Writing Our Song:A Billionaire Romance

Chapter 10


The next thing I knew the phone was ringing and, when I opened my eyes, the light streaming in through a crack in the curtains told me that morning had arrived. I fumbled for the handset and closed my eyes again once I had it held to my ear.

“Mmph… hello?”

“Good morning, Ms. Hampton,” said an impossibly chirpy voice at the other end, “this is Lisa from the front desk downstairs. Mr. Holt has asked us to contact you to check if you are still planning on joining him for breakfast? If so he says he’ll wait.”

“Oh. Uh… yeah. Tell him yes, I’ll be down soon.”

“Thank you, ma’am, we’ll pass that on.”

“Thanks… hey wait! Hello?”

“Yes ma’am?”

“Uh… where exactly is breakfast?”

“Mr. Holt is being served in the FISH restaurant on level 1, that’s one up from the reception area where you checked in yesterday evening.”

“OK, thanks again,”

“My pleasure, ma’am.”

I put the handset down and rubbed my eyes. The world still looked a bit blurry when I opened them, so I rubbed again and was finally able to make some more sense of my surroundings.

I’d been too tired to care last night, but the room was easily the most luxurious I had ever slept in. It was somewhat minimalist, as most hotel rooms were I supposed, but everything was immaculate and what furniture and art there was all looked expensive and as good as new.

When I swung my feet out of bed I wiggled my toes in the soft carpet, contrasting it to the somewhat threadbare coverings of my own apartment, before peeking out the window. The harbor view was beautiful with the sun already high in the sky and occasionally hiding behind puffs of clouds that looked like they had no intention of drenching anybody in rain.

I pulled on some clothes and was halfway out the door when I decided to have a look at myself in the mirror. I was thankful for the afterthought, the left side of my hair was standing up like I’d been electrocuted, and the right side was flat as a pancake. A vigorous two-handed ruffle evened it out somewhat.

The restaurant was easy enough to find but a single glance around the room told me that my t-shirt and shorts had left me woefully underdressed for the kind of place this was. Thankfully there weren’t many people there, I wasn’t sure if I could take many more full-body-scans from people looking down their noses at me.

Jeremy fit right in, of course, wearing a suit that was begging to have coffee poured on it. He even had a cup steaming away in front of him, which he was absentmindedly stirring as he looked at a newspaper from back home.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize this was a formal occasion,” I said.

“It’s not, don’t worry about it. Please, have a seat,” he gestured at the chair opposite him.

I sat down and looked for a menu but didn’t spot one, my stomach rumbling as I caught the scent of bacon from the people sitting closest to us.

“So five thousand dollar suits are the only things in your wardrobe?” I asked.

Jeremy moved his cup of coffee a few inches further away from me before replying.

“No. I won’t tell you how much this one cost but once I’ve got all the business out of the way I can dress down a bit.”

“Business?”

“Yes, this isn’t entirely a holiday for me,” Jeremy waved to a waiter who came straight over.

“Ready to order now sir, ma’am?” he asked.

Jeremy looked to me and gave an ‘after you’ gesture.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen a menu but can I have what they’re having?” I pointed, “Bacon and eggs?”

“Certainly. And you, sir?”

“That sounds good to me, I’ll have the same.”

“Anything to drink?”

“Orange juice please,” I said.

“I’m fine with the coffee, thanks.”

The waiter smiled and nodded to both of us and headed in the direction of the kitchen. Jeremy folded up his newspaper and put it off to one side before picking up his coffee and taking a sip.

“What’s the business you’ve got to take care of?” I asked.

“It’s actually related to Bloxhamtech. There’s a little start-up company here, they’ve developed some software that would go hand in hand with some of the new technology that Bloxhamtech is working on. They’ll do a hell of a lot better working together than they would on their own. It’ll be a lifesaver for Bloxhamtech and an unexpected explosion right out of the gate for this New Zealand company. If I benefit from having shares in both companies then that wouldn’t be the end of the world either.”

“How did you hear about them if you’ve never been here before?”

“Well, I have people keeping their ears to the ground all over the place. When I heard about what they were doing I saw an opportunity.”

“Why did you have to come yourself if you’ve got people with their… uh… ears to the ground all over the place?”

“Technically I didn’t, but I think I can negotiate a slightly better deal myself. Also, I wanted to meet the two guys face to face and see if they’re the kind of people I’d like to work with on other projects.”

“Just two guys? They’re the lifesaver for Bloxhamtech?”

“Yeah, though I’ll help a bit too. That’s what I love about software companies, it’s one of the industries where people can still create incredible new things right out of their garage. That’s literally the case with these guys, they don’t have an office and they’re working out of one of their mom’s garage. Lots of people have good ideas but because they’ve got no idea what to do about getting prototypes made, patents and all the other roadblocks that come with physical products a lot of the ideas never see the light of day.”

