Awakening (16 page)

“What?” Ryan pauses.

“No. I just—I assumed you would want to leave.”

Ryan laughs. “No, sorry. Not a kiss and go kind of guy. Besides, after that, there’s no way I could drive a car safely.” He collapses on the bed next to me.

“Awesome,” I say, so pleased that he’s sleeping over. “Oh, wait. What about clothes?”

“What about them? I think they’re all over the apartment. Nora. Stop fussing. Besides, if I left now, you wouldn’t have a car. Your car’s at the office, remember?” Ryan spoons me and pulls me into him.

“Oh. That’s right. I completely forgot about my car.” I settle in next to him.

“Jesus, Nora. You’re amazing,” Ryan murmurs.

“Yeah, so are you,” I mutter, and then drift off into blissful sleep.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It’s ten-fifteen, a little over two hours into the conference. Mrs. Foster showed up dressed head to toe in canary yellow. It was striking, to say the least. Most of the lawyers look right out of a television show—crisp black suits and starched white shirts, the only flash of color is the strip of their ties down their fronts. Of course, this is tucked away deep into their jackets, only allowing for a brief burst of individual identity. The women are all wearing killer high heels with black suits, some with skirts, but mostly they’re all wearing pants. No color anywhere. Earrings are pearls or diamonds, hair either up or cut short. I feel like I’m in a Stepford Wife movie—only the one they never made because the wives work, too.

Ryan woke me up this morning with coffee around six. I showered and got ready while he read the paper. No stress, no big deal. He drove me to the office this morning around seven and said he was going home to get ready for work. He made it seem so normal, so everyday. I couldn’t believe it.

So far the conference is running smoothly. A few lost lawyers here and there, a missing box of pencils, and one dropped box of bagels. I thought Julie was going to have a heart attack when the large pink box slipped off the cart and scattered on the floor. Thank God it was just the box with plain bagels in it. I would have had a heart attack, too, if it had been the gooey donuts or the fruit.

Everyone seems settled in for their morning sessions. The opening welcome and presentations from the big names went well. I take a moment to grab a snack and a cup of coffee. Julie is floating around here somewhere; she seems a little more stressed than I do. Role reversal!

“Oh, my God! Mrs. Foster is going to drive me crazy.” Julie appears behind me.

“Here.” I hand her my cup of undoctored coffee. “Drink this.”

She takes the coffee, sipping it, and then makes a face while reaching for the sugar.

“What is with you today?” She asks, accusingly.

“What? What do you mean? What’s wrong?” I turn to her, confused about what I might have missed.

“You are completely unflustered today. You’re not stressed, you’re not worried, you’re not running through lists in your head, or doing circles in the hall. You are calmly standing here drinking a cup of coffee and eating a bagel. What is with you?” Julie stares at me as if she might see the cause of this behavioral problem.

I start laughing. “Julie, we’re fine. We did this one right! How could we not, with Emily and Mrs. Foster breathing down our necks? Now, we just have to wait and see what goes wrong and fix it.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. You’re way too calm today. Usually you’re running around trying to figure out what will go wrong so you can fix it before it happens.”

“Ha! Well, see, I’ve matured. I’m no longer looking for trouble. I will simply wait for it to happen, and then do my thing.” I sip my new cup of coffee and vaguely wonder where Ryan is. I didn’t see him come in, but he has to be in there. Attendance is mandatory, that much I know for sure.

“Okay. Well. Whatever.” Julie eyes me suspiciously again. “I have to triple check the lunch. Mrs. Foster is worried that the lunch will be prepared too early and not look fresh. So, I asked her if she would like me to ask them to stop prepping, and she honestly looked at me and said, ‘Well no, girl. I don’t want us to have to wait!’ That woman is going to be the reason I stop being nice to old people!”

Laughing at Julie I say, “I hear ya. Go check. Fresh, but not too fresh. We have the strangest job!” I watch her disappear down the hall.

