were different now. Lisa was past history and so was Dwayne. A new intimacy had sprung up between them, first when Alex had hugged her, and then when they’d had coffee together, an inevitable result once you started opening up about your private life to another person, even when that person was your boss. Harriet knew that men found her attractive. Why should Alex be any different?
And then there was her own silly self. She’d always been blindly attracted to men who were tall, handsome and, yes, super-successful, a failing which she’d worked hard to conquer. But she was in a highly vulnerable state at the moment and, when she faced it, when it came to tall, handsome and super-successful men, Alex was at the top of the heap. To stay with him in an apartment for two nights was asking for trouble.
She didn’t need any more trouble in her life. She did, however, need her job; the mortgage on her Bondi apartment barely manageable now that she didn’t have anyone to help with the payments. Having an affair with the boss was a sure way to lose her job. Harriet had been around long enough to know how such relationships ended.
‘Thank you for your kind offer,’ she said in her best businesslike voice. ‘But I can’t stay away for two nights. Emily is getting back from Bali on Saturday and we’re having a catch-up lunch on Sunday.’ This was a bald-faced lie. Emily was away for a further two months. Harriet knew, however, that she needed a decent excuse to get out of this. Alex didn’t like being told no.
‘Pity,’ he muttered, then shrugged his shoulders, his indifference indicating he hadn’t had any dastardly secret agenda when he’d suggested a two-night stay. He was just trying to be nice to her again. Truly, she was letting herself get carried away here, thinking he had seduction on his mind, a prospect which she had found perversely appealing and painfully flattering. Oh, dear... She seriously wished he’d get off the corner of her desk. Or alternatively stop swinging his foot like that. He was making her way too aware of his body, his very hunky, handsome male body.
Harriet picked up a biro so that she could pretend to take notes and not look at him.
‘I’ll get onto those bookings right away,’ she said. ‘I presume you’ll be flying first class to Milan?’ This with a quick glance his way.
‘Of course,’ he replied and smiled at her.
When Harriet’s heart gave a lurch, she told herself quite fiercely just to stop it. But she might as well have tried to stop the tide from coming in. Why, oh why, did women find men like Alex so damned attractive? She supposed it was a primal thing, the female of the species blindly surrendering to the alpha male because that was the way of nature. But that didn’t make it any easier to endure. The last thing she wanted was to start suffering from some silly crush.
‘What about a date for the return flight?’ she asked crisply.
‘Mmm. Can’t say I’m sure when that will be. I might spend a day or two with Jeremy in London after the wedding. It’s summer over there at the moment. Look, just make it the one-way to Milan. I’ll organise the return flight myself when I’m over there.’
‘Fine. I’ll scout around and see what’s the best first-class deal. Might take me a while. First, I’ll look up the various five-star resorts at Coffs Harbour,’ she went on, putting the biro down and clicking on the computer to bring up resorts at Coffs Harbour. ‘Get your tick of approval whilst you’re here. Hmm... An ocean view, you said. With a balcony. It is winter, you know. I doubt we’ll be spending too much time on an ocean-facing balcony.’
‘Possibly not,’ he agreed. ‘But I like apartments with balconies. They’re usually larger and have better light.’
‘A balcony it is, then. Here’s one which should suit—the Pacific View resort just south of Coffs Harbour. They have a two-bedroom spa suite available for Friday night which has a huge balcony with an ocean view.’
‘And the other facilities?’
‘Everything you could possibly want. There’s a heated indoor pool as well as a gym and not one but two restaurants—one a bistro, the other à la carte.’
‘Great.’
‘Shall I book it, then?’
‘Absolutely. Oh, and, Harry,’ Alex added as he slid off the corner of her desk. Finally. ‘Perhaps it might be best not to mention where we’ll be staying to the rest of the staff, especially Audrey. She might jump to the wrong conclusion, the way she did this morning when she walked in on my hugging you. We don’t want to start up any rumours, do we?’
‘Absolutely not. Right you are, boss. Mum’s the word.’
‘Good girl,’ he said, before heading back into his office.
Harriet almost laughed. Because all of a sudden she didn’t want to be a good girl. She wanted to be a very bad girl. With Alex.
She was in the process of making the bookings when a courier walked in, holding a huge bouquet of assorted flowers.
‘Someone’s a lucky girl,’ he said, smiling a goofy smile. ‘The lady on reception said they were for you.’
Harriet’s first hideous thought was that they were from Dwayne, in some vain attempt to get her back. But when she opened the card which accompanied the flowers, the words written there brought tears to her eyes for the second time that day.
Hope you’re feeling better soon.
Love from Audrey.
PS The bum wasn’t good enough for you, anyway.
The PS made her laugh, which came as a relief to the courier, who was looking worried.
‘Everything’s fine,’ she said to him, waiting till he left before going out to reception and thanking Audrey profusely.
‘Flowers always make me feel better,’ Audrey said. ‘So does a glass of wine or two. Want to come have a drink with me after work?’
‘Love to,’ Harriet said. She’d missed her girls’ nights out with Emily since she’d gone away.
‘Great,’ Audrey said. ‘You should join the rest of us on Friday nights as well.’
‘I will in future,’ Harriet said. ‘But I can’t this Friday night. Have to go north with the boss to inspect his new golf resort. He has to go away overseas again soon and he wants me to keep a personal eye on things up there,’ she added by way of explanation. ‘So I need to see the lie of the land and meet the foreman.’
‘That’s a long drive. You’ll have to stay somewhere overnight.’
‘Probably. Still, there are plenty of motels up that way.’
‘True.’
‘I’d better get back to work or the slave driver might come looking for me.’
‘He can be like that, can’t he?’
‘He’s a workaholic, that’s for sure.’
‘I wouldn’t like to do your job.’
‘I don’t mind. I like it.’ An understatement. She loved her job.
‘Don’t you get fed up with being at his beck and call all the time? I mean, the things he asks you to do sometimes.’ Audrey rolled her eyes.
Harriet just laughed. Alex had been very up-front at her interview over the menial tasks he might ask her to do. She honestly didn’t mind getting his bagels, buying presents for members of his family or even organising his dry-cleaning. Better than sitting at her desk all the time.
It wasn’t till Harriet was sitting back down at that same desk that she realised she would enjoy the drive up to the golf estate this weekend very much if she wasn’t starting to have these awkward feelings for Alex. Still, at least these days she was capable of resisting such self-destructive desires, having become wise to her own weaknesses where the opposite sex—and sex—was concerned. In time, these feelings would pass and she would meet someone