“Yes, that’s it.” I scrambled away from him. Falling off the couch, catching myself on the floor and getting to my knees, I crawled away from him and to somewhere relatively more safe. Relative safety being anywhere that I could calm down and pretend he hadn’t spotted some remnants of my illicit midnight escapades.
Would he notice? Had I left any other signs of what I’d done? When I thought I had my blush under control, I turned to look at him. He stretched on the couch, then lowered his legs to the floor and rose to his feet. I surreptitiously glanced at his crotch, hoping to see(or preferably not see) anything amiss. Nothing from what I could tell, except my glance was perhaps a bit less covert than I’d intended.#p#分页标题#e#
He lifted one brow, looking at me funny. “Jessika, are you alright? Is something wrong? You’re acting odd.”
“No!” I squeaked. “Nothing! I have to use the bathroom. My hairs a mess. I’m sure I look terrible.”
An excuse? Yes. I didn’t know if I looked terrible, nor did I care too much, but I figured if I could use the age old excuse to my advantage, one used by many women before me, then I should pull out all the stops and do it.
“You look fine,” he said. “Nice, actually. Somewhat glowing. Very refreshed, and…”
I nodded, thanked him, and ran to the bathroom. The upstairs one, far away from anywhere Asher would be. He probably looked at me quizzically and laughed to himself, but I scurried up the stairs as quick as I could so I never saw any of that. The image in my head, the thought of it, that was more than enough to make me feel embarrassed all over again.
I didn’t actually need to use the bathroom, not quite, but I freshened up anyways. When I looked in the mirror, I looked fine, mostly. Some quick touch-ups would fix any obvious hair issues, and I wasn’t so vain that I needed to always wear makeup no matter what. I did look somewhat glowing, though. Probably, I assumed, because of the blushing, but Asher didn’t need to know that, nor the reason behind it.
Relax, Jessika, I told myself. Breathing in and out, some makeshift Zen meditation, I released my pent up worries and took in good energy. That was the idea, at least, though who could say if I did it right. Maybe I should look into that? It seemed useful and thinking about it served as a good distraction while I relaxed into normalness.
When I rejoined Asher downstairs, he was talking on his cell phone.
“Alright,” he said. “Yes, of course. No, it won’t be a problem. Why would it? I’m interested to read the reports. I’ll have someone there to take care of things, too. Yes. Yes. Nice talking with you. Have a good day.”
He hung up the phone and put it on the kitchen countertop.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
“Everything,” he said, “is great. I’ve just learned that my director of public relations is returning to Landseer Tower today with news and a report. I can only hope its good, but I’m sure he has everything under control.”
“He?”
“Solomon,” Asher said. “Solomon Royce. He’s done good work for me, though I don’t understand his methods exactly. Always away doing this or that, sparking interest in company holdings, doing press releases, that kind of thing. I couldn’t manage any of it for the life of me, so I’m glad to have him, but sometimes it’s confusing since I don’t understand most of what his reports are about.”
“Can’t you ask him?” I’d thought of Asher as something of a genius in the business world and finding out that there were things he didn’t understand was somewhat jarring.
“Oh, I do. It doesn’t help. He gives me explanations and books to read and I’ve read them, but the way he puts so much information in reports and discusses everything in such detail, it’s like I need a translator to understand it. I’d love to be more active in public relations, at least behind the scenes, but Solomon has a hold on it so it doesn’t matter too much.”
“Is that a good idea?” I said. “I don’t mean to pry, but…”
He shrugged. “No, I know what you’re getting it. It’s really not a good idea, generally speaking. I should at least have some understanding of that side of my business, but I trust him. I pay him enough, so I shouldn’t have to worry about him leaving the company any time soon, anyways.” The last part was apparently a joke. Asher chuckled.
“Alright,” I said. I wasn’t a businessperson. I wasn’t even involved in any real business, public relations or not, so I doubted I could judge anything Asher did. But, still, it seemed off to me. Odd.