Think Outside the Boss - Olivia Hayle Page 0,78
with my decisions. Happy, even. Italy will still be there in a few years. In decades, too. But what I have going on now feels more important.
Tristan feels more important.
But I don’t know if he’ll think less of my ambition because of it.
My phone rings, vibrating on the table between us. I give Quentin and Toby an apologetic smile and slide off the stool.
My heart stops in my chest when the familiar caller ID appears.
I weave my way through the people in the bar as I answer, still in the outfit I’d worn at work.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Freddie.” His deep voice is familiar in my ear, like the past two weeks of separation hadn’t happened. “I’d very much like to see you.”
I swallow. “I’d like that too. Did you just get back from Tahiti?”
“Yes, a few hours ago. I can come to the bodega on your street, if you’d like.”
Someone screams beside me in post-work bliss and drink, and I hold my hand to my ear. “Sorry, sorry, I’m heading for the exit.”
“You’re at a bar? Oh. The one close to work.”
“Yes, but I’ll be leaving soon.”
“No need, I’m already out. I’ll meet you there.”
“Tristan, I—”
But he’s already hung up.
I stare at the phone in my hand, blindly, wondering if that just happened. But there’s no denying the effect his voice and words have had on me. Adrenaline floods my system and launches me into action.
He’s coming here.
When I return to our table, I reach for the coat hung over the back of my chair. “I’m sorry, guys, truly, but I have to head out.”
“What? Why?”
“We just got here.”
“I know,” I say, “and I’m sorry. But we’ll have other nights. Congrats again, Quentin.”
He gives me a rare smile. “Thank you.”
“And don’t worry, I’ll keep it to myself until it’s official.”
“Thank you. Both of the things I know.”
Toby winks. “And don’t… oh my God. What is he doing here?”
Their eyes are both locked on a point somewhere over my shoulder, and I still, too scared to turn around.
“Frederica,” he says, drowning out the sounds around us. My hands shake as I tie the waistband of my coat. When I turn… there he is, standing in a suit and a navy overcoat, his thick hair dusted with snowflakes. A tan across his skin.
Seeing him feels like coming home, like something clicks inside of me, and I know I’ve made the right decision to stay in New York.
“You came here,” I say.
“I did,” he confirms, looking past me to Toby and Quentin. He gives a single, professional nod in their direction.
“Gentlemen.”
A glance over my shoulder tells me they’re in a complete and utter state of shock.
“I need to speak to Ms. Bilson for a moment,” he says. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.” He steps aside and motions to the exit, the length and breadth of him easily giving us space in the crowded bar. I wonder who else in here is from the office. Who might be watching.
But I can’t find it in myself to care.
“See you tomorrow,” I tell Toby and Quentin.
“Um, sure. Have fun?”
Tristan holds the front door open for me and we emerge on the busy sidewalk, the cold New York air a comfort to my fevered senses.
“Thank you for meeting me,” he says.
“Of course. Wasn’t expecting you to be here so quickly, though.”
“I was in the area already.”
“Oh.” I take a deep breath. “It’s actually perfect, this, because I have to tell—”
Tristan shakes his head. “Let me go first, please. I need to tell you what I should have told you weeks ago, before you accepted the job in Italy. What I wanted to say.”
My mouth closes on my words. “You do?”
“I’ve been an idiot.”
“You have?”
A smile spreads across his features, and combined with the tan and the look in his eyes, he’s breathtaking. Every inch the handsome stranger I’d met at the Gilded Room all those months ago. “Freddie… Frederica. I want you, and I’ve vowed to never stop telling you just how much. Fuck, Freddie, do you know how deep inside of me you’ve crawled?”
A shake of my head and his words pour out, passion blazing in his gaze.
“I was in the crystal blue waters of Tahiti with my son. I was determined that I wasn’t going to hold you back in any way. I tried to be happy for you, genuinely. But you were there on that trip along with me, next to me the whole time, a phantom you. One I couldn’t reach out and grasp,