New Year in Manhattan(12)
“I’m going to miss you so much,” Leah said as the kitchen timer started buzzing. “Will you two go and sit down. You’re distracting me.”
“Are you sure you don’t want us to help?” I offered.
Leah ignored me, and Daniel guided me toward to the table at the far end of the kitchen.
“So, you think you’ll end up in New York?” Daniel asked.
I shrugged. “I guess we’ll talk about it over New Year.”
“Look, I don’t know if you’d be interested, but I need a lawyer for my hotels in New York. I’ve put a new management team in there recently. There was a whole lot of crap that happened earlier in the year. And I want someone I can trust working with them.”
My stomach churned. Was he serious? “Daniel.”
“What do you think? I mean, I was planning to kick off a search process, but if you’re interested . . .”
“Did Leah put you up to this?”
“What are you guys talking about? I heard my name,” Leah shouted from behind the counter.
“Nothing. Tell you in a minute. Do you want a hand?”
Leah didn’t respond.
“Why would Leah put me up to this?”
“Because she’s my best friend and she loves me and is trying to look after me.”
“Well, okay, yes, that’s all true, but no, she didn’t put me up to this.”
“Fuck.” It was all I could say. A million thoughts were whirring around my head. This could be a perfect solution—but I’d always worked in a law firm. Being corporate counsel was not something I’d ever considered. Could this work?
“You might have to tone down the f-bombs in the office.” Daniel chuckled.
“Are you serious?”
“Of course. Are you interested?”
“Interested in what?” Leah interrupted as she came to the table with a huge pot of something.
“I just offered Anna a job.”
“You didn’t. You’d have to interview me and everything,” I said, not thinking straight. This couldn’t be happening.
“If you want the job, it’s yours, Anna.”
“What job?” Leah asked, collecting plates from the counter and setting them on the table.
“The General Counsel job at Palmerston.”
“Oh my god, that’s perfect!” Leah said, starting to dish out the contents of the delicious smelling food from the pot she’d brought to the table.
“You didn’t know he was going to do this?” I asked.
Leah shook her head.
“And it’s not a made up job? You were going to recruit someone?” I asked Daniel.
“Yes, I told you. Think about it. I’ll send you the job spec. You wouldn’t be working for me, it would be the guys in the US. Do some research on the business. Let’s talk in a few days.”
Jesus. Maybe Leah was right about the universe trying to bring Ethan and me together. Next, I’d be reading my horoscope and going to see psychics.
Chapter Five
Anna
I’d always loved Christmas. Loved the chaos and the needless presents, the rush to get everything done and the time spent with my parents and my brother. This year it felt like it was just a warm up for the main event of seeing Ethan.
The actual day was fun, but not as fun as it could have been if Ethan and I had been together. Mum had sensed my distraction, telling me with a meaningful look in her eye to “take care” as I left them, which was the most demonstrative my mother ever got. Dad was oblivious, which suited me.
Back in London, I gave in to the excitement of seeing him. I’d been patient enough. Now, I wanted to be in New York already. I’d packed and repacked about seven times. I would only be there a little under a week, and I planned to spend most of it naked, but just in case we ventured out, I wanted to make sure I had every base covered.
My phone buzzed and “Sex God” flashed up on my screen. I grinned. He did, after all, live up to the self-titled nickname.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Are you packed?”
“And hello to you, handsome.”
“Sorry, I just want you here already.”
I didn’t know when the ache for him started. Maybe I’d had it since New York, since our first night together. Maybe since he’d left London. I did know it was getting bigger, more needy, more pressing. Speaking to him made it worse.
“I’m packed and just about to leave.”
“Just bring a carry on. You won’t need any clothes anyway. And it means you won’t have to wait for your bags.”
I laughed. “I’m not bringing just a carry on. Girls don’t do that. Well, I don’t anyway. Apart from anything else, I have to bring some of the gifts you’ve bought me.”