by Alexa Davis
I changed out of my in-flight uniform and into one of the thick terrycloth robes that was neatly folded on the bathroom counter. The penthouse was bigger than my house with several bedrooms, each decorated in a soothing color and with its own private bathroom. There was a full dining room and behind it a fully stocked kitchen where I quickly made myself a snack of cheese, prosciutto, and what smelled like fresh baked bread. I carried my plate and a Foster's into the living room to enjoy the spectacular view of Sydney Harbor while I ate.
I couldn't help but think about how this view would be improved by Austin's presence – how I wanted to curl up on the couch wrapped in his arms, feeling his hands roaming my body as we slowly explored each other. I blushed as I thought about wanting to pull off his shirt and run my fingers across his broad chest as I kissed him. I knew I wanted so much more than that, but it was all I would allow myself to imagine for now.
I finished my late night snack and drank the last of my beer before I dug my phone out of my purse and went into the bedroom sunk down on the luxurious king-sized four-poster with a breathtaking view of the harbor. For a moment, I thought about what it would be like to have Tommy here with me and I realized that I missed him. I missed the familiarity of his voice and the way he smiled at me when he was happy about something I'd done for him. I missed the way he'd wrap his arms around my waist as I washed the dinner dishes while waiting for his turn to dry them. I missed his sweetness and his gentle spirit, but mostly I missed the way we knew each other like the back of our own hands. I smiled as I thought about how he would be just as amazed by all of this opulent wealth and how we'd laugh about feeling like we'd won the lottery.
Smiling, I picked up my phone and tapped the screen until his contact information appeared. The picture of him was one I'd taken on our honeymoon. We hadn't had much money or time off work, so we'd decided to go camping for the weekend in the Grand Canyon. The trip had been a disaster marked by wind and rain, and we'd spent most of the weekend in our tent playing cards. On the second day, the sun broke through the clouds for a short while and Tommy climbed out of the tent and danced in the light calling to me to come join him. I eyed the sky skeptically, but finally climbed out of the tent and joined him, but not before I snapped a shot of him with his arms wide open smiling up at the sun. It was one of those moments of pure joy when everything was possible and our future was still ahead of us.
My finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds before I tapped it and heard the phone ringing on the other end. I heard him pick up, but the line was silent for a few seconds before he spoke.
"Yo, 'sup, babe?" a voice slurred on the other end.
"Tommy?" I said hesitating a little wondering if I'd dialed the wrong number.
"Tha's my name, don't wear it out, babe," came the drunken response. "Who's this?"
"Tommy, it's Emily," I said. "Your wife, remember me?"
"Huh, wife?" he replied in a confused tone. "Whose wife?"
"Yours!" I yelled into the speaker. "What is going on over there?"
"Hey, hey, hey, chill out, babe," he muttered. "I gotcha, it's all good."
"Tommy, what is going on?" I demanded. "Why are you drunk? It's four in the morning over there!"
"Yeah, well, see me and the crew went out for dinner after work," he began.
"You guys get done at two in the afternoon!" I yelled. "Tommy! What is going on?"
"Look, babe, you're gone. I'm batching it with the boys, it's no big thing," he tried to soothe me, but the fact that he was completely wasted simply turned my irritation to anger.
"It is a big thing," I said in a chilly tone. "It's a very big thing. You promised that you were going to be responsible while I was gone and get things done around the house. Obviously, you aren't doing that."
"Good lord, woman!" he exploded. "Why do you always have to nag, nag, nag! It's like you want to make me drink!"
"Oh no," I replied. "I don't make you do anything; you've chosen this idiocy all by yourself."
"Look, I'm a grown man and I am allowed to make my own decisions," he said, only partly stumbling over the words. "I'm alone while you're out globetrotting with the rich and famous, so I'm allowed to do what I want when I want."
