8 years in the life

Chapter 34 - Valentine's day

Rory was staring at the lovely bouquet on her desk, sipping her coffee on this sunny winter afternoon. It was Valentine's day, but most of all, it had been just a week since she had found her way back to the man who seemed to be the most caring boyfriend on the planet. She would never have thought that he was the kind of guy who would celebrate such a tacky, cheesy day, most of all just one week after they have decided to give it a try, yet he did. When they briefly talked on the phone this morning, he hadn't mentioned anything, just wished her a good day, but when she arrived at her office, her assistant was smiling, told her that something arrived and had been put on her desk. She saw the flowers, went to look for the card and opened the envelope.

"Happy Valentine's day to the loveliest woman, who is constantly haunting my every dream"

Love, R-

She knew she was beaming like an enamored high school girl, but she just couldn't help it. She had tried to call him, but she was sent straight to voicemail and just left a short message. As she began working at Rodham only recently, nobody was close enough to her, so she didn't get any noisy questions. She finally quit staring at her flowers when her attention was caught by a familiar silhouette passing by her office with Lilian. She almost spat out the coffee she was drinking, he was just standing there, being his charming self, talking with her colleague. He was dapper, clad in a flawless well-cut black cashmere topcoat, over a dark blue jacket, white shirt, jeans, and his suede boots. Suddenly, they changed direction and were walking toward her office. Her colleague waved at her through the glass wall and opened her door.

"Hi! Rory, someone wanted to talk to you before our meeting," Lilian said beaming at her. God, did he say anything to her colleague yet?

"Hey Rory," he cocked his head to one side, his eyes were crinkling at the corners. "Just wanted to say hi while I was there. I see you got yourself a Valentin," he said it the French way. She'd always loved hearing him speak French. It took all her strength not to jump out of her chair and throw her arms around him and kiss the life out of him. Instead, she slowly stood up and walked up to him. Jeez, he is so freaking hot.

"So, Semple, you've finally picked up Lilian's call?" she asked trying hard not to show her excitement.

Lilian mouthed a "Thank you" at Rory.

"Well, you had compelling arguments, I had to give it a try, but I still have to understand what you guys want of me." His mouth curled in amusement and she restrained herself from a sexual banter.

"Will you still be here later?" he asked.

"Sure, I'll be around, just let my assistant know if you don't see me in my office and she'll find me. See you later and Semple, be nice to Lilian."

"I'm always nice, Gilmore. I'm surprised you still haven't noticed that - in particular with lovely ladies. Have I ever been anything but nice to you?" He gave her a wolfish grin.

Rory rolled her eyes. She knew he would try to charm the pants off Lilian, just for the fun. She looked at them walking away to Lilian's office and wondered if after his meeting he would go directly back to Boston.

# # #

"As I told you on the phone, usually at Rodham, as in most the publishing companies nowadays, we only deal with agents, but here in the non-fiction department we still sometimes need to control things from the beginning for high caliber books. We want to keep the essence of publishing, which makes us proud as publishers. Therefore, every year, we pick a subject, and I'm in charge of finding a writer and working with him."

Lilian paused to gauge the pleasant young man sitting in front of her. He was too young for her, but still, she wondered if any woman had set her sights on such a nice specimen.