Chapter Twelve- Conrad
Now that she’s here, I’m having second thoughts about telling her. But I’m going to. She’s been more than patient with me. But first, I’m going to cook. She’s sitting in the living room reading something. I keep sneaking glances at her. I’m sure she knows. I'm worried about how natural this feels. This is what people do, right? They spend time at home together. They eat dinner. They talk. They reveal themselves.
I’m not in the habit of revealing myself. What people know of me is what I show them, and it’s always a calculation.
While the steaks are cooking, I ask Maya to go into the wine cellar and pick whatever looks good to her. She comes back up with two bottles of red and astonishment on her face. I take a bow. I’ve got a hell of a wine cellar. Then she goes back to her book and I finish cooking and set the table. After lighting two candles I call her in and pull out her chair for her. I have outdone myself, but right now I don’t understand it much better than she does. I did more than I needed to.
“So,” I say, after we ooh and aah our way into the steaks. “I have a bit of a confession to make.”
Maya takes a sip of her wine, holding my eyes over the rim of her glass. She isn’t going to make this easy for me. She isn’t going to ask. She thinks she can outlast me, and maybe she’s right, for now.
“I wasn’t hiring for an assistant, although I really do want to write the book. The truth is…I put out that ad so I could meet you.”
She sets her glass down. “What? Why would you want to meet me?”
The fact that she has to ask means that she can’t see what I see. “Once I saw you on that video, I knew that you were someone I wanted to know. In person. This isn’t easy for me to say, Maya, but I feel like I already know you.”
“After one video, a couple of times together, and running out on me after getting me so horny?” She’s smiling, but she’s confused as well. Wary. Wariness is a sign of intelligence.
“That’s the other part of the confession. It wasn’t just that video. It was all of them.”
“Wait, you watched all of my videos?”
“As many as I could find.”
“Conrad, there are over five hundred hours of my lectures on Youtube.”
“Then yes, I’ve watched them all. Don’t you think you’re worth five hundred hours?” I’m starting to feel the wine. I’m starting to feel how she would feel in my hands. How she would taste on my tongue.
“I’m flattered. I think. But why did you watch them all?”
“Because of the way you talk. Because you’re trying to understand the world. Because it’s my job to understand what people are like, and how they fit together. And to know if they’ll fit together.”
“That’s all?”
“It’s enough. Most people just don’t care. They think that they live a passionate life because they have a favorite show. You aren’t like that. I couldn’t stop. I felt creepy, honestly, like I was a stalker.”
“Well, I put them online so people would watch them. That’s what they’re for. I just didn’t think that any playboy billionaires were going to be watching them.”
“You were saying things that I needed to hear.”
She takes another sip of wine. It’s no secret that everyone looks good in candlelight, but she is angelic. Is it wrong to feel lust for an angel? Either way, it’s happening.
“And everything I know tells me that we’ll fit together,” he says.
She puts down her glass. “Okay. But now, Conrad, I need you to hear something from me. And I want you to really listen.”
“I’m listening.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m listening.” What the hell is she playing at?
“Tonight we’re going to talk about your project. I’m still willing to be your assistant. But first I need something from you.”
Is she going to ask for a raise? Does she want a credit on the book?
“I want you to take me upstairs and do whatever it is you’re dying to do to me. Are we clear?”
Now she’s speaking my language. She’s bold, but she has no idea what she just let herself in for.
“Crystal clear,” I say, standing up so fast that my chair falls behind me. Within seconds I have tossed her over my shoulder and I’m heading upstairs, taking them two at a time.