by Holly Rayner
“I have one more important question,”
“What’s that, Miss?”
“Will there be other patrons at Eleven Madison Park and Le Nozze Di Figaro tonight?”
“I believe it’s one of the most popular restaurants…and shows in the city, Miss, so I’m sure there will be.”
“You know what I mean, Jeffrey. Did he buy it out? Is he still hoping to sneak me unseen around the city?”
“No Miss, I reserved the table and bought the tickets myself.”
I smiled then, Aaron was going about it strangely…as usual, but he was trying. That was what mattered most. I know that most women would have just told him he was out of chances….but I wasn’t most women.
***
Jeffrey took me home after my shopping spree. It wasn’t actually a spree, but it did cost Aaron two months of what my rent cost me. I hadn’t meant to spend so much. I wasn’t out for revenge or anything. It wasn’t going to make a dent in his wallet either way. I got out of the bath and put on all my creams and essential oils and then I wandered into my bedroom and looked at the cornflower blue Chanel skirt and blouse lying across the bed. I reached down and ran my hand across the smooth fabric. When I’d tried it on at the store, I hadn’t wanted to take it off. It fit like a glove and even if I’d had something special made I didn’t think it could have felt any better.
I slipped on the shirt and buttoned up the white pearl buttons. When I finished that, I looked into the mirror and appreciated the way it hugged my curves on top. It was fitted at the waist, and when I slid on the matching skirt that fell loosely to the tops of my thighs and decided I’d never worn anything so flattering. My eyes looked startlingly blue against the color of it and I found my usually not-vain-at-all-self excited at the prospect of Aaron seeing me in it.
By the time my doorbell rang, I was ready to go. I grabbed my coat and my purse and pulled open the door. The look on Aaron’s face when he saw me was priceless. I’m pretty sure though that I was sending him back the same look. Tonight he wore a black suit with a red and black pinstriped tie. He looked like he’d just gotten his hair trimmed and his beautiful face was as smooth as a baby’s bottom. I had to use all of my impulse control to keep from flinging myself into his arms. He would have to do a bit more groveling before that happened.
“Wow!” he finally managed.
I smiled and said, “Thank you, you bought it so obviously you have good taste.”
He smiled back and said, “Yes I do, but I wasn’t talking about the suit…although it’s lovely as well.”
We rode to the restaurant in silver Lamborghini. I was surprised yet again at just how much money he really has when I said,
“Wow, you have three cars?” I’d seen the Camaro, and of course I’d ridden in the limousine, but this one was new to me. He smiled and said,
“More, actually. I’m kind of a car buff.”
“Really? Something else I never knew about you. How much is more?”
“I own a dozen…at last count.”
I tried not to choke, “A dozen cars? Wow! Where do you keep them all?”
“I have a house in the Hamptons that I rarely use, but the cars are stored there nicely. Jeffrey brings them up to me when I want to drive them.”
Again I said, “Wow, there is a lot I don’t know about you, isn’t there?”
He didn’t say anything until we’d driven up in front of the restaurant and he’d given his keys to the valet. Before we went inside he said, “I’d like very much to change that. I’d like for you to know who I really am.” He held up his hands at out opulent surroundings and said, “This is such a small fraction of it.”
I took his hand in mine. It was warm and strong. I squeezed it and said, “There’s nothing I’d like more.”
The restaurant was almost too stunning for me to describe. It was located in an art deco building with soaring thirty-five foot ceilings and stunning views of Madison Square Park. Aaron and I were warmly greeted and he called the hostess by her first name and introduced me…as his girlfriend. We were shown to a table near a window and we were surrounded by other guests but in an open, spacious dining room.
The bright lights of the city shown through the window as the sun began to dip down behind the thirty and forty story buildings of central Manhattan. It was a new experience for me as well. Instead of a menu, we were given four cards from which we chose our favorite flavors. Aaron told me after the server left that the food was served in courses…up to fifteen if you had the five hours that took. We didn’t if we wanted to see the show, so he ordered us the three courses and a bottle of wine. He poured us each a glass and then offered a toast,
“To forgiveness for past offenses and to new beginnings,” he said.
“Here, here!” I clinked my glass to his and he looked at me seriously and said, “It was never my intentions to hurt you. But, with that being said, I have to say that even though I didn’t intend it, I was obviously not cautious enough with your feelings to make sure that I didn’t. I’m so sorry, Robyn. I was never ashamed or embarrassed of you. You’d just be surprised at how horrendous the social skills of a business mogul really are. If you’d like to discuss business, I can go on all night. Otherwise, I’m not sure sometimes what to talk about.”