"No, Tommy, you have a wife and a family that you are responsible for," I said calmly. "You're not a bachelor and you're not supposed to be drinking like a fish on a night when you should be taking care of business at our home. I'm tired of this."
"What are you getting so upset about?" he yelled. "Jesus, I've had a few drinks with the guys and it's late, but I know my own limits and I know what I can and cannot handle when I have to work in the morning. You've become a really negative person since you took this promotion, you know?"
"Me? I've become a negative person?" I cried incredulously. "I've been trying to put a happy face on this disaster of a marriage for months! You are such an idiot! I'm sick of this! I'm sick of you! I'm sick of being married to you!"
I didn't wait to hear his response. I pulled the phone away from my ear and hit the disconnect button ending the call. Then, I flipped the switch and turned off the sound so that I wouldn't have to listen to him blow up my phone for the next several hours. I grabbed one of the many plump pillows that were artfully arranged on the bed, wrapped my arms around it, and sobbed.
#
I lay on the couch crying until I was exhausted, and when I finally felt like I couldn't cry anymore, I picked up my phone and texted Trish.
Em_Flies: 911
RedBird: What's wrong?
Em_Flies: Talked to Tommy. He's drunk.
RedBird: Uh oh. U OK?
Em_Flies: Idk.
RedBird: Want me to come up?
Em_Flies: Please?
RedBird: What room?
Em_Flies: Penthouse suite.
RedBird: Holy crap! Be up in a minute.
A few minutes later the elevator buzzed and I pressed the button that allowed it to ascend to the middle of the suite's living room. Trish stepped out and gave a long low wolf whistle. She was wearing steel blue leggings topped with a matching hoodie that set off her blue eyes and red hair. Trish was the only woman I knew who could make sweats look as glamorous and sexy as an evening gown.
"Hey, Princess, nice digs!" She smiled as she enveloped me in a hug that caused the tears to well up again. I set my head on her shoulder as she patted my head and whispered, "It's all going to be okay. You know that, right?"
I nodded, then pulled back and walked across the room to the kitchen calling, "Wine or beer? Name your poison!"
"Give me a glass of the good red stuff," she said as she walked to the windows and looked out at the harbor. "My God, how did you end up with this palace?"
"My room had been given away and they were about to book me into another hotel when Prince Charming rode in on his white horse and saved the day," I said as cheerfully as I could. "Lucky me."
"Wait, Marks got you this room?" she yelled. "No fooling?"
"Nope, dead serious," I said as walked over and handed her a glass of wine. "He even brought me up here and showed me around."
"Uh oh," Trish said as she sipped. "What happened?"
"He...um..." I stammered as I the red rose in my cheeks.
"Oh, Princess, what happened?" she repeated as she snuggled into one end of the couch and looked at me expectantly. "Spill it!"
"He kissed me. I told him I couldn't and he left," I said as I set my drink on the side table and settled into the other end of the couch. "That's it."
"Oh no, that's not it at all," she scolded. "I know better than that!"
"Trish, I don't know what to do!" I whispered as I twisted my hands in my lap. "Everything is a mess."
"Oh c'mon, it can't be that bad," she soothed. "I mean, seriously, what's the problem? A rich guy makes a pass at you and you turn him down. It's happened to the best of us."
"Trish, I wanted to go further," I said as I looked up at her with pained eyes. "But I didn't, and I didn't tell him why,
so he thinks that I just shot him down. He left here sulking, and then I called Tommy, and now everything is a mess!"
"Hold on, hold on," she said holding up a hand to stop the rapid flow of frantic words tumbling out of my lips. "Slow down and tell me what happened with Tommy."
I recounted the whole phone conversation with him and told her about the ultimatum I'd issued, and by the time I was done, I was crying again. Trish looked at me from across the couch before she set her wine glass down and moved over so that she could enfold me in her arms and rest her chin on my head as I sobbed into her shoulder.
"My life is mess!" I cried.
