- Chapter 7
Liz drifted off to sleep with a feeling of guilt tearing away at her stomach. She left the ringer on her phone set as loud as it could go just in case Harrison called. Luckily it would be Saturday in the morning and Liz planned to spend the day in bed catching up on her sleep.
Harrison never called.
The weekend was long and Liz spent it almost entirely in bed. She stopped trying to call Harrison since he hadn’t returned her call. Her guilt about kissing Ricardo filled her days and nights throughout the weekend. So as Monday morning rolled around Liz did not feel as rested as she had hoped she would.
She met Ricardo downstairs and he had a coffee in his hands for her.
“Well, you look worse than you did Friday,” he joked.
“I didn’t sleep well.”
“Drink this so we can kick some more butts this week. We have a lot to do to get this campaign ready.” Ricardo said in his usual upbeat tone.
Liz appreciated Ricardo’s light-hearted sense of humor. She was glad things didn’t seem awkward today and she felt much better about going to work after seeing Ricardo and his happy face.
“I’m ready. Let’s do this,” Liz said as they headed into work.
When they arrived at work, Liz went to the copy room to pick up their work they had left there for the weekend.
Ricardo headed up to their office. But when he got there he was surprised by a man dressed in a tailored suit standing in front of their office.
“Can I help you?” Ricardo said as he looked at the man who seemed to be an executive that they had not met before. Well, at least he looked like one in the expensive suit he was wearing.
“Yes. I’m looking for Elizabeth.” Harrison said as he reached his hand out to shake Ricardo’s hand.
Ricardo shook Harrison’s hand and looked at him in wonder. Who was this guy and why did he want Liz?
“She’ll be right up. She is at the print shop,” Ricardo said. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“No. I’ll wait for Liz.”
Ricardo opened the office and let Harrison in.
“Do you know Liz?” Ricardo asked.
“Yes,” Harrison said. Not offering any more information.
When Liz got to her office, she couldn’t believe what she saw. There was Harrison sitting at the desk talking to Ricardo.
“What are you doing here?” She exclaimed.
“Oh just thought my girl might be working too hard.” Harrison stood up just as Liz came barreling toward him and almost knocked him onto the ground as she hugged him.
“I missed you.” She said. Then realized Ricardo was staring at them.
“I missed you too babe.”
“Ricardo, this is Harrison. Harrison this is my partner on the project.” Liz said.
The two men shook hands again.
Ricardo was surprised at how old Liz’s boyfriend was. He had to be close to forty. But again, he seemed pretty rich and Ricardo knew how well a rich guy could get whatever he wanted. He decided it wasn’t all that surprising that Liz was dating this guy.
“Nice to meet you,” Harrison said.
“You too. This is some hard worker you have here.”
Ricardo pointed to Liz.
“I’m so happy you’re here Harrison!” Liz couldn’t hold back her excitement.
She hugged Harrison again.
“Well, I know you are busy. So I just wanted to stop by and ask you on a date.”
“Sure thing,” Liz said as she smiled from ear to ear.
“How about I swim back by here at six o’clock?” Harrison moved toward the door as he started to leave.
“Yeah, six o’clock sounds good,” Liz said as she looked over at Ricardo, who shook his head yes.
“It’s a date. I’ll see you then my lady,” Harrison said.
He reached down and grabbed Liz’s hand and pulled it up to his. Kissed it and then turned to leave the office.
“Well, that was pretty fairytale-ish,” Ricardo said as he went back to his desk and sat down.
“Yeah, I’m still in shock.” Liz looked at her desk and then back to Ricardo.
What had just happened? Harrison had just flown across the world and surprised her at her work. She wasn’t even sure how he had found out where she was working at. Well, she certainly didn’t feel insecure about their relationship anymore.
The rest of the work day flew by. Liz worked fast and hard to make sure she would be done with everything she needed to be done with by six o’clock.
Ricardo was polite and the awkwardness between them was totally gone now. He seemed perfectly fine with Liz having a boyfriend and totally respected her boundaries. He even teased her a bit about how fast she could work when there was the promise of a date at the end of her day.
“Perhaps we should keep your man here in town until the project is done. You work pretty damn fast with him as motivation,” Ricardo joked.
“I’m so excited he’s here. I was worried about this new secretary he has. It was stupid really.”
“Oh is she a hot young thing?”
“I’m not sure. But she sounded like it. She is just filling in for Martha but still made me nervous when I couldn’t get a hold of him.”
“Well, obviously nothing to worry about. A guy who is banging is secretary doesn’t go out of his way to fly around the world to see his girlfriend.”
Liz felt better after talking to Ricardo. She even felt silly for thinking something would be going on with Harrison and his secretary. Liz had only been gone a little over a week. He wouldn’t forget about her that quickly. Plus, Liz had been so busy with her work it was Harrison who was probably worried.
At six o’clock on the dot, Liz was standing outside the building waiting for Harrison. She couldn’t wait to kiss him and touch him. She had missed him horribly.
Harrison jumped out of the car and ran around to open up the door for Liz.
“Your charity my lady.”
Liz grabbed him and pulled him close to her.
“I missed you,” she said.
They kissed and Liz felt home again. His body pressed up against her. His lips touching hers. Liz knew everything would be fine now that she had Harrison’s arms around her again. She had a hard time letting go so he could get back in the car.
“Babe, we have plenty of time together. Let’s go check out this restaurant.”
“Alright. If I must let go,” Liz smiled.
“You’ll love this restaurant. It’s right in my hotel and supposedly has some amazing seafood.”
Harrison had some a pretty strong investigative team that had found where Liz was working, but he had not been able to figure out which hotel she was at. He finally decided on the best five-star hotel in Sydney.
“I can’t wait.”
“By the way, I missed you too,” Harrison said as they drove off toward his hotel.