The Proposal, page 28
“I’m not trying to railroad you. You deserve more.”
“You thinking that is enough to get me through all the bullshit.” He didn’t understand, but I couldn’t expect him to. Being on my own was my normal. If you didn’t count on anyone else, then no one could let you down. Working with Leo had shown me that maybe there was another way. Maybe I could trust someone else. Maybe I could trust him.
38
Leo
My apartment door swung open. Zara tugged the key out of the lock and closed the door behind her.
“What are you doing here?”
She took off her coat and hung it in the closet like she’d done it a million times before.
“You aren’t supposed to be here.”
She made a face. “Why not? We still have work to do.”
“No, we don’t. Remember last night when you sat on my lap and kicked off the celebratory ‘we’re finished’ make out session?”
“There’s finished and then there’s ironclad.” She approached the table.
I sighed. “What about New York?”
“What about it?”
“Tyler. I overheard you. He’s performing tonight.”
She tried to pull out a chair at the table.
I looped my foot around the leg and held it tight so it wouldn’t budge.
“Would you let me sit? Tyler will understand. He knows how important this is.” Her gaze narrowed. She’d play tough tonight, but tomorrow, when she thought about not being there for him, she’d punish herself. Force herself to work harder, push further, and burn out faster to justify it. Her patterns were obvious the closer I looked.
“But does he know how important he is? I’ve got everything handled.”
Her lips pinched. “There will be last minute changes. You need me.”
And there it was. The creeping insecurity she covered with engines on full, powering through so fast there was no time to see anything except the goal.
I stood, wedging myself between her and the chair she kept a death grip on. “My beautiful, determined, unstoppable, stubborn pain in the ass.” I ran my hands down her arms before pulling her close, hugging her and pressing my lips against the side of her head. “Of course I do, but not right now. Your brother needs you now. He’s performing at a place most people work their whole lives to perform in, and still never get to. And he’s going to look out at the crowd and see his big sister smiling up at him.”
“He won’t know I’m there. That place is huge.” She held onto me tighter.
“He’ll know. Don’t worry about tomorrow.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and pulled up a site while still holding her against me. “You’ve taught me well. I’ve proven myself. It’s final touches. I can handle this. Save everything to my computer and two back-up drives. All the documents are printed. There’s nothing left for either of us to do, really.” I clicked pay on the screen.
“I—”
Holding up my phone, I released her. “Your train leaves in forty minutes. It’ll take you twenty to get there. Have a soft pretzel and enjoy the ride.”
“Leo…” Her phone pinged.
“I’m serious. That’s your ticket hitting your email. Be there for him.”
She paused, dropping her gaze before flinging her arms around my neck. “Thank you.” When she let go, there were tears in her eyes. She smiled and blinked them away before rushing for the closet.
A quick trip back to me, and a kiss that would have to tide me over until tomorrow, and she was gone.
The quiet of my apartment didn’t feel so empty anymore, not with Zara in my life.
Kathleen sent a text letting me know to bring at least fifty copies of our handouts for tomorrow. That struck me as odd after the initial meeting with only a handful of people in the room, but I responded and ran off the copies she needed.
After another hour of combing through the presentation, I closed my laptop. Every slide had been spellchecked. Spellchecked backward. Printed out and checked again. Squeezing the back of my neck, I pushed back from the table. Organizing all the papers, I uncovered my phone which had been buried at some point. I tapped the home button and a message from Hunter filled the screen.
Hunter: You saw the news about the acquisition?
I unlocked my phone.
Me: No? Was this message for me?
Hunter: Winthorpe was acquired by the Waverly Hotel Group today
Me: Winthorpe? Like the hotels we’re presenting to tomorrow?
Hunter: No, Winthorpe from Trading Places. Who the hell do you think I’m talking about. Yes, the company you have your big presentation for tomorrow.
Me: Oh shit.
Hunter: Google text alerts, damnit. Use Them.
I pulled up the website and fell back into my chair. A press release from noon today. Winthorpe had been acquired by The Waverly Hotels Group. What did this mean for tomorrow?
No new messages from Kathleen or anyone at Winthorpe. So we were still on? This could be massive for Zara.
Waverly had over two thousand locations on every continent, including a luxury seasonal hotel in the works on Antarctica. There were over eight hotel chains that made up the entire company headquartered in Toronto.
Hunter’s name flashed on my phone screen. “How do you not know this stuff is going on with your clients?”
“How do you know about any of this?” I scrolled through the corporate website trying to get a feel for their tastes. This wasn’t only a pitch to Kathleen anymore. This was about bagging a client that could transform Simply Stark and cement the future. They already had ten other hotels in the city.
“It’s my job to know.”
“What exactly is your job?”
“Irrelevant.” His dismissive, hand-waving tone even worked over the phone. “All that matters is you have the chance to show your shit off in front of one of the biggest hotel groups in the world tomorrow. Are you ready?”
This was the Super Bowl all over again. Only, I wasn’t on the field as part of a team of 11. It would just be me and Zara under the lights.
