It gave me a hard curl of satisfaction to see Andrew look down and away, properly cowed.
Well. At least now the Eliza and Ben thing would be dealt with. Andrew would apologize to them for how he’d handled things and would put the blame squarely on himself, so Izzi and Garrett were absolved. I’d give both Eliza and Ben a good recommendation if their new employers needed one, but I would make it clear to them that I hoped they’d learned their lesson about jumping to conclusions. As for Izzi, she’d draft her own apology for her mistake, and then the company and all parties involved would be in the clear.
I hoped this would be the last snafu I’d have to deal with regarding Izzi. It was clear from my jealousy that I was far from the best person to be involved with her. I had to keep my distance, no matter what.
8
Izzi
I felt like a fool for talking about the marketing team out of turn. I had thought I was just confiding in someone and blowing off steam and I’d completely forgotten that oh yeah, Andrew was my boss’s boss, and if he felt like that person wasn’t doing things the right way, he had every right to go in and change things as he saw fit.
While I was grateful that Andrew had such faith in my ideas, I wasn’t sure if it was an entirely good thing that he’d backed me. With Eliza and Ben gone, I was the sole person in the marketing department until we hired some new people—and Andrew had said he wanted us to look at the new hires together to pick people I could work with.
I was flattered that he was taking me so much under his wing, and that he had faith in me as the now de fact head of the department. But I had to admit this was a lot. I didn’t even have time to think about John as I got my work done for the new launch. It was all on me.
To say that I had a lot of work to do would be an understatement. I was at the office all day every day. It felt like I was living there. My best friend, Emma, had been stopping by to make sure I ate. She was a darling, and she kept telling me to go to someone for help, see if we couldn’t hire someone temporarily, but I didn’t want to hire somebody who’d do a bad job and there was no way I was going to anyone for help on this to have them see I couldn’t handle this on my own.
Besides, I had made this mess by talking about Eliza to Andrew. I had to fix this on my own.
“I think you’re too stubborn for your own good sometimes,” Emma warned me as she dropped off my lunch. “Besides, this could be a great opportunity to spend more time with John, if he can help you.”
I appreciated her encouragement of my pursuit of John but I wanted to prove to him that I was a capable, intelligent adult, not a child who still needed her hand held.
I was just wrapping up things for the day when Andrew stopped by my desk. “How’re things going?”
“Busy!” I replied, smiling. “But things are lining up well! I’m excited!”
Maybe I was putting a little more cheer into my voice than I felt given my exhaustion, but hey, I wasn’t going to let Andrew think he’d made a wrong choice. And I had to admit I was a… little suspicious that he’d taken my complaints and used them to make a company decision without talking to me or Eliza more formally about it. I hated to think such negative things about someone or be suspicious of them, but I couldn’t help it. After Eliza and Ben had decided they knew what kind of person I was without any proof to back their assumptions up, I was wary of everyone.
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, because I have new for you. I need you to attend a convention this weekend in Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles. Huh. Not too far from Seattle but still, a bit of a trek. “Why?”
“You’re the only person in marketing. Eliza was supposed to go but, well. So, you’re going instead. But don’t worry.” Andrew smiled. “You won’t have to do it all by yourself. John will be with you.”
My heart began to race. Holy shit. I was going to get to go to a convention with John? Just the two of us? I would have plenty of alone time with him and I could truly show him just how perfect I was for him—how I was the intelligent, caring, mature woman that he needed in his life.
“Does that sound good?” Andrew said. “It’s a great opportunity for you.”
“It sounds amazing, thank you!” I beamed up at him. My day had just gotten ten times better.
I worked overtime, making sure I was up to date on all the product lines, past marketing campaigns, the current trends, our competitors, everything. I had Emma grill me on it like we were back in college. I was going to blow John away with my mind as well as my body.
The night before the convention, Emma came over to help me pack. I could barely contain myself. I was so excited I wanted to scream.
“I don’t think you’re excited enough for this,” Emma said with amusement as I ran around the room trying to decide what to wear.
Emma Darling had been my best friend for years. She was six years older than I was but that had never stopped us from connecting. We’d met at college, where she’d been the same year as me, because she’d had a wait a few years instead of going to get her degree right away out of high school like most of us. She was beautiful, if you asked me—auburn hair and green eyes—and boys were forever throwing themselves at her.
Most people considered her a bit of a ditz, but I thought Emma was the kindest, friendliest person I had ever met. And frankly I valued that more than whether or not she could keep up with a discussion on trends in the economy. I had plenty of annoyingly intelligent people around me in this world. I was glad that I had one person who was kind.
“So, what’s your plan?” Emma asked as she sat on my bed and watched me run around like a chicken with my head cut off.
“Plan? Um, I don’t need a plan, I don’t think. Do I need a plan?” I held up two dresses and debated internally between them.
“What, you think you can just show up and be alone with him and that’s going to be enough?” Emma laughed good-naturedly.
I shrugged and chose the second dress, hanging the first one back up again. “I mean, yes?”
