Ella

I left the office early, but before I left, I put a call in to Marcella Binetti. I felt really awkward calling her, considering we'd only just met and I had to talk to her about something really personal, but I wanted to know if Josh was telling me the truth.

"Hello, Marcella," I said and chewed a fingernail. "I wonder if I could come by your office and have a quick chat."

"Of course, Ella. Please come by. I'll be in until six at least."

She gave me the address, which was just down the street a few blocks. I had some time off because of all the hours I'd put in over the past few days, and since Sharon had encouraged me to take some time off, I did.

I said goodbye to the Cindy at the front desk, and took the elevator down to the lobby, wondering if I would run into Josh, and hoping that I didn't. I wanted to talk to Marcella before I saw him again. If I did ever see him again, that is… I still hadn’t decided whether to go to Bali or not.

I arrived at her building and checked in with the front desk security guard, who issued me a pass. Then I took the elevator up to her office on the twenty-third floor. A receptionist ushered me into a big corner office and there, behind a big oak desk, was Marcella.

She stood and came to meet me at the door, shaking my hand.

"Come in and sit down," she said, leading me over to a small seating area with a sofa and chair across from each other over a coffee table. Everything in the office was high end and elegant, like Marcella herself.

She offered me the chair so I sat and adjusted my skirt, and then I waited for her to sit down herself.

She smiled and folded her hands. "So, Ella. I assume you're hoping that I can find you a good paying job. Perhaps in another publishing house? I know the position you currently have is unpaid and temporary…"

I shook my head, then had to take in a deep breath.

"Actually, no. I love my position at Macintyre Publishing. I wanted to ask you about Joshua Macintyre."

"Oh?" she asked, her eyes wide. "Why would you ask me about him?"

"He told me to talk to you. He said I should ask you about," I said and hesitated, not knowing how to word things. "Well, you should know that we've been sort of seeing each other for the past couple of weeks. I overheard you and Sharon talking about him and that he hired you to find him a wife so he could inherit his money. As you can imagine, I felt hurt. I confronted him and broke off our relationship. He told me I should ask you to explain."

"Oh, dear…" She sat back, tilting her head to one side. "You overheard Sharon and I yesterday," she said and sighed. "I'm so sorry about that. I didn’t mean for you to hear our gossip. Yes, I met with Josh just after he found out about his father's will. It was a shock to him, because none of the boys had any idea they wouldn't be splitting the family fortune. Instead, their father created incentivized trust funds for them. In order to get a disbursement, they had to fulfil certain requirements. The first was they had to get married and stay married for at least a year. If so, they'd each get $25 million dollars on their first anniversary and every anniversary that they stayed married. It was their father's way of encouraging them to give up the bachelor's life and settle down."

"Is that even legal?" I asked, for it sounded like blackmail or extortion.

"Yes, it is entirely legal. Josh wasn't happy about it. He recently had a very hard breakup as I'm sure you know. He wasn't at all keen on getting married or looking for a wife. He even joked that I should find him a wife because he was too busy. I said, why not? I could do it because I have files on hundreds of very capable young women, many of whom would be more than happy to meet Josh and get to know him. Maybe become his wife."

"And?"

"And, I tried my best. I provided him with the very best candidates I had on file at the time. Women from very privileged backgrounds, with degrees and who were attractive and successful, and who agreed to meet him. He turned each one of them down, finding excuses. One wasn't nice enough. One was too nice. One had a career that was trifling. One was too serious."

"Did he ever say anything about me?" I asked.

"No," she said, frowning. "He never indicated he was seeing anyone, but now that I meet you, and learn that the two of you have become involved, I suspect he was comparing all the candidates to you, and finding he was just not interested in anyone else."

She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.

That thought made me smile. I covered my mouth with a hand, hoping to hide it because it felt too proud and there was no way of knowing if she was right about him. Still, a little zing of happiness went through me at the thought that Josh had compared me to the women Marcella found for him and turned them all down as a result.

"I was wondering why he was being so reluctant," Marcella said, her eyes narrowing. "Now, I know. He had you as his comparator. You have good breeding, coming from a powerful political family in New Hampshire. You have a degree from an Ivy League College. You have a career and ambition. You're lovely on top of it. I can see why he wasn't interested in anyone else."

Marcella smiled at me, a look of glee in her eyes. "It's a loss for me because I could have made some money off his desire to find a wife, but I've always been fond of Joshua. He's a wonderful person and upstanding young man. It makes me personally happy to know he found you on his own without any help from me."

I shook my head, because she was getting way ahead of herself.

"Wait," I said and held out my hand. "We just started seeing each other. It's not like that."

"Maybe not for you, but I suspect it is for Josh. Besides, your relationship with him was important enough for you to come and speak to me, to hear what I had to say. It was important enough to Joshua to admit what happened and send you to me with his blessing. I'd say there's something between you two that is more than just mutual attraction." She wagged her eyebrows. "Maybe you just don't realize it yet."

I tried not to grin, because the idea made me very happy. It surprised me, but I hadn't realized how much I felt for Josh, in addition to being incredibly physically attracted to him. Thinking about us becoming a couple sent a surge of excitement through me, and a feeling of desire mixed with affection. Of a deep need for him as a man.