She’d freak. I checked the time. She’d be twenty minutes outside New York. If I told her now, she’d turn straight around and be on the next train back. She’d missed Tyler so much and he needed her there for his big night. I could handle this.
Researching a multinational corporation and a complete revamp of the entire presentation in the next twelve hours? “I’m ready. Well, I’ll be ready.”
“When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter?”
“It’s been a while.”
“I’ll call the guys and we can help.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Of course we don’t, but we can’t leave you hanging. Jameson will run the numbers. August can help with design. Everest’s got the high end knowhow and I’ll do what I do best.”
“What’s that?”
“Come through with whatever anyone needs. We’ll be there in twenty.”
“Thanks, man.”
39
Zara
Running on absolute faith in our performance tomorrow, I took a taxi from the train station to the hall. New York cabs were not cheap.
An usher handed me a program for the evening. I wished Leo could’ve been there with me, but knowing he was handling everything back in the city for tomorrow meant I could shut off my phone and watch the performance without the anxiety and fear that had always plagued me before any public speaking. I’d be up on stage with Leo. He’d be the calm yin to my neurotic yang. Before, I’d cursed his cool exterior, but now I needed him there to keep me from losing it.
Parents and other orchestra buffs found their seats. Pre-show chatter filled the storied room. I’d never been here, and Tyler was performing as a ninth grader. Once again the divergence of our lives hit me hard. There hadn’t been anyone to look out for me, but I’d never stop looking out for him.
The house lights dimmed and the crowd quieted as students filed out onto the stage. Phones were pulled up, their screens filling the audience like a high-tech version of lighters calling for an encore.
Tyler’s curly mop was pulled back, but I could tell it was him. He took his seat without looking out at the crowd. All the other kids searched the audience from the stage, although they had to be blinded by the lights, but he didn’t.
He didn’t think I’d come, and I’d never been happier for Leo stating in no uncertain terms that I was getting on the train. Tyler would’ve covered his disappointment on our next call, but it would’ve been there.
Shoving down the embarrassment that would normally keep me in my seat, I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted his name whooping. “You’ve got this, Ty!”
His head shot up. Even if he couldn’t find me in the sea of people, from his grin, he knew I was there.
I sat back to enjoy the performance, ready to shower him with hugs and praise the moment they finished.
The conductor stood and they launched into the first song. Orchestral versions of popular movie themes took us from the jaws of summer hysteria and horror to interstellar travel with a few watchful guardians.
Tyler’s heart was in every note, and his happiness radiated throughout the concert hall. He wasn’t planning to become a concert cellist, but he could be. Opportunities surrounded him, and tomorrow I’d be able to secure them for myself as well.
Less than twenty-four hours until our lives changed forever.
I led the charge to the standing ovation at the end. Every musician putting their all into the performance had paid off. Not that I knew the first thing about classical music, but every song was beautiful.
Parents swarmed the aisles and kids abandoned their instruments and fanned out to find their cheerleaders in the audience. I lost sight of Tyler behind the family hugs, program flinging, and bouquets of roses handed to other students.
“Zara, you came.” His bushy curls had escaped his contained stage hairstyle and bobbed as he darted down an aisle toward me. His arms were longer than I remembered, and he wrapped them around me and hugged me tight. He wasn’t so little anymore.
“I told you I’d try.” I hugged him back even harder.
“But you’re always so busy with work. I didn’t think you’d make it.”
Burying my head in his floral-scented hair, I sent up a silent thanks to Leo for getting me on that train. Tyler would’ve told me it wasn’t a big deal if I’d missed it, not wanting to lay on the guilt, but based on his excitement now, he’d have been crushed if he’d wandered the aisles with no one to celebrate him.
I brushed back some of his curls. “Who did your hair?”
His cheeks reddened and he ducked his head, trying to smooth it back down. “One of the first chair girls did it on the bus ride over. She said everyone would be mesmerized by the sway of my hair if she didn’t do something with it.”
“It looks good. But I think the lights melted some of the product.” I patted my hand against his head. “You’re half-porcupine, half-curly fry.”
He swatted at my arm. “You’re making it worse.” Annoying older sister was a job I never minded being on duty for.
“My friend’s parents invited me out to dinner with them. Can you come?” He held onto my hand, dragging me down the aisle.
“They didn’t invite me. We can go get a bite somewhere else together.”
“No, Z. I want you to meet them. They’re going to this awesome restaurant. He said normally you have to get reservations six months in advance, but his mom called and they had a table right away.”
“And that’s exactly the reason they wouldn’t want another person tacked onto their reservation.” I tried to dig my heels in, but the carpet was too smooth and soft and Tyler was now too strong. He pulled me forward.
Turned out the parents were happy to have me along. I’d hoped they’d be snooty assholes, so Tyler and I could grab a bite at a sandwich shop before my train ride, but they were gracious and lovely.
What wasn’t so lovely were the prices at the trendy tasting-menu-only restaurant in Tribeca. If they’d been printed on the embossed and personally-signed-by-the-Michelin-starred-chef dish listings, I’d have probably fallen out of my seat.