“Oh, honey.” Emma laughed again. “No, no, you’re going to have to do more than that! You said the guy hasn’t dated anyone for twelve years!”
“Yeah?”
“But you’ve shown me pictures. He’s handsome, he’s rich, women are undoubtedly throwing themselves at him. You have to do something special to stand out from the crowd. If he said no to all of them, then you want to make sure he can’t even think about saying no to you.”
“What do you suggest, then? I want to—to dazzle him with my skills, my wit, I want to show that I’m not just a pretty face!”
“And you’re not. You’re brains and beauty. But that doesn’t mean we can’t wield that beauty and remind him he’s still a man, with a man’s needs.”
She picked up one of my thongs and slingshot it at my face. I dodged, laughing. “I don’t want to seem like a crazy person either!”
“You won’t!” Emma assured me with a smile. “I think you just need to take full advantage of this situation. You can’t just count on being away from the office. Let’s pick some stuff that’ll really make him drool.”
I did have some rather racy outfits that I’d gotten for the fancier college parties, the ones where I still wanted to look sexy but also had to look classy. “Are you sure that’s a smart idea? I don’t want everyone staring at me! Just him.”
“Oh no, your fear is that you might be too sexy,” Emma laughed, teasing me. “Whatever will you do?”
I threw a pillow at her. “I don’t want people to think that I’m easy, that’s all! I want to be appropriate.”
“And you will be! These conferences aren’t just for work you know, you’ll be in Los Angeles! Everyone knows that it’s a chance to have fun. You have a luxury swimming pool, a spa on the first floor, I mean why wouldn’t you have some fun and relax a little?”
That was true, I supposed. I just didn’t want anyone else to notice me—only John. And I didn’t want him thinking that my showing off my b
ody was just for anyone who would have me. I wanted him to know that it was just for him. That it was all for him.
“What do you propose, then?” I asked.
“I propose…” Emma got up and rustled around in my dresser, then pulled out one of my bathing suits. It was a very revealing bikini, one that I had only worn once before during a spring break trip with Emma our senior year.
“You wear this! And make sure he sees you in it!” She waved the bikini suit in the air and I shrieked, diving for it and snatching it from her.
“No! Oh my God!”
“Yes!” Emma danced away from me, still waving it. “There’s no way he could resist you in this!”
“Emma!” I finally managed to get the swimsuit from her.
“At this point you’re going to go to your grave as a virgin,” Emma laughed.
“Oh, fuck you,” I said good naturedly. “I just want to get this right. I’ve been hoping for it so long, I can’t stand the idea of not having it.”
“Well, you will.” Emma took my hands and squeezed them. “You’re gorgeous and intelligent, there’s no reason he wouldn’t fall for you. You just have to be proactive, you have to make it clear. Men are stubborn creatures, they don’t always see what’s right in front of their faces. You need to show him so obviously what he’s missing that he’s got no choice but to fall in love with you!”
“All right, all right!” I put the bikini in the suitcase. “Are you happy?” I asked, but I was grinning.
“Oh, very.” Emma grinned. “But not as happy as you’re going to be once you get that sweet, sweet loving from John Goodfellow.”
“Oh my God.” I collapsed with laughter. “You are the worst!”
“I’m only saying what you’re thinking!” Emma assured me. “You’re going after your man and that’s a good thing. It’s just that, well. You told me he knew you while you were growing up. And that’s going to stick in his head a bit no matter how much you try to avoid it. So, your job now is to show him just how much of a woman you are. You can use these outfits to show him that, to knock him off his feet and make him really see how amazing you are, as an adult that he can be with.”
Emma had a point. That was what I was trying for, aiming for. But so far, I’d been doing it just with my mind and my hard work. I needed to show him with my body as well.
“I might have to abandon clothes altogether to get him to notice me,” I admitted, packing more clothes into my suitcase. “He’s been avoiding me at work constantly, I feel like I haven’t seen him except for the time where I fucked up.”
“Hey, trust me, there’s no way he can resist you after this.” Emma winks at me. “Or I’m not a darling.”
“That pun wasn’t funny the first ten times you made it.”
“It’s always funny. I’m hilarious!”
I laughed, but inside, I really did hope that Emma was right. I really hoped that I could be enough for John.
9
John
To say that the flight to L.A. was awkward was… probably an understatement. And it was all my fault.
I had chartered a jet so that we could get ourselves there without worrying about crowds, and to discuss business while we were on the flight—but that had been when the person going with me had been Eliza.
Now it was Izzi, and I had no fucking clue how to handle it. I was stuck between feeling like a wolf wanting to pounce and devour its prey, and a clumsy teenager who didn’t know how to handle his crush on the head cheerleader.
I tried avoiding her during the entire flight, but I wasn’t sure how successful I was in that. Or, well—how successful I was in hiding my avoidance from her. She was a smart woman, she obviously knew that something was up with me. But how the fuck could I explain it to her? How could I tell this bright young thing, hey I’m a horny old man lusting after you?