For the next few hours, I spend my time giving directions, answering questions, moving tables and chairs, and generally being around just in case. I still haven’t talked to Ryan, but I did see the back of his head once.

I’m walking down the hall to check on the rooms and three lawyers, all women, step in front of me as I turn a corner. We are all walking toward the “Keeping Your Clients Happy While Maintaining A Life” session.

“Oh, my God, I just have no idea!” The tall blonde starts to lament to her friends. She is wearing a grey skirt suit with what looks like four-inch heels. Her blonde hair is in a professional looking updo. She looks the part of the perfect lawyer. Maybe they have a class in law school: ‘How to dress as a lawyer’. I would need to take that class, maybe twice.

“Well, I don’t know, Katie. Maybe he’s just busy with the conference,” the lawyer on her right says. She is not as tall, with wavy brown hair just hitting the tops of her shoulders. The rest of her ensemble matches her companions.

“Man, if that Emily has her claws in him again—” Katie squeezes her fists.

Do they not know I’m here? We all keep walking together down the hall. I am looking everywhere but at them.

“Look. Emily says,” The other one starts, but the brown haired friend stops her with a look.

“Emily says what?” Katie stops abruptly. I almost run smack into them. “Maureen, I swear to God, what did Emily say?”

They don’t even notice me as I pass them.

“Katie, look. Emily said nothing new. She’s a bitch.” I can’t tell who is talking now, but they’ve all started walking again. I can hear their giggles. Lawyers giggle? Who knew?

“Okay. Fine. Whatever. But Ryan is not even looking at me today. Ever since Emily started working on this project with him, he’s been ignoring me. It’s like I don’t exist?”

My stomach seizes. Ryan? My Ryan? My Ryan and this Katie? But now he’s ignoring her? And why are they worried about Emily? Oh, my God. I was right! That first day when she came to the office, she was assuming a closeness. And he sent her back to the office alone so he could have lunch with me.

Smiling at the thought, I try not to break my stride, but I’m desperate to hear more.

“Have you tried talking to him?”

“Yeah. All week. But he keeps saying the partners are riding his ass and he has no time. He’s just blowing me off. And now, he won’t even look at me.” I can hear Katie’s tears stuck in her throat.

“Come on. Let’s get you to the rest room.”

I hear them all turn and walk the other way. Damn it! I can’t follow them.

Okay, so he was flirting with another woman, and then he met me. He obviously is no longer interested in her, which is why she’s so upset. He isn’t looking at her today—the day after he spent the night with me. I should be happy about that. Right?

We never talked about his attachments. Only mine. I just assumed he was single. Bad move on my part. Why aren’t I thrilled that he is giving her the cold shoulder? Will he just ignore me when he’s ready to move on?

I lean against the wall for a second, realizing I have no idea who he really is. I brought him to my house and slept with him, but I don’t know him. Not really.

I hear more people coming down the hall and pull in a deep breath so I can get back to work.

The afternoon comes to a close. There are stray groups here and there talking, boasting about their latest client or lawsuit. I haven’t seen Mrs. Foster or Mr. Cole the elder in a few hours; that is good news. Julie is checking the breakout session rooms, collecting jackets, notebooks, phones, and the occasional briefcase to be stored and hopefully retrieved by the end of the conference. Otherwise, we will haul it all over to their office after the show.

“It was a good day,” Julie says behind me.

I turn to face her. “Yes. I think it was.”

She starts laughing. “Did you see that one security guy, Sean? He thinks it’s us, ya know.”

“Us what?”

“Sean thinks we’re the cause of all this chaos. Man, I’d like to have him protect me!” Julie looks sort of dreamy as she talks about Sean.

“Sounds like a crush to me!” I say, teasing her. She’s so easy to fluster.

“Speaking of crushes,” she gushes at me. Oh no.

“Nope. We’re so not going there. Not today.”

Julie looks confused and then hurt.

“Sorry. Just don’t want to jinx anything,” I say, trying to soften the blow.

“Excuse me, ladies.”

