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Adrienne gulped and sat in the leather chair. She had talked to this man somewhere before. “Where do I know you from, sir?”
He chuckled mildly, but his dark-brown eyes never left hers.
“Sir? Well, that’s a switch!”
His stare was unnerving, and Adrienne was confused by his comment. “A switch?”
He laughed heartily.
Adrienne began to get annoyed. She had no time for whatever silly game her new boss was playing. She struggled to keep her voice polite. “Your voice is familiar, but I’ve never met anyone named Lloyd Cooper.” Adrienne almost added the word “sir” again but caught herself in time. She didn’t want him to start laughing at her again.
There was a knock at the door, and for a moment her comment hung in the air as Lloyd’s secretary, Sally Gomez, poked her head in.
“Yes, Sally?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Mr. Cooper, but John Elliott needs to see you right away. He says it’s urgent.”
“I’ll be in touch with you, Mrs. Jordan,” Lloyd Cooper said formally. His eyes twinkled with mischief as he dismissed her.
Adrienne puzzled over the strange encounter on her way back downstairs and then decided to let it rest. Lloyd Cooper would tell her where they’d met before in his own time. She only hoped that his memories were good ones, since he was a new executive at the company.
When she got back to her desk, a new stack of handwritten notes from Regina awaited her. The report needed a lot more work. Adrienne riffled through the notes and sighed.
Sherry started chattering away, but Adrienne ignored her nosy questions about the new boss and kept typing. She couldn’t afford to get stuck doing revisions through lunch. She was meeting Mel at noon to see an apartment. It was a two-bedroom, and the advertisement had described it as sunny and spacious. Best of all, it was in Manhattan, which meant she’d be living only minutes away from her job and Dan.
It was a busy morning. The phones rang incessantly, and Regina kept interrupting her to add more tasks to her long list of assignments. At 11 :45, she was done. Adrienne stood up and stretched, hoping that Mel would be on time. If they were late, someone else was likely to snap up the apartment.
Regina was waiting anxiously when Adrienne walked into her office. She grabbed the report eagerly and opened a thick green folder that lay on her desk. “Thanks. It will take me about fifteen minutes to read through the report. I’ll need you to start on final revisions as soon as I’m done.”
Adrienne looked at her watch in consternation. Regina noticed her distress and frowned. “What’s the matter?”
“Regina, can this wait an hour? I need to leave at noon to see an apartment. I’ll run right back, and I won’t eat lunch. Please?”
Regina sighed and rubbed her temples. “My meeting is at two.”
“The report will be ready. I promise.”
Regina ruffled the papers in front of her impatiently. ?
??Okay, okay. But hurry up.”
It was noon when Adrienne reached the street. Mel was leaning against the side of the building, smoking a cigarette and stamping his feet to keep warm. Adrienne wondered why he looked so drawn and tired.
“Hi,” she said shyly.
He kissed her full on the lips. “Let’s get the show on the road!”
They started walking. Adrienne wondered if Mel was as scared as she was. He took her hand, and they smiled at each other.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said.
“But not easy.”
“No. We had a good thing going once. It won’t be easy to get that back.”
An image of Delilah lying in her crib flashed through Adrienne’s mind. She closed her eyes for a second, swallowed hard, and willed her emotions away. She didn’t want Mel to see her upset. She and Mel still had each other, and she intended to have another baby as soon as possible. To ease the tension, Adrienne told Mel about her encounter with Lloyd Cooper.
Mel seemed amused. “You worked in a lot of places before we got married, baby. I’ll bet he was some manager at one of those temp jobs. He was just having some fun with you.”