She’d be horrified, I was sure of it. I was her father’s best friend. There was no way that anyone in her position could look at me and see anything other than a man she viewed as a—an uncle?
And poor Izzi was so disappointed. She’d tried to sit next to me and talk about our plans for the convention, what we should do, how we should handle things, and I’d just shoved my headphones onto my ears and told her that I had work to get done. The look on her face when I’d said this—I could feel it like she’d slapped me, although of course Izzi would never be rude enough to do something like that or make me feel like she was angry with me for my behavior. She was truly a sweet-tempered person.
Fuck, I would have to find something to do with my feelings. Get fucking rid of them, somehow, so that I wouldn’t have to embarrass us both like this anymore. It was best for both of them that I keep a distance but I had to find a way to do it without hurting Izzi’s feelings too much, and I had no clue how the fuck to accomplish that.
Especially when I would be spending so much time with her this weekend. We would have to, as colleagues for the conference. I had even booked us adjoining hotel rooms so that we could easily communicate with one another and neither of us would be too inconvenienced if we stayed up late dealing with business—but now that it was Izzi instead of Eliza—fuck. Having her so fucking close was going to drive me to the point of insanity.
We took a taxi to the hotel and then booked ourselves in, which fortunately provided a distraction as we settled ourselves. I missed Angelica terribly. I’d had to be away from her before of course. I had to travel a lot to conferences like this for work, so it wasn’t like this was all new to me, but with how she’d been putting distance between us already… I didn’t know what to do with it. I just wanted her close to me again, if only I could figure out how.
As if my thoughts had summoned her, I got a text from Angelica as I was hanging my suits up in the hotel closet.
Dad can I go stay with Margo instead of Penny?
That was odd. Margo was one of Angelica’s best friends so I wasn’t surprised that Angelica wanted to spend time with her, but she’d spent plenty of weekends at Penny’s before, when I would go away, and she’d always had fun.
Why? I asked, texting her back. Is everything okay?
It’s no fun! Angelica told me. I want to stay with Margo! Penny’s boring.
I had to laugh. Of course, a pre-teen was going to find adults boring. Just stick it out. I didn’t clear it with Margo’s mother and Penny set up all this time for you.
Penny cared a lot about Angelica, I wasn’t going to rob her of their time together or impose on Margo’s poor mother who probably had no idea about her daughter’s scheming with mine. Kids made up plans and decided on things and then forgot to ask the adults who were the ones who could actually make those plans happen.
Angelica sent me a bunch of distraught emojis in response and I laughed. She would be fine, it wasn’t a big deal. Let her have her frustrations. She’d have some fun with Penny and see it wasn’t so bad, and I wanted Penny to see if she could help Angelica with anything on her mind.
There was a knock at the door that joined our two rooms and I opened it to find Izzi standing there.
Holy shit. She was wearing a stunning tailored suit that was professional but left little to the imagination when it came to her curves. The jacket of the suit had been tailored in such a way that Izzi didn’t have to wear a blouse underneath, showing off her cleavage while still covering everything appropriately.
I wanted to rip that suit off her and cover every inch of her skin with my mouth.
“Ready to go?” she asked, smiling.
The convention started this afternoon, so we really should get down there. If I could just remember where the fuck my brain was. And my tongue.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m ready.” I double-checked myself in the mirror.
“You look great,” Izzi assured me. “Very handsome and professional.”
“You look great yourself,” I told her, and then wanted to bang my head against the wall. The woman looked like she’d stepped off a runway and I was saying she ‘loo
ked great’? Jesus Christ I was a mess. “Let’s head out.”
The convention was the usual fare, but I found that it felt brand-new again with Izzi by my side. She’d never been to one of these things before and was constantly asking me questions, running around, taking everything in with a keen eye and making observations. She even scribbled down notes in a small notebook she’d brought with her. I hadn’t had such an attentive partner at a convention in years.
She really was a bit of a wunderkind. I would have to let Garrett know when we got back that he hadn’t made a mistake in letting me hire her. Despite the initial bump in the road, Izzi was going to be amazing for our company. She already was.
After the main part of the convention in the afternoon there was a formal dinner with, of course, an open bar. There was always an open bar at one of these things. You had to be careful not to drink too much, as I’d found out to my own dismay at my first convention. The splitting hangover I’d had the next day had been one for the books.
Izzi and I had only just started mingling when someone approached us. “Mr. Goodfellow?”
I turned, and Izzi took my arm instinctively. It was probably just to show that we were a united front and because she was unsure of herself, but it felt a bit like a couple thing to do. I was secretly glad of it. I’d seen plenty of the men here at the convention, and a few of the women, eyeing Izzi with open admiration and desire and I wanted it to be clear that she was off-limits. I knew that was unfair to think, since it wasn’t like I had any claim to her, but… well it was her first convention. She shouldn’t be distracted with a one-night stand anyway.
The man in front of me, addressing us, wasn’t one that I recognized. He must have been a newcomer to the industry, then. I’d been in this game long enough that I knew just about everyone.
Daddy's Best Friend (Forbidden Temptations) Page 6