by Locklyn Marx
He shook his head. “You don’t know anything about me,” he said.
“You’re right,” she said simply. “And you don’t know anything about me.”
He took in a deep breath, and she could see the hurt and anger on his face. “I’m going to go.”
He stood up, but didn’t move toward the door.
Alexis sensed that if she told him to stay, he would. He’d get back in bed with her, and she could tell him everything. And then what? Maybe he’d help her, maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would think she was a pathetic loser, or maybe he’d feel sorry for her. Maybe he’d even keep her around for a few months. But then what?
Reid was wrong when he said she didn’t know anything about him. She knew exactly what kind of guy he was. He was the kind of guy who didn’t do the girlfriend thing, the kind of guy who brought home a different woman every night, the kind of guy who was too good-looking for his own good, the kind of guy who was used to having things work out the way he wanted them to.
So Alexis turned away.
“Yes,” she said softly, “I think you better go.”
A second later, she heard the door shut behind him.
Chapter Six
When Reid met up with Richard Mueller in the lobby of the hotel so that they could ride over to The Vista Collection offices together, his mind was on anything but work. All he could think about was Alexis.
“Did you get the email I sent you this morning?” Richard asked. “It was the new list of ideas I came up with after you left the other day for your ‘personal problem’.” He made air quotes with his fingers and then chuckled loudly, like he was making some kind of joke and not just being a complete douche bag.
“No,” Reid lied. He’d gotten the email almost as soon as it landed in his inbox, but he hadn’t bothered to read it. What was the point? Reid and Alexis had come up with a completely new campaign, one he was sure was going to knock the socks off the executives at Vista Collection. Who cared about Richard’s half-baked ideas?
“Well, when did you plan on reading it?” Richard asked. “There’s only an hour until the meeting. That’s cutting it close, even for you.” He did another big hearty laugh, like he couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard anything even remotely as funny as his own stupid joke.
Reid resisted the urge to reach over and punch him in the face. He was still reeling after what had happened with Alexis a few hours ago, and he had no problem taking his frustration and anger out on Richard.
“I’m not reading the email,” Reid said. They’d been walking while they talked, and now both men were standing on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, waiting for the car that they’d called to drive them to Vista Collection.
After he’d doubled checked everything, Reid had the materials for the pitch messengered over to the client’s offices first thing this morning. Nothing screamed unprofessional more than showing up carrying a bunch of poster board, no matter how expensive that poster board had been.
“What do you mean you’re not reading it?” Richard asked.
“Just what I said.” The car pulled up in front of them, and Reid didn’t wait for the driver. He opened the door himself and climbed into the backseat.
“Why aren’t you going to read it?” Richard asked. “Unless you want me to take over the meeting, which I’ll be happy to do.” He puffed up his chest.
“No, I don’t want you to take over the meeting,” Reid said. “We have a new idea that we’re going to present. Didn’t you get my email?” There was no email, of course.
“No.” Richard frowned.
“Oh,” Reid said innocently. “It must not have gone through. Let me forward it to you.” He pulled his Blackberry out and found the email he and Alexis had come up with late last night. He tapped in Richard’s email address and hit send.
“I think I should call Mark and make sure he knows about this,” Richard said, as if the thought of their boss being called was going to scare Reid.
“Don’t bother,” Reid said. “I already told him.”
He reached into his briefcase and pulled out his iPod and stuck the ear buds in his ears. He liked to listen to music before pitches. It helped him to drown out the world and get into a zone of concentration. Of course, this time the music did double duty, making sure that Reid didn’t have to talk to Richard.
The car slid through the streets of Tampa, and Reid tried to get into a zone and concentrate on his presentation. But he couldn’t.
All he could think about was Alexis. He couldn’t believe a girl he’d just met a few days ago was having this kind of impact on him. She was mysterious and secretive, and he was intrigued by her, that was true. But there was something else, some kind of connection between them that had knocked him for a loop.
It was insane. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Her smile. The way her body felt against his. The way her skin felt under his fingers. The hurt in her eyes when he’d left her room this morning.
He couldn’t figure her out. One minute, she was practically begging him to have sex with her, the next minute, she was kicking him out. Was it possible that she was just playing with him? That his karma had finally come back to haunt him, and now he was going to be the one who got used for sex?
He shook his head. Focus, he told himself. He couldn’t afford to mess this meeting up, especially not because of some woman he hardly knew. Alexis was trouble.
And once they got back to New York, he was going to tell her she needed to move out.
Immediately.
***
Alexis hadn’t been able to sleep. Once Reid left, she just lie there, tossing and turning in her bed. Finally, at around eleven, she gave up. Being in the room was making her claustrophobic, and so she decided to head down to the lobby. She thought about going to lie out by the pool, but she knew that would do nothing to help quiet her mind. She needed more of a distraction.