I’d never been particularly entrepreneurial but it was nice to listen to the excitement in Jeremy’s voice. The talk about opportunities, finding hidden gems and success kind of swept him away and I couldn’t help but be pulled along for the ride just a little. The way he talked about business reminded me of the way I used to talk about singing.

“So how long do you think all this business will take?” I asked as the waiter came back with my orange juice.

“I won’t really know until I meet them,” said Jeremy. “All of today at the very least.”

“Oh. Any suggestions about how I should fill my time?”

“Up to you. I’d like to have dinner with you tonight at seven, but until then it’s lady’s choice.”

“Pfff. I’m no lady.”

“Well, whatever you are, it’s your choice. You can see what you can see by foot, or I’ve also got a car and driver on call for you. There’s a guy named George sitting in the lobby wearing the same uniform that Conor had on last night. He’ll be there all day if need be until he takes you to the Sky Tower tonight, that’s where I’ve booked for dinner if you want to come along. He can probably give you some suggestions if you want to be driven somewhere today.”

“He’s on call all day… for me?”

“Yeah.”


“That’s weird. What does he do with himself while he waits?”

“Whatever he wants I guess.”

“Like count the tiles on the floor in the lobby?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’d do.”

“Me too,” I said with a smile I forgot to even try to hide from him.

The breakfast was superb, fluffy scrambled eggs and mouth-watering crispy bacon plus some toast and a banana to cap it all off and my stomach was no longer rumbling. Jeremy had to excuse himself to leave before I was completely finished but said he hoped to see me for dinner.

I went through the lobby and spotted a man relaxing on a chair with iPod headphones stuck in his ears, wearing a dark uniform like our driver had the previous evening but I didn’t go to him. Instead I went towards a rack of pamphlets and grabbed half a dozen to maybe get some ideas about what I might like to see, taking them up to my room for a more thorough examination.

After scanning over them for a while I decided I didn’t want to go to any over-crowded tourist hotspot, I just wanted to sit in the sun and do pretty much nothing. A beach. This called for a beach. I changed into my bikini and pulled my clothes back on over the top before getting my beach towel out of my bag and heading back to the lobby.

George had his eyes closed and was tapping his foot and nodding his head along to the music I couldn’t hear, I called his name three times before he heard me.

“George?”

“Yes, ma’am. Ms. Hampton?”

“That’s me, just call me Beatrice.”

“Will do. Got somewhere you’d like to go?”

“Actually I was hoping you could help me out with that. Is there a nice beach reasonably close by?”

“Um… yeah, sure. Mission Bay isn’t too far away. It’s not school holidays so it won’t be too noisy or busy on a Monday. Uh… there’s the beach, a little park with some trees for shade, then a road and then some shops, so you can get some lunch or a snack there too. How does that sound?”

“That sounds perfect, can I walk there from here?”

“Uh… you can but if you’re walking there and back it’ll probably take about three or four hours out of your day and half the walk isn’t exactly anything special to look at. If you want to do it though, it’s pretty easy. Walk out of those doors, turn left and stay on the coastline until you see a sign that says ‘Mission Bay’. Or I can drive you.”

“Hmmm. OK, can you drive me please?”

“Yes ma’am. Are you ready to go now?”

“Yeah, where’s the car?”

“I’ll bring it right to the doors, just be out front in a couple of minutes.”

“Alright. And call me Beatrice.”

Just a few minutes later I was being driven along the waterfront. Contrary to what George had said, I thought that most of it was actually quite nice after we made it through what appeared to be a port where rusty containers from cargo ships were stacked so high they blocked off the water view.

After that it was only another ten minutes and George was pulling into a small car park. I picked up my towel and thanked him.

“No problem, ma’am. Have you put your sunblock on?”

“Uh, no.”

“Do you have any?”

“No, I figured I’d just retreat to the shade if it gets too hot.”

George started rummaging around in the glove compartment, eventually handing me a bottle that said SPF50+.

“Here you go. We’ve got this hole in the ozone layer here, you can get sunburned pretty easy.”

“Oh really? OK, thanks. What are you going to do?”

“I’ll wait here. It’s only a two hour car park, but as it’s not full they’re probably not going to enforce it. If they do, I’ll move over there or somewhere close,” George pointed at one of the other spare parking spaces.

“I might be a while, like a really long time.”

“I’ve got air conditioning and my iPod, I’ll be fine ma’am. Thanks for the thought though.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later then.”

The beach was just a short walk across some grass where a volleyball net was set up with nobody playing. Several couples and groups were sitting or lying around under trees or out in the sunshine, while further to my right as I walked I could see lots of guys who looked to be in their twenties playing some kind of game with an oval ball.

When I stepped out on to the sand I could see the beach itself was far from deserted but there was more than enough room for me to spread out my towel without coming anywhere near anybody’s personal space.