I felt warm inside. I knew that sharing what he saw as his short-comings couldn’t be easy for him. “Just talk to me about anything…about you, about work, about life. I don’t care, as long as you’re talking to me.”
“I promise I’m going to try. Occasionally, I might need a reminder. A swift kick in the pants or even a sharp pop upside the head works.”
I laughed and said, “Well, I’ll hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does…”
Our meal was spectacular and just as we were finishing dessert a very smartly dressed man in his early forties and a woman in her mid to late thirties approached the table. Aaron didn’t look pleased, but he stood up and shook the man’s hand and said hello to the woman. Again, he introduced me as his “girlfriend.”
“Robyn, this is Annette and Chase Hamilton.”
“Pleased to meet you,” I said. Aaron sat back down and the man, Chase said,
“We don’t want to interrupt your meal, I was just wondering if you mind me asking how it went with father the other night.”
Again, Aaron didn’t look pleased. “It didn’t go well, but none of us were expecting it would.”
“He’s not talking you out of it though, right?” the woman said. I don’t know what it was about both of them, but I decided in the first five minutes that I didn’t like them. That was unusual for me. I wasn’t usually one to make snap judgments about people.
“No,” Aaron said, “He didn’t talk me out of it. Now if you’ll excuse us, I promised Robyn there would be no business talk tonight.”
“Oh yes,” the man said, “Please forgive us. I’ll see you next week, Aaron.”
Aaron nodded at them and said good night. When they were gone I said, “I get the feeling those two aren’t your favorite business associates?”
“You get the feeling right,” he said. “We should be going so we don’t miss the beginning of the opera.”
After he paid, we walked outside and the Lamborghini magically appeared. He opened the door for me and I slid in. Once he was behind the wheel I said,
“I don’t often take an instant dislike to people, but something about those two bothered me. Do you mind if I ask what type of business you do with them?”
He grimaced, but he said, “Together they own controlling stock in their family business. They approached us and offered to sell.”
“And their father is not happy about that, I’m assuming.”
“I’d say so,” Aaron said, “He called me a snake.” He smiled when he said that. Something about how his face softened when he mentioned the father made me think he was fond of the old man.
“What kind of business is it?” I asked him as we drove up in front of the opera hous
e.
“What’s the sudden interest in business about?” he asked.
“It’s not sudden. I do have an MBA you know. Business interests me very much.”
“Wow, I didn’t know that. I’m even more impressed with you now than I was before,” he said with a smile. He helped me out of the car and said, “Let’s enjoy the show and talk about this later though, okay?”
“Sure.”
~
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
AARON
Robyn and I had such a nice dinner and an even better time at the opera. It finally hit me how close I’d come to letting the best thing that ever happened to me walk out of my life. I resolved that no matter what, I wasn’t going to let that happen again. As I was helping her into the car after the opera I was approached by a man I only knew as Paul. Paul was a freelance photographer who sold his pictures to various magazines like Forbes and Variety and even People. The one thing I did know about him was that he didn’t sell to the tabloids.
“Mr. Winters, could you give me a pose with your beautiful date?”
I wanted to hurry and get my beautiful date home and all to myself, but I looked at Robyn’s face and I knew this would be a big step for me in her eyes. I said,
“Beautiful date, do you object?”
She smiled and said, “Not at all.”
I helped her back out and Paul snapped three pictures of us underneath the marquee. We got on our way at last; the only other thing I wanted that evening was to be alone with my “girlfriend.”
“My apartment or yours?” I asked her.
“We’re closer to yours,” she said. If I wasn’t wrong, the smile she had on her face was telling me she wanted the same thing I did tonight…to make love and fall asleep in each other’s arms. I turned the car over to the valet at my apartment building and as we were riding up in the elevator she said,
“So, you were going to tell me more about the Hamilton’s.”
I laughed, she was too much. We stepped off the elevator and I said,
“You really want to talk about business?”
“No, not really,” she said as I unlocked the door and let her inside. “But I saw the distressed look on your face and I heard those people sounding like they were much more interested in making money than they were in how it was going to make their father feel. I wonder how going through with that deal is going to make you feel.”
“It’s a very lucrative deal,” I told her.
“I’m sure it is. You’re a very good businessman. But,” she said, turning in a circle around my apartment, “It might seem to one as un-informed as me that you don’t really need the money….”
That was true, but I was still a businessman and this deal was still good business. “I can’t let my business stagnate because it happens to be doing well already though, can I? You’re in marketing and from what Max tells me you are outstanding at what you do. So then I know you understand the importance of a fresh approach and fresh new ideas and fresh products.”
“What does the Hamilton’s business manufacture?” She understood that manufacturing businesses were the ones that I was interested in acquiring. It was what we did at Winters, Inc.