forward from his banished spot at the end of the table, fury written across his puffy cheeks.
“Sir, we have board meeting minutes to adhere to and—”
“And I shall demand your silence and attention for as long as the lovely Ms Evans desires,” I said, smiling encouragingly at Delaney. “She has a million and one ideas for our company, and I want nothing more than to hear each and every one.”
I nodded at Delaney. Her eyes shifted from mine, moving to slide over the spectacled board members. I watched as with each passing one her chin rose, her shoulders drew back, and her breathing evened. They were all telling her silently but firmly “no”, “you’re not welcome here”, “you are not one of us”. But none of them knew Delaney Evans the way I was coming to know her; none of them knew that Delaney Evans loved nothing more than for someone to try and dare and tell her no.
I grinned as she smoothed her palms against her pant suit and then stepped forward to the front of the boardroom, her heels wobbling once, but no more.
“Gentlemen,” she said, her voice steady as she surveyed the room. “I’m afraid to say that in my estimation as the best business consultant in all of the United States of America, your leadership has been dreadfully antiquated, far too conservative, and, frankly, unimaginative, boring, and, in many cases, boneheaded.”
I lingered to take in the shocked faces of my board before swinging my chair around, crossing one knee over the other, and buckling in for what was sure to be one hell of a wild ride.
Delaney
I clasped my fingers in front of me, bound tight within each other, to keep them from shaking as Ronan eased shut the boardroom door behind me. I kept my eyes straight ahead as I walked as steadily as I could back to the elevator. I felt the secretary’s eyes on me as I passed in front of her, felt her curiosity almost physically against me like a knock against a closed door. Ronan hurried to slide in front of me.
“Allow me, Ms Evans,” he said, calling the elevator for me as I stood stock-still, every muscle held tense and tight.
“Thank you, Mr O’Hara,” I managed to say in a ladylike voice, all strands of pearls and clasped collars.
I heard Ronan’s voice behind me as if from under water as I willed the floor number indicated above the elevator to rise faster.
“Love, you’ve been a doll,” he said to the secretary. “Look for something blue in the mail within the week.”
I resisted a relieved exhale as the elevator doors moved open; I wasn’t in the clear just yet. Ronan followed me into the elevator and we stood side by side, our shoulders just brushing like a whisper of early morning breeze. We both stared forward out of the elevator, posture professional and perfectly respectful. We both said our polite goodbyes to the secretary as the doors started to slide closed once more.
“Goodbye, Mr O’Hara,” the secretary replied, leaning forward in her chair to eye us curiously for a moment more. “Goodbye, Ms Evans.”
The Merrion Hotel’s lobby disappeared, the elevator jolted almost imperceptibly, and Ronan and I stared at our reflections in the gold-plated doors. Despite being blurry it was perfectly obvious that standing there in the elevator were two perfectly respectable businesspeople. Surely, they would never raise their voices above a perfectly respectable murmur. Surely, they would only ever use perfectly respectable language and engage in perfectly respectable behaviour and keep to a perfectly respectable relationship. Surely, they would never turn to one another, grins growing on their perfectly respectable faces like tequila flushes, and start to shout and jump around and grab at each other like sugar-addled children in such a public place as a business centre elevator.
Surely…
“Oh my fucking God, they hated me,” I shouted, perfectly unrespectable, thank you very much. “They hated me!”
Ronan laughed loudly and freely and dragged a hand over his beaming smile.
“They did,” he said giddily. “They really, really hated you. It was fantastic!”
Ronan gathered me into a hug and circled me round and round the tight space of the elevator. It came on as quickly, as unexpectedly, as all-consumingly as a flash flood. I wanted nothing more than to be swept away again and again and again. I closed my eyes like a little girl on the swings and let him spin me till we were both dizzy, each falling away from the