Taking George’s advice, I put the sunscreen on before lying down and closing my eyes. There were hardly any waves at all on this beach, I could barely hear them lapping at the shore.

From back on the grass I could hear those guys laughing and playing their game, and from all around me I could hear the occasional snippet of conversation. A cool breeze wafted over me every now and then, offsetting the heat of the sun somewhat.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to make my mind go absolutely blank for as long as I could. It was easier said than done, random thoughts always slipped in. Even so, at least they weren’t stressful thoughts.

When was the last time I’d been able to just sit there and do nothing like this? When was the last time I didn’t have to fight for every second of survival? Too long, too damn long.

The worries about my budget and the frustrations of work melted away easily. Even better, I felt like it was really possible that I could leave all the rest of it behind for a while too. Jeremy was right, I was tired.

I did what I had to do to survive, to get through each day without pulling my hair out and screaming until my voice stopped working. As much as I liked Seattle, the familiarity, there was no chance of running into anybody who knew me here. There was nobody who would either blame me or feel sorry for me, it was a sweet release I hadn’t even dared hope for when Jeremy had first laid out the invitation.

*****

My day was spent alternating between the beach and the shade, with one trip across the street for some ice cream and a bottle of water to bring back to the beach and another trip for a late and light lunch. According to my phone, the time was fast approaching five o’clock when I awoke from a snooze under a tree.

I went back to the car park and saw George standing by the car with his jacket off and the final stages of an ice cream cone in his hand. With a wave, I walked to the back door.

“Sorry! Won’t be long,” he said.

“Take your time,” I said, hopping into the back seat.

Rush hour traffic was just beginning to build up so it took a little longer to get back to the hotel than it had going in the other direction. By the time we returned I still had a little over an hour to get ready before meeting Jeremy for dinner. George said he would be waiting in the lobby for whenever I was ready.

I walked into my room feeling more relaxed than I had in years and saw that room service had been through, making the bed and tidying the clothes I had strewn on the floor. As the door clicked shut behind me my eyes fell upon a box sitting on top of my bed, tied up with a pretty pink ribbon.

After dropping my beach towel on a chair I stood over the box, looking around furtively to make sure I hadn’t stumbled into the wrong room. No, that was my bag and those were my clothes. I was in the right place. It was the box, the gift, that was in the wrong room.


Partially hidden under the ribbon was a card, I pulled it out and opened it to see a single word written there, ‘Bea’. This was actually something for me.

I put the card down on the bed and tentatively tugged at the end of the ribbon, which slowly undid the bow it had been tied in, sliding through itself as smooth as the silk it may very well have been made from. The top of the box came off to reveal tissue paper, which I pulled back to uncover a black dress of some kind.

It had been expertly folded and placed into the box like a treasure. When I picked it up I held it delicately by its thin shoulder straps as if in fear of breaking it. Fold after fold unfurled from the box until I was holding it in the air in front of me.

My lips parted as I took it all in. Sleek, black and sexy, it was backless and dipped low at the front, though not too far so as to venture into the realm of trashy. It was light but not sheer and when I transferred the straps to one hand the material felt almost like liquid as I ran the fingers of my other hand along it.

I turned to the full length mirror and held it in front of me, wondering if it would fit. When I saw myself standing there I was struck by a memory of my mom shortly after I had met Eugene ‘respect your elders’ Mercer.

She had been heading out on a date and I’d seen her preening herself in front of a mirror, all decked out in a new dress, new jewelry, new make-up, and new shoes. A whole new person, bought and sold on the whim of a rich man.

I dropped the dress with a gasp as if it had suddenly burned me and hurriedly took several steps back, staring at it like some kind of snake that could kill me with a single bite. After a while, when I’d managed to banish the thought of how much like my mom I looked, I grabbed the dress and stuffed it back in the box, not sure about whether I should still meet with Jeremy for dinner.

My heartbeat gradually returned to a less panicked level as I considered the situation. I’d let my guard down and this had happened. I would need to be careful. On the other hand… it had felt so good to relax and let my hate slip away for a while.

In a way it felt like I was leaving myself unprotected, and that was terrifying. I’d been relying on my independence and anger to keep myself safe for years and it was almost impossible to fight back the force of habit that called them to my defense when something unexpected, and unwanted, like this happened.

But what had happened, really? Jeremy had bought me a dress. That’s all. It was just a dress. It didn’t mean he had bought me, it didn’t mean that my protective walls were coming down despite the metaphorical army of my hatred not guarding them. It wasn’t even an attack.

I didn’t want the dress, I’d tell Jeremy to take it back, but I realized that if I wanted to feel any more of the peace and relaxation I’d felt on the beach today, I would have to deal with it calmly. Kindly even.

At last, with resolution in mind, I went to the bathroom for a shower. Under the hot water I felt the residual sunscreen wash off, taking with it the remains of this most recent surprise.