Room Service
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Room Service
Olivia Dawson is in a personal and creative rut when her interior design team nets a contract that could change everything. Olivia grabs the chance to reignite her passion, to step outside her comfort zone, and to achieve national exposure if she delivers everything the client expects.
Savannah Quinn fled a broken heart and started fresh in a new city, at a new job, without any of her past in the rearview. Her new position as corporate liaison to Olivia and her team is exactly the distraction she’s looking for. She doesn’t have to settle into her empty apartment if she’s never there, right? And she can’t be betrayed if she never asks for forever.
Long days in strange cities bring Olivia and Savannah closer, but keeping their growing attraction separate from their professional relationship feels impossible. When Savannah has to choose between Olivia and her career, she makes a choice that could change both their lives.
Praise for Fiona Riley
Miss Match
“In this sweet, sensual debut, Riley brings together likable characters, setting them against a colorful supporting cast and exploring their relationship through charming interactions and red-hot erotic scenes…Rich in characterization and emotional appeal, this one is sure to please.”—Publishers Weekly
“Miss Match by Fiona Riley is an adorable romance with a lot of amazing chemistry, steamy sex scenes, and fun dialogue. I can’t believe it’s the author’s first book, even though she assured me on Twitter that it is.”—The Lesbian Review
“This was a beautiful love story, chock full of love and emotion, and I felt I had a big grin on my face the whole time I was reading it. I adored both main characters as they were strong, independent women with good hearts and were just waiting for the right person to come along and make them whole. I felt I smiled for days after reading this wonderful book.”—Inked Rainbow Reads
Unlikely Match
“Unlikely Match is super easy to read with its great pacing, character work, and dialogue that’s fun and engaging…Whether you’ve read Miss Match or not, Unlikely Match is worth picking up. It was the perfect romance to balance out a tough week at work and I’m looking forward to seeing what Fiona Riley has in store for us next.”—The Lesbian Review
Strike a Match
“Riley balances romance, wit, and story complexity in this contemporary charmer…Readers of all stripes will enjoy this lyrically phrased, deftly plotted work about opposites attracting.”—Publishers Weekly
“Everything about the writing worked for me. The book is just as smart, funny, and sexy as its two leads. The plotting works well, the pacing is perfect, the conflict believable, and the resolution even better. It also has an epilogue that’s entirely satisfying and left me with the happiest of sighs…Strike a Match is Fiona Riley’s best book yet. Whether you’re a fan of the other books in the series or you’ve never read anything by her before, I recommend checking this one out. It’s the perfect remedy to a bad day and a great way to relax on a weekend!”—The Lesbian Review
Room Service
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Room Service
© 2018 By Fiona Riley. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13:978-1-63555-121-1
This Electronic Book is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, NY 12185
First Edition: June 2018
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editor: Ruth Sternglantz
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design by Melody Pond
By the Author
Miss Match
Unlikely Match
Strike a Match
Room Service
Acknowledgments
The idea for this book came to me while I was staying at a hotel during an impromptu winter getaway. What originated as a quick escape from life’s responsibilities turned into a really fun snowed-in weekend where I met all sorts of interesting people who inspired some very interesting characters. When a blizzard strands lovey-dovey couples and single, jaded business people at a hotel during the weekend of Valentine’s Day, the hotel bar is the best place to get a front row seat for Extreme People Watching. Truly. Throw in a couple blood orange martinis and half-priced Valentine’s Day themed appetizers and you’re sure to have a good time. Or at least hear a few good stories. Luckily, I found both to be true.
I wrote this book shortly after my first novel, Miss Match, but shelved it for a few years as life got in the way. But the essence of this story has stayed with me the whole time: This book is about letting go of the past and embracing the scariness of the future. This book was my future; it had to be. I needed it to be. And through great fortune, here it is.
I want to thank Kathy Creedon for coming up with the title. You’re a genius. I think you’re pretty awesome in general, but you’re totally a title genius. Totally. The genius-est. And big thanks to ’Nathan Burgoine for supporting this idea while splashing around in the pool with me. You are such a positive force in all that you do, and I am grateful to have you in my life.
To my editor, Ruth Sternglantz, thank you for helping me find the right way to tell this story. I started it long before I met you, but the final product is a perfect mix of you and me and my inability to write grammatically correct sentences. I should be disciplined, stern-ly. See what I did there? Xo.
Team BSB: Thank you for fostering such a supportive and loving writer/editor/reader community. It’s nice to know that I can shoot off a text at just about any time of day or night and reach some amazing human that I’ve met through my time with Bold Strokes Books.
And to my wife: Thank you for encouraging me to leave work behind and escape every once in a while. There is no one I’d rather escape with than you. Thanks for all of your support.
For Jenn.
