2 Busy 4 Love

by Lucy Hepburn

  “Well, it seems that tonight is the night for business, as well as for love, gentlemen! Carl, shall we go and seek out the requisite associates?”

  “No time like the present,” Carl smiled and, with a wink to his son and a peck on Christy’s cheek, allowed himself to be waltzed off across the dance floor toward Nina and Antonio, who were still wrapped around one another, paying no attention whatsoever to the hot salsa rhythm.

  Alone with Will, Christy could feel her skin prickling all over. It was a delicious sensation; she’d never experienced anything like it before.

  “Hello, you.”

  “Hello.”

  They looked into each other’s eyes and smiled. Instantly Christy felt herself relax. There was nothing to be afraid of.

  “Will, I…well…thank you.”

  He tried to wave her thanks away, but she reached out and touched him on the arm.

  “No, really, Will, I’m so grateful to you for helping me out. I couldn’t have gotten through the day without you.”

  “Yes, you could have.”

  “No, I couldn’t.”

  “Yes, you could. Shall we have a huge right?”

  Christy giggled. “I don’t know, shall we?”

  “Nah. Let’s not.”

  “Okay.”

  It was impossible to think that this was the same man who, only this morning, had been sitting opposite her on that packed train. Sure, she’d noticed him on the train—no woman could fail to, but still, here he was, at her sister’s engagement party, talking to her, after the most momentous day of her entire life.

  “You got your phone back, then?”

  Christy nodded and felt a little more color surge into her face. “I did. Thank you. I had no idea how much I relied on it. I think I was addicted or something.”

  She reached into her purse and took out the phone. Then, in one swift movement, she switched it off and put it away. “Okay, I am officially off duty now.”

  “But what if a client calls?” Will was mocking her.

  “They’ll leave a message.” She waved the idea away like it was nothing, even though she couldn’t help her instinctive reaction—a moment of panic about being unavailable to those who needed her.

  A high-pitched squeal from the other side of the room made them both look up. Nina, Antonio, Laura, and Carl were standing in a tight huddle, and Nina was jumping up and down, clapping her hands in glee.

  “Whoa, what’s got her so happy?” Christy asked.

  “Search me,” Will replied, though there was something in his tone that made Christy look up at him.

  “You know, don’t you?” she demanded.

  He shrugged. “Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies about Dad possibly sorting out Nina’s accommodation issues.” He tapped the side of his nose in a gesture that Christy found disturbingly sexy.

  “Spoilsport.”

  “Hey, gorgeous!”

  A pretty waitress with endless legs suddenly appeared at Will’s shoulder. She carried a tray of drinks with a kind of effortless arrogance, suggesting that she was only passing the time working here, that really, her life held far greater mysteries elsewhere. She moved in on Will like a missile homing in on its target, standing squarely within his personal space, and when she looked up at him, their noses practically touched.

  “So, you bored yet?” she purred.

  Will gave her a slow, unreadable look before helping himself to two glasses from her tray. Christy, meanwhile, prickled with embarrassment.

  “Thank you, Rhonda,” he said, taking a discreet step backward and handing one of the glasses to Christy.

  What was that all about? Having spent the day with Toni, Christy thought she’d seen it all when it came to pushy girls trying to muscle in on her good-looking companion, but this girl took the prize, no question.

  “Friend of yours?” she couldn’t resist saying once the waitress had reluctantly moved on.

  Will choked a little on his drink. “What do you think?”

  They stood in silence for a few minutes. Then Christy took a deep breath.

  “Will, I said some pretty mean things to you earlier.”

  “You did? Oh yes, so you did.”

  There was a note of amusement in his voice, which emboldened Christy to keep talking.

  “I hardly know you, and you’ve been so kind to me today. I had no right to make judgements about you or your life.”

  “Forget it.”

  “I don’t want to forget it!”

  “Okay! Don’t, then!” He chuckled.

  “I’m serious, Will. You have every right to run your life however you want, and for what it’s worth, you seem to do a pretty good job. I apologize.”

  “Thank you, Christy.”

  “I…just needed to say it.” Embarrassed, she took a large gulp of wine.

  “We all make judgements about people, Christy. We’re humans.”

  “Yes, but…”

  He looked into her eyes. “Look at it this way. How do you think I’d feel if you’d spent the day not wondering about me at all? Hmm?”

  “True…” Christy said doubtfully, “but I should have only thought…”

  “What?”

  “Nice things.”

  “Nice things?”

  She nodded firmly. “Yes. Nice things. You helped me, therefore you are nice. I should have thought only nice things of you.”

  “And that’s it?”

  His voice was teasing. Once again, she couldn’t look at him. Was he flirting? She had no idea. Best play it cool.

  “Of course.”

  He raked his hand through his hair and exhaled loudly. “Well, I’m certainly glad we’ve cleared that up.”

  “Good then.”

  Christy’s brain was a jumble of emotions. Part of her wanted to reach up and put her arms around his neck, just to see what he felt like, to see if his body felt the way she’d imagined it would…and then again, every self-defense mechanism available to her was screaming No! No!

