"Well, I didn't expect that to happen," he smiled.
"Nor me. But I'm glad it did," she said, kissing him.
"Now I know that your silver hair is only on top."
"You are a very bad man!" she exclaimed, slapping his face playfully.
They went to bed where they enjoyed sex twice more. Then, not long before their first meeting of the day, they lay together in a spoon position and fell asleep.
Chapter nine: Coney Island
The alarm on Katherine's iPhone went off at seven. After switching it off, her first thought was whether she really had slept with her boss or whether she had just been dreaming. Turning round to see him still snoozing naked beside her provided the answer.
"Nick?" she said in half-sleep.
"Yep," he said.
"We've got a meeting in two hours."
"You might be good in bed but you are a shit PA," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
She leant across and kissed him on his forehead. "Can't be good at everything," she whispered.
After she has got out of bed and started looking on the floor round the room, Nick's sight had returned enough to see what a good body she had.
“What are you looking for?" he asked.
"Knickers."
"I think they might be in the living room and I don't think you'll need them if you are going in the shower," he said.
"I just wanted to cover up a bit as I'm not used to being totally naked in front of the boss."
"Get in the shower."
Soon, he could hear the water rushing against her. Then he turned over and wondered what the hell he had done the night before. Half an hour later, she came out of the en suite, with a white towel wrapped around her slender frame.
"Nick we made a mistake last night. We'll talk about it later, after the meeting. For now, you need to get up and get ready."
"It's Saturday, how do I need to get ready?"
"Shower, jeans, T-shirt and jacket and you'll be done," she replied.
He got out of bed and, without covering up, walked to the kitchen to fix coffee.
He had never planned to bed his PA but now he had done so he couldn't forget how good she had been. Eventually he decided to find underwear and shorts. He didn't want to her to see him looking like a teenager still in a state of arousal hours after the event.
"Coffee?"
"Please," she shouted back from the bedroom while combing her hair.
The trouble with newfangled coffee machines is they took so bloody long, he thought, before the last gasps of steam were finally emitted from the spout and two cups of wonderfully aromatic black coffee stood before him.
He couldn't be bothered trying to find sugar or whitener and was confident Katherine wouldn't worry, so he took both cups to the bedroom.
"Did I sleep with you last night?" he asked.
"I believe you did, and I intend to see my lawyer first thing on Monday to see how much I can sue you for."
"It'll be worth everything," Nick replied.
"Ha-ha, flattery will get you everywhere."
"Katherine we need to talk..."
"I said we would talk after the meeting. Now get in the shower and make yourself respectable for your staff, who I am sure, are just as pissed off as you are about giving up their Saturday morning."
The twelve staff expected to attend all turned up plus a couple more, but for once Katherine was ill-prepared and Nick didn't have a clue what they were meant to be discussing at a meeting that still managed to go on for two hours.
The two of them exchanged glances several times, sometimes awkwardly, especially when one of the IT guys was explaining his algorithmic auto-trading method that was a few months from completion.
"Sure, we'll look at it and test it, err.."
"Simon Owen, sir."
"Thanks, Simon.
"Well do we have any other business, ladies and gentlemen?"
There was a silence.
"OK, I suggest you get back to your friends and families and have a good weekend and I'll be around Monday and Tuesday if any of you want to come and see me directly with good ideas or any concerns," said Nick, closing his notebook. The staff exited, some of them referring to him as Mr Hensen and others as Nick, before there was just himself and Katherine left in the office.
"Went well?" he asked.
"Maybe not. I feel I didn't prepare enough and it was a meeting that didn't achieve much."
"Meetings never achieve much, Katherine. I've never been to a meeting yet that actually achieved anything. The trouble with meetings is that half of the people there think one thing and half think the other, and at the end of the meeting everyone agrees to disagree and nothing happens."
"Maybe," she replied. "Just my job to make sure something is achieved, however small, and I think I'm not happy with myself over this one."
She looked through the window and suggested another meeting, this time with just the two of them present. "Nick, about last night?”
"Sit down."
She sat opposite to look at him, caressing her chin to help her thinking and then she swept hair from her face.
"I suppose whoever goes first is at a disadvantage, laying their emotional cards on the table," he said.
"I don't mind going first, Nick. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed last night - and I mean really enjoyed – but..."
"I know Katherine."
"I love my job..."
"Let's not go there. I had a great time too. I never really expected that we would, err..."
"Fuck?"
"Wow, that's a word. Just physical for you, then?" he asked.
"I think so, I mean I really like you, and I have to confess that I have had sex with you before, even though you weren't there at the time," she laughed. "But emotions? I don't know. Of course I like you loads, but it's not love..."
What she just said took him by surprise, both that she had thought about him sexually before and that she was able to have sex with him without, it seemed, anything other than physical attachment.
"I have sex with Jonathan when he wants it," Katherine continued. "And it's not like I'm in love with him."
