There were no sounds of chirping birds to wake me up at his condo. I cracked my eyes open and squinted because the curtains hadn’t been closed the night before. The bright morning light spilled into the room from the wall of windows so I shielded my eyes with my hand. When I was finally able to open my eyes fully and stare out onto the cityscape I thought about the huge difference waking up there and waking up at my small apartment I had just moved out of.

 

My breath halted when I came to the full realization of where I was.  I was in Remi’s bedroom.

 

And I was naked.

 

 In his bed.

 

I held my breath so long I ended up fighting for air, coughing when it rushed into my lungs. I slapped my hand over my mouth and turned to look at Remi who was still fast asleep. The sinking realization of what I did hit me like a freight train.

 

“Oh fuck,” I breathed out nervously.

 

I sat up and pulled the bunched up comforter over my body, sitting up against the headboard. I stared down at Remi and gulped. My eyes moved over the figure of his body under the thin bed sheet. That was when I saw the used condom haphazardly thrown in the trash bin by the nightstand.

 

“Oh fuck, fuck,” I whispered.

 

The only regret was because of the consequences of last night. None of my panic was about Remi, at least for the most part. It hadn’t escaped me that he was still that rich womanizer who had somehow caught me by surprise. But that wasn’t what made me so anxious; he was my new boss and I was living at his place. What was I supposed to do now? This was never a situation I expected to navigate and I didn’t have the slightest clue on how to go about it. I tugged nervously at my hair, but immediately stopped the moment Remi’s eyes fluttered open.

 

He looked up at me and grinned. “Good morning,” he said in a drowsy voice that made something warm coil inside of me. 

 

With two words he’d managed to calm me down. I could already feel myself melt right back into him and the warm bed. It was unreal.

 

“Hey,” was all I mustered up. I mentally kicked myself.

 

His grin still hadn’t disappeared. I noticed it was the same genuine smile I saw for the first time last night. He wasn’t surprised or unhappy to find me in his bed. He had mentioned that he wasn’t used to company in the morning, which meant he wasn’t used to women staying the night with him.

 

Yet, there I was, early morning and he was smiling at the sight of me. I gulped and felt more nervous than before. It would be much harder to ignore everything if he continued to behave this way, but I didn’t want to assume he would. I went to stand up, but was stopped by Remi tugging my arm. He held my hand and pulled me back, cradling me in his arms. We both laid in silence as we stared out the window. He kissed the side of my neck and I giggled softly as his whiskers tickled me. It was a sweet, natural moment—and then the loud grumbling of his stomach ruined it.

 

The two of us busted out laughing. “Time to fulfill my duties,” I told him playfully.

 

“I’d say you fulfilled them pretty well last night,” he said lewdly.

 

I scoffed and threw a pillow at him, “That was not my duty. If it were, then that means you would have hired me as your wh–”

 

“I was talking about the stuffed chicken!” Remi cried out defensively, but the devious grin on his face betrayed him.

 

I started to gather my clothes as Remi hopped out of bed and walked into his master bathroom. Just when I pulled on my panties he tossed a bathrobe on the bed in front of me.

 

“You don’t need to bother getting dressed,” he said, exaggeratedly arching his brows.

 

I rolled my eyes, but pulled the robe on anyway. I was about to make a joke about his sexual innuendos, but caught it in time. Recalling the conversation I had overheard between Remi and his father softened me a bit. He was so open about it and so vulnerable. I turned to look at him and braved a brief peck on the lips before telling him, “You’re right, you know. He has no reason to scold you the way he does, your father. You’ve achieved a lot and if he can’t see that then it’s on him.”

 

Remi gave a curt nod, “Thanks but, you know, I have a plan that’ll make him see things differently. I’ve actually got my eye on this great piece of real estate. It’ll be the perfect location for a mega gym.”

 

“A mega gym,” I repeated flatly.

 

“Yeah, it’ll be the best,” Remi responded sounding an awful lot like his reputation.

 

It reminded me of who I had just gotten mixed up with in a night of passion—the ‘playboy-gym-guy’. I got caught up in the way his openness had played on my emotions. I had gotten completely carried away. But then Remi said something else that reminded me of why I allowed myself to get carried away in the first place.

 

“For sure my dad’s got to respect me for that,” he said.

 

I looked down so he wouldn’t see the concern in my eyes. He sounded so sadly hopeful, but I knew it was best to be honest with him.