So instead, she walked outside. The Florida air was warm and the morning sun was bright. The palm trees lining the street waved and danced in the breeze. She bought herself a cup of coffee and a muffin from the same café she’d eaten at yesterday, and sat and watched the people walking by while she ate.
She couldn’t get Reid out of her mind. Stop thinking about him, she told herself.
He was just a guy she’d met a few days ago. So then why was he having this effect on her? Yes, she’d slept with him, but so what? Lots of women slept with men they barely knew and then moved on like nothing had happened. Look at the girls on all those reality shows. They were constantly having sex with men they just met.
It didn’t have to mean anything. Whatever emotions she was having about Reid obviously had something to do with her lack of sleep, mixed with the uncertainty and fear she’d been feeling ever since she left Philadelphia.
And hadn’t she read somewhere that women became very attached to their sexual partners, whether they wanted to or not? There was some kind of hormone that surged through your body when you had sex with a man, and it made you think you wanted to be with him, when really, it was just your body playing a trick on you.
She finished her muffin and then walked slowly back to the hotel, the sun warming her skin. She would go back to New York, she decided, and then she would figure out what to do.
She would start over. How hard could it be? She’d find a new job and maybe go back to school. She’d talk to a lawyer. She’d make some friends. She’d find a therapist and start the process of healing.
There would be hard times, yes, but she’d get through it. People had been through much worse.
Of course, she’d still have to fly back to the city with Reid, she thought as she walked into the hotel lobby. She didn’t have any money for a plane ticket. But once she was back in New York, she’d get a new bank account and start forging her own life. It was time to stop being afraid.
“Excuse me?” the woman working the front desk called as Alexis walked by.
“Aren’t you staying
in room 306?”
“Yes,” Alexis said, hoping she wasn’t going to be asked to pay for anything.
“I have a message for you,” the clerk said pleasantly, handing Alexis a slip of paper. “You activated the privacy feature on your phone, so we take the messages here at the desk.” Right. Reid had turned the privacy on in both of their rooms so that they could work last night without any interruptions.
Last night. God, it seemed like forever ago.
“Thank you,” Alexis said, taking the paper from the woman and heading for the elevators.
It was probably a message from Reid. Maybe he was calling to apologize, maybe he would want to talk when he got back from his meeting, maybe he –
Alexis froze.
The message wasn’t from Reid.
It was from Leo.
Sorry I missed you. ~L
Her palms started to sweat and her heartbeat accelerated. Her mouth went dry and the walls of the elevator felt like they were pushing in on her. She was somehow able to get to her room before the panic attack completely overtook her.
She sat down on the bed and tried to take deep breaths, but it didn’t help. The room was spinning, and she was afraid she was going to pass out. She didn’t know how, but Leo had found her. He would always find her, no matter how far away she managed to get.
He’d find her and he’d pull her back in, he’d make her stay with him no matter what. That’s how it had always been, and that’s how it would always be. Her skin felt itchy and hot, like she was breaking out in hives.
The room tilted.
Oh, God, she thought, please, not again. She lied down on the bed until finally, her breathing began to slow.
Leo had found her. And now that he had, he wouldn’t stop until he had her.
***
The meeting at Vista Collection had gone better than Reid could have hoped. The executives were thrilled with the idea Alexis had come up with, and the best part was that Richard Mueller couldn’t even try to take credit for it -- he hadn’t known anything about it until right before they got into the pitch room.
Reid had been the one to present, had been the one to answer questions, had been the one to meet with the head of marketing once the initial team had given their thumbs-up.
It was crazy, because the meeting was supposed to have been an extended briefing. Reid had taken a chance on bringing in something to pitch. If he’d been ridiculously off base, he’d run the risk of alienating the client. But instead, he’d nailed it.
They scheduled a lunch meeting for the next day to discuss The Lawson Agency becoming Vista Collection’s agency of record. Becoming a company’s agency of record was a big deal – it meant that the client had agreed to work exclusively with you, not only on this campaign, but on others as well. Advertising agencies made most of their money by becoming agencies of record.
The car ride back to the hotel was silent, with Richard silently fuming next to him. Reid didn’t know what the hell his problem was. Even though Reid was the one who had come up with the campaign, Richard was still, unfortunately, part of the project.
He’d probably even get a bonus.
When the car pulled up in front of the hotel, Reid decided he was going to celebrate with a nice dinner. He’d had steak last night, but maybe tonight he’d go all out
– surf and turf, caviar, and the best bottle of wine he could find.
The only thing that was keeping him from being completely happy was Alexis.
Landing Vista Collection had been her victory, too. She was the one who’d come up with the campaign in the first place. And now he couldn’t even share it with her. Forget her, he told himself as he got out of the car and walked into the hotel lobby.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He’d call his parents, he decided, and tell them the good news. His father would be thrilled.
His mom answered after three rings. “Hello?” Her voice had an echo-y quality to it, probably because she had him on speakerphone. Reid’s mother loved speakerphone.
