Avery

Apparently I’d actually managed to fall asleep after my Skype call with Luke after all, because my assistant Natalie woke me up with a maple walnut scone, my third caffeinated drink of that morning, first bottle of water, and a call on line one from my boss Howard Kaplan, who was in Los Angeles to meet with clients. “We were just talking!” I blurted out, wiping the nap drool from my face.

“Sure you were,” Natalie said, winking, without missing a beat.

I gulped down the coffee and took a swig of water while she held the phone headset up for me, her finger hovering over the line one button while she waited for me to get my shit together. If he was calling me this early from L.A. it was not just to check in, it was going to be something that would put a wrench in my day. “What time is it?”

“Nine-fifteen. You good?”

“Rock and roll.”

She put the call through and somehow my boss was already talking to me before I’d even said “hello.”

“Have you talked to Bucket yet today?”

“Hi—me? No, I was going to check in with him later.”

“He’ll be unavailable. I spoke to him a little while ago and here’s the deal: his schedule has changed last minute, so he won’t be able to get to New York or London this week because he’s in the Bahamas. So he wants you and the London guy to meet him there, for five days.”

“Meet him where?”

“In the Bahamas. He’s renting a private villa for a week.”

Natalie, who was listening in on the call from her desk, whipped around and watched me for a reaction.

“Wait, so…” My brain was still a little slow. “I have to give him the rundown on the London deal in the Bahamas, instead of here?”

“No, you get to give him the rundown in the Bahamas instead of there. It’s also his way of thanking you and the consultant, for not tanking the deal.”

“The the Bahamas? The tropical island?”

“No, the other Bahamas, in Wisconsin. Are you okay?”

I could hear Natalie snort-laughing at her desk.

“Yes, got it, sorry. So you’re saying that Luke Mason will be there for the meeting too? At the same time as me?”

“Yeah, Luke Mason. In the Bahamas. While you’re there. Is that a problem? Is there a restraining order I should know about?”

“No! God no, I love Luke Mason. I mean, you know, to work with. He’s a good egg, that one.”

“Glad you think so, Davis.”

I could hear him typing while he was talking to me. I was wasting his time, and his time really did mean money. “Does he know about this meeting in the Bahamas too?”

“I just got off the phone with him. He had the same bizarre resistance as you’re exhibiting.”

“I’m not resisting. I’ll do whatever you and Buck need me to do, Howard, you know that.”

“I knew I could count on you.”

“Five whole days, really?”

“Probably just a half-day tomorrow and on Monday. You’ll have to leave tomorrow morning, I think. Natalie will have all the information.”

“Tomorrow morning?!” I cleared my throat and thought of all of the waxing and tanning and toning up that I wouldn’t have time to do before the next morning. “I can do that, sure, great, sure.”

“Sylvia can handle anything that comes up with the other clients while you’re gone.”

“Uh huh, sure, of course, if it comes to that.”

“Avery. You need to be focused on Bucket while you’re there. You can’t be servicing other clients in front of him.”

“Yes, of course, I’m—yes.”

“Have some fun while you’re there, for crying out loud. It’ll be a workation.”

“A what?”

“A work vacation. The villa he’s renting is outstanding, by the way. I stayed there two years ago. You’ll have full enjoyment of the guest rooms, pool, beach, sailing and water sports, local ceremonies and entertainment, the private chef, the on-site massage therapist.”

I took notes as he said all of this. “Uh huh uh huh. And are all of the above-mentioned activities mandatory? Or will I be able to work when Bucket’s off surfing or whatever?”

“It’s mandatory.”

“Really?”

“No, but it’s the Bahamas. I strongly encourage work and relaxation in equal measure at the villa. And in life.”

I laughed. “Right!”

“I’m not kidding.”

I stopped laughing. “Right.”

“Avery…” Howard had that concerned uncle tone in his voice now. “You’ve been with us for five years now and you’ve never taken time off for a vacation.”

I sat up straight, like a teacher’s pet. “Thank you, and you’re welcome.”

He suppressed a laugh. “When was the last time you took a vacation?”

I pretended that I had to think about this, but I knew exactly how long it had been. Prior to this conversation I would have been proud to tell him, but I got the feeling he actually thought vacations were a good thing. Who knew?! “Oh who can remember!” I said. “Working for you always feels like a vacation, Howard!” There was a brief pause, and I wondered if he thought I was flirting with him. Oh dear God no, that was not flirtation!