I saw his face in my mind's eye – his handsome face, masculine with blue-gray eyes, a well-trimmed beard, his hair long on top, falling into his eyes in this sexy way. His incredible build. His intensity as a lover.

I felt a jolt of desire when I thought about going away to Bali for a weekend with him, alone on a tropical island all-inclusive resort. Nothing but sun, surf and sex…

"Thank you for being so open about this," I said and stood up, deciding I'd heard enough and still feeling quite awkward to be talking to Marcella about it. "I have to go, but I appreciate your willingness to meet with me so quickly."

She stood and escorted me to the door. "Please, feel free to contact me in the future if you are looking for a different opportunity. I'm sure with your credentials, I could land you a plum position with a publishing house."

I smiled and we shook hands before I left. Then I took the elevator down to the main floor and walked out into the late afternoon pedestrian traffic.

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and the pedestrians walked around me, flowing like a river of people. I had dreamed of being here, in Manhattan, in Mid-Town Manhattan in particular, the publishing world's center of gravity. Now, here I was – working for a major publisher, living in a cute studio apartment in Chelsea, and I had one of the wealthiest bachelors in America inviting me to spend a dirty weekend with him in a tropical paradise.

"Hey, lady, get the hell off the middle of the sidewalk!" a man called out at me, bumping into me. I came out of my trance of happiness and quickly went to the side of the building, out of the way of the thickest pedestrian traffic.

I didn’t go back to my place right away. Instead, I went to Central Park and walked around the lake, trying to clear my head and figure out what I should do.

I sat on a bench by the pond, and watched some geese swimming around. On the street, a couple of horse-drawn carriages clip-clopped by, the sound of their hooves making me think of when I was a child and used to go on hayrides in the fall.

I was filled with a sense of melancholy, and wished the answer would come to me so I could finally feel settled, but there was no bolt of lightning or clear message from above, telling me what to do.

I had to figure it out myself.

I took out my cell, and checked my messages.

Sure enough, there was one from Josh.

JOSH: I'm standing outside your apartment with a bouquet of roses in my hand, hoping you'll let me in so we can talk this over.

I smiled at the mention of leaving roses, pleased that he was trying so hard to win me back even if I didn't know if I would let myself go.

I texted him.

ELLA: I met with Marcella.

JOSH: And? I hope she cleared up a few facts.

ELLA: She did.

JOSH: So, what are your thoughts?

ELLA: I'm not sure. I need to think of things for a while.

JOSH: What things? You must know that after I met you, I didn’t want to meet any of Marcella's candidates. None of them compared to you.

I didn't know what to say in response, but it made me smile to myself. It was what Marcella had said, and it warmed my heart to see him repeat it.

JOSH: Ella… I've fallen for you. I think we're good together. I want us to give this – whatever it is between us – a real try. Come to Bali with me.

That confession – that he'd fallen for me – sent a jolt of desire through me. I actually closed my eyes and covered my mouth, because it made my heart tug, but I needed time.

ELLA: I need some time to process it all.

JOSH: Of course. Whatever happens, the tickets are still good for Friday so if you want to give this a real serious try, I'll be waiting at the Emirates Lounge, hoping you show up with only your bathing suit and a change of clothes along with you. Where we're going, it will be clothing optional most of the time and I intend to keep you very busy and very naked…

I smiled to myself. That prospect sent a surge of warmth through my body. I glanced up at the sky, grinning like an idiot. It was Tuesday. I had to work Wednesday and Thursday, but then I had Friday off until the following Wednesday. The ticket to Bali was for Friday at noon. We'd fly for hours with a layover in Saudi Arabia, and then we'd fly to Bali for three glorious days in an amazing resort. With our own pool and beachfront.

I didn't text Josh back because, as excited as I felt about Bali, I was still uncertain about whether I should go. I put my cell into my bag, and after it was almost dark, I went back to my apartment and found a bouquet of beautiful red roses at the front entry. I brought them inside and stood at my tiny sink, trying to decide what to put them in. The tallest glass I had was too short and frail to hold twelve roses. I remembered I had a big jar of Catelli Spaghetti Sauce for dinner the other night when I was dreaming of meatballs and made some. It was out in the recycling so I went downstairs to the back of the building and bent over the bin, fishing around in the old tin cans, the plastic bottles and soda cans, until I found it. I brought it back inside, washed it out and then cut each rose stem down so that all twelve fit inside and the jar didn't tip over.

I spent some time cleaning my tiny apartment to distract myself. I needed to talk to Steph, although I already knew what she'd say.

Regardless, I needed to hear it before I made my decision. As soon as I was finished cleaning, I'd call her.

My body said yes, my heart said yes, but my brain kept going over the fact that he felt out of my league and that maybe, I was jumping back into the fire too soon. I thought that a nice fling with a handsome boy-toy like bicycle courier Josh might be a way to get over Jerkface, but billionaire publisher mogul Josh felt like he was more than just a fling.

I could already feel my heart being taken by him, and was afraid he'd break it.