New York Girl (formerly known as Maple Street)

Chapter Eleven

For the first time since my wedding day – I felt as though I was in a fix – There I was surrounded by fat cats, exactly the kind of people I despised – so imagine my reaction when I discovered I had to share a table with them. 

'Lucy drink, up!' ordered one of the guys at the table.

Britz Corporation was a global PR Company who had been a client of ours since we started out and I heard on the grapevine that they are the bread and butter of Trask.

Ethan sat next to Jack and I was plonked in between two guys and of course, I kept forgetting their names – it was so hard for me not to look over at Ethan but I did take note of his charming mannerisms. Whenever Jack would say something, Ethan would nod in agreement, chewing on the inside of his gums. It was funny because even in the stickiest of situations his slanting eyes always hid a warm smile inside them – the kind of smile that would ignite me –  he just made me feel so alive.

 The more time I spent with him, the more I was starting to learn how different we really were; I hated the spot light because it reminded of the days at school when the teacher would ask me to read something out loud to the whole class and I would just freeze, and the other kids would point and laugh at me. But him, no, he seemed to shine even more – his confidence was unshakeable – and his charm infectious.

'Do you enjoy working for Britz?' I turned and asked one of the men sitting next to me.

He had a long beard and dark brown eyes – and every so often he would tug at the hair on his face.

'Of course I do! Who wouldn't? It's great, we own the PR world and I hate to admit it but I just love watching the smaller fish chase after our business.'

'So how come when I researched your company’s sales conversions last week, yours were the lowest in the market?'

Not even I could believe what just came out of my mouth - he shot a glance at me and despite the instant regret I wasn’t about to drop the pretence now.

Dragging his eyebrows down- he took a long sip of his wine. ‘What was your name again?’

‘Lucy.’

Stretching his hand out to shake mine, I noticed a smile forming at the corner of his lips. ‘I’m Freddy.’ He hesitated for a moment before speaking again. ‘People shouldn’t underestimate you should they Lucy?’

'No, Freddy, they really shouldn’t.’ I smiled. ’Do you know what I can't stand about the corporate world?' He nodded. 'Those people, you know the kind, they’ll do almost anything just to make a dollar, no matter what it takes – but that’s not me.’

'So what would a beautiful young lady like you do to win someone over?'

'Well that's easy Freddy.' I replied, moving in closer. 'I would just ask them really nicely.'

 At first he didn’t say a thing; and I was starting to doubt whether or not I had milked the cow a little too much - but to my surprise he broke out into a fit of hysterics instead. I was both relieved and slightly embarrassed by the attention this drew in – including Ethan who shot me an eagle like glance in my direction before resuming his conversation with Jack.

'Your honesty is so refreshing. We could really use someone like you.' Said Freddy - reaching into his suit pocket, he brought out a business card. ‘If you ever get sick of Trask, call me.’

I took it from his hand, hoping Ethan didn’t see. 'Thank you.’

Just then I heard a loud scraping and I noticed it was Ethan getting up from his chair, storming towards the bathroom.

‘Would you like some more wine, young lady?’ asked Jack, peering over at me.

 Even though I had already had more wine than I could handle I didn't want to appear rude. ‘I’d love some, thanks.’

He poured the last of the bottle into my glass and handed it to me. ‘And you are?’

‘Lucy.’

‘Good to meet you Lucy.’

I knew Freddy was just dying to add his two pence worth. ‘She’s awesome, Jack! We need someone just like her in our team.’

Jack was nodding, still peering over at me with his small beady eyes. ‘Well, you never know your luck, Lucy. We may just have to steal you from Trask.’ He laughed.

Giggling nervously, I took a larger sip of wine and could see Ethan making his way back to the table.

'Well!' said Jack.  'Tonight has been great. But I'm not as young as you kids so I'm going to retire for the night.’

Freddy and the rest of the team got up and made their way over to him.

‘It was a pleasure to see you again, Jack. I’ll be in touch about what we discussed.’ Said Ethan -putting one arm around Jack’s, shoulder.

My palms started to sweat as they said their goodbyes and I noticed Ethan had taken off his grey suit jacket, his face was flushed and not once did he acknowledge me.

'Don't forget what I said, Lucy!' shouted Freddy, as he crawled into the taxi.

As soon as the car was out of sight, Ethan walked off leaving me standing alone in the foyer. A feeling of dread came over me at the thought of messing up and jeopardising the success of the project.

I made my way over to the reception desk and it wasn’t long before I spotted Ethan talking to a guy over at the other side. They both walked towards me and I saw the man hand Ethan a plastic fob.

Glancing over at me, I took this as his cue for me to follow him – our shared silence spoke all languages as we made our way to the room.

 Part two.

Once inside the room we both scattered off into different directions like ants under attack.

I headed for the kitchen and him – I didn’t dare to look - but he was around - oh boy was he around.

 Searching the fridge, I found some bottled water and when I stood up to reach for a glass –  I noticed he was was right next to me!

'Sorry.' I whispered.

His tone matched mine – although his was a little huskier. ‘Sorry’.

The kitchen was so darn small and there was hardly enough space for us to move, I could feel my clothes clinging to me as I broke out into a cold sweat. I had to brush by him just to get to the exit, but we just lingered around - latched against each other, I couldn’t help but laugh nervously, and he did the same.

Clenching his jawline, I could see the surrounding muscles pop in and out. ‘Excuse me.’ I said, finally. He pressed further against me and we were both fighting to catch our breath.

Eventually he moved to the side, to let me pass by.