  She saw the effect he had on that waitress—maybe he was just a charismatic guy? With a good heart? And a great body? And a look that traveled right through her.

  “I need to thank you, too, Christy.”

  “Me?” she spluttered, jolted back to reality. “Why on earth? For taking up a whole day out of your life?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Well, yes, thank you for that. But seriously, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this afternoon.”

  “Where did you find the time?” she giggled. “I’ve had you on your toes all day.”

  “Not all the time,” he corrected her. “Well, okay, nearly all the time. But, Christy, today has given me a moment of clarity regarding my own work.”

  “It has?”

  He nodded. “You know how I deal in corporate Human Resources? Well, I’ve done pretty well at it over the last couple of years.”

  “Must be all the courses,” she teased. ”I’m kidding, Will. It’s easy to tell you’re good at what you do.”

  “Well, thanks. But I’ve been handling progressively bigger and bigger clients, with bigger and bigger problems.”

  “You’ve made it, in other words. Isn’t that what’s meant to happen?”

  “Probably. Only something got lost along the way, and today’s helped me put my finger on what that was.”

  “Tell me,” she urged.

  “The human aspect of Human Resources. You know, Christy, most of the stuff I do these days is elevated way beyond the individual. I don’t even know the names of most of the guys involved in my recruitment strategies anymore. There are other people who handle that side of things. I deal in logistics, time frames, structures, feasibilities, and profiling, without actually shaking the hands of the people on the workplace floor anymore. That’s what I’ve been missing.”

  Christy nodded. “I can understand that,” she said softly.

  “So I’m goin
g to do a little corporate restructuring of my own,” he smiled. “Starting Monday.”

  “That’s great! Well,” Christy raised her glass, “let’s drink to that. To you, Will Thompson, man of the people.”

  He gave her a cheeky look. “Man of the person, if you don’t mind, ma’am. From now on, I’m going to be dealing with individuals, just like I have done today, with you. And that’s what I want to thank you for, Christy.”

  Christy took another sip of wine, pondering. Was that what had happened today? He’d dealt with her? Maybe that’s what today had meant to him, a well-executed assignment, objectives achieved.

  “You’re welcome,” she whispered, gazing out across the dance floor.

  A lull had descended, the floor cleared, and with it, Christy’s head. Okay, so that’s what she’d been today, a sounding board for Will and his business insecurities. Well…great. Just, great.

  She gave a little laugh, shaking her head.

  “What?” Will asked, leaning closer.

  “Nothing,” she replied, realizing that trying to tell him that the only successful aspects of her life these days were her business ones would sound petty.

  Pushed on by the realization about the part she had played in Will’s day, she turned to him with a megawatt smile, determined to be the charming sister-of-the-bride. “So, Will, tell me the grand plan. Start at the beginning. How are you going to implement this brave new strategy?”

  “Okay,” Will scratched his head. “Well, the grand plan is to get back to basics, I guess. Make some inroads into smaller companies, the ones that have a real people ethos and who want to develop the full potential of each and every employee, a kind of holistic approach to employment. Does that sound hippy?”

  “Yup, it certainly does,” Christy replied, “Go for it.” Now she understood where he was coming from.

  “I’m going to invest my own resources into people development, get involved from the bottom up, and not leave until both the individual and the company are fully integrated.”

  “Sounds great!” Christy offered her glass, and Will clinked his own against it. “Sounds expensive, too. Who’s going to afford that sort of red-carpet treatment?”

  “That’s what you give, right?” Will countered.

  “True,” Christy admitted, “but as far as I’m aware, there aren’t any other cut-rate versions of Doorman dot com kicking around Manhattan; it’s an all-or-nothing kind of service. I don’t have competition from the big guys. You’ll have competition from everyone, won’t you?”

  “Yes, but you made it work, Christy. I can do that, too.”

  A thought had occurred to Christy, and she wasn’t sure whether to say it or not.

  “Christy?” he pressed, leaning in a little. “Whatever it is, come on, out with it!”

  She looked up at him. “All this small-scale stuff sounds great, the way you tell it, but, well, if you look at it differently, isn’t it a backward step for you?” She hoped she hadn’t gone too far. But they were being open with each other, honest, and realistic.

  He took the question on the chin, thinking it over, before nodding slowly. “Not many people are brave enough to contradict me regarding what I do. Thank you, Christy. You could be right, of course, but the way I see it is, yes, I’m stepping backward for a while, but only as stage one of a new type of strategy—a new old type of personal service, if you like. My methods may take longer, but I’m pretty sure that in the long term, the time investment will pay dividends. And I’ll be doing it my way.”

  Christy nodded. “Well, I’m happy for you. Good luck, Will Thompson. Here’s to…”

  “Human beings?” Will offered.

  “Human beings!” Christy agreed. “Whoever and wherever they may be.”

  They smiled at one another before turning to watch the dancing. A tight rumba rhythm had struck up, and it was foxing just about everyone who attempted to move to it.

  Christy was bitterly disappointed, crushed that the only connection she’d made with Will had been a business one. Sure, she was trying to be happy for him about his new outlook and ambitious restructuring plans, but she’d allowed herself to hope for…what? More? A relationship?