“You work with me, Avery. And I’m glad you do, don’t get me wrong, but take it from someone who’s been working for a couple of decades longer than you have…I guess what I’m saying is…if you want to take on more responsibility at the firm, it’d be a good idea for you to…” He was talking about a promotion. Oh shit, am I not getting the promotion? “We all need to find balance.”

“You mean like balancing budgets? Are you not happy with the job I’ve been doing on the clients’ budgets?”

I heard him sigh. “No. That’s not what I meant. Of course I’m happy with the job you’ve been doing—look I have to jump to the next call—have fun this week. That’s an order!” He hung up.

I had giant prehistoric butterflies in my stomach, it was like the time I was understudy for Helena in my high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and found out that the lead actress came down with the flu the day before opening night. That girl was so determined to be a star, I didn’t think there was any chance I’d have to go on for her, so I’d spent a few weeks studying for exams instead of memorizing my lines. I blanked out twice on stage the next night, but still managed to get a standing ovation. I will remember every single word of that play until the day I die—which would be later that day, if I was lucky.

I was holding my head in my hands and groaning when Natalie knocked on my door.

“Are you okay?”

I shook my head. “Sure.”

“You are so lucky! I’d kill to go to the Bahamas.”

“Oh my God. What am I gonna do? How long is that flight, like a week?”

“Around five hours, with a connecting flight from Miami. You fly to Freeport instead of Nassau. I looked it up while you were on the call.”

“Ugh. What’s the time difference?”

“Same time zone.”

“Oh.” I was not expecting that. “I mean—five days though? I can’t leave here for five days! What about my other responsibilities?!”

“You mean your personal responsibilities?”

I scoffed. “Of course not.”

“Well, he called it a ‘workation.’ I mean, Buck’s a businessman, I guarantee you he’ll have great reception and Wi-Fi out there, we’ll check the website for the villa, but I’ll bet you anything there’ll have full-scale business facilities. His assistant sent a link to the website. It’s incredible.”

She shuffled over in her four-inch heel boots and shoved her iPad in my face. The villa did indeed look incredible, though I was skeptical about the amount of Photoshopping that could have been done on the photos. Or they could have been taken thirty years ago. Or maybe I was just a cynical New Yorker who really needed a vacation. Regardless, it was not some shack on the beach. “Thanks,” I said, as I opened up my schedule. I hesitated before asking this next question, because I didn’t want my assistant to think I was an idiot, but I didn’t have time to look it up. “Is the Bahamas another country? Do I need my passport?”

“Interesting question!” Natalie straightened up her posture, like she was an expert being interviewed on a PBS show. “The Bahamas is a British commonwealth country, and technically US citizens are allowed to enter without a passport, however they can’t re-enter the US without one, so yes you’ll need your passport.”

Before I even started to ask my next question, she continued, “But you can use US dollars there, at par! Also,” Natalie offered, “Howard did tell you to delegate to Sylvia for the week.”

“I can’t delegate to Sylvia for an entire week! What kind of message would that be sending to the clients?”

“Um. Well, you haven’t taken a vacation since you’ve been here, right?”

“Exactly.”

“I mean, everyone takes vacations, Avery, it’s not like anyone’s going to think you’re slacking off or anything.”

I knew she was right. Of course she was right. But every cell in my body was dreading this.

Line one rang. Natalie answered from my phone. “Avery Davis’s office…She’s on her way to a meeting, can I have her return?...You got it.” She hung up the phone and rolled her eyes. “Stephanie Sloan’s office again.”

I wrinkled my nose. Stephanie Sloan was Bucket’s junior lawyer and for some reason she’d been calling me every day for a week, grilling me about his finances. It was like being bludgeoned to death by a Victoria’s Secret model. “Have Sylvia return that one,” I said.

She winked at me. She was probably going to do that anyway. “Is this about Luke?”

“Is what about—Luke who? I wasn’t even thinking about him.”

“Right. You were just dreaming about him,” she grinned, as she closed my office door and then slowly re-approached my desk.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” My older sister Jackie referred to Luke as Sir Flirty McFlirtson. I have regretted the bottle of wine that had led me to telling her about him, but she was the only person I could talk to about him. But I had to talk about him now. I needed to talk about him. I felt I could trust Natalie, and that I could use a twenty-two year-old’s perspective for a change. It was happening. I was about to make girl talk with my assistant. “We just have a pleasant business rapport,” I’d said.

