now, but in my defence, she’s pretty cool as far as sisters go. She basically invited herself to New York as soon as she found out I was getting a corporate apartment paid for. She was in Chicago like me anyway, but she didn’t have a regular job or anything. Just bar work. I couldn’t really say no, since it’s a two-bedroom, and my parents were behind the whole idea. They’d rather have me looking out for her here than leaving her on her own in Chicago.’
‘How old is your sister?’
‘A very immature twenty-six.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘But she’s my sister and I love her. Anyway, if I’d moved when I planned, then I probably would have gone back for Labour Day. Everyone goes up to the lakes that weekend. But work – I mean my old job – held me up, so I didn’t get here till October.’
‘That’s why you were so late booking the party?’
‘Are we back to talking about work again?’
‘I’m just having a go at you.’ I saw his expression. ‘I’m teasing you. Nobody waits till almost November to book their Christmas party.’
‘Yeah, as I found out, thanks. By the time my old company said they were making me work my whole notice period, it was too late for Flable and Mead to find another events manager. It was lucky I didn’t lose the job, but it’s meant I’ve had to scramble now to find a venue. If my old boss had let me go earlier, we probably wouldn’t have met.’
‘Then I’m glad your company were arseholes.’
‘I’ll be sure to add that to my Christmas card to them.’
‘Don’t forget the kisses at the end.’
He didn’t forget the kisses at the end of our date either. We barely made it out of the bar before we were all over each other.
‘God, you are so sexy!’ he murmured amidst all the snogging. ‘I would love to take you home right now.’ He pulled away a bit so he could look into my eyes. His face was pretty blurry at such close range, but he was asking a question, right?
Much as I wanted to, even in my bothered state I knew it would be a mistake in the long run.
‘No, I can control myself,’ he said. That made one of us. ‘I’m a gentleman at heart, despite how it appears at the moment.’ He put a tiny bit of distance between us. ‘Will you get a cab home or take the subway?’
‘I’m in Brooklyn,’ I said. ‘I’ll get the subway. Where do you live?’
He took my hand as we started walking towards my station. ‘In East Bumfuck, Nowhere,’ he said. ‘It might be a free apartment, but it’s completely inconvenient. The company had all these empty buildings that were bad investments even before the financial crisis. Now they’re stuck with them, so they hand them out as perks to their employees.’
‘Where is it exactly?’ I was pretty sure there wasn’t really an East Bumfuck, Nowhere.
‘Sorry, I should have said. Scarsdale in Westchester. Do you know it?’
‘Only by its reputation as suburban hell. I’m sorry.’ We seemed to be back on safer ground with the talking. I wasn’t sure if it was the manhattans or the snogging that were making me so light-headed. I’d gone overboard on both.
‘I’ve got a one-year lease, but I can’t wait to move closer,’ Chuck went on. ‘The firm signed me up for a private member’s club that’s got pretty cheap rooms, so I can stay there sometimes if I have a late night.’
Was that where we’d have gone if I’d taken him up on his offer? Would I get another chance, or had I blown it?
‘I’ll see you again soon, okay?’ Chuck said when we got to the steps leading down to my train. ‘No, fuck it, that’s not what I mean to say. Rosie, I’ve had such a wicked time tonight. I know I’m supposed to be cool about these things, but I can’t wait to see you again. We can see each other again, right?’
‘I’d love it!’ I said, but I’d hardly got the words out before he was kissing me again. At the rate I was going, I’d be nothing but a puddle of hormones on the Seventh Avenue Line.
‘Are you getting the subway?’ I asked him when I came up for air.
‘It’s the commuter line for me. Suburbs, remember? I’ll walk over to Grand Central. It’s a nice night for a walk.’
We both looked up at the rain that was just starting to spit. ‘It feels like a nice night, doesn’t it?’ he asked.
It felt like a perfect night.
I just missed my train and when I got on the next one it was obvious someone had just weed in the corner of the carriage I chose, but I still smiled all the way home. It was a perfect night.
Chuck stood in front of me at the reception desk the next day at lunchtime. ‘I need your advice,’ he said.
I turned away so Andi couldn’t overhear us. Whatever it was, she’d say no on principle. ‘Is this your way of asking me out, or do you really need my advice?’
His grin was wicked. ‘I really do need your advice. But maybe we can go out later.’ He turned to Andi. ‘Can I please borrow Rosie? It’s about the party.’
My God, he was fearless in the face of danger. ‘It shouldn’t take longer than her lunch hour.’
As if I ever got a lunch hour. ‘But we might be a few minutes late getting back. We have to go to Tiffany’s to pick out Christmas presents for the party.’
Seeing Andi’s face, Digby grimaced and practically ran into the back room. I was tempted to join him. Chuck had no idea how hard he was making things for me.
In about a nanosecond, Andi’s expression morphed from thunderous to sweet-as-you-please. ‘Of course. Anything for our clients. Rosie can take all the time she needs to help. We’ll see you later.’
Translation: You’ll pay for this later and don’t even think about being gone longer than your legally allowed lunch hour. You’re lucky you’re even getting that.
But how could I say any of that to Chuck in front of Andi, when the only thing worse than making my boss angry was making her look bad? ‘I won’t be long,’ I murmured when I caught her shooting daggers at Chuck’s back as we left.
He waited till we rounded the corner, checked that no one from the hotel was watching, and grabbed my hand. ‘I really do have to pick out corporate gifts for the party, but I wanted you to come here with me. It sounds lame, I know, but Audrey Hepburn was my sister’s favourite actress. She force-fed me Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I want to go there with you. Though I can’t promise not to bawl. Just thinking about the end of that movie gets me every time.’
‘Cat!’ I wailed, causing people around us to glance over.
Later, as we squeezed through the revolving doors together at Tiffany’s, he hummed ‘Moon River’ into my ear. It couldn’t be any more romantic.
But we didn’t see each other again until the Christmas party. Our work schedules were nearly exactly opposite now. Andi scheduled me on the five-to-one shift, probably in retaliation for my afternoon disappearance. And Chuck got his next assignment – organising all the firm’s year-end investor meetings – so he was working straight through, from early in the morning until late at night. We did get to snatch quick calls with each other during the day when Digby could cover for me. And we had long rambling conversations late most nights while Chuck was on the train back to Scarsdale.
But I was going round the bend, dying to see him. Chuck was addictive. ‘I know it’s frustrating with work,’ he said, ‘but we’ll see each other at the party. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’
‘That’s bollocks. Absence just makes you frustrated.’
He laughed. ‘I can’t wait to see you. I bet you’re going to look gorgeous.’