"Oh Princess, far from it," she said as she patted my back and rocked me like my mother used to do when I was little. "Everyone has these moments where they are caught between a rock and a hard place, your moment just came really early in your life, and it's okay. You'll get through this."
"How do you know?" I said as I looked around for a tissue. Trish pulled away, got up and walked to the bathroom where she found a box of tissues, and returned to the couch.
"I know because this is what they call life, Princess." She smiled as she pulled tissue after tissue from the pop up box and handed them to me so I could wipe my eyes and blow my nose. "Look, you've got a tough choice to make right now, there's no denying that, but you're going to have to dig deep and decide what you really want right now and what you want for the future."
"How am I going to make that kind of decision?" I asked as I sniffled. Trish pulled another tissue out of the box and handed it to me with a smile.
"You're going to have to go with your heart," she said as she patted my shoulder.
"What does that even mean?" I asked as I looked up at her helplessly. "Go with your heart? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life."
"No, it's the thing that most of us have the hardest time doing," she said as she dropped the box of tissues next to me and moved back to the other end of the couch and her wine. "We tell ourselves to follow our heart or go with our intuition, but really, all we're saying is do what feels right, not what we're conditioned to do or told we should do."
"But if everyone did that, we'd have..." I trailed off.
"Yeah, we'd have a society of people who were making decisions that actually made them happy instead of trying to live up to everyone else's standards and ideals," she said as she sipped her wine with a smile. "Why do you think I do what I do?"
"Because you're smart and sexy," I said.
"Well thanks, Princess!" she laughed. "No, I do what I do because it makes me happy. I don't like being tied down or made to answer to anyone but myself. So, I follow the wind where it blows me, and I enjoy myself to the fullest. I don't regret anything or feel guilty about enjoying my life."
"That sounds like the perfect life," I said. "Like you have it all figured out."
"Oh, it's not without a price," she laughed. "That's what you need to understand, Princess, nothing in life is free. The life I choose to live means that there are those who are disappointed in me and it also means that I have traded certain things for other things, but, in the end, I'm okay with that."
"Who could possibly be disappointed in you?" I asked, bewildered. Trish was happy and had the world at her fingertips, how could this possibly cause a problem?
"Ask my mother about how she feels about my choices," she said as she rolled her eyes dramatically. "She's so upset that I haven't settled down and given her a pack of grandchildren. And she feels like my gallivanting, as she calls it, is an insult to her choices. Like I'm flaunting my freedom when she's tied to a house and a husband, both of which she is tired of."
"How could she feel that way about you?" I wondered.
"Look, Princess, other people are going to judge you and your choices based on how they feel about their own lives," she said as she leaned forward. "You have to push past that and figure out what it is you want for you. Once you do, you'll start to make good choices that make you happy, rather than trying to appease everyone else "
"But I married Tommy. I agreed to love and honor him until death do us part," I said. "If I back out on that, what does it say about my word?"
"I get it," she said nodding thoughtfully. "But you were how old when you married him?"
"Nineteen," I said.
"A baby," she sighed, shaking her head. "Nineteen-year-olds should not be allowed to get married, but that's beside the point. The point is, did you envision the life you're living now when you married him?"
"No, but..."
"No, but nothing," she said fiercely. "I'm not saying you bail on people just because things get hard, but get real, Emily. Tommy has a serious drinking problem that is just getting worse, and he won't even acknowledge that he has a problem."
I nodded as I sipped my wine in silence. She was right, but I wasn't sure that leaving Tommy was the answer.
"But if I leave him, I leave my house and everything," I whispered. "I'll have to move in with my mother and start over."
"There are worse things that could happen," she said with a dark look on her face.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing, I'm just saying, it could be worse," she replied waving me off. I knew there was something she wasn't telling me, but I didn't get the feeling she wanted me to ask, so I let it go.
"Trish, I don't know what I'm going to do," I said quietly.
