Beyond 10 Nights (15 page)

“Have a good evening, Mrs. Parker.” Alex was sure the
two women would continue talking if he didn’t break in, and he didn’t fancy
standing there forgotten by chatting women. Taking Leah by the elbow he gently
steered her from the department, wanting to ensure she left without being
distracted or stopped.

Leah kept her excitement in for as long as she could,
but when they reached Alex’s car it came bursting out of her. “I really would
like to work for Mrs. Parker,” she exclaimed eagerly, wanting to make it clear
what she wanted. The thought that her work had been good enough to not only
satisfy, but please, someone professional was amazing to her.

She had only been working on the periphery of the
project the graphics department was focused on just then, but it had felt
wonderful to make use of something that had only ever been a hobby before then,
her artistic ability. Never had she thought it would be useful to her in a
business capacity.

“Really?” Alex chuckled at the excitement in her
words. It was clear that she had enjoyed herself, and that pleased him. “Are
you sure you don’t want to wait until you’ve tried the other departments before
you make a decision? You might find that one of them excites you even more.” He
didn’t really want her to settle for the first department that interested her,
it was a little selfish of him, but as much as he wanted her to be happy in her
work he also wanted her to make the best use of her abilities and her
qualifications.

“I would really like to work for Mrs. Parker.” Leah
repeated adamantly. “I’ve got so many ideas for the project I was working on
today, and I didn’t even see all of it, I really think I could help with it and
make it great.” She was so excited that she barely noticed him pulling her
seatbelt on as her mind continued to race, coming up with one idea after
another.

Shaking his head, Alex bit back a laugh as he started
the engine and reversed out of his parking space. Not saying a word he allowed
her to continue rambling on, spilling her ideas on the different ways the
company could attract attention for their customer.

Her excitement was both refreshing and infectious; it
reminded him of what he had felt like when he started out in the business. He
remembered what it was like to have so many ideas that they tumbled over one
another and became jumbled up if they weren’t expressed quickly enough; he also
remembered the certainty that every idea was a winner. While the drive to
succeed, and the constant flow of ideas, hadn’t left him, he had learned over
the years that only ten percent of what he came up with, if he was lucky, would
actually be successful.

It was refreshing to see the excitement and certainty
that he had lost in her eyes. “I’m sure you’ll do brilliant things, Leah,” Alex
said with a smile as he pulled into the parking lot outside of a small Italian
restaurant. “Let’s get some food inside of you so your brain can continue to
pump out those ideas.”

Leah got out of the car as he came around to her door,
her mind about as far from food as it could be just then. Without really giving
much thought to what she was looking at, she glanced around her absently as
Alex escorted her into the restaurant and they were shown to a table. It wasn’t
until they had been seated that she actually focused. “I’m so sorry, here I am
rambling on, this must all seem redundant and boring to you.” She flushed in
embarrassment at having spent the entire drive babbling about things she was
sure he had little to no interest in.

“Actually it’s very refreshing, Leah, but I don’t want
work to take over your life, so let’s enjoy a nice meal and relax a little,
alright?” He knew she was excited, and could understand it, but he was well
aware that one of the most important things she would need to learn was how to
turn off from work, and to find a balance between it and having a life. It
amused him to see that she had to bite down on her lip to stop herself starting
up again on the ideas that were racing around her brain.

When the waiter arrived he allowed her to order her
drink first. Her selection, a diet soda, made him smile; he ordered a glass of
wine for himself. She seemed so young, he thought, enthralled by her youth. At
thirty-seven he wasn’t exactly over the hill, but things had seemed so much
newer and more exciting to him when he was in his early twenties, as she was.

“What do you recommend?” Leah asked nervously after
looking over the menu and discovering that the majority of the dishes listed on
it were things she had never tried, and, being honest with herself, she didn’t
have a clue what was in them.

“My favorite here is the Maiale alla Milanese,” he
told her. “I had fond memories of it from before I left Chicago and was very
relieved to find it is just as good now that I am back.”

“Okay, well almost all of this stuff is new to me, so
I’ll go with your recommendation.” Grinning widely she allowed him to order for
both of them when the waiter returned.

They ate in silence, both of them engrossed in their
food, but the moment she was finished Leah couldn’t help giving her opinion.
“This is pretty good,” she told Alex, blotting her mouth with the cloth napkin.
Italian food was definitely something she could learn to enjoy, she thought.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it; would you care for dessert.”
He was becoming more charmed the longer he spent in her company and had to
remind himself that she was not his to have, even temporarily.

“Honestly, I couldn’t eat another bite.” She was
amazed that she’d finished the dish put before her; the serving had been more
than generous in her opinion.

“Well we have a long day tomorrow, so let’s square up
the bill and get home.” He called the waiter over with a discreet gesture and
handed over his credit card.

They enjoyed a few moments of silent companionship
while the bill was taken care of and then they left, driving back to the hotel
in relative silence.

Leah was amazed at how much she had enjoyed her day,
first with the job, which had gone better than she had expected, and then the
dinner with Alex. She was a little surprised to realize, when they made it into
the hotel suite, that she hadn’t thought about Rhett all day, it seemed like
the first time since she met him that he hadn’t been on her mind every moment.

She only remembered him when she saw she had a text
message from him. Excusing herself she disappeared into her room so she could
read the message in private; she didn't want to embarrass herself if the
message was upsetting in any way.

