The Proposal (12 page)

Luckily the lift went
straight from the basement to the fourth floor.

Silently, Nadine and
Ethan got out and walked back to their room. Once inside, they fell onto the
bed, exhausted, excited and with a familiar feeling of closeness.  They
lay silently, looking at each other a few times, making sure the other was not
asleep. Yet both were wide awake.

"Now what?"
asked Ethan, turning to his side and propping himself up on one elbow. The free
fingers of his other hand traced slowly around Nadine's face. She liked the
feel of his fingers on her face, and lay back, replete and happy.

"Now, I guess we
should get out of these clothes and get some sleep," she said slowly,
staring back at him and thinking at the same time of everything that had just
happened between them. She stopped, "That's not what you meant is
it?" 

He shook his head, and
cupped her cheek with his hand.

"What made you want
to become an escort?" she asked, suddenly changing tack and changing the
subject. It wasn't the thing that was most pressing, but she had always
wondered. And now, the question had jumped right out of her mouth before she
had a chance to stop it.

"Does it bother
you?" his eyes watched her closely.

"It does now,"
she propped herself up on her elbow, mirroring his pose and facing him, her
free hand hanging loosely on his hip.

"Only now?"

She shrugged. “It did a
little before too.”

He lay on his back and
stared at the ceiling.

“I tried modeling, I did a
whole heap of crappy jobs. I had my own thing but I got screwed. So I got to a
point where I needed money fast to pay bills. Billy’s a dancer and he got into
that whole male dancer stripper group thing. But I don’t like to strip. Not
even when I was modeling. So then he told me about being a male escort….and you
know something? It’s more like being a psychiatrist, or a shrink, letting some
woman spill out all her problems to you. And all you have to do is listen to
her. Because all she wants to do is tell someone. It’s easy. Besides, I don’t
sleep with them or anything. And it fascinates me - people’s stories. Helps me
with my art. It helps me to create things, sometimes, when I see something in
someone. I sometimes find a way of putting that essence of that person into my
structures.”

“Structures? Art? What
are you talking about Ethan?” Nadine asked.

“I told you there’s a
whole other side to me you don’t know about.”  Then he bent over and
kissed her again.

"So, what now?"
he repeated. "I'd like to see you again, once this is over."

Her eyes brightened and
without thinking about it she replied, “Me too.”

"Let's get out of
these wet clothes," she suggested. "But first I need to take a
shower," she said running her hands through her hair, "I can smell
the chlorine," and she sauntered into the bathroom before sticking her
head back out. "Don’t sleep on the floor tonight Ethan."

Once she came out Ethan
went in and showered up too. Nadine fell into the bed and waited for him.

A little while later,
Ethan came out and found Nadine peacefully asleep in the bed. "Just as
well," he said to himself, before sliding in between the sheets and
nestling up against her warm body.

They woke up as though
they had been sleeping together for years. Gone was the awkwardness that they
had had up until yesterday.

"Sleep well?"
he asked, messing up her hair most of which was spread out around her pillow.

"Like a baby,"
she replied, running her hands over his bare chest. As she suddenly realised he
was topless, she quickly looked down at herself and breathed a sigh of relief
to see she still had her night shirt on. He watched her with fascination as she
lifted up the duvet cover and checked to see that he was still wearing his
boxers.

"Relieved?"

"So, we
didn't?" she asked flapping her hand towards him and towards her.

 "Not yet,
no." He bent over to nibble her ear.

Not yet.

"Did I fall
asleep?" she asked, wriggling her neck because his hair tickled her.

"Ummmm hmmmmm,"
he said noisily, still nibbling away at her neck.

"Where you
disappointed?" she asked, trying to force his face up to pay attention to
her.

"What's the
rush?" he asked, "And no, I wasn't."  He stopped moving
around and rested his head on her shoulders, snuggling up against her.

"Shit!" she
shrieked, shuffling around to grab her cell phone to check the time. "I've
got a quick final meeting with Michael Zimmerman and the others at ten and then
we'll have to check out by eleven and head back."

"What time is it
now?" he asked, sliding his hand under her nightshirt and tracing his
fingers along her back. Nadine felt the hot emotions flooding back. They
couldn't get up to anything now.