"I think the reason you and I ended up in bed is because what we are missing from our own lives. I've got Jonathan, and you have a fascination – I'm not sure that's the right word – for Alex Anderson. And don't forget I'm a bit older than you – don't want to be dumped for a younger model in a few years.
"Had we not been lonely and up for some fun – pardon the pun - we'd still be a boss and a PA with no sexual history together" she concluded.
"The trouble with history, Katherine, is that it never goes away," he replied.
"You'd want it to?"
"No, it's not what I meant. I meant there will now always be that between us and it is bound to affect us in the future, whatever happens."
"I suppose you are right," she said thoughtfully.
The two of them smiled at each other.
"We'll work through it, though," he promised.
"Let's go and have some fun. And this time we'll stay out of bed," he added, trying to ease the tension.
Katherine laughed.
"What other fun can we have?"
"You're the PA."
"Coney Island?"
"You're the best PA ever," he smiled.
In the east end of London that morning Alex had woken from her iPad-induced sleep. The last thing she remembered was listening to BBC radio about The Infidelity Agency, a booming business that specialised in finding out whether spouses were being faithful, or, rather, unfaithful.
"Bit late for me," she thought as she recalled the broadcast in her early-morning slumber.
She got up and went to the bathroom. The tiles on the floor looked grubby and there were no towels on the heated rail. Her flat needed a clean and tidy and she decided to clean both it and herself later.
Having taken a day off and spent most of it in bed, she had to check her laptop to find find out the day was Satur
day - just seven days after she'd gone to the races and first met the people from Hensen.
She got dressed and went for a run, thinking again while she jogged through the streets what had happened in just a week. She'd met Nick, lunched with Nick, got calls from his 'minder' Tavis, met a Lord and a Lady, his PA and even a drunken ex-PA.
On the way back she stopped at a small Asian-run grocers and bought groceries and a variety of cleaning products.
Then, once inside her flat, she read the paper and wondered what to do with the rest of her day beside cleaning. Reading the movie and theatre reviews, she pencilled in a trip to the Curzon in Soho to see an early-evening French film. She felt like the only single girl in the whole city and decided she'd take the chance of budging in on Kerry’s weekend with her family.
She called her. But her voice mail was on. "Hi Kels, listen, just say if you can't but I was thinking if you weren't watching telly with hubby you might sneak out for a couple of hours later to see a film with me, or should I say 'moi' as it's in French. Let me know, ma amie?"
He had never been to Coney Island but it was the sort of down-at-heel seaside place Nick liked in England. Even though the weather was warm and sunny, some of the rides were closed and those that were open had fewer customers than he would have expected. He still appreciated the history and the atmosphere of the iconic venue.
They bought hot dogs at Nathan's, wandered around the funfair and, later, walked on the beach which was more busy than the fair. Like seaside places at home, in its heyday there would have been many more. Nick had seen pictures of it from the 50's and 60's when there so many sunbathers there was hardly a speck of sand to be seen.
But Coney Island was was there to remind all its visitors how times change and how people change. This place had character and he could almost hear the screams and laughter from visitors past.
The two of them walked along the beach, then played happily running from the small waves that lapped on the shore.
"Medicine room, tonight, Katherine?" asked Nick as they laid on towels she had bought from one of the gift shops. Accentuating his tone and showing a frowned face, he wanted her to see that this was a question rather than a request.
"I think so," she said. "I've got a situation of my own to think about. And I don't know if ours is a relationship that would work in the end. Most importantly, we are not in love, the two of us were just equally lonely and wanted some fun.
"And that's what we had and it was great – in fact, it would be easier if it hadn't been."
"We're also having a good time today?" he asked.
"Fabulous," she said.
"I think Alex would be good for you too – I also don't think that she is some fraudster up to no good - and I promise I won't bear any grudges. But you fell in love with a photo, Nick - and a couple of meetings. That's not falling in love, in my opinion. So be very careful."
"I will," he said.
"For me, I just want to carry on with my job, try to sort out things with Jonathan, and, most of all to make sure that I'm a good mother to Cheng."
"Where is he now?" Nick asked.
"With my parents. I've called him half a dozen times since I've been here. Just hearing his voice wants to make me cry." But I know he is happy as anything – he loves my mum and dad.
Nick resisted the temptation both to give her a hug and suggest that she might want to stay with him for another night.
They took a cab back to Manhattan, and during the lengthy journey they sat arm in arm in the rear seats.
"I've had a great time, thanks," said Katherine.
"Me too, although we should have done the Cyclone."
"Rides like that scare the shit out of me," she replied.
"But rides last night are OK?"
"That is such a corny line," she replied, pinching his leg.
"I know, but which of them is the most scary," he said.
"Mmm, you may have a point."
Despite enjoying his time with Katharine, he had to overcome the temptation to look at his phone to see whether Alex had replied to his message.
"How many times have you stayed in my apartment here?" he asked.
"I don't know, about fifteen or twenty."
"And how many times have we slept together?" he continued.
"Once," she answered.