The next time I picked up Tyler from school, we’d take them out to dinner. Not somewhere this amazing, but not a place with laminated menus. After tomorrow, that would be possible.
After a full seven courses, a glass of wine, and all the hugs I could get from my little brother, I was back at the train station, texting Leo to see how his night had gone.
No reply. Sitting in the station waiting for my train, I nodded off more than once. I set the timer on my phone for every ten minutes, so I wouldn’t miss the last train.
Safely on board, I set another alarm, so I wouldn’t miss my stop.
“Ma’am.” Someone rocked my shoulder.
Groggy, I opened my eyes and looked up at the conductor.
Snapping up straight, I squeezed the bridge of my nose and rubbed my eyes. “Are we in Philly yet?”
“Philly? Sweetheart, Philadelphia was five stops ago.”
I shot up out of my seat. The train car was empty. Out the window, the blue and white station sign hung above the platform. Washington, DC.
I gathered everything up and bolted off the train. Scrambling for another ticket, I was back on my way to Philly too late to show up at Leo’s. As much as I wanted to sleep beside him and check over his work, I stopped myself. Trust him—he can do this. Instead, I went home and crashed, sleeping well, knowing he had everything handled, and that tomorrow would kick off something bigger than I’d ever worked on before.
40
Leo
I jolted awake. Pens and pencils were sprayed across the table. Fuck, my neck was killing me. That’s what I got for sleeping at my kitchen table. I scrambled for the laptop, opening it and releasing a grateful sigh that all the work I’d done last night was saved and backed up.
My phone buzzed the angry song across the paper-covered table top. I rubbed my eyes and cracked my back.
Shit! It was already 8am.
Zara: Are you on your way?
Me: In a taxi now. I’ll be there in a bit.
Zara: I’m on my way too. Wait until I tell you what happened last night. But don’t worry, disaster averted. I know you got everything handled.
She must’ve heard the news already. Leave it to Zara to have a Google Alert on everything under the sun, but she hadn’t turned right around and come back. She’d left it to me to handle and enjoyed her time with her little brother. This upped my confidence even more going into this presentation.
I needed to get the hell out of here. I triple saved everything and closed the laptop. After gathering up the papers, I rushed into the shower, threw on some clothes, and was out the door in less than fifteen minutes.
Working my fingers into the kink from hell in my neck, I gave Zara my ETA.
And then a bike messenger zipped out in front of the taxi, rolling up onto the hood of the car. He wasn’t hurt. He expressed his level of not-hurt by jamming his fist into the hood of the taxi repeatedly, screaming, and swearing at the driver, finally topping it off with a head butt to the windshield, cracking it.
The driver threw open his door.
Fuck. I dropped a few bills in the driver’s seat and got out. It was eight blocks to the hotel. Running like I was charging up the field for an eighty-yard touchdown, I skidded into the lobby with sweat making my shirt cling to my chest.
Zara paced outside the doors of the room, squeezing the bridge of her nose. She spotted me and her eyes widened. “What happened?” Rushing over, she took the laptop and papers out of my hands, so I could fix my jacket. “Are you okay? You’re so sweaty.” She darted into the women’s bathroom and came back out with a cold, wet towel. “You’re alright?”
“My taxi driver only hit a bike messenger. That’s all. Everyone is okay, except for his windshield.”
“Sounds like you’ve had quite a morning.” She straightened my tie, smoothing her hand down my chest.
“And quite a night.”
She rushed to throw away the paper towels and came back to me.
“Zara, there were some changes I needed to make to the presentation.”
The blood drained from her face. “What? Why?”
Kathleen opened the door to the small auditorium. “Great, you two are here. We’re ready.”
There was no more time and I couldn’t explain in front of Kathleen. I guided Zara toward the door. “Follow my lead. Trust me.”
She looked up at me, her lips tight. “I trust you.” With a nod, she fell in stride beside me and we took our place up on stage.
41
Zara
Leo’s panicked, sweaty appearance had sent my adrenaline spiking. He always had things under control, although a bike-messenger-slash-taxi-driver accident was enough to throw anyone off.
A look of determination and resolve came over his face when he asked me if I trusted him. I did, even with worry creeping in that there was something I didn’t know.
The lights were bright in the conference room. As the smallest company, we presented first, which gave us the chance to impress everyone before presentation fatigue set in. Our big shot had arrived.
There were many more suits with Bluetooth ear pieces and a video conferencing set-up with faces on the screen in front of us in sixteen different locations. London. Madrid. Paris. Dublin. Zurich. Way more than I was expecting.
I tugged on Leo’s suit jacket and leaned in. “What is going on?”
“You’ll see. Don’t worry. I’ve got it handled.” Leo smiled and squeezed my hand reassuringly.
He’d said there were some changes, but this was already more than I’d been expecting. Worry edged into my mind, but I pushed it aside. This was Leo. He’d come through for me more than once. I could trust him.