She laughed. “A business rapport? Please. I’ve listened in on your calls. You guys practically disrobe each other with your voices.”

“That’s just what his voice is like—he has a sexy voice, I’m sure he’s like that with everyone.”

“He’s not, actually, I asked his assistant.”

“Shut up—really?”

“He said Luke has a big stupid grin on his face for an hour after he talks to you.”

My face erupted in a massive smile. The thought of him being as happy as I was after we connected filled me with unadulterated joy. I immediately covered my mouth and started organizing my desktop. “It’s just a little transatlantic flirtation. I mean, everybody flirts at work, it’s no big deal, it just makes things more fun and easy, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“You don’t flirt, ever. I’ve literally never seen you flirt in the year that I’ve worked for you. Like, ever.”

“I flirt! I flirt with everyone!”

“No, you don’t. You flirt with no one, ever.”

“I know! It’s just with him—it’s so weird! I don’t even try, it just happens! He just makes me feel so pretty and special or something, and I hear that accent and I can’t stop smiling and being clever and trying to make him like me. Ugh, it’s so stupid. I have to stop. It’s gross.”

“It is not gross! You’re twenty-seven not seventy-two and it is exactly how things should be between you and a man of the opposite sex and you definitely don’t have to stop.” Dammit, that was what my sister always said.

“I’m glad I don’t have to stop, because apparently I can’t. I mean it’s barely even a flirtation, it’s a work friendship really, based entirely on communication through technology.”

“Like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail!”

“Exactly!”

“Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan get together at the end of that movie.”

“Wait—that’s not fair—I haven’t seen it!”

“You haven’t? How is that possible?”

I shrugged. “Too busy watching Working Girl.”

“Whatever. Everyone knows they get together at the end of that movie, that’s how romantic comedies work.”

“Ugh. That’s exactly why I don’t watch those movies.” It was true. I had steadfastly refused to watch romantic movies since I was fourteen years old, after I’d discovered that all romantic comedy movies were manipulative deceptive assholes—especially the ones from the Nineties!

“Okay, we will discuss that later.”

I looked at my watch. “I don’t even have time to think about this, I have to get to a meeting. You’ll deal with all of the travel arrangements?” I grabbed my iPad and phone and headed for the door.

“Of course. I’ll deal with everything. I’ll call Luke’s assistant and Buck’s assistant to coordinate. You’ll have nothing to worry about.”

“That’ll be the day. Thanks, Nat…Wait a minute—you talk to his assistant? About me and Luke?”

She blushed and looked down, but recovered quickly, while pushing her hair behind one ear. “I mean, of course, we talk about scheduling for you guys, and there’s a little bit of harmless chit-chatty type stuff, it’s not like we gossip about you or anything.”

“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, just curious.” I had a feeling we were both suckers for posh accents. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one. “Only—I mean, it goes without saying—please don’t tell his assistant we had this discussion.”

“Avery. I would never.”

“I know.”

As I passed by her, she said, “Um. Avery.”

“Seriously, we’re just business friends, it’s nothing!”

“Cool.” She reached towards the back of my cardigan and I could feel her tucking the sales tag inside. “We can cut this off when you’re back from your meeting.”

I rolled my eyes and placed my hand on her shoulder. “I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you.” I start to head off to the meeting again.

“Um. Avery.”

“What?!”

She raised her eyebrows and gazed down at my lower body. I followed her gaze and gasped. I had forgotten to change into the bottom half of my sexy librarian outfit! I was still wearing plaid pajama bottoms and Ugg boots. In a 1990’s romantic comedy movie I would have put on some heels, rolled up the hems of the pajama bottoms, and started a new fashion trend. In real life, I couldn’t be late for the monthly investment committee meeting, so I was the butt of my coworkers’ not very funny jokes for the next hour (wealth managers aren’t exactly renowned for being hilarious) and I didn’t have time to change until right before I had to leave for my lunch appointment.

Luke

“The Bahamas?!” My head was still in my hands, long after I’d hung up the phone with Howard Kaplan. My assistant William seemed more amused by my anxiety than concerned. “How long is that flight—a year?”

