Damn her! He sat on a rock, loosened his tie, and started playing with rocks. He was engrossed in his thoughts, oblivious of his surroundings, when he heard Zia asking his staff his whereabouts.
“Shit,” he cursed as he looked at the time. He had forgotten himself and let more time than he had intended slip away from him. He heard Zia curse and tell the staff to locate him as the silent auction was about to start. He couldn’t see her face, but he could imagine she was mad at him, or maybe concerned by his disappearance. He wasn’t one to do that in the middle of an event. Zia would be on his neck as soon as the last guests left.
Nick didn’t want to go back to the party. Given the choice, he would have simply undressed and gone swimming naked under the moonlight. Swimming calmed him, and after his heated incident with Sara, he needed a little more than calming. But not tonight. He couldn’t swim naked with guests wandering around. He sighed and turned to head back to his house. As he got closer, he heard Zia calling out his name. He sighed once more, knotted his tie, which he had loosened, and wiped off the dust which he imagined was on the back of his pants.
He wished he had a few more moments of privacy to think of Sara. He wanted to remember how her mouth felt when he kissed her; how her eyes sparkled when she was mad; how innocent and naïve she was, but business was calling and he had to leave. No need to make Zia any madder than she would be when she realized that the invitation sent to Sara Nolles was a waste.
SARA
“Do we keep driving, miss?” the driver asked.
“A few more minutes, please.” I couldn’t ask the driver to drive around forever. He had taken me on a scenic tour of the city. I wondered if he'd be in trouble with his boss.
“Yes, miss.”
"I know you have to go back. I'm sorry for taking up your time," I apologized as I looked at my watch and realized we had been driving around in circles for over two hours. My apartment was only a forty-five-minute drive from Nick Saunders’ mansion, and I would have been home over an hour ago had we gone straight to my house. “I guess you need to drop me off.”
"No, ma'am. My instructions were to take you anywhere you wanted and drop you off only when you wanted to go home. Do you want to circle around town one more time?"
"No, it's okay," I said. I was calm, and seriously, it wasn’t the end of the world even if Amy did chew me out when I got home. I had to face her some time and now was better than later. "You can take me home, please.”
“Yes, miss,” the driver said as he slowly turned the limo around.
No sooner than the limo pulled up to my apartment did Amy come running out. She had been sitting at the window, watching and waiting for my return. She flung the door open before the driver could get it.
"Tell me. Tell me everything," she squealed as she practically dragged me out of the limo.
"Hang on," I said as I reached into my purse to give the driver a tip. I only had ten dollars, but that was better than nothing.
"No, ma'am. I can’t take that," he said and bowed. "Have a good night."
"You too. Thanks for everything," I said as I tucked the money back into my purse. I was glad he had rejected the money; it was all I had for lunch next week.
"Sara, seriously! Who gives a ten to a billionaire's driver? He probably makes that in second."
"Well, that's all I had," I protested.
"Never mind. Come on, tell me what happened. Why are you home this early?" She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, crossed her arms on her chest, and waited for me to answer.
"Can we at least go inside first?" I asked, pushing gently past her to make it into the house. She followed me closely.
"Wait, you don't have the necklace? Did he take it away from you? Did you get in trouble?"
"No, no, no. No to all your questions."
"What do you mean? He didn't ask you why you were there?"
"He didn’t need to. Apparently he’s this rich guy that had come to the café a few times and wanted to hang out with me. I think this was his idea of getting closer to me and kissing me…”
"Stop! He what? Nick Saunders kissed you? And you’re saying it so casually as if it’s not a big deal. How the heck did you get him to kiss you, you whore!"
“I didn’t get him to do anything. If anything, it wasn’t mutual.”
"He forced you?”
“No, not exactly.”
“What then? He begged you to kiss him?”