“Hey, Mom,” he said.
“Reid!” She always sounded happy to hear from him. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” he said. “Actually, I’m really good. I have some great news.”
“David!” she called to his father. “David, it’s Reid. He said he has great news.”
The click of someone picking up the other line came through the phone. Reid’s parents, for all their money, were the kind of people who still had a corded phone in each room. “Why would I use my cell phone in the house?” his dad was always saying.
“Those things give you brain cancer.” Plus his mother liked the decorative touch a good old-fashioned phone gave to a room.
“Reid, Dad’s on the line,” his mother announced, as if his father wasn’t capable of doing it himself.
“Hi, Dad,” Reid said dutifully.
“Hello.”
“Where are you?” his mother asked. “It sounds very loud over there.”
“The streets of New York are always loud, Diana,” his father said, like New York was the ghetto.
“I’m at a hotel,” Reid said. “In Florida.”
“A vacation?” his father asked incredulously. His father had never taken a vacation in his life. At sixty-five, he showed no signs of wanting to retire, and in fact spent most of his time traveling between the five different offices The Lawson Agency had sent up – Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Boston, and San Francisco.
“No, Dad, not a vacation,” Reid said. “I came down here to land a big client.
Vista Collection, remember? In fact, I think we’re going to be their agency of record.”
How could his father not know that? He was supposed to be plugged in to everything that went on at The Lawson Agency.
“That’s wonderful!” his mother said. “Isn’t that wonderful, David?”
“Who’s the client?” his father asked, even though Reid had just answered that question.
“It’s a new women’s clothing company. Vista Collection.” Reid was moving through the lobby now, heading toward the elevators. He dodged women in bathing suits and short little summer dresses, taking a moment to stop and enjoy the view.
He couldn’t believe he’d ever gotten so worked up over Alexis. Who cared about Alexis? He was young, he was good-looking, he was about to land the biggest account of his life, and he was in Tampa. He should be out on the beach, out at the club, out having a good time. He’d have a nice dinner tonight and get some sleep. But tomorrow, once the whole deal was done, he was going out to celebrate. Big time.
“Never heard of them,” his father said. “Have you ever heard of them, Cheryl?”
“It’s a new company, Dad,” Reid told him. “They’re just about to launch.
Remember the brief I sent you?”
“I get so many briefs,” his father said, dismissing the idea that he’d actually read any of them, even though Reid knew for a fact that he did. It was a power play. His father was trying to pretend that anything Reid did was below his radar.
Reid rolled his eyes, and tried not to let his father get to him. It had always been this way. David Lawson was always pushing his oldest son harder and harder. Reid had been expected to make perfect grades growing up, to get into a good school, to work hard at everything he did. And yet nothing was ever really good enough, no matter how much he accomplished.
“Well, I think it sounds wonderful, honey,” his mother said. Unlike Reid’s father, she didn’t know just how significant landing this client was. But she was a peacekeeper, and she tried to be supportive. She probably would have said the same thing if Reid had announced he was a drug dealer and told them about a big score.
Just then Reid looked across the lobby and caught sight of Alexis. She was sitting on one of the white leather couches, her hands folded in her lap. She stared down at the floor, and her long blonde hair fell over her face. Reid’s heart clenched. He’d just told himself to forget her, that s
he meant nothing to him, but now his first instinct was to rush over, gather her in his arms, and carry her up to his room.
“I have to go,” he said to his parents. “I have another call.” He clicked off before they could say goodbye.
When he got to her, she was still staring down at the floor. He sat down. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
There was a silence. “You okay?” he tried.
“How did the meeting go?”
“Forget the meeting,” he said, startled to realize that he meant it. He didn’t care about the stupid meeting. All he cared about was Alexis. “What are you doing down here?”
She turned to him, and he could see that she’d been crying. She took a deep breath in. This is it, he thought. She’s going to tell me what’s going on. He braced himself. But all she said was, “Can I borrow some money?”
“What?” Reid looked at her, confused. “For what?”
“I need to get out of here.”
“You need to get out of here?” He felt like an idiot, repeating what she just said.
But he didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.
“Yes.” She pulled at her hair nervously. “I need to leave Miami.”
“It’ll probably be a couple of days before we’re done,” he said. “I have another meeting tomorrow. But maybe the next morning, if there’s an early flight.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I need to go now.”
“You need to go back to New York?”
“Yes. I mean, I can’t...” Her eyes filled with tears, and then the tears spilled down her cheeks. Reid’s stomach turned. He couldn’t bear to see her upset. Immediately, he reached out and pulled her toward him. “It’s okay,” he said, rubbing her shoulders. In that moment, he would have done anything to make her feel better. “Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay.”
She sat back and wiped her eyes. “So then I can borrow some money?”
He took a deep breath and paused for a moment. He needed to choose his words carefully, otherwise he risked upsetting her even more. “Alexis,” he said finally. “I don’t understand.”
