“Okay then. I’ll be back in an hour. My phone is on.”
She gave him a thumbs-up, which somehow managed to drip with sarcasm.
“Let’s go!” he said to Lauren in a voice filled with false cheer. “Italian or Thai. You can pick.”
? ? ?
They ordered homemade gnocchi and prosciutto at a little bistro on Henry Street, and when the conversation began flowing, it was almost like old times.
Almost.
He asked Lauren what it was like working for Nate.
“Well, I love the guy. But there are days when I feel like listing him on eBay.”
“Why?” he asked, chuckling. “Because he’s arrogant?”
“No.” She shook her pretty head. “He isn’t arrogant at all. It’s like . . . he already knows he’s smarter than everyone else, and the disparity isn’t worth dwelling upon. But he goes off on these mad scientist tangents where he’ll hole up in his office with a couple of engineers and shut out the rest of the world. They’re in there reinventing the telecommunications industry, and meanwhile I have to explain to five or six heads of industry why Nate is suddenly unavailable for the conference call he asked me to schedule a week ago.”
“That’s pretty rude.”
“Yes and no. His shareholders and his business associates depend on his acts of genius to stay ahead of the competition. So he can’t always be tugged in a dozen directions. My job is to keep the rest of the world at bay when he needs me to. But there are days when I feel like a lion tamer, fighting off his distractions with a chair and a whip.”
“Mm.” Her knee brushed his under the table, so he relocated his feet in order to increase their contact. Not in a sleazy way—he just wanted to touch her. “So . . .” He didn’t quite know how to word his next question. “I need to break our taboo topic for a second, because I’m curious. Are you going to keep working for him if you have a baby?”
“Of course,” she said quickly. “I have to work. And Nate has onsite childcare. There are only a handful of companies in the city that offer it. I won’t be able to travel, though. But someone else on my team can take over that part of my job.”
“Your team?”
“There are four of us running the C-suite.”
“And you’re the boss lady?”
“Of course.” She gave him a sudden smile. “Can’t believe you even had to ask.”
He laughed. “Sorry. I thought maybe world domination took a little longer than two years.” Lauren was a dynamo, though. He should have known.
“World domination does take longer. I’ve only asserted control of one Fortune 500 company.”
“The place would grind to a halt without you, I’ll bet.”
“Not immediately, because I’ve trained my underlings well.” She set down her fork. “Nate has been chatting me up about taking a new job, though. We haven’t gotten to the part where he lays out the specifics.”
“That could be good, right?” He drained the last drops of his wine, which he’d ordered from the restaurant’s by-the-glass menu, because Lauren wasn’t drinking.
“We’ll see.”
She looked a little shifty-eyed, like she didn’t want to talk about it. So he changed the subject. “How do you feel about our chances against Detroit tomorrow? They had a great season, but they seem to be choking. What do you think of their defense?”
“Until this week, I haven’t been paying attention to Detroit,” she said, and her expression was sheepish.
“Really? Nate must have you traveling all over hell if you don’t have this year’s stats memorized.”
She shrugged. “I haven’t followed hockey. Not since . . .” She cleared her throat. “Two years ago.”
“At all?” Somehow this was more shocking to Mike than any of Lauren’s other revelations this month.
She shook her head. “It reminded me too much of my old life, and watching would have been like staying in the past.”
A silence settled over them. For a moment they just took each other in. He hoped she was happy to be here with him tonight. There was still a lot of sadness he needed to push past. He could do it, though. He wasn’t going to give up.
Lauren broke their staring contest first. “Actually, I watch golf now.” She folded her napkin.
“Golf?”
Her brow furrowed, and she gave a serious nod. “I like it for its gamesmanship, and its tension. I mean, the aggression, right? And you never know what’s going to happen with those golf carts. It gets hairy out there.”
“Yeah?” Seriously?
She tossed the napkin on the table. “You are so fucking gullible.”
A bark of laughter escaped his chest. “Jesus, Lo.”
She smiled at him and shook her head. And he kept laughing. He was dabbing his eyes before he finally stopped. “I was trying to picture it.”
“I know.” She stretched her fork across to stab a scrap of prosciutto off his plate.
He watched her mouth as she chewed, and wished he could just tuck her under his arm, carry her back to his lonely bed and hold her all night long. It wasn’t going to happen, though. Not tonight. He wasn’t quite ready to have that talk with Elsa yet. The Lauren-will-be-around-a-lot-more-often talk.
Better to ease her into it. He signaled for the check.
In an effort to prolong Lauren’s visit, if only for a few minutes, they walked over to the Promenade and looked out at the river. The Staten Island ferry chugged toward lower Manhattan in the distance, and tulips were blooming in thick beds beside the walkway.
He took Lauren’s hand, and they walked among all the other couples, as if the events of this evening were the most ordinary thing in the world.
They weren’t, but maybe they could be.
“I’d better head back,” Lauren said eventually. She tightened her trench coat against the breeze off the river.
“I’ll call you a car.”
She shook her head with a smile. “Just walk me to the subway. It’s the fastest way to Midtown.”
Grudgingly, he did.
“Thank you for dinner,” she said when they were only a block from the subway entrance.
“Any time,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I mean that literally. When the play-offs are over, we can spend more time together.”
“That would be nice,” she said, which wasn’t exactly a promise.
He tugged her in for a kiss that lingered as long as he dared. “I wish you were still traveling with the team.”
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then changed her mind. She cocked her head, studying him.
“What?”
Lauren shook her head. “Call me when you can.”
“I will, honey. Of course.”
She stood on tiptoe and pecked him on the cheekbone. Then he had to let her disappear into the station alone.
Five minutes later he walked into his house to find Hans on the sofa, and clean shirts in their dry cleaner’s plastic hanging from the stairway bannister.
“Hey—thanks for this.” He pointed at the hangers. “I couldn’t remember if I asked you to grab them.”