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Briana
I rarely sawEarl leave his office during the work day. If he wasn't typing away at his computer, yelling at somebody on the phone, or napping on his couch, he was usually out grabbing food or schmoozing. But neither food nor schmooze was what brought him to my tiny office on Friday afternoon, only an hour before I was due to finish for the day. I could tell it wasn't the usual because he seemed to be in an extraordinarily good mood. His dark eyes were bright and full of glee as his head popped into my doorway, and his hands were noticeably free from food of any kind.
“Briana, my favorite hostess. How are you, darling?”
I pushed back from my desk and smiled warmly. “Hey, Earl. I'm good, how are you?”
I'd seen him only an hour before when I said hello to him on my way in from escorting some guests around the hotel, but the fact that he was starting off with idle chitchat told me he was feeling particularly chipper today.
“I'm splendid, doll. You look extra yummy today. Looking to score with some of the guests?” He winked.
I rolled my eyes. He was one of those older middle-aged men who'd never really understood why this sort of teasing and crude talk could ever be taken as sexual harassment. He never truly crossed the line, and he never treated women like they were stupid. As long as he never expected me to join in, I was fine with deflection and ignoring him.
“Nope, this is just what I wanted to wear to work,” I said with a mild laugh. “What can I do for you?”
He leaned against the wall and folded his arms over his chest. “I've got to hand it to you, kid. You've done even better than I hoped.”
“Thanks.” A genuine smile crossed my lips. I had a feeling this conversation was going somewhere that would be good for me.
“After the holiday rush,” he continued, “I'd like you to start preparing to take over the VP position officially. I've told Isa, and she's told me in no uncertain terms that you were her top choice. Since the promotion isn't official yet, I can't have you start screaming it from the rafters, but that being said, you can safely start taking measurements for her office.”
My whole body felt like an electric current was running just under my skin. I'd been expecting the promotion, but actually hearing the words come from his mouth was something different entirely.
“Thank you!” While those two words seemed inadequate for what I felt, I repressed the urge to jump up from my desk. If I did, I was afraid he might try to hug me or something. That would be a surefire way to put a damper on things.
He tipped an imaginary hat to me and winked again. “I want to be clear that this was something I'd been considering even before this afternoon.”
I frowned. “What happened this afternoon?”
As far as I knew, there hadn't been anything extraordinary about the guests I'd assisted today. I'd taken a difficult call from a dissatisfied guest I'd managed to bring around with the offer of a complimentary night's stay, but that was hardly groundbreaking in terms of hostessing, much less the VP job.
He laughed one of those belly shaking laughs that had always made me think of Santa Claus. “As if you didn't know that Dorian Gianelli checked back in this afternoon.”
With that, he turned and left my office, his implication hanging in the air between us. Earl thought I'd slept with Dorian. I mean, I had slept with Dorian, but that was beside the point...
Wait – Dorian was back?
The news hit me like a fist to the chest.
Dorian was back.
My entire body flushed with anticipation, my heart skipping a beat, and I immediately snatched my phone from my purse. No texts. No missed calls.
Feeling dumb, I tossed my phone back into my purse. Of course, there were no texts or missed calls from Dorian. What was I thinking? What happened between us was business at the least, a friendly fling at the most. We’d had a nice time together, but that was that. And it didn’t matter that he was here now.
I had work to do. He probably had work to do. That was why he was here. It was enough that he'd kept his word about staying here the next time he was in the city. I just had to remind myself of that. If he was here for me, he would have already gotten in touch with me...wouldn’t he?
I put my head down and got back to work. I couldn’t spend the rest of my day waiting by the phone for Dorian Gianelli to waltz back into my life. I had far more important things to think about. Like the job I'd be moving up to soon. Being a good mother. Being a good friend.
Twenty minutes later, my phone rang. I nearly jumped out of my seat at the sound, then nearly dropped the damn thing fumbling it out of my bag. I expected that after all that fuss it would turn out to be a survey or something equally benign. But when I saw that the number on the screen was blocked, my heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be him, could it?
“Hello?” I tried to sound calm, like my heart wasn’t racing twenty million miles a minute.
“Hey,” said a smooth, male voice. Dorian’s voice. “Miss me?”
More than I care to admit, I pictured myself saying. I’ve been thinking about you almost nonstop. It’s really become quite a problem.
But what I actually said was, “Miss who?”
