the head of sales talk about it, not to mention the email we received from the clients afterwards.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s amazing. We really worked so hard on this one, and the strategy we came up with was excellent.”
“You’ll have to give the pitch to me one day.”
“Yes, well, I spent several evenings working on it this week. It better be good after all that time,” I say. On the other end, I hear the sound of his feet, and then the closing of a door. “You’re in your bedroom?”
“My home office,” he says. “You remind me of me when I was your age.”
“When you were my age? You’re not that much older than me, mister.”
“I suppose not,” he admits. “But the ambition, I mean. Working evenings and being eager to rise in the ranks.”
My gaze snags on the pictures on my dresser, the shrine to success. My parents. My grandfather. “I know you work evenings too, Tristan. And what you’ve accomplished is really inspiring. Exciteur is doing better now than it ever did before you took over the leadership.”
He brushes past the compliment. “I used to have your hunger.”
“Don’t you still?”
There’s a smile in his voice. “I’m not twenty-six anymore. There are responsibilities I can’t forsake for a few extra hours at the office.”
He’s talking about his son. Joshua, whose smile comes wide and easy and has the confidence of a kid raised with love. I make my voice teasing. “Then why do you have a home office? Something tells me you spend evenings there every now and then.”
“And what would make you think that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, just knowing you? Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re not,” he admits. “I’m often answering the emails at night. Why do I get so many?”
I laugh, turning over onto my back. Stare up at the ceiling and feel perfectly happy. “Have you received any from a disobedient trainee lately?”
“As a matter of fact, I haven’t. I keep expecting it, but no dice.”
“Expecting it?”
“It would spice things up. Rise right to the top of my priority list.”
I smile. “I can’t believe you thought I was a man.”
“Frederica, you’re called Freddie.”
“I know. But it was amusing, all the same.”
He sighs, but it’s laced with pleasure. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen you. And it’s only been a few days.”
“I’m glad you said it first.”
“You don’t want to admit it?” he asks.
I run a hand through my hair, wishing he was in front of me. “Yeah, I like to play hard-to-get like that. I’d hate for you to think I like you.”
“What a horrible thought,” he says. “So, you like me?”
“I might, yes.”
“Hmm. Well, I might like you too,” he says. My heart swells in my chest at the words, smooth despite the rough baritone of his voice. “And I want to take you out. Properly, on a date, just the two of us. Somewhere in New York.”
I close my eyes. “We can’t do that. We never know when someone might see us. See you, especially.”
“And that would be bad.”
“Yes, unfortunately. My co-workers, the ones I had drinks with tonight? They were gossiping about two people at Exciteur who slept together once, after last year’s holiday party. And they’re in different departments. You and me? As far as gossip goes, we’re meat and potatoes compared to that little appetizer.”
Tristan’s rich chuckle fills my ear. “We’re tastier?”
“Infinitely.”
“I understand, you know.”
“About the not-being-seen-in-public-together part?”
He hmms in agreement, and I close my eyes to picture him, sitting in the leather desk chair in his apartment. Arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his face. “We both have things to lose, but the reputational toll would be harder for you.”
“Probably true,” I admit. “Unfortunately.”
“But I won’t be the boss of Exciteur forever,” he continues. “And you won’t be the trainee forever.”
“Do you think we can… keep going until then? Hiding it?”
“I can,” he says. “I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but for you, of course I can. The question is, can you?”
My heart speeds up. “Yes. If you can, why couldn’t I?”
“Because you’re the one with a career to build, a social life to establish. I wouldn’t be giving anything up, Freddie, but you… you might be. Only seeing me in the evenings every now and then. Not dating anyone else. Because that would have to be part of it.”
“Of course,” I murmur, voice dry. His words sink in, but there’s no hesitation in me. No fears. “But I’d be gaining you,