"It's becoming a bad habit," Gloria continued.
"He was the first one here yesterday," Maggie said. She refused to add that she had no idea what time he'd made the drive from Littleton to Castle Rock.
Gloria had one elbow propped on the reception desk. A maxi skirt flowed over her hips and ended at her ankles. She wore thong sandals that showed off her toe rings and bright blue was splashed across her nails. Specks of white seemed dropped on the tops. She wondered if they were supposed to be flowers but couldn't be bothered asking.
Barb was leaning back in her chair, cup of coffee in one hand, as if enjoying the show.
"Is there more of that?" Maggie asked, pointing at the coffee.
"Knew you were coming in," Barb responded. "So it's extra strong." She made no attempt to go get a cup for Maggie.
Gloria's neon-green painted fingernails were in stark relief against her white drink.
"It's a tropical smoothie," Gloria explained without prompting. "Coconut water, pineapple juice, orange juice, with whey protein and an energy booster."
"Is that whipped cream on the top?"
"Non-dairy."
"Uh-huh," Maggie said.
"That's what I told the girl I wanted. Anyway, when the tyrant can be bothered to drag his carcass in for the day, I wanted to have a talk about the Tyler account."
"Isn't the meeting scheduled for ten o'clock?"
"No sense waiting."
"Which means you stayed up all night so you're already exhausted and want to go home?"
"Creative genius knows no bounds."
"Of course not." Maggie wondered how any left-brain activities had been done in the last few years. Had Gloria always been this eccentric? Or had David allowed her full artistic personality to blossom? Some might label her a nut, but she was turning out the best work Maggie had ever seen.
Their musings were interrupted when David walked through the door.
"Ladies."
Barb rolled her chair forwards and pretended to be working on the computer.
"There you are," Gloria said.
Did he have to look so freaking delicious? He wore a charcoal-grey suit with a crisp white shirt, accented by a conservative blue tie. No one looking at him right now would suspect he could swing his belt with such precision that he left almost no bruises behind. As she looked at him, she couldn't help but imagine him unknotting the tie and stuffing the silk in her mouth to muffle her screams. Until him, she hadn't fantasised about gags. But now that David had introduced her to one that he wore, she couldn't focus on anything else.
"Do I have something on me?"
She shook her head. "Sorry. I was lost in thought."
"Did you not sleep well?"
She met his gaze. The blue he wore made the colour of his eyes more startling than usual. Maggie felt heat creep up her neck to settle on her face. "I slept all the way through."
"Good to hear."
"If it's okay with you, can we cut the chit-chat and start the meeting early?" Gloria said.
"Am I allowed a cup of coffee first?"
Gloria made a dismissing signal with her free hand, jangling her requisite bracelets together.
"Twenty minutes?" David suggested. "As long as the conference room isn't booked?"
"It's free," Barb said after checking a calendar.
"Does that suit you, Maggie?"
"Me?" God, she wished that hadn't come out as a squeak rather than the cool question she had intended.
"You've got the final draft for approval, don't you, Gloria?"
She kept them waiting while she took a drink of her tropical, non-dairy whipped cream beverage. "I do."
"Good, then, Maggie, I do want you in the meeting." Briefcase in hand, he moved towards the break room.
"He's a hot man. I wonder if he works out. He has to, right?" Barb mused.
"He's a tyrant," Gloria said.
"I heard that," he said as he moved past them.
Humiliation crawled through Maggie, and she felt torn between loyalty to her boss and to her mother. "Keep it down next time," Maggie said. "Or better yet, strike it from your vocabulary."
"Whose side are you on-?"
"You are the artistic talent, Mother," Maggie said. "And he's giving you freedom to explore that."
"By having him look over my shoulder at every turn? Submitting my work for his approval? Checking up on me to be sure I got everything turned into his bookkeeper the moment I finish each step? It's suffocating." She broke the word into four distinct syllables.
"Then why are you producing more than you ever have before?" Maggie went in search of her own caffeine jolt.
When she returned to the reception area, Gloria was gone, but her waft of perfume was not. Barb grabbed an incoming phone call and avoided Maggie's gaze.
Maggie considered searching out David. But if this incident had happened before they'd slept together, she wouldn't have. If they were indeed keeping business and sex separate, she couldn't seek him out. Besides, she had a pile of her own work to do, including finalising plans for the open house. A save-the-date email blast had gone out a while ago. Formal invitations were already in the mail. RSVPs had started to trickle in, and she and her mother would follow up with phone calls today.
It took only a few gulps to finish her coffee, and she refilled the cup on the way to the meeting.
David sought Maggie's opinion on the project then initialled his approval at the bottom of Gloria's work. "Nice job," he said.
"I'm going home to rest," Gloria said with a heavy, exaggerated sigh.
"You've earned it."
Leaving an aura of her drama behind, Gloria breezed from the room, leaving Maggie alone with David. He sat back and perused her, his attention making her body tingle.
She had a couple of things on her mind. First up was apologising for her mother's behaviour. Next came the assorted loose business ends she needed him to agree to. Most importantly, she was desperate to know if he was as affected by the previous evening as she was.
The moment she was about to break the silence, his cell phone rang. Excusing himself, he grabbed his belongings from the table and left the room as he answered his phone.
She collapsed against the chair, exhaling a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.
Determined to be as cool as he was-after all, she'd insisted they could be professional-she gathered her belongings then returned to her office. She sent David a couple of emails. He responded to one right away, the other took a couple of hours, frustrating her. She pounced on his incoming messages while he ignored hers?
When she left at the end of the day, his office door was closed.
The next morning, she found a piece of paper on her desk. His bold scrawl filled the page. He'd given her his home address and added that he expected to see her mid-afternoon on Saturday.
She gripped the note. From anyone else, she might find the instructions and assumptions off-putting. For her, this was like much-needed oxygen. For the first time since he'd left her condo, she relaxed.
Later in the day, they met in the privacy of his office to discuss the potential merger and for her to solicit his input on the first drafts of the logo for the combined companies. He approved the picture of the eagle but said he was not pleased with the font selected for the company name. She agreed with his revisions then brought him up-to-date on plans for the open house.
When they'd exhausted their agenda items, she waited a moment to see if he had anything to add. Since he didn't mention their upcoming weekend, she didn't bring it up.
* * * *
The remainder of the week dragged, each minute seeming like two. Maggie was excited and edgy like she was before her trips to the Den. She'd ordered new shoes and couldn't wait to wear them for him.
She filled Saturday morning with a trip to the gym, doing laundry then cleaning. She even took a trip to the grocery store for the following week. With any luck, she wouldn't be home until late Sunday.
David hadn't given any instructions on what she should wear, so she chose a shelf bra to leave her nipples exposed, knowing he'd accept the unspoken invitation to touch. She added a matching garter belt and fishnet stockings before slipping into a short skirt and figure-hugging shirt. She finished off with new, hot-as-sin, spiky heels and hoped she didn't regret the selection. If the terrain around his house was uneven, she might end up sprawled at his feet.
When she neared his home, her phone beeped, signalling an incoming text message.
He'd sent her a single word.
Soon.
Her speedometer read ten miles an hour over the posted limit. Getting stopped by a police officer while dressed like this wasn't on her to-do list.