  But hadn’t she already convinced herself that relationships weren’t practical right now?

  “Will?”

  He was still standing close by her side. She could feel the heat of his body, and it disturbed her.

  “Yes, Christy?”

  “I wanted…”

  “What?”

  “Oh, never mind.”

  “Come on!”

  She shook her head. “I was just going to say how weird it is that such a crazy, screwed-up day should end up being so…successful for us. You’ve got a new outlook, and I’ve got a new client…” the sentence died, somehow, as she spoke it. It wasn’t what she’d wanted to say at all. Instead she looked up at him and asked, “What more could you want?”

  She saw his lips part. He had an intense look as he gazed into her eyes. But before she could work out his reaction, let alone hear his reply, her attention was drawn to the doorway, where a light commotion indicated the arrival of a tall figure—a familiar, loose-limbed walk, a beautiful, smiling face…

  “Oh. My. Goodness!” She recognized him and couldn’t help squealing with joy.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  WILL

  10:30 p.m.

  Will suspected he knew the answer, but even so, he walked over to Laura Davies and whispered in her ear. “Who’s that guy?”

  The hot-looking dude was standing in the doorway like he owned the joint. Tall, dark-haired, and managing to make jeans and a shirt look effortlessly good, he had to be Italian. Spanish, maybe, but probably Italian. He had an aura about him, a kind of easy confidence in his movements, though his face, smiling and eager, lacked any trace of arrogance.

  Laura, like all of the other women in the room, was mesmerized.

  “That’s Christy’s Toni!” she cried. “Isn’t he a doll?”

  “Toni!” Christy had called out his name and then they were rushing toward one another. They met in the middle of the room, Toni lifting Christy up and twirling her around. They seemed lost in each other, thrilled to be reunited.

  Will was transfixed. It was all impossible to compute. He felt like all of the life had been sucked out of the room. All around, people were watching Christy and this Toni person, smiling indulgently, as though what was happening was not some kind of disaster

  A breathy, sinuous figure had appeared by his side.

  “Okay, so, you bored now?”

  Rhonda the waitress was looking at him, eyebrows raised. She’d divested herself of her tray of drinks and stood with her arms folded, hip kicked out, drumming her manicured fingers against her upper arm. Waiting. “Shall we go now, yeah? You and me?”

  Will looked at her uncomprehendingly for a moment before realizing what she meant.

  “No, thanks,” he replied, turning away.

  Christy’s smile was even bigger than before, and she was turning it on Toni. They seemed to be half talking and half miming; it was obvious Toni spoke little English. It all made sense. So this was the guy who’d been at her side all day. Somehow his mind’s eye had formulated an image of a huge, square-jawed, gruff foreigner with stubble and a conceited, vacant look…instead this man’s open face was alive with life and warmth and obvious affection for Christy. Affection that was clearly reciprocated.

  “You sure? I don’t think you’re sure.” Will felt the waitress’s hand on his shoulder, could feel her breath on his neck.

  Exasperated, he reached up and pulled her hand away. “Look, maybe you’re not very good at reading signals, but I’m afraid I’m not interested, okay? Now, please, leave me alone. Thank you.”

  “Whatever, fella!” The waitress eyed him with a new, vicious look, then jerked her head in Christy’s direction. “That girl’s playing with you, and you can’t see it
,” she hissed, before pivoting around and stalking off.

  Will was only dimly aware of her dramatic departure. He couldn’t take his eyes off Christy, so animated and lit up with happiness at being reunited with the Italian supermodel. Her mother had joined them, and they were talking and sharing a hug, as though Laura Davies was giving Toni her seal of approval.

  He’d badly misjudged this one. Just when he’d thought he and Christy had shared a real connection. Their conversation, where he’d been telling her about how she’d saved him, how his entire outlook was different now, and it was all thanks to her. And just as it seemed she was really involved, suddenly she’d held back, grown cooler—what was that all about? He’d thought about asking her to dinner, getting to know her face to face, but the supermodel’s arrival had put paid to that. It didn’t look much like she’d have accepted, anyway.

  After all, he reminded himself, she could have come to the airport in person, couldn’t she? But she didn’t. She’d sent her mother. Now here he was, following her all the way to the party like some lapdog, and he was only getting the outcome he deserved. She just wasn’t interested. He’d read her wrong. It was a lesson he was going to have to learn from. Somehow.

  “I’m heading off now, son.” Carl Thompson had appeared at his side. He was shrugging himself into a large woollen overcoat, fishing around in his pockets for his car keys. “I’ve done everything I came for tonight.”

  Will turned to his father and smiled. “You did a really great thing here, Dad.”

  “Oh, it was just a poem…” then he tailed off and looked up at his son. “You meant the house, didn’t you?”

  Will smiled, embarrassed. “The poem was wonderful, too.”

  “Ah, you businesspeople! You’re just saying that. But I am really glad about the house as well. Thank you, son.”

  “I take it Nina and Antonio have accepted?”

  His father nodded. “They want to move in right away. Luckily I was able to clear it with our realtor at the same time.”

  They looked across at Laura Davies, who was leaning against an elderly relative, dabbing happy tears from the corners of her eyes.