And when an email went out that said everyone from Biomatrix Pharma would be attending a luncheon at the upscale restaurant called The Observatory, located just a few blocks from work—she tried to not care about that either.
I don’t want to go, she thought. Cullen will be there. And I don’t want to see his smug, cold face ever again.
So I won’t go. Who will know the difference anyway?
She worked the next few hours without incident, and then noticed that her coworkers were all starting to filter out of the office in small groups.
Lucas stopped by her desk and tapped her shoulder.
Ivy had been listening to music, and now she pulled the ear buds out of her ears. “What’s up?” she asked.
“Everyone’s heading over to The Observatory for the luncheon,” Lucas said. “Want to go together?”
She thought about it for a moment. “I’m not sure if I’m going. I might just work through lunch today.”
“Really?” he said, his eyes squinting with disbelief. “The food there’s supposed to be amazing. And it’s free for us.”
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “My stomach’s not feeling so hot after last night.”
“Okay. Well…” he shoved his hands in his pants pockets. “Maybe I’ll see you there?”
“Maybe,” she said, nodding. “Thanks for asking.” She flashed him a smile to show she really did appreciate him trying to include her. And then she put her ear buds back in and started working again.
They wouldn’t miss her presence there. And she didn’t honestly have an appetite, nor did she feel like being surrounded by a bunch of other temps that didn’t like her.
Cullen Sharpe would be there, giving a speech, making the rounds. Just thinking about him made her heart race, and her stomach tighten unnaturally. She wasn’t nearly over what had happened between them this morning.
She lost herself in work for the next twenty or thirty minutes, and it felt good to just focus in and do a simple job. With data entry, everything was beautifully simple—you just entered the information, all there on the page in black and white.
If only all of life was that simple.
And then her desk phone started ringing. She hardly heard it over her music, but she saw the light flashing on the phone and faintly heard the insistent ring.
Shit. Who else could be calling right now but him?
Ivy pulled her headphones off and stared at the phone, wondering what to do. It kept ringing, and finally she answered it. “Hello,” she said, sounding much more relaxed than she felt.
“Where are you?” the familiar voice spoke into her ear. The intimacy of his baritone, the sexiness that was always present—she’d nearly forgotten the effect he had on her.
Instantly, her skin broke into gooseflesh. “I’m at work of course,” she answered.
“You’re supposed to be at the luncheon. It’s mandatory.”
She rolled her eyes, knowing he couldn’t see her. “I’m not hungry. I lost my appetite.”
“Ivy, this isn’t a request. It’s an order. Get over to The Observatory. Now.”
And then the phone clicked and he was gone.
She slammed the receiver down so hard that the ringer sounded briefly, as if the phone itself was protesting her violent aggression.
“Asshole,” she muttered.
But as angry as she was, didn’t part of her feel relieved, even pleased that he’d taken an interest? That he still cared enough to notice where she was or wasn’t?
As she got up and grabbed her purse off her desk, slung it over her shoulder, Ivy considered the situation.
No, she decided. It wasn’t a relief to know that the CEO cared, because the fact was he cared about all sorts of dumb little details.
Just look at the kind of trouble he makes about his damn coffee. I’m just another detail he’s keeping track of, like his coffee or his cufflinks.
He cares about you in a different way.
But Ivy wasn’t buying it. Whatever Cullen Sharpe was doing, she was finished giving him the time of day. She would go to the damn restaurant because he was the boss and she didn’t want to get fired.
That was it. There was nothing else between them, no matter what Cullen himself might assume.
She got in a cab to travel the short distance, because she didn’t want to walk in late and make a fool of herself.
The cab pulled up in front of The Observatory, and she got out, rushing as she checked the time on her phone and realized that the luncheon was due to officially start in the next few minutes.
As she was crossing the street, she wasn’t paying attention and a horn honked right nearby, making her jump out of the way as another taxi flew past, horn blaring again.
“You have to be careful,” a man said from the sidewalk. “That was almost another New York horror story.”
Ivy glanced at him as she reached the sidewalk safe and sound. “I figured I’d end up a statistic one way or another, with my luck.”
“It’s that bad, eh?” the man said, laughing. He was smoking a cigar and wearing a flashy pin striped blue suit with a gold tie.