I glance at her. She's clothed. She's wearing a short yellow dress and a huge smile.
"You're Ellie's bosses, aren't you?" She steps toward us. "I'm Adley York. I'm Ellie's roommate."
Crew pushes past me to grab the woman's hand. "I'm Crew. Nolan didn't tell me where we were headed, but I'm glad I tagged along."
She laughs. "You'll regret saying that. It's like three hundred degrees in here."
"Nolan?" Ellie approaches tentatively, her hands clenched together in front of her. "Crew? What are you two doing here?"
I tuck the bottle of wine next to my elbow before I run my fingers over my brow. I'm burning up, but I can't tell if it's the temperature in here or how Ellie looks. I thought that black dress in Vegas was hot. Now, I can't even remember what it looks like. "You invited me for dinner, Ellie. I brought wine and your favorite ice cream."
"You thought I was serious?" she asks tightly. "I didn't think you'd actually show up."
She doesn't know me very well. I never back down from a challenge. There was a trace of amusement in her eyes yesterday afternoon when she invited me for dinner. I decided by the time she pressed the elevator call button that I'd be at her apartment promptly at seven with a bottle of crisp chardonnay, along with a container of the ice cream I saw her friend give to her at Cremza.
"I'd never turn down an invitation from you." I glance back at the repair guy. His eyes are focused squarely on Ellie's ass. "I would have worn my board shorts if I knew the evening was beach themed."
She looks me over from head to toe. Her gaze lingers appreciatively on the gray dress shirt and black pants I'm wearing. "There isn't a theme. We're not having dinner. We postponed."
"We canceled," Adley interjects. "Bean decided we should cancel after the air conditioner died. I was just on my way out to have dinner with one of the guys who planned on being here."
"Bean?" Crew chuckles. "What's that nickname about, Ellie?"
"I came up with it, "Adley says, pride evident in her smile. "Ellie is my jelly bean. I call her that because she used to sneak jelly beans from a jar in my mom's kitchen. Eventually, my mom just gave her the entire jar."
"You've known each other since you were kids?" I step forward. "Tell me about her back then."
Crew and both women turn to me. It's not my words that draw their attention. It's my tone. Firm and demanding, it's a command for information about a woman who just started working for me. It's obvious to all three of them that I'm not trying to lure playful memories about Ellie's childhood from her best friend. I'm hunting.
"We should take off." Crew shoots me a sharp glance that's spiked with the anger he's barely containing. I was intentionally sparse with the details when I told him we were meeting two beautiful women for dinner.
I accessed Ellie's payroll record to find her address, unsure if Crew had taken note of it when he handed her file to human resources the day she started working for us. He didn't clue in when I asked my driver to drop us a block up from Ellie's building. I told him to call the store in Midtown to check on the shipment of lipstick that arrived earlier today. I did that to keep his focus away from the direction we were headed.
His call ended just as Adley opened the door. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
"I'm staying," I announce because there's no way in fucking hell I'm leaving Ellie alone with the repairman. If I weren't losing a pound a minute in sweat because of the sweltering heat in this apartment, I would have thought the scene that greeted me when I walked in the door was the beginnings of a poorly lit porn shoot.
The air conditioning unit is definitely not working, and the blond haired guy who is now absentmindedly rubbing his dick through his jeans is focused on only one thing. It's not the screwdriver in his hand. It's Ellie's body which, when covered with a sheen of sweat, looks incredibly fuckable.
"You're not staying." Ellie points to the apartment door. "You and Crew can go."
I brush past her and head directly to the kitchen area that consists of little more than a few worn cabinets, out-of-date appliances and a peninsula that oversees the main living space. I open the freezer door, pushing packages of frozen berries and a bag of cubed ice to the side. I shove the container of ice cream in before I slam the door shut. "I'm going to open this wine, have a drink and then I'll fix that air conditioner myself."
"River is going to fix it." Ellie sighs heavily.
River? Naturally, his goddamn name would be River.
Ellie's eyes target me before she turns to River. "How long before you'll have it working?"
"I need parts, babe," he drawls through a grin. "One of the guys from the supplier will try to bring them over in a couple of hours. We can hang until then. You got any beers?"