place them as well.” Preston’s voice fills the car and I wonder if I should have been making notes.
“Okay. So will we be adding them to our online account and acting as their agent, or will we be getting access to theirs?”
“They’ll be giving us access to theirs.”
“In which case, I won’t need to allow for an ad budget, just for the setup, copywriting, and design costs.”
“Exactly,” Preston says. “Was there anything else I didn’t make clear?”
