But the only tip she wanted was from Travis Dunn, and she wasn’t talking about a few coins or a couple of bills.
When she arrived at the shop, she hummed to herself, another behavior far out of the ordinary for her. Shelly and the others arched their eyebrows at her when she walked into the shop that morning. She just pretended not to notice them, but when she saw her manager giving her wide eyes, she felt like she’d been a bit excessive in her preparation for a rather remote possibility.
She knew she was being silly. What were the chances that Travis Dunn would return to the shop after what happened that Monday? It wasn’t like he would have stayed awake the previous nights fantasizing about her, the way she had done about him. He was probably in someone else’s bed that night, having long forgotten her name. Ivy would never forget Travis, but Travis would easily forget her. He probably wouldn’t even remember the fight—he certainly had worse fights as a Marine.
Despite knowing all that, Ivy remained alert the whole morning. Every time the bell on top of the shop door chimed, she looked up with bright green eyes hoping that it was him. She remained polite with customers and could feel her heart thudding against her chest. At 10 a.m., her manager instructed her to take over barista duties from Shelly, and feeling dejected, Ivy walked over to the other counter.
She decided that if Travis walked in, she would do whatever it took to get to him. Damn her job, she didn’t care about something that paid less than ten bucks an hour. She cared more about getting to be near him. She had enough capital built up with her boss that she could afford to move a little bit slowly every once in a while.
As she swapped places with Shelly, her coworker leaned over and gave her some news that nearly had her quivering in excitement.
“Did you hear he was here again today,” Shelly whispered to her in a low conspiratorial tone.
“Who was here?” Ivy asked, wiping down the faucets of the coffee machine. She hoped—though didn’t necessarily expect—that Shelly was speaking about the one Travis Dunn.
“That hottie from yesterday, you know the one who nearly punched that idiot in the face,” Shelly said with a giggle.
Ivy felt her legs go jelly. She is! She really is!
And wait?!? He was here?!? And we didn’t notice?!?
“He was here? When?” she asked, stopping what she was doing to stare at Shelly.
“Earlier, at eight I think…before we got in anyway,” she said, beginning to walk away to the counter.
No, no, no, this is not happening. This. Is. Not. Happening. Ivy placed a hand on Shelly’s arm, stopping her.
“How do you know this? Are you sure?” she asked, trying to not think about how crazy she must have sounded to Shelly then.
“Yeah, apparently Martin turned him away and told him not to come back here again,” Shelly said, rolling her eyes as Ivy’s stomach sunk. “He’s such a fool!”
Shelly went on her way, leaving Ivy standing there with her throat all choked up. Her manager had turned him away at the door! The one and only Travis Dunn, the richest, most well-liked man in the city—and her manager had barred him from coming?
Why? He hadn’t done anything! Even if Ivy did not have the hots for him, it made no sense for the shop to turn away a man of his caliber.
She wanted to scream but tried to maintain her composure. He had come back! Why had he come back? Did he really enjoy their coffee so much?
Ivy tried to concentrate on the coffee orders that came pouring in, but she couldn’t. All she could think about was that Travis had returned, for some reason, and she wasn’t there to see him.
But if he had come today and gotten turned away, what about the other days?
“Shelly, question,” Ivy said when she got a chance to speak to her coworker. “That guy, you said Martin turned him away today.”
“Worst decision ever?”
“Easily, but that’s not my question. I want to know, did he come in the previous two days? When I was off?”
Shelly shook her head and shrugged.
“Never saw him, never heard anyone talking about him,” Shelly said. “Maybe he had a meeting on Monday and one today and that’s why he tried to come here.”
Ivy would never say it out loud because it sounded so ridiculous, but she had the fantasy that Travis had walked in, saw that she wasn’t there, and turned around. If that was the case, then he really had remembered her. He really had sought her out. It would also make sense about Martin, because he would not have seen him if he’d only scanned the shop from the far back, nor would he have said anything if he’d left right after.
But that was too preposterous to be true. Travis didn’t have time to stalk girls at coffee shops, even if he did have genuine feelings for Ivy. Far more likely, she thought, that it was a mere coincidence that he’d come on the days she was working and not her days off.
Still… Ivy wanted to hope. She wanted to dream. She wanted to believe.
But she couldn’t wait to do any of those things. And so, when she got a lunch break, instead of heading to the sandwich shop next door or going to her car to take a nap, she did something that she swore she would never do when she started the job. She did something that seemed preposterous and almost stalkerish. She did something that she knew sounded crazy but she would regret if she didn’t try to do it.
She went to find Travis Dunn herself.
When she got off her shift, she hurried to the closet to store her uniform. Shelly, seeing her move so quickly, looked at her askance.
“What’s got you moving so quickly, girl?” she said.
Ivy tried to ignore her, but she made the mistake of making eye contact with her coworker. She faked a smile—a skill she’d gotten better at through the months—and shrugged.
“I’ve got plans with someone for lunch.”
“Someone, huh? That’s awfully vague,” Shelly said, playfully accusing Ivy. “Who is it? The hot guy?”
