Nolan
"I think I fell in love last night."
Eda stops in place right in front of my desk, the cup of coffee in her hand shaking. "You what, sir?"
"Sit." I point at the chairs in front of my desk. "Have a sip of that coffee. You look like you could use it."
She lowers herself into one of the chairs. "This is your coffee. I bring you coffee every morning."
"Why?" I rest my elbows on my desk. "It's not part of your job description."
"I bring you coffee because you send me flowers every second Friday." She takes a sip of the steaming liquid. "You think I don't know it's you, but I do."
"Before Harold died he asked me to arrange a flower delivery for you every second Friday of the month for a year. It was important to him, so I continued the tradition."
She absorbs that, her eyes a clear window into her emotion. "He started doing it when we first married. Back then, it was a bouquet made up of flowers he'd pick from other people's gardens on his way home from work. The professional arrangements came years later, but it was always every second Friday, no matter the season."
"I'll stop when you tell me to stop," I half lie. I'll tone it back to one delivery a month if she asks me to stop but I'll never give it up completely. I see her gazing at the elevator when she knows a delivery is coming. She waits and as soon as it arrives, she packs up her desk, takes the flowers and leaves for the day.
"I won't tell you that." She rests the coffee mug on the corner of my desk. "Did you say you fell in love last night, sir?"
"I think I did, yes."
"You think you did?" She tilts her head to the side, her eyes scanning my face. "You're not sure if you did?"
"No." I exhale sharply. "I don't know if I fell or not."
"It's not typically like a cliff, Mr. Black." She teeters on the edge of the chair. "It's not often that one just falls in love in an instant and is completely aware of it. It takes time."
"How much time?"
She scratches her nose, her finger pushing on the frame of her glasses. "It depends. How long did it take the last time you fell in love?"
"There isn't a last time," I respond quickly. "I'm a novice at this, Eda. This is my first time at the rodeo."
"Miss Madden is a lovely first love."
"She is." I scrub my hand over the back of my neck.
She studies me. "The first time she came to the office and you sent me to marketing I knew there was something special about her."
That doesn't surprise me. Eda anticipates everything before it happens. She's the one who told me darker shades of lipstick would be the big ticket items last fall. She was right. She's also the person who warned me that Shelby was trouble when she showed up at my office unannounced. That's how we met. She marched into my life because she wanted to be the face of the summer line. I took her to bed instead, not heeding any of Eda's words.
"Don't try and make sense of falling in love, sir." She picks up the mug and stands. "Just enjoy it. Let your heart feel what it wants to and trust that Miss Madden feels the same about you."
I do trust it. I saw it last night when I made love to Ellie and she clung to me for an hour after. It was there in her eyes when she kissed me goodnight and held my face in her hands. She's falling in love with me too and I'll do everything in my power to make certain that doesn't change.
***
"The background check brought up nothing on a sibling." Crew keeps his eyes trained on where Ellie is standing next to the entrance of the store. "The information Kristof pulled listed Ellie's mother's name and her date of death. He found nothing about her father or a sibling."
"I had no idea her father was dead or that she even knew him." I stiffen as I survey the area near the skin care creams. "I wasn't surprised when she told me about her mother's passing. I wasn't prepared when she brought up her nieces."
"I'll call Kristof right now and get a new file on Ellie." He taps my forearm. "I'll get him to dig deeper. Any questions you still have will be answered."
"I don't want that." I look at him. "If I have a question, I'll ask Ellie myself."
"Ask me what?"