"Oh."
She tries to stand so I help her to her feet before handing her the other papers. She hugs them to her chest.
"I haven't unpacked everything, actually," she says. "And I still need a few more things, but yeah, it's starting to feel like home."
"How are you finding Chicago?"
"Drier," she answers with a chuckle.
I grin.
Stella falls silent, pursing her lips. I realize she's back to being shy again. Hopefully, as time passes, she'll be less so.
"Go home and get some rest," I tell her. "We still have one more day to go before we call it a week."
"Yes, sir." She turns around.
"Oh, and maybe make it a maximum of three meetings a day starting next week," I suggest. "Like you said. Less pressure."
Stella nods. "Okay."
"Good night."
"Good night."
She gives me a final smile over her shoulder before walking off. I find myself smiling, too, as I cross my arms over my chest.
And aching. I've never had a woman tell me what I should do like Stella just did. And it's hot. I just want to drag her back here, push her down on top of this table, let her tell me everything she wants me to do with her, do it, and then bury myself inside her until I've got nothing left.
But no.
As amazing as Stella is, she is my assistant, my employee. Maybe my most valuable employee at the moment. I can't mess with that. I can't break the rules and jeopardize both our careers.
It's tempting, but I can't. So I'll just wrap this desire in a pretty parcel and throw it inside a pit in the back of my mind where I hope it will eventually get buried and disintegrate into nothing.
I'm the boss and Stella is my trusted employee. That's all there is between us.
That's all there ever will be.
Chapter One
Stella
Two years later
"No!" I scream after I turn the page of the book I'm reading to find the next one blank except for the words To be continued...
For a moment, I just stare at the paper with eyes and mouth wide, part of me hoping that more words will magically appear like the details of a Polaroid picture exposed to light and air. When they don't, I accept my defeat with a sigh. I close the book and hug it to my chest as I sink into the heap of pillows on my bed.
I can't believe the author ended the book just like that, with the revelation of a shocking secret that I never saw coming and which now changes everything. I don't even know how the main characters are going to end up together now, and I'll be heartbroken if they don't. It's just so mean. And yet, I have to admit it's also pure genius. It's just like when you're watching a movie and you hate the villain but then you're also in awe of the actor because he played his role so well and made you hate him so much. This way, I'm definitely buying the next book when it comes out. In fact, I can't wait to devour it.
When is it coming out? I go online on my laptop to check. Next year? I have to wait that long? Now, this is just torture.
I allow myself to simmer in my frustration for a minute. If I had someone to talk to about this book, I'd probably feel better faster, but I don't. It's sad, really. The only thing sadder than finishing a book is not having anyone to discuss it with. That's why book clubs were invented. But what can I do? I left my few friends back in Seattle and I haven't made any new ones. Well, there are some people from the company that I have lunch with, but I haven't had the chance to hang out with them after work. More accurately, I haven't had the time. I usually have to stay at the office until late at night. Even when I don't, I'm on the phone or the computer or by Ethan's side nearly every minute of the day, trying to keep track of everything without losing my own sanity and composure. By the time I get home, I'm so exhausted I go straight to bed. Except Friday nights like tonight. Knowing I have two days to rest gives me an extra boost of energy so I can stay up and read a book. Too bad I finished this one before ten.
As I place the book on the nightstand, my eyes fall on the family photo in the red frame - my dad, my mom and me after I just played a fairy in a school play. Happy days.
I pick up the frame and put it on my lap.
I miss them. Growing up, I knew that I would lose them at a young age since they were already old when they had me. My mom was thirty-seven, my father forty-two. They knew it, too, so they did their best to prepare me, to make sure I could stand on my own two feet when it happened. I could. I did. But I wasn't ready.
I wish they were still around. I wish I could hear my dad's laughter again even though I'll never forget the sound of it. He loved to make jokes and was always the first to laugh at them. I wish I could have more of my mother's cooking. She loved to make pastry - pies, pasta, dumplings. She would bring them to my room whenever I had to stay up late studying or when she knew I'd had a bad day. More than anything, I just wish they were still here so I could talk to them, so that I could tell them all about work and hear their words of advice and encouragement, or just talk to them about anything and not feel so alone like I do on nights like this.
I know I'm alone, and most of the time, I'm fine. But there's something about the silence and the shadows of the night that turns my solitude into a sharp knife that stabs me in the gut.
I put the frame back on the nightstand with a lump in my throat. Then I see the leather-bound journal. My journal.
I've kept one since I was a kid. I don't write in it every day, usually just when I have ideas I want to reflect on, experiences I want to remember, thoughts I need to process or emotions I just need to get into words so I can make sense of them and take control of them. Like now.
I pick up the journal, slide the strap off and find a blank page. Then I take the pen from my drawer and start to write.
Nights like this, it's hard to breathe through the air of loneliness that fills my dark room. It's almost like fog or smoke.
Nights like this, I wish I was anywhere else but my apartment. Maybe in a Greek seaside town, or Paris, or a charming Scottish village.
Nights like this, I wish I had someone. Someone to wrap their arms around me and tell me everything will be alright.
I wish I had someone I could call my own. A child. A son or a daughter to carry in my arms and press against my heart, whose forehead I can kiss, whose tiny fingers I can wrap around one of mine. I'm not sure I'll make a good mother, but I know I'm going to love the little person who comes out of my body like I've never loved before. Together, we'll conquer the world.
And maybe a man of my own, too. A lover to keep me company in my bed. A good man who will keep the shadows at bay until morning, who will touch me in all the magical ways a woman wants to be touched. He'll pin my hands above my head and demand my surrender with his mouth, claiming my lips and worshiping my breasts. With his fingers, he will make me melt, pressing the secret button that transforms my excitement into ecstasy.
I stop writing as heat flows from my fingertips to my toes, turning into an ache as it fills my breasts and then an inch as it settles between my legs. I can't ignore it.
I put my pen and my journal down. Then I close my eyes and lie back.
I lift the hem of my oversize shirt all the way to my armpits. I trap it between my teeth before pushing the waistband of my underwear down to my knees.