 

“Remi,” I said softly, “As long as your happiness is wrapped up with what other people think you’ll never be happy.”

 

“I don’t care about people’s approval. All I’ve ever cared about was my dad’s,” his tone had changed.

 

I looked at him just as he started laughing, but something deep inside told me what he was trying to pass off as a joke was rooted in truth. I didn’t want to point that out, so I just gave a single, fake chuckle before tightening up the robe and folding my clothes into a neat pile. I tapped the pile and then looked at him.

 

“I’ve got to go put these away.”

 

Remi patted his stomach, “But your client is hungry. Stomach before tidiness, I always say.”

 

“Oh, you always say that, do you,” I said doubtfully.

 

Remi chuckled as he walked over to the bed. He picked up my shirt and held it up, unfolding it and earning him an annoyed glare from me. “I don’t think this is a very professional shirt, young lady,” he jokingly chastised me.

 

“Young lady!” I burst into laughter. I just couldn’t take him seriously. It occurred to me only then that he was standing in front of me still naked. That’s when my cheeks burned and I snatched the shirt from him, promptly looking away. “I’m just taking them to my room and I’ll prepare your kitchen.”

 

“I think my kitchen is pretty prepared,” Remi shouted after me as I walked out of the bedroom.

 

I walked faster down the hallway. Now even my chest was burning with embarrassment. I quickly got dressed in the first outfit I threw together before rushing off to the kitchen, silently hoping he didn’t make some sort of quip about me saying ‘kitchen’ instead of ‘meal’. As I pulled out the ingredients to make a healthy veggie omelet, I knew it was unlikely he’d let it go so easily. Sure enough when he took the first bite a short while later he casually dropped it in.

 

“Wow, even your omelets make for a delicious kitchen,” he said with a mouth full.

 

I frowned, deciding to redirect the conversation to his complete lack of manners. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this, but you shouldn’t–”

 

“Plenty people have and eh,” he shrugged, stuffing another bite into his mouth. He opened his mouth as he chewed to prove a point.

 

“Unseemly,” I told him in mock-shock.

 

He swallowed the last bite of the omelet, “As unseemly as breaking plates, young lady?”

 

“I’m going to ignore that because it’s time to wash the dishes,” I replied, sticking my nose up in the air as I collected the dishes.

 

“You’re not going to eat breakfast? Guess you had your fill last night, eh?”

 

I nearly dropped the plate as I whipped around to glare at him. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about his constant allusions to what happened between us the night before. It was part of his personality to behave that way. On the one hand, it was somehow flattering that he wanted to keep bringing it up. Then again, it made me feel cheap. Maybe he was just being his regular self or maybe there was more to it than that. However, what I didn’t plan on doing was asking him about it. That wasn’t a conversation that needed to happen.

 

“Time to go to work,” he said a couple minutes later.

 

He walked to his bedroom and by the time I had finished washing the dishes and cleaning up, he was back in the kitchen fully dressed. My eyes reluctantly raked over his body. He was wearing tailored black slacks, a light grey cardigan, and a dark grey blazer. Even under all his clothing his muscles were apparent. His hair was neatly done and he looked mouth-wateringly handsome and put together. I felt that surge of feelings from the first day, only this time they were more intense. Now I knew Remi far more than I had the first time I laid eyes on him. It felt different this time because I knew what was underneath that pristine clothing.

 

“Oh,” was all I could say because my mind was a blank.

 

Remi smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek, “I’ll be back for dinner.”

 

I didn’t move until I heard the elevator doors close after he stepped inside. I placed a hand on the kitchen counter and the other clutched over my chest. I felt weak in the knees. I didn’t understand how such a simple gesture from Remi had such a great effect on me. I wanted to be casual about the previous night and continue on the path of being strictly professional. I knew it was risky to develop real feelings toward him, but at the same time I was starting to think it was too late.

 

 My emotions were a jumbled mess. I wasn’t sure what to believe or what to do. It felt silly to obsess over what was going on between us because I had to figure it was just another layer to Remi. Then I thought of his behavior, the way he spoke to me, and the way he looked at me. None of the pieces came together to resemble any sort of a clear picture.

 

I sighed, running my hands over the soft fabric of the bathrobe. Was it possible Remi wasn’t the playboy type I thought he was?