“I promise I won’t try to sleep with you,” Ethan said.
“Ha,” Amy said. “Like you’d even have a chance. I meant you want to win. It’s hard-wired into you.”
“How?” Ethan replied. “How does a drink with a colleague equate to needing to win? And how is it a scandal? It’s hardly tabloid material.”
“When the colleague is female and around your age, and while you’re still tabloid gold, it is.”
“You forgot attractive,” Ethan added.
“What?” Amy replied. Was he actually hitting on her after everything she had just said or was he that self absorbed that he was still talking about himself? “Did you just call yourself attractive?” Amy asked.
“No. You know what I meant,” he replied. Besides, if you weren’t attractive people would just assume you were my secretary or sister or something.”
“You date supermodels.”
“And as far as I know, you don’t date anyone. So like I said, I think we’re safe. What are they going to say? Ethan Cole spotted in public with a nun? I have half a mind to find out if you’re wearing a chastity belt under that dress.”
Amy laughed. “I swear if you make a nun joke.”
“I try not to make a habit of it.”
Amy shook her head and laughed before lowering her voice. She reached out, placed her hand over Ethan’s and asked, “Why are we here?”
“I’m thinking about getting married.”
“Are you really?” Amy asked with a grin. She wondered which South American supermodel had managed to pull the fleece over his eyes. “Let me guess, you want me to do some preemptive damage control.”
Ethan looked down and then met Amy’s glance, he had a sheepish smile on his face, like he was purposely leaving out some important detail. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Tell me you didn’t get her pregnant. It doesn’t do much for your image if you’re off knocking up Ms. Venezuela. What is she, seventeen or something?”
“No,” Ethan replied, “She’s about my age.”
“You’re using protection, right?”
“We’re not even having sex yet.”
“Really?” Amy replied. “She must be worth the wait.”
“I think so,” Ethan replied, he couldn’t help but smile. He felt like he was in the eye of the storm, watching the calm before all hell broke loose. Of course, hell breaking loose was the whole point of this meeting.
Amy watched his grin grow even wider. “What am I missing here?” she asked. “What is so funny? Do I know her?”
“Better than I do, believe it or not,” Ethan replied. “Though I’m guessing you don’t know her as well as you’d think. She’s in her thirties, a colleague of mine actually, a bit of a departure from the women I’ve been dating. Truth be told, a bit of a departure from pretty much everyone I know.”
“I know her, and she’s not a bimbo? Interesting. And you like her?”
“Yeah, I do,” he replied. “She’s honest and smart, and she calls me on my bullshit. Very few people do that.”
“I do that,” Amy replied. She felt a twinge of jealousy as she said it.
“I know.”
“How long have the two of you been together? I mean, the media is going to have a field day with this. You know that right? The playboy billionaire settling down. It will be the marriage of the century.”
“We’ve had a thing for years, and the media will never catch wind. It’s all going to be quiet. I think she’ll like it better that way.”
“Think?” Amy replied. “You mean you haven’t discussed it with her?” Amy picked up her glass of wine and took a deep sip. “So you’re going to propose to someone I know, and you haven’t even dropped a hint that you might be interested in marriage?” She leaned back in her chair a bit and waited to hear Ethan’s explanation of this one.
“Oh, I’ve been dropping hints all night,” Ethan replied. “And we’re talking about it right now.”
“What do you mean?” Amy asked.
“Amy, I’m asking you to marry me.”
As she listened to the words, Amy forgot all about her glass of wine and let it fall from her hand. She watched as it cracked off of the bar and shattered, spraying wine forward. As the sound rang through the bar, everyone else fell silent. Amy felt like her heart had stopped, and then everything flew into motion as she realized what was going on. “You’re joking, right? Is this a joke? Did my sister put you up to this on the phone this afternoon?”