Much to her surprise, Eloise slept through the night. When she awoke, the sun was coming through the crack between the curtains on her window, and she realized she’d forgotten to shut the balcony door last night. She felt a moment of alarm, and then relaxed. She was on the twelfth floor, after all. Someone would need to be an acrobat to get into this room.

She rolled out of bed, her feet finding the wooden floor of the room. It was warm, despite the early hour, and she wondered vaguely if the warmth came from the climate or if the floorboards were heated. She ran a shower, the familiar sensation of falling water putting her at ease.

Today was Thursday, the day of the meeting, and Eloise chuckled a little imagining how Patrick’s morning must be going. She was willing to bet he was driving himself crazy with last-minute preparations. She imagined him changing his tie over and over, adjusting the part of his hair until it was perfect. Patrick’s reputation in the business world was that of a charming, successful silver fox, but a peek behind the curtain revealed the bumbling old mess he could be at times.

Eloise dressed in her gray linen suit, which served the dual purpose of looking professional and keeping her cool in the hot weather that was sure to persist through the day. She paired it with black heels and finished the look with a purple scarf for a flash of color. She knew Patrick wouldn’t like the scarf, and she knew just as well that he would be too anxious about the details of the meeting to even notice it. It was Eloise’s version of a tiny rebellion.

Checking her appearance in the mirror one more time, she stepped out into the hall and made her way to the elevator.

The hotel was quiet—it was far too early for vacationers to be awake. Eloise was the only person in the elevator the whole ride down, and she took advantage of the solitude to look out over the beach again. It was the most beautiful beachfront she’d ever seen in real life, with gorgeous white sands and water that looked so blue it almost had to be fake. Now that she wasn’t so tired and irritated, she couldn’t wait for an opportunity to get out there and experience it for herself.

The ding of the elevator alerted her to having reached the first floor, and she turned away from the glass. As the doors slid open, Eloise saw Patrick sitting on a long sofa opposite the bank of elevators, his lips working silently as he gazed at his laptop screen. He saw her step out of the elevator and waved her over.

“What is it?” Eloise asked.

“Sit.”

Eloise sat.

“On the seventh slide. Look at this line.” He pointed it out. “Don’t you think this sounds like we’re not confident the product will work?”

“It just says we ran a lot of tests,” Eloise said.

“Right. Why did we need to run so many tests? It reads like we’re not sure of ourselves.”

“It reads like we’re careful.”

“We shouldn’t have included this. Who put this line in here?”

“I did. It demonstrates why we have such faith in our product. It’s a good line, Patrick.”

Patrick looked up and caught sight of a receptionist crossing the lobby. “Excuse me. Miss? Could you come over here?”

She did, stopping about a yard away. “Can I help you, sir?”

Patrick broke into a surprised grin. “You speak English.”

“The whole staff speaks English,” Eloise murmured, trying to hold him back from embarrassing himself further.

Patrick ignored her. “Can you also read English, honey?”

“I can,” the receptionist said. “I’m fluent in both English and Arabic.”

“Well aren’t you a treat! Come take a look at this.” Waving her over, he pointed out the offending line on the computer screen. “What do you think of this line? Doesn’t it seems like we didn’t trust our product, so we had to run extra tests?”

“I guess so, sir, but I’m really no expert.”

The woman giggled—actually giggled—and Eloise rolled her eyes. She would never understand the appeal her boss held in the eyes of so many women.

Patrick was triumphant. “I thought it did. Eloise, you should listen. Kill the line, please.” He shoved the computer at her and stood up. “I’ll be outside. Hurry up, the car will be here any minute.”

Eloise erased the offending line. Then, because the slide was looking too empty, she filled in the space with a quick summary of the history of MAFA Financial. It was an odd place in the presentation for such a thing, but it was better than nothing, and Patrick hadn’t exactly given her time to come up with anything more appropriate. She closed the laptop and ran out to the curb just as a limousine pulled up.