Chapter 1
Buzz... Buzz...
“Damn it,” Kate cursed, digging in her black Chanel purse for the cell phone. She knew who it was – Nick, calling again with some new demand she was probably going to be expected to meet in about three point five seconds.
Her boss was great, for the most part – actually, he was more than great. He was the most amazing man Kate had ever met (not that she would ever admit that to anyone). But boy, was the guy a perfectionist. He liked things done a certain way, and he liked them done right away. Kate had been his personal assistant for almost three years now, and had gotten pretty good at recognizing his demands and meeting them – which was saying something, since he was always throwing new ones out there.
But knowing what he wanted was part of what had made Nickos Callis so successful at the young age of thirty. Sure, the fact that he had been born into the family business of art dealing was a part of his success, but Nick also understood the value of working hard towards a specifically crafted dream.
That's what Kate reminded herself on days like this one, anyway – a day when she was out scouring half of Manhattan for a specific kind of rose that Nick just had to have for his business meeting later that afternoon. For some reason little things like that were important to him. Hey, whatever – she was just the assistant, so who was she to question things?
“He needs to go ahead and hire a second assistant,” she said to the old florist standing in front of her. “Because this shit is too much for one person to handle.”
The Asian man stared solemnly at her. Kate wondered if he even spoke English. Finally, she found the phone, buried deep at the bottom of her purse.
“Hello?”
“Did you find the Double Delights?” Nick's thick Greek accent slid through the line, sending warm chills down Kate's back.
She sighed. “No, but I'll keep looking.”
“Right. The clients will be here in two hours.”
Click. Not even a goodbye.
Why did she put up with him? Oh yeah, that's right – because she was in love with him. She had been since the first moment she'd laid eyes on him. And even though she had never admitted her feelings, and he had never shown signs of reciprocating them, she just couldn't pull herself away from the man.
“Do you have Double Delight roses?” she asked the florist, who was still standing in the middle of the tiny, heat-drenched shop staring at her. The man's face lit up with a smile and he nodded his head vigorously.
“Yes, yes. Double Delight. Right way, here.”
“Yesss!” Kate punched her fist into the air in celebration. She had done it. She was going to met yet another ridiculous demand from her ridiculous boss.
She knew that what she put up with was more than most personal assistants would take – what with the late night runs to corner delis to get non-dairy butter (not easy to find at all) and the sometimes sixteen-hour days she put in working with Nick at the office. But Kate got satisfaction from it all. Maybe it wasn't a healthy satisfaction, true, but in Kate's kind of life – one where you'd barely even touched a man in almost two years – pleasing the boss had a funny way of meaning everything.
“Those are beautiful,” Nick said, watching Kate place the vase of pink and white roses on the boardroom table. “Where did you find them?”
“This little place in Chinatown.” She finished arranging the roses. “Would you like anything else?”
“Yes, actually - ”
He was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. Glancing down at the screen, he frowned.
“Geia Sas,” he said, answering the phone. Kate felt her cheeks heat up. She'd only heard him speak in Greek a few times, and damn did she like it.
He continued talking, turning his back to Kate and walking to the floor length windows that overlooked East Central Park. Kate had no idea what he was saying or who he was talking with, but he had been about to ask her to do something else before the phone rang, so she figured she'd better stay put.
She glanced at her reflection in the nearest window. Her blonde bangs had gotten a little wind-swept while she'd been running around looking for the roses. She smoothed them down, then noticed her pink and slightly chipped nails. She could use another manicure. She needed a new place to go to, though. She hadn't liked the one on ninth that she'd gone to the last time. The wait had been too long, even though the place was slow, and their water not warm enough.
“This is not good.”
Kate started, looking up from her hands. Was he talking to her now?
“Sorry?” she asked.
Nick rubbed a palm across his square jaw, brushing against the stubble there. The five o'clock shadow he sported twenty-four seven was Kate's favorite physical attribute of his – well, that and his olive toned skin... and his black, wavy hair... and his broad shoulders... and his dark, chocolate eyes... and a hundred other things about him.
He sighed, looking at her. Silence.
Slowly, he went and sat down at the head of the long, mahogany board table. He looked up at her, a sad-looking smile on his face. “You fix so much for me, Kate. I wish you could fix this.”
Kate gulped. She couldn't let him know how good that tiny compliment had made her feel. “Maybe I can help,” she said. “What's happened?”
“My parents have found me a bride.”
Kate's heart froze. She'd never actually thought she and Nick would end up together, but she'd never even imagined him with anyone else. Nick was married to his work. And Kate was devoted to him, and so, therefore, to the art world as well. Countless nights they had spent together in the office, working until three or four a.m. In a sense, Kate liked to think, they were married to each other.
It was just a marriage that didn't come with any actual benefits.
“So,” Kate said slowly. “You're getting married?”
“Absolutely not.”