“Nearly that...” He cringed. “Bear in mind that the end result will be arriving in paradise…”

“Just tell me.”

“Ten hours.”

“God!”

“From London to Florida, and then you hop a flight from Fort Lauderdale to the airport in Freeport—and that’s only around fifty minutes!”

“What?”

“The villa is on the Grand Bahama Island. It would take longer if you flew London to Nassau, Nassau to Freeport, for some reason.”

“Unholy! I don’t even want to know the time difference.”

“London’s five hours ahead. Same as if you were in New York.”

Five hours ahead. I’d have to start working at three in the morning there, which meant I’d have to go to sleep at eight-thirty, which I’d never be able to do, so obviously I wouldn’t be getting any sleep, which meant I’d be making bad decisions, and I couldn’t afford to make bad decisions around Avery Davis, that I knew for certain. “What terrible thing did I do to deserve this?”

“I don’t mean to speak out of turn, sir, but I would literally cut off my right arm if it meant I could go to the Bahamas for a week, all expenses paid, to stay at an exotic private villa with a champion surfer and a beautiful American lady, sir.”

“Please don’t call me ‘sir.’” Now I felt anxious and old. I sighed and straightened myself up. “Point taken. I’ll make the best of it.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“But that’s two full travel days. I’ll have to reschedule an entire week.”

“Indeed. Well, I’ll have to reschedule it for you. Should be interesting. You’ve only ever been out of town on bank holidays since I’ve been here.”

“I haven’t taken off a day of work since I’ve been here.” I had been at this consulting firm for five years.

“Should be very interesting! First class flight, you ought to be able to sleep for most of it.”

“Of course, right. Okay. You win. I’m done complaining.” All of my posh mates and clients jetted off to the Caribbean all the time. I knew it was possible to get work done around there, I mean if Sir Richard Branson can run his empire from a hammock, I could service my clients from a beach for a couple of days. I didn’t know why I was so resistant. That’s not true, I knew precisely why.

William showed me the website for Bucket’s rented villa, which was, indeed, exotic. “So you think Avery is beautiful, do you?”

My assistant snapped out of some private little reverie. “Avery? Oh yes, Avery. Well certainly, I mean I’ve only caught glimpses of her when you’re Skyping, but her face is genuinely lovely, despite the tension in her jaw, rather tight shoulders and dark circles under her eyes from an obvious lack of sleep, but she is, without question, a very attractive woman by anyone’s standard.”

“She is, isn’t she?”

“Not my type, of course.”

“Nor mine, of course.”

“Of course.”

William’s face scrunched up. “The only problem is…”

“I know, I know, she lives in America.”

“No, I mean the only problem about you going to the Bahamas is that—aren’t you meant to visit Chiara this weekend? You have Valentine’s Day plans with her on Tuesday. I suppose you could be back in time for that.”

Chiara. Bellisima, pazzo Chiara. I hadn’t seen her in four weeks and was half-hoping it meant the end of our liaison, given that she had spent most of our last mini-break explaining how emotionally closed off I was and that I needed to live life more “through my penis.” It was a one-way argument. She certainly wasn’t wrong. I mean, what man wouldn’t want to live life more through his penis? I just had no intention of changing for her, and could see that she had no intention of not yelling at me in public. After she’d returned to Rome I hadn’t heard from her for two weeks, but then she called out of the blue to say I should join her for Valentine’s Day, which was the following Tuesday. She told me to make the dinner reservations and then described in great detail what she planned to do to me under the table during dessert. It would have been impolite to say “no.”

Now I would have to call and cancel our plans. I covered my ears, in anticipation of the pain that would soon be inflicted upon them. It wasn’t even the yelling that I was dreading, believe it or not—it was knowing that I’d be letting a woman down. Growing up with my mother and sisters, I’d seen firsthand what happened when women’s hearts are broken and I’d rather be honest and disappoint women upfront so they know what they’re getting into rather than fool them into thinking I’m some prince who’s going to give them their Happily Ever After. I wanted to believe that I’d never make a promise that I cannot keep, and I’d managed not to cock anything up for long stretches of time, but it felt like I was now hovering at the edge of a very slippery slope. It was a slope that would begin with me sliding past a beautiful hot-blooded Italian woman and end with me crashing into Avery. I had no idea what might happen afterwards, and wasn’t sure I was ready to find out.