way from where I’m standing.” Tossing the menu onto the bed, he grabbed up his pants. “If you have to, you can use the business center they’ve got here onsite—computers and internet for days. Get dressed. We’ll go find their business center together.”
She moved to the closet to grab the closest outfit, a pale creamsicle orange blouse and burnt umber-colored clam diggers. “I’m getting dressed, but I don’t think you understand the situation. What I need is special equipment to complete the music and voice-overs for this video. As lovely as this B and B is, I doubt they’ll have high-quality microphones and a mixing board in their business center.”
“Joelle, we’re not going on a wild goose chase looking for a fucking studio to get your work shit done—work shit that you said had been cleared.”
“It was.” She heard the anger rising in her tone, and she fought to control it as she slipped into her underwear and pulled on her clothes. “Unfortunately, another vlogger flaked out on my boss. My boss knows I usually finish up my projects well before my Wednesday deadline, so she gave me a call.”
“In other words, this is your boss’s problem, not yours.”
On that score, they were in full agreement. “She sounded desperate, and I saw a golden opportunity. That’s why I told her I’d help her out.”
That stopped him cold. “What the fuck, Joelle.”
Again, she pushed down her anger. After going to all the trouble of planning their perfect weekend getaway like he had, it was totally understandable he’d be upset. “It’s just two hours of work out of this entire weekend, Gus. Please be flexible on this and know that I’ll get things done just as fast as I can so I can get back to you.”
“You’re not going to be getting back to me, because you’re not going anywhere. Your ass stays here until I say otherwise.”
Be reasonable, she told herself, trying to keep calm while she finished buttoning her blouse. Be reasonable. “I’m so sorry you’re upset about this—”
“I’m not upset. You know why I’m not upset? Because you’re going to call your boss back and tell her that you’re not going to pull her ass out of the fire. Have her lean on someone else.”
Maybe she hadn’t made the whole situation clear to him. Again, that was her fault, not his. “This job… it’s not just a job to me, you see. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have ambitions of becoming the Editor-in-Chief of Buzzword’s fashion department. They’re the hottest digital mag going, and they’re looking to branch out into traditional publication in the next year or so. I want to be in on the ground floor of that, but the only way to do that is to stand out above all the rest and make sure I over-perform beyond all expectations.”
“So we’re back to your over descriptions now. Which is fine when you’re with me—overdo and over-perform to your heart’s content. I love it, as long as I’m at the center of that shit. I’ll do the same with you and put you at the center of my shit, so we’re in balance.”
“But we’re not in balance,” she said slowly, slipping into block-heeled leather mules before turning to face him with a frown. “When our roles were reversed and we had our first date at Gillooly’s, I understood that an unforeseen emergency had come up and you had to go take care of it as quickly as possible. Then I didn’t see you for four days after that. But now that it’s my turn to deal with a rare work emergency, you won’t give me even two hours.” Confused, she shook her head. “How is that balanced?”
“Look, in my line of work if I don’t move fast, people—fuck, entire corporations—could go down the financial tubes. It’s that important. Your work isn’t.”
“Isn’t…what?” She heard the dangerous edge to her tone, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. She didn’t want to. Not when he’d just dismissed her work and her ambitions like they were nothing. “Important?”
“It’s not like someone’s going to off themselves if they don’t match their shoes to their damn purse. But if I fuck up and someone’s life savings goes down the shitter, they might go looking to take a dive off the tallest building they can find.”
“I see,” she said while her hold on her anger slipped, fueled by a shocking jolt of hurt just underneath it. “So what you’re