I whip my head around to the sound of Ryan’s voice.

“Hi,” I say, my voice too high. Suddenly, I’m nervous.

“Nora. Can I see you a moment, please?” Ryan asks, his voice crisp, and my heart sinks. Oh, here it comes.

“Sure. What’s up?” I say, sounding as if I am pleading with him. Yuck!

“Could you come with me, please?” Ryan asks, and heads out the door. Looking at Julie, I shrug my shoulders, having no idea what this could be about.

I follow Ryan in silence as he leads me down the hall. We seem to be going toward one of the breakout session rooms. I thought Julie checked these.

He walks into Evergreen. I duck into the room expecting a lecture. The door closes behind me and Ryan wraps his arms around me from behind and spins me around to face him.

“Oh!” I say, before his mouth covers mine.

“I’ve been thinking about you all day,” he growls into my ear as his mouth grazes my neck and up my ear.

“Me too!” I wrap my arms around his neck, caressing his hair, loving the feel of his skin, and burying my head in his neck.

“Are you almost done? Do you guys have to like, clean up, or something? I really want to go home with you.” I hear the restraint in his voice and my insides react to it. Everything is alive.

“Yeah, Julie and I were just figuring that out when you called me over here. I thought we had another problem to deal with. She’s probably pacing and won’t leave until I get back to her and tell her everything is fine.” His leg is bracing against mine, I have somehow been moved to the wall near the door. The weight of his leg against mine is spreading my thighs apart ever so slightly. I feel my nipples rise up against the thin material of my bra.

“Go tell her everything is fine so we can get out of here. I’ve been waiting all day for you.” His raw voice is such a turn on. My knees almost go limp.

With all of my will power I push him away from me and take a deep breath.

“Okay,” I say shakily, raking my hands through my hair. “Okay. Let me finish up here. Give me 20 minutes and then I’ll leave. Would you like to come back to my place? You already know where that is.” I pause. “Hey, where do you live, anyway?”

“I live too far away. I’ll see you at your place in 30.” He kisses me and leaves.

I feel like the wind has just been knocked out of me. I’ve never met a man who so quickly and completely consumes me like that.

“What’s wrong? You look—I don’t know. What did Ryan want?” Julie rushes at me when I get back to the big hall.

“Everything is fine. Things are great,” I squeak. I should be embarrassed, but I’m too excited. “Listen. What’s left to do? I want to leave.”

Julie looks stunned. “You want to leave? YOU?” And then it finally hits her. “You! Oh and Ryan. OH! Okay. No wonder. Oh, my God. Were you ever going tell me?”

I just stand there, smiling like an idiot. Julie is laughing at me and I don’t even care.

“Julie. I want to leave inside of 15 minutes. What’s next?”

“Okay. Let’s go check the set ups for tomorrow. This should be quick.”

We both turn to leave and head to our make shift office.

“Can I ask you a question?” I ask her as we walk together.

“Sure.”

“Well, this thing with Ryan is new. Like, really new. So um, I heard some of the lawyers talking, and one of them was sad that she was getting the brush off from him today.”

“So, you felt sorry for her?” Julie scoffs.

“No. But they mentioned that Emily was after him. What do you think? Should I be worried?” I stop and look at her really concerned.

“Look, Nora. Ryan is hot. I mean, like smoking hot. Lots of women are going be interested in him. I’ve seen him blow off Emily. He isn’t interested. And this other chick? He blew her off, and I think that says a lot about Ryan. He likes you. Don’t fret about this one. Just go with it! Don’t try to fix it before it’s broken. Okay?” Julie reaches out and hugs me.

I feel the tension leave my shoulders. She is making sense.

“Okay. You’re right. I should take that as a compliment.”

“Yeah,” Julie says, pulling back from our hug. “Besides, now you know what his brush off looks like.”

She walks ahead of me while that sinks in. Pushing that thought into the very back of my mind, I join her with the goal of getting out of here as quickly as possible.