The message turned out to be short and simple, merely
expressing the hope that she had enjoyed her first day at work and saying that
he would speak with her on Wednesday about their dinner date. Nibbling on her
lower lip she fought back tears. The message sounded nothing like what she was
used to receiving from him and the change broke her heart.

The tone of the message was so different it left her
wondering if he still wanted to be with her, she wasn’t sure what she would do
if he didn’t, the very thought scared her.

Feeling the need for a distraction, Leah stripped off
and had a quick shower, she then pulled on her favorite boxer shorts and a tank
top and settled on the bed with her laptop so she could check her emails and
catch up with her social media friends and whatever else occurred to her.

Briefly she thought about checking with Alex to see if
he wanted her to do anything, but she dismissed the idea, sure that if he had
anything for her to do he would tell her.

7

Many Sides of Rhett

The first appointment with the psychiatrist he went to
see was overwhelmingly brutal in Rhett’s opinion. He wasn’t used to laying out
the details of his life for a stranger, and though the man didn’t push for details,
declaring that their first few sessions would simply be about getting to know
one another and becoming comfortable, he felt he had to reveal everything he
could. He needed to, in his opinion, if he was going to become the type of man
that Leah deserved to have in her life.

After one of the longest hours of his life, he had
begun to see that his way of doing things was perhaps not the best. It wasn’t
so much that Dr. Taylor had offered insights that explained things to him, it
was simply that talking aloud about things made him see the errors in judgment
he was guilty of.

For a man that had always felt the need to be in
control of every last detail of his life, it was more than a bit humbling to
realize that his actions had effectively shut out the world, rather than
bringing it under his control.

With an effort he forced himself to only text Leah
once, even though his nature demanded to know her every move and action. His
session with Dr. Taylor had brought out so much, despite the man saying almost
nothing, that it was clear to him just how many boundaries he had not just
crossed but jumped up and down on, grinding them into the floor.

In fact he had learned so much about himself in just
that short time it made him wonder if he could ever be the man Leah needed him
to be.

The realizations brought on by just that one session
of therapy left him heavy-hearted and second-guessing everything he had done
and needed to do. It even affected his work performance, which really troubled
him, and made him decide, for the first time in his career, that he needed to
take a vacation that didn’t involve business.

Within half an hour of making his decision he was
booked into his friend Manuel’s resort in Mexico and the arrangements had been
made for him to fly down there early Sunday morning. He would have left sooner,
straight away in fact, so strong was his desire to get away and try to get his
head back in order, but he had no intention of leaving while there was still a
chance his hoped for date with Leah would go ahead on Saturday.

He wanted to invite Leah to come with him, several
times he picked up the phone to do just that, but every time he stopped
himself, realizing it wasn’t a good idea.

Leah’s first week at work went well; she learned
plenty and found herself enjoying her work immensely. She expected at any
moment to discover that the other members of the department were resentful of
her connection to their new boss, and to be shunned or sidelined because of it.
Her expectations were never met however, instead she was shown more and more of
the various projects the department was working on and was included wherever it
was possible.

By the end of the week she was as settled into the
department as she thought she could be, and comfortable with everyone she
worked with. Rhett's text on Wednesday asking her about their Saturday dinner
date was the only worry on her mind.  The job was turning out to be more
than she had allowed herself to expect.

In addition to becoming more familiar with her
department, and the work she was to do there for the next couple of weeks and
more, Leah got to know Alex better. Not only did they ride to and from work
together every day, but he insisted on taking her out to restaurants after
work, telling her that the restaurant at the hotel was fine, but he didn’t want
to create talk about their situation, and he preferred not to order room
service when he could avoid it.

The only problem she had during the week was on
Wednesday; as was becoming usual she had gone out to dinner with Alex, and they
had been joined by Janie and David, ostensibly so Alex and David could discuss
more business ideas. Not much business had been discussed that evening however,
instead it had been far closer to a double date, though Leah had forced herself
not to think of it as such.

So enjoyable had the evening been that they had all
lost track of time, with the result that it was late when Leah and Alex got
back to the hotel, making Thursday one of the longest working days she could
remember. The sore head and constant tiredness had been worth it though.

As Saturday arrived, Leah found herself becoming more
and more excited, though mixed with that excitement was a little fear over what
would happen when she met Rhett that night.

Life had been strangely normal for her, considering
everything that was going on, and she knew when she met Rhett it would be like
being hit by a freight train again. All her emotions would hit at once. He was
taking her back to the same restaurant where he had teased her mercilessly;
that alone was enough to send a surge of emotion and remembered passion through
her.

By the time Rhett arrived to pick her up she was a
bundle of nerves. As his arrival had approached she’d found herself fidgeting
with the dress she’d picked out. She’d chosen to go with the red dress he had
selected for her at the boutique. The dress didn’t cover as much as she would
have liked but she knew it was his favorite, the slight discomfort she felt at
the lack of material in the outfit was proved worth it when she saw the gleam
of excitement in his eyes when they came to rest on her.

“You look beautiful, sweetheart.” His smile was a
little wary; he wasn’t sure how much sentiment it was safe to show, he was in
uncharted territory and was desperate not to do anything to ruin the date, he
wanted it to go perfectly.