"I know," she replied. After a few seconds, she looked up at me with a big grin and said, "But whatever you decide, at least you know there's a drop dead gorgeous billionaire out there who is lusting after you!"
We both dissolved into giggles.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Austin
I spent a good part of the night tossing and turning, thinking about why Emily had rejected me and feeling foolish for not seeing the signs before she'd said no. Making it even more frustrating was the fact that the analysis was interrupted by the replaying of our kiss and my memories of what it felt like to hold her body in my hands.
The natural progression of these images steered my imagination down the path that led to me running my hands over Emily's naked body and hearing her moan as I teased her nipples with my tongue and let my hands roam lower. I closed my eyes and let myself sink into the image of what I imagined she would look like writhing beneath me as I drove her to the edge of desire. In my imagination, she was soft and beautiful as she looked up into my eyes and I imagined myself poised above her ready to-
A knock on the door pulled me out of my fantasy. Completely irritated, I got up out of bed, walked to the door and yanked it open.
"What do you want?"
"I've got your breakfast, sir," said the nervous room server from behind a cart loaded with covered dishes.
"Oh, well, come in then," I muttered as I stepped back and let him enter.
"Would you like me to set the table, sir?" he asked, nervously looking around the room.
"No, just take it over to the couch and set it up," I replied, waving my hand in the direction of the couch. He wheeled the cart over and set everything up before moving back toward the door.
"Is there anything else, sir?" he asked.
"No, that's good. Thank you," I said, then looked over and added, "Sorry about before."
"No worries, sir, it's early and I've dealt with much worse." He smiled then bowed and exited the room.
I dug into my breakfast as I skimmed the morning news for information about the pending strike. It seemed that the crew was angry about the rumor that Marks Enterprises might be importing workers from the United States in order to circumvent the 2009 Fair Work Act and lower the cost of labor on the project. We had no intention of doing this, and I wasn't sure where the workers had gotten their information from, but I was going to do my best to allay fears and stop the rumors. I knew that if I didn't, it would be disastrous for the new hotel and casino and even worse for the company. My phone rang just as I was about to hop in the shower.
"Morning, boss," said B
ax. "Or should I say g'day mate?"
"Oh God, not you, too," I groaned. "Spare me the fake Aussie crap and get to the point. I've got to be out the door in thirty minutes."
"Very well, I've tried to track down the origin of the rumors and have had zero luck," he began. "I'll keep working on it."
"Good. What about Daniel and his henchmen?" I asked as I poured another cup of coffee and carried it into the bathroom.
"That's getting interesting," he said. "There is something going on in Berlin, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I sent a couple of our guys to poke around and see if they could dig up any dirt."
"I hope you didn't send members of the young executive club to do that," I said. "Daniel would smell them a mile away and pull up shop."
"How dumb do you think I am?" Bax asked. "Wait, don't answer that."
"Bax, my friend, I have never once in the entire time I've known you thought you were dumb," I laughed. "A total jackass, maybe, but never dumb."
He laughed loudly on the other end before saying, "Well, thank you, I think. What time do you meet with the labor reps?"
"An hour from now," I replied as I looked at my watch lying on the bathroom counter. "I need to get moving."
"Austin, don't get dressed up to meet with them," Bax warned. "It won't win you any favor."
"There you go acting like a jackass again," I chided him. "Seriously, Bax, we grew up with guys like these, I know what I need to do to talk with them."
"My bad," he replied. "I just don't want to take any chances, you know? We can't lose this company to Daniel, Austin."
"I know, I know," I muttered. "Nothing like adding a little pressure is there, Bax?"
"Fine, I'm just reminding you what we have at stake here," he said.
"Thanks, I've got it under control," I replied.
"Good luck, man," he said before disconnecting.
I knew Bax was right, but I didn't need him reminding me of how much we had riding on this one meeting and how much we stood to lose if I couldn't get the laborers to see that we weren't out to screw them over.