Anna
I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to request I work for him. What a total dick. He’d tried to call me again but I’d not picked up when I recognized the number. What could he possibly have to say to me that I wanted to hear?
My phone rang again and it was him. Again. He needed to stop harassing me. I sent the call to voicemail and logged off. If I wasn’t in the office, he couldn’t find me. Maybe I’d call in sick tomorrow. I was going to have to find an excuse not to work with him.
I picked up a bottle of wine on the way home and collapsed on the sofa with a huge glass. Hangover or no hangover, I needed some kind of sedative. I considered calling Leah but I couldn’t risk her babbling on about fate or the universe or something equally ridiculous, so I switched on the TV and started to open my post. My mobile started vibrating on the coffee table, I didn’t recognize the number but I answered it.
“Anna, it’s Ethan. If you hang up, it will take me about thirty seconds to be at your front door.”
“Are you stalking me? How do you have my home address?”
“The Partner Booklet of associate details.”
“Fucking hell, isn’t that a breach of my human rights or something, that’s outfuckingrageous—”
“Let me in Anna.”
“Where are you?” I peered through the peephole and saw him standing against the wall opposite my door.
“You know where I am. You just checked your peephole.” He was very calm, just like I imagined a psychopath would be.
“Why are you even here? You got what you wanted. You made a fool out of me, now just pretend I don’t exist.”
“Let me in.”
“No.”
“Let me in.”
“I said no.”
“Do you really want to continue to have this conversation through the door for all your neighbors to hear? I’ll stay here all night if I need to. It’s not like I’m sleeping anyway.”
What was the matter with this crazy guy? This flat was cursed. I couldn’t wait to move.
“If I let you in, do you promise to leave after ten minutes?” I asked.
“I told you that I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
“You are full of total bullshit.”
“What the fuck Anna? What is it that has made you so angry with me? We agreed I wouldn’t call you, that we wouldn’t stay in touch. I thought that’s what you wanted.” He raised his voice—it was the first time I’d ever known him to be ruffled.
I opened the door and looked at him, unwilling for the neighbors to further witness to my dating disasters.
“I’m not angry you didn’t call, I’m angry because you used me.”
He stepped toward me and I stood to the side to let him in. We might as well have this out as he was right in front of me.
He stepped inside my flat and I closed the door and lent back.
“I’m not a stupid guy but I’m having a hard time following your logic. We agreed it was going to be uncomplicated fun. I’m not pretending it wasn’t about sex for me but you can’t pretend it wasn’t about sex for you. I thought we were on the same page. If I’d known you’d expected me to call . . .”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t expect you to call.” My voice had dropped to almost normal. I was exhausted from being so angry at him.
“Then I don’t follow you,” he said.
We stood in silence for a long minute. Thoughts were racing through my head and none of them made sense. Having him so close was not helping my clarity of thought. He was near enough to touch, to . . .
“Do you want a drink?” I asked. He nodded and I headed to the kitchen and poured two glasses of whiskey. Another thing to be mad at him for—whiskey and Ethan were synonymous for me now.
“Can you stop swearing at me for just a few minutes and talk to me?” he asked.
I didn’t look at him, I couldn’t look at him as I handed him his drink and then moved past him into the living room and collapsed on the sofa.
“Anna.”
“You should have been honest with me from the beginning,” I said calmly.
“About what? That I was a lawyer?”
I glanced at him and he looked confused.
“Jesus.” Was he being deliberately stupid?
“Anna, seriously? What?”
“About the fact that you knew exactly who I was, that you wanted information about Allen & Smith, that you were using what you knew about me to get laid or something.”
“What? When?” he asked.
“In New York.” He couldn’t think I hadn’t realized what he’d been doing.
“You think I knew you worked for Allen & Smith when we met?” he asked, his voice lighter. I didn’t respond. “How would I have known?” he asked.
Silence.
“What, and I arranged for you to be in New York, at the same bar as me?” I hadn’t quite worked out how he’d managed to bump into me.
“And at lunch the following day.” I prompted.
“Well, yes, that’s true. I did know you were going to be at lunch at that place the next day.”
My head snapped round to look at him.
“I didn’t tell you because it made me look like a stalker but I wanted to see you again and the only information I got from the concierge about you was where you were going to be.”
“Oh. My. God.” I knew it. I knew it. “And how did you know I’d be in that bar?”
He stood up from the chair opposite me and took his jacket and tie off and came to sit next to me. I didn’t move a muscle.
“Is that what you think? That I arranged the meeting with you to get information about Allen & Smith?”
I stayed silent.
“You are officially crazy,” he said softly.
“Don’t try and make me out as crazy. You’re the one stalking me,” I huffed.
“Think about it Anna. What information did you pass me about Allen & Smith?” I did think about it. I hadn’t even told him I was a lawyer, let alone anything about where I worked.
“I found out you worked there during the announcement—when I saw you.”
I looked at him sideways.
“Then how did you know my name was Anna?”
He reached out and pulled me onto his lap. I didn’t resist him. Maybe I should have. But I wanted to believe what he was saying.
“I didn’t know, beautiful. I just thought it suited you.”
My stomach fluttered as he called me beautiful. Damn you stomach.
“And you strong-armed the concierge to find out where I was lunching the day after we met? That’s weird.”
He nodded. “Yes, a little out of character for me.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to see you again. Haven’t I told you, you’re fantastic in bed?”
He grinned and then nuzzled into my neck and I let him.