You are the funniest person I know. And the sweetest. And most caring. And also the most passionate. You are so many things to me and there are not enough words to tell you just how much you mean to me. Ever. But I’ll keep trying, because you deserve someone that will fight for you and love you as much as you love me. I am so grateful for you. Thank you for being you.
Chapter One
New York City
Tuesday was usually Olivia Dawson’s favorite day of the week, but not today. No, today was clearly an evil Tuesday masquerading as a regular Tuesday. Everything was going wrong today. Like, if she didn’t have bad luck, she’d have no luck at all. This was not the start her usual, friendlier Tuesday greeted her with. This Tuesday hated her. And she hated it right back.
At some point during the night, her apartment must have lost power because her bedside clock was blinking 3:04 a.m. and not doing its job: waking her up at the predetermined time. Thankfully, her sister Christine had texted her a million times and jarred her out of her slumber. Not that it had helped much—she was still late. But today was not a day she could be late. She had a meeting with her boss, Corrine Baylor, followed by a videoconference with the new corporate bigwig who was going to introduce an upcoming project to the team. This was the biggest opportunity of her career, on the
most important day to make a good first impression, and she was late.
As she frantically attempted to get ready, she managed to trip over her sneakers and broke her favorite high heel. Her lucky Jimmy Choos. The ones she couldn’t afford in grad school but had forgone anything that wasn’t a noodle dish just so she could buy them for graduation. The same lucky heels that she wore on her first day at Greater Image Design Inc. eight years ago and the ones she wore on the day she was promoted to chief designer and team leader when her mentor Albie retired. These shoes made her feel confident and smart and successful. How could she possibly get through today without her lucky shoes?
She was still mourning the loss of her favorite footwear and sulking as she ate the abandoned, overripe banana in the company’s kitchenette area when her teammate, Farrah Sanders, walked in.
“Good morning, Olivia. You look—” If the expression on Farrah’s face was any indication, Olivia knew what was coming next.
“Like a hot mess. I know.” She sighed and stirred the lukewarm, slightly burnt coffee she found at the bottom of the coffeepot.
“I was going to say that you look nice.” Farrah was being polite, and she appreciated that.
“I doubt that but thank you.”
Farrah pointed to the banana as Olivia tried to swallow the bite in her mouth. “You hate bananas, Liv.”
“This is the kind of day I’m having, Farrah. Drinking sad, stale coffee probably leftover from the cleaning crew at night and suffering through a banana so I don’t faint in our meeting. Just leave me here to die.”
“It’s not even ten yet, Liv. How could your day possibly be that bad?”
Olivia’s shoulders drooped as she recounted the morning’s events. “I overslept. I couldn’t find my keys because they were playing hide-and-seek in the couch cushions. By the time I finally got to my car, I was greeted with a flat tire, and only once I nearly lost an arm trying to get through the closing doors of the bus did I realize my wallet was in my gym bag from last night. All I had in my purse was some loose change and an unused tampon and a business card from that cute girl at the mall kiosk that sells the face cream—”
“I love that stand.” Farrah nodded, her expression sympathetic.
“Right? They have the best stuff.” Olivia sighed. “And to top it all off, I broke my favorite shoes.”
Farrah’s mouth fell open and her eyes dropped to Olivia’s feet. “Not the shiny, candy-apple red ones. Say it ain’t so.”
“It’s the end of an era.” Even as she said the words, she wasn’t ready to accept it. She’d been mulling over repair options when Farrah walked in.
“Jeez. I think you need this more than me.” Farrah opened the fridge and tossed a yogurt to her. She extended her hand and motioned toward the offending fruit. “Give me that, you look pathetic.”
Olivia handed over the remainder of the banana and accepted the spoon Farrah offered her in return. Farrah’s well-practiced, motherly expression gave her momentary calm.
“Maybe this isn’t the best time to tell you, but uh, Hannah already called the office looking for you.” Farrah looked pained. “Twice.”
And there went the calm. Olivia cringed at the name. “Really?” She shot a hopeful glance at Farrah, who only frowned more deeply and nodded. “Crap.” Suddenly she was feeling worse, no longer hungry and especially not inclined to return to her desk.
“I told her you were in a meeting and would call her back, but, she sounded, um…”
“Pissed?” Olivia supplied knowingly.
“Yeah.” Farrah patted her on the shoulder and shrugged.
“Okay. It’s fine. I can handle this.” Olivia finished her yogurt and gave herself a lame pep talk before excusing herself to her desk. She had a few minutes to spare before her meeting with her boss and she had to pull herself together. Fast.