Ivy froze and prayed that her reaction had not given away her plans. She could tell that Shelly was joking—she didn’t even have to think about it to do it—but damn, that had hit too close to home.
“No, it’s just my mom,” Ivy lied. “She’s in town and she wants to hang out as long as possible. So, you know, gotta move quickly.”
“Oh,” Shelly said, somewhat disappointed. “I was hoping it was the hot guy.”
“You think that would’ve happened?” Ivy said.
She’d started out saying that to deflect attention away from it. Now that she had said it, though, she was more curious about if Shelly thought it had any potential.
“I mean, he did look at you like he wanted to sleep with you.”
“Shelly!”
“What? He did!”
Ivy found that a bit preposterous, although the way he had glanced at her…
No, no, no, she thought. Travis Dunn was a gentleman. He wasn’t like the rest of the guys who catcalled her or said terribly awkward things to her. Maybe he did want to sleep with her, but only after a long period of dating and true romance. Not on the spot.
“That’s crazy,” Ivy said, even as the doubt in her mind crept up.
“I don’t think so,” Shelly said. “Anyways, if you do see him, you should try. I think he had the hots for you.”
“We’ll see,” Ivy said as she began to move away.
Shelly’s words hadn’t changed anything. If anything, it had made things feel a bit more awkward. Now Ivy began to feel a bit crazy for what she was doing. Wasn’t this the definition of being a stalker?
But on the other hand, if Travis did want Ivy… who knew? Maybe something would happen. Maybe she’d have to push back a bit, but maybe in doing so, it would lead to something.
“We’ll see.”
Finding Travis’ office building proved to be the least difficult part for Ivy. It was a massive forty-storied structure in the middle of the city, made entirely of glass. Compared to the buildings around it, it looked like a modern table set in a
n antique furniture store.
Very modern, clean and classy. Just like him, she thought. It had his company name, Dunn Inc., blazoned in big gold lettering on the side of the building and Ivy stood staring up at it for a few moments, in front of the automatic glass entrance doors.
I’m really doing this. I’m doing this for a man I met once. A man who helped me, yes, a handsome man, yes, a man who would change so much of my life, but…
Nope. Gotta do it. Gotta see what might happen. Gotta go in.
Sucking her gut in, with her hands shaking slightly as she held on to a coffee cup, she entered the building. Immediately, she felt out of place in her barista’s outfit.
The lobby was immaculately shiny, with smooth dark marble floors and people walking around in hushed whispers and dressed professionally. A woman with a tight bun behind her head was sitting at the reception desk and Ivy walked towards her, aware of the sound her kitten heels made on the marble floor. She felt embarrassed, but if she’d come this far, Ivy knew she wasn’t about to stop here. Maybe she’d get laughed out, but at least she would have tried.
And who knew? Maybe word would spread to the higher levels of the office. Maybe Travis, upon hearing the tale of the crazed barista who came to visit, would make an appearance back at her shop.
“Hi,” Ivy said and the receptionist looked up at her with the most delightfully pleasant smile on her face.
Ivy made a mental note to practice that smile on her own customers. There was no way this receptionist truly felt happy to see her, but that’s why Ivy supposed she was at her desk making far more money at a far nicer place than she was at her coffee shop.
“How can I help you, madam?” the woman asked. She looked down at Ivy’s casual attire, but didn’t present a judgmental expression.
Ivy grew even more self-conscious of what she was wearing but tried to hide it with her best smile. She had a feeling her smile did not match the receptionist’s.
“I was wondering if Mr. Dunn was around,” she said, trying to sound casual and relaxed.
The woman’s neatly shaped eyebrows arched up and her smile widened. She looked on the verge of laughing. Ivy tried to maintain her expression, but she began to feel her face go hot.
“Mr. Travis Dunn? You’re wondering if he’s around?” she asked, with a tone of disbelief entering her voice.
How stupid could I be? How badly could I have phrased that question?
“Yeah, it’s no biggie if he’s not. I just had something to give him,” Ivy said as she tucked in a few strands of stray hair behind her ears.
She had already realized that this was a bad decision. The woman was now literally laughing at her. Surely, within moments, everyone else in the lobby would turn and laugh at the coffee girl who wanted to know if Travis Dunn “was around.”
“Well, he owns this building and works here, so he’s usually around,” the receptionist said and adjusted her expression now so that Ivy could see that the woman was clearly judging her. Nor could Ivy blame her. Well, she said so, so might as well continue on.
“Okay, great, do you think I could—”
“Ivy Zimmerman.”
Travis’ unmistakable, masculine voice cut through the din of the lobby and their conversation and twirled Ivy around. He had said her name like it was the most natural thing for him to say.
She whipped around, spilling some of the hot coffee from the cup on the polished marble floor. Travis looked down at the spillage and then back at her without any concern on his face. He had that same grin on his face and a hand tucked into the pocket of his blue pinstripe suit. It was sharply tailored to mold to his muscular athletic frame. His tie was a cherry red today and Ivy couldn’t drag her gaze away from how polished he looked.
But more than that, she couldn’t believe that a man who knew as many people and had as many duties as Travis Dunn had not only remembered her, he’d remembered her full name even though she’d only said it in the most hasty of fashions.
