I briefly considered. Would it be a bad call to decline lunch from the boss’ son? To shut the door on dining with a Larchwood in a company where people were fighting tooth and nail to advance? But I felt a hundred eyes on me from all over the lobby and took a deliberate step back.
It might be a bad call, yes, but it would be an even worse call to go with him. One that, if I wasn’t careful, I would read about on Page Six.
“That’s a very kind offer,” I said as I continued to back toward the glass doors, “but I already promised a friend I’d meet her. But thank you, Mr. Larchwood. Really.”
I was still stammering my excuses and thank-yous when I turned around and literally ran into a man who was coming inside. Five years of tennis lessons paid off, and in a brilliant display of reflexes, I caught his coffee before it could spill a single drop on his expensive suit.
“I’m so sorry—wasn’t looking where I was going,” I murmured, handing it back to him.
He blinked at me in surprise, his eyes flickering back to where a rejected looking Michael was watching, before returning to me.
“It’s no trouble,” he said softly, taking it from my hands.
At this point, I was in such a hurry to get out the door that I simply nodded and pushed past him—eager to leave the troublesome tower behind me. I hopped in the first cab I saw and flew down the street to my favorite sushi bar. Although it had certainly come in handy as an excuse, I hadn’t lied to Michael—I actually did have plans to meet my best friend/roommate here for lunch. I spotted her long, dark hair the moment I stepped inside and hurried to join her, throwing off my coat and collapsing into the booth across from her with a defeated sigh.
Her tinkling laugh chimed across the table, and I opened my eyes to see her staring at me over a hot cup of sake. “I’m taking it you didn’t get the job?”
I brushed my bangs out of my face and straightened my blouse for the millionth time that day. Looking at someone like Rosalie always made me do that, no matter how long we’d been friends. Something about her effortless beauty seemed to bring out an ironically concerted effort from everyone around her.
“Oh, I got the job alright. You won’t even believe what happened to me today...”
She swung a sheet of hair over her shoulder and leaned toward me excitedly. “Tell me!”
With a huge sigh, I recapped the whole story, sparing no detail or expense. From the bout of nausea in the taxi, to the girl crying in the restroom, to my unbelievable fib and the hero who helped me get away with it. Her eyes widened until they took up a ridiculously huge portion of her face, and by the time I recounted how I’d shunned the boss’ son before almost dousing some poor stranger in coffee, she was near tears of laughter.
“Well, just think of it this way,” she comforted, picking delicately at a piece of sashimi she’d pre-ordered in anticipation of me being late, “you can’t possibly get into any more mischief between lunch and this evening. Just keep your head down and don’t assume anyone else’s identify. If you feel the need to tell another outrageous lie...talk to your plant.”
I snorted with laughter and flooded my plate with soy sauce. Rose actually worked for Larchwood as well. She was a rising star in the PR department—something I couldn’t care less about, but they took just as seriously as us number crunchers did across the hall.
She dabbed her perfectly painted lips onto a napkin. “And as for the boss’ son, you could have canceled with me, you know. I wouldn’t have minded.”
I tossed a piece of rice at her. “He looks like the Greek god of employment termination notices. I am not going down that road.”
She giggled and held out her hand, completely oblivious, as a star-struck waiter handed her the check and then promptly walked into a wall. I rolled my eyes and returned to my food. Who was I kidding? Rose wasn’t exactly the best person to talk to in regards to ‘normal relationship advice.’ Let’s put it this way, each of my four older brothers had been in love with her at some point in their life. It wasn’t even her fault. She’d been blessed with a model’s face and a razor-sharp tongue—two things that served her well in a career of public relations. But when it came to keeping her head down and steering clear of potentially hazardous romantic entanglements, she didn’t have a clue.