"So the odds of us sleeping together are about fifteen-to-twenty to one."
"No, Nick, the odds are zero because I'm in the Library tonight. And, you, my dear boss, will hopefully be on your best behaviour, for a time at least."
"But I get bored being alone."
"Me too, but I'm still staying in the Library. Just me and all those fucking books."
Chapter ten: The Scream.
On Sunday, Nick and Katherine wandered the streets of the city after they had been true to their word and spent a night of chastity in their respective accommodation.
In Ost Café on 13th Street, they drank orange juice and coffee and ate pastries as they went through details of the meetings planned for the next couple of days.
"The important meetings are on Tuesday. Jack Wyatt, eleven in the morning, and please try to be nice to him, and show some patience," Katherine read from her notebook. At two, you've got Michael Harris, he wants to talk to you about gold, and at four you're meeting Tyler Morris. Remember him? He owns a few percent percent of your company."
"He's actually a decent guy," said Nick. The previous night he'd expected a reply from his text message to Alex and he sneaked a look at his phone as she talked.
"Tomorrow, you've got a meeting over at Global Investments to discuss what we might do for each other and a staff thing early evening, you know drinks and canapés and stuff. On Wednesday there are is some minor stuff to go through that won't take long. And we need to be at the airport by four. You'll be home, hopefully, about first light on Thursday.”
"Great. Now let's go and see some art or something," he replied.
"What has got into you, Nick?" she asked.
"Just enjoying life," he said.
They walked through Tompkins Square Park and browsed the food market on its perimeter. Then they took a cab to the Museum of Modern Art, Katherine having heard they were showing Edvard Munch's The Scream.
When they reached it, she read aloud from the guide: "A haunting image of a hairless figure on a bridge under a startling yellow and orange sky, The Scream has captured the imagination since 1893.
"This pastel version, from 1895, is one of four, and the only one owned by a private collector. The painting was part of Munch's Frieze of Life series, which considered love, and death, and particularly human angst in its portrayal of human emotion."
She looked at the image. "One hundred and twenty million dollars – that's what it sold for last year."
"Stretch even you, Nick."
"I could get credit."
"Not so the poor guy Munch. He was so penniless that the debt collectors came and took away his easel.
"The sister he loved died at fifteen; he battled alcoholism and madness, but on the upside he had a string of gorgeous models that used to visit until late in his life. And not, apparently, just to model."
"Is there anything you don't know, Katherine?"
"I don't know what it means, Nick."
"The painting?"
"Yeah, I guess, and everything else, I suppose," looking at him.
She turned back to the pastel.
"It's ironic to think that without him having to endure a life of misery and madness the world wouldn't have seen The Scream.
"Maybe people are at their most creative when they are unhappy, and most troubled," she said, thinking aloud.
Edvard Munch was undoubtedly a troubled man, thought Nick as they viewed more of his paintings from the exhibition. The Weeping Nude was a painting he found compelling. He wondered why the sobbing, naked girl on the bed was so grieved. And for some reason, it reminded him of Alex. What had gone on in her past?
"Come
on, let's go back to mine or the Library and we'll watch telly or I'll whip your arse at backgammon once again," Nick said.
"It's only because you keep throwing doubles. I'm sure you are using dodgy dice."
They walked back to the apartment, collecting paninis from a deli on the way.
After looking behind her for the minder who usually followed, but who she hadn't spotted all day, Nick explained to Katherine that he'd been given the day off.
She questioned his current carefree attitude to his security. "One day we'll get your finger in the post and you will be in a cellar somewhere wishing you hadn't been so lax," she admonished him.
"And what will you do with my finger, same as the other night?" he asked.
"Nick!" she exclaimed, punching his arm hard enough to bruise.
"Ouch!" he laughed.
"You have a foul mouth and you deserved it, and if you beat me at backgammon I will punch you again." He did beat her at backgammon seven-four but she didn't carry out her threat and they sat down to read the papers.
"Bankers certainly are public enemy number one," she said, reading The Sunday Times on her iPad.
"Well, just below child molesters, yes.
"They were just gambling more than they should have been because they thought they were infallible and that we were in an era of never-ending prosperity and rising house prices and everything.
"Few saw the end of the boom, least of all the fucking politicians, who were behaving so high and mighty despite the fact that most of them had been fiddling their expenses for years.”
"Give me a hug, poor Mr unjustly-berated banker," she giggled.
Just as he was about to take her in his arms her mobile sounded.
"Oh, fuck, it's Jonathan. Might be Cheng," she said, pressing the answer button, then putting a finger to her lip to warn Nick to stay quiet.
"Everything all right?" she asked.
Nick couldn't hear Jonathan's reply but clearly all was well as he observed Katherine's reaction.
"Oh great, as long as he's good," she said.
"What time is it there?" she asked looking at her watch.
"No, I'm at Nick's at present, we've just got back from meetings and stuff.
"Stopped off for a coffee and some business things and I'm off to the hotel soon."
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