“Sir, I wasn’t sure where to send her,” the receptionist’s voice erupted from behind her, but neither of them acknowledged her presence. Ivy had Travis, and Travis had his focus—neither of them needed anything else.
“Hi…I…,” Ivy began. She cleared her throat. Speak clearly and slowly. Better too slow than stumbling over your words. “I thought I’d bring by your coffee. I wasn’t in the past couple of days so I wanted to make sure you got it, since you helped me and all.”
Travis’ sparkling blue eyes fell on the coffee in her hand and then he gazed at her body, just the way he had done the previous day. Ivy had no idea why he had that effect on her where he could get away with it, but she wasn’t one to ponder such a question with him physically in front of her.
“That is very kind of you,” he said and reached for the cup, taking it without question.
When he did that, it reminded her of what Shelly had said—how their manager had made the dumbest decision of his life.
“I’m sorry that my manager sent you away,” Ivy said, her heart pounding so fast she felt sure she could hear it. “I felt bad that you were denied your daily dose because of standing up to a bully on Monday. That was dumb of him. You shouldn’t have been punished like that for being a hero.’
Travis took a sip of his coffee and then smacked his lips as though he was very pleased. It bordered on smug, but for now, Ivy found it rather confident.
“I went elsewhere for my coffee,” he said and suddenly Ivy felt very foolish. “But I was just going out to grab myself another one, so you’re just on time. I suppose you could say that you were rather helpful here and I thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome,” Ivy said.
She couldn’t think of anything else to say, any other excuse to keep standing there and staring at him. She thought of all of the workplace duties Travis had to fulfill, all the meetings he had to make, all of the places he had to go. And she had the audacity to stand there and take up his time?
No, she had to go. Plus, her lunch break would end sooner rather than later. She couldn’t miss that.
“I guess I should leave now,” she said, and then she forgot her rule for speaking slowly. “I, uh, you have a nice day.”
She avoided his gaze and brushed past him, breathing in the whiff of expensive cologne he was wearing. She could feel the receptionist’s eyes boring down on her. At least she had given Travis and his company some nice office gossip. She could easily imagine the gossip now, the mean nicknames they would give her for her move.
Then she heard words that stopped her in her tracks, words so unreal that they made her forget she had to go back to the coffee shop.
“I’d like to show you my office,” he said. “Come with me.”
When Ivy turned, she saw him already departing for the elevators. Turning on her heels, with her skin tingling with excitement, Ivy followed him towards the glass capsule elevator that was waiting for him at the end of the lobby. It seemed to be for his private use only since other people seemed to pass it by. In fact, a lone security guard stood outside the elevator, making it even more plausible this was a private elevator.
The guard pinged the door open and Travis stretched his arm out, indicating for her to step in before him. She gulped, having never had luxury even approaching this level of quality. What had she done to deserve this? Don’t blow it. Don’t complain. Just go with it. See what happens.
She did as he commanded and then he entered, filling the small space with the intoxicating, heady scent of his cologne. He had to say nothing, and the guard pressed the button for the fortieth floor and the elevator zoomed up smoothly.
Ivy tried to hold herself together, not look at him as often as she wanted to, but she could sense that he was looking at her. And she had her suspicions that he was undressing her much as he had with previous gazes.
“Are you on a break at the moment?” he asked, cutting through the silence.
She was forced to look up at him now, and she had to clea
r her throat before she spoke. His eyes had a fierceness to them that sent a shiver down her spine. It was like that of a lion seeing prey. It aroused her.
“Yes, I am,” she said.
“So we won’t have much time together then,” he said as the elevator came to a sudden halt.
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that but decided that he was just being polite. Perhaps he said it as a mental note to himself to show her his office quickly and get her on her way. That made the most sense.
It was amazing enough that he even remembered her name—her full name. He didn’t have to. There was a strong chance that Travis would never have seen her again, and even if he had, he had no reason to remember it.
But then again, Travis Dunn was notorious in the press and in the city for his shrewd business acumen and impeccable people skills. Remembering people’s names was part of what made him this successful, she figured. It diminished the special feelings she had, but not so much as to eliminate them.
Travis led the way into his penthouse-styled office, at least three times the size of her entire apartment. Made entirely of glass and decorated to the most sophisticated minimal standards, the room welcomed Ivy as she walked in behind him, afraid of making any swift movements that might break something expensive. She had a feeling that any single piece of furniture might cost more than her annual salary.
A solid piece of oak made up his enormous desk, which he was now walking towards. She paused at the entrance of the office, unsure of what to do. Frankly, she felt so out of place that she wouldn’t do anything until commanded to.
“This is beautiful. I can’t imagine working in a place like this,” Ivy managed to say.
Travis turned to face her again, leaning against his desk and with his arms folded over his chest. He looked like such a quintessential executive and founder in that moment that Ivy figured he was posing for a secret cameraman for a magazine coffee.
“The work you do isn’t affected by how expensive your table lamp is,” he said in a deep wise voice and their gazes locked again. “This is just a nice side effect of the work I’ve done so far in my life.”
His Royal Majesty : A Royal Wedding Romance Page 31