Any confidence she’d mustered during the short jaunt from the lunchroom vanished when she saw the behemoth New Horizons Industry binder on her desk. When she’d first started out at Greater Image Design so many years ago, the company had specialized in redesigning small spaces, like sprucing up outdated home offices or breathing new life into community reading areas. The projects were fun, but relatively small in scale, which was perfect for Olivia when she was learning the ropes of the business. Gradually, as the needs of the community and their clients changed with advancements in technology, the business projects and artistic opportunities flourished, and Olivia flourished right along with them. Long gone were the humdrum basement home office redesign days of the past. The future had brought sexy tech startups with young entrepreneurs at the helm that wanted to bring nature into the creative spaces they hoped would foster the development of the next great app or bioengineered cure-all. Everything was fast-paced and streamlined now. People wanted to feel like they could work and be in nature at the same time. Olivia’s special brand of green space themed design was what had catapulted Greater Image Design into the stratosphere. It’s also what helped them snag the New Horizons gig that was looming in that binder.
Olivia loved the challenge of redesigning an existing space. She loved the complexity of making something new from something old and outdated. Design was in her blood. And constantly on her mind. She had a tendency to be a little manic that way, her mind racing and seeing things from a different perspective than most others. That untethered creativity had served her well in this business, and by associating with the fast-growing New Horizons brand, she was sure to reach new professional heights. The deep pockets New Horizons offered with their far-reaching connections was a dream come true for Olivia. Or a nightmare. That depended on how you looked at it.
These last few weeks had been exhausting. Olivia and her team had been so slammed with work lately that she’d been counting on having the morning to review the background. So much for the best laid plans. She flipped open the cover and nearly knocked over her now ice-cold coffee. Try as she might, she couldn’t shake the feeling that a dark cloud was settling over her shoulders.
“Olivia? Are you ready?” The singsongy voice of her boss sounded from over her shoulder. Corrine was her usual chipper self today. Joy.
“Yup.” That was all she could muster. It would have to do.
She grabbed her drafting binder and followed Corrine to her office. It was a short walk through the design center, on the south side of the building. Olivia envied the bright corner office with the nice view of the park below. Her own desk was in an open floor plan space with drafting tables and design scraps. It was a great environment to foster creativity, as her team was spaced out evenly around her, but she still loved the quiet of Corrine’s office. She could use its solitude when she had a hard deadline and Randal wouldn’t stop humming nervously at the drafting table next to her. She knew if she asked, Corrine would be more than happy to lend it to her from time to time. Corrine was like that. She’d come to them a few years ago and oversaw Olivia’s transition into Albie’s position as chief designer. She’d been both a good boss and a great ally throughout the whole process. So as much as her zest for life sometimes drove Olivia a little crazy, she really did appreciate her. Truly.
“So, as you know, this conference call is super important. We are virtually meeting the corporate liaison of New Horizons Industry and she will be our direct contact for this project, effective immediately. I think it goes without saying that it’s important we make a good first impression.” She nodded to herself as she spoke, her short blond hair bobbing with her head movements. “I feel good about today. It’s going to be a great meeting.”
Olivia gave her a small smile and tried to absorb all the good vibes Corrine was throwing at her. But she was failing miserably. “Sure, you got it, Corrine, I’m on it.”
Corrine beamed and bounced on her heels as she scooped up the files from her desk, ending their meeting and heading toward the conference room. That was shorter than expected, and Olivia was grateful.
She paused in the now quiet office and let her e
yes trail over the neat, picture filled desk of her colleague. Corrine and her husband had been married for about ten years with two perfect cherub children and a golden retriever named Biscuit. They looked like such a happy, loving family. Olivia let her mind wander as she looked at a collage one of the kids had made and wondered if she’d ever have something like that one day: a wife, 2.3 kids, and a dog. But not a purebred, no, it would have to be a rescue. Something with baggage. Something like her. She sighed.
* * *
Chicago
Savannah Quinn leaned back in her chair and stretched her neck and shoulders. She had gotten up earlier than usual today to squeeze in a spin class before her conference call and she still felt a little tight. She wanted to make sure she was alert and ready for this morning. She figured there was no better way to do that than sweat it out with the cute spin teacher who always winked at her.
She shifted in her chair and looked over the open file for the hundredth time. This partnership with Greater Image Design was a big deal for her. In her new role as district head of sales and the appointed corporate liaison, the Greater Image team was now her primary focus and her success was directly correlated with theirs. She’d been doing quite a bit of research on their employees to prepare for today. She pulled up their individual and team project portfolios and reviewed their productivity via evaluations from management and peers. This wasn’t protocol for her parent company, New Horizons Industry. It was something she had insisted on doing. She didn’t get to where she was today by following the protocol of those around her. She’d always been a groundbreaker. She was bold and fierce. That’s the only way she’d survived her mess of a childhood and the relationship waste that littered her past. This was a fresh start for her. Savannah believed that hard work started with her and trickled out to those around her. She was always up to something, by nature; multitasking was like breathing for her. But that dedication to work had led to other things falling by the wayside. Just as well, Savannah thought. She’d let herself lose focus in the past. Never again.