"It's just gone
nine,” she pulled a sad face and kissed him gently. “I can't be late for this
one."  Nadine sprang out of bed and Ethan clambered out slowly.

They showered, got
dressed and made their way down to breakfast.

"Where did you two
disappear off to last night?" asked Sandra, pouncing on them as soon as
they went to the breakfast buffet.  Nadine turned around to find that
Sandra had positioned herself next to Ethan.

"Tired. I was
exhausted and tired Sandra and we went to bed early," said Nadine. Ethan
totally ignored Sandra and the two of them walked over to one of the few tables
for two that had been set up in the breakfast bar.  If ever there was a
pair of people who were content to stare at each other whilst eating, it was
these two. They ate in silence, pausing only every now and then to look at each
other or smile. Eventually Nadine said, "I'd better go now."

"I'll wait for
you," said Ethan wistfully, watching her leave and keeping his eyes on her
until she disappeared out of his view.

The end that he knew was
coming, had arrived too soon.

The morning passed
uneventfully enough for both of them. Nadine sat through her meeting with
Michael Zimmerman, Sandra, and the European managers as they confirmed the key
dates for the coming six months and the various projects that they would need
to coordinate together.

Michael gave Sandra key
responsibility for the new Noble Vintage account which was being signed off in
a few weeks time. Nadine would then take some responsibility for parts of
the first project once Sandra had been worked out their strategy with them.
 Melissa took minutes of the meeting and thankfully an hour later, they
were done.

Ethan was waiting up for
her in the room, packing his things.

"All done?" he
asked when she returned. Nadine nodded her head.

"So it’s time to go
then?" he asked. He could see by the look on her face that it was. 

He got up and she walked
into his arms. They held each other tightly and stood quietly, locked in a
tight embrace.

"Time to go,"
said Nadine, breaking out of the hold. Her eyes were moist but there were no
tears, yet. They still had the two hour journey back home.

But they drove home in
silence. Every now and then Nadine would look over at Ethan and smile, checking
to see if anything had changed. Now that there were in the daylight and away
from the magic of the hotel with its Roman Gardens and the fountain, they were
heading back towards their everyday life.

The convention had been
life changing for Nadine but she wasn't fully yet aware of just how much. It
would be only later on that she would look back on this episode in her life for
the crossroads that it really was. But, for now, they travelled back together.

I don't want any of this
to change, thought Nadine, her eyes on the horizon in front.

I want this to carry
on
. 

Every now and then Ethan
would clasp Nadine’s hand and squeeze it gently, to let her know that things
were as they had left them, not how they were when they had first arrived.

"I'll drop you off
at your house if you tell me where you live," she said as soon as they
were back in San Francisco a couple of hours later. "Or you can come back
to my place if you want." A smile played spread across her face.

He was pensive and she
wondered what thoughts had clouded his face.

"Anything
wrong?" she asked, worried that things might suddenly revert back to their
pre-convention state.

"No. I think for now,
it's better I go back to my place, if you don't mind."

Slightly hurt, Nadine
swallowed her pride. "You’re right. I guess we're both tired. It's been a
long weekend. A great weekend though." She wanted him to know that’s how
she saw it.

He put his hand over
hers. "It's been amazing."

She followed his
directions to his place. He shared a house with a couple of people, one of whom
was his friend, Billy. It was a modern, town house on the outskirts of  San Francisco. "Very nice," Nadine said observing the red-brick building
approvingly.

"You'll have to come
over sometime, to check it out properly," said Ethan. “I’ll cook for you.”

“I look forward to it,”
she said, parking up outside his house and turning off the engine.

"Do you want to come
in?" he asked, waiting for her answer.

"No. Maybe another
time." There was silence again. This was the end of their journey. And
what was going to happen next was as yet unexplored territory that neither of
them was sure about.

The convention and their
time together was slipping away from them fast.

"Well," said
Ethan slowly, summoning up the courage to drag himself away, "I’d better
make tracks."  He reached over and kissed her on the lips.

It was a quick, gently
kiss with none of the passion that they had shared before.

Nadine felt an emptiness
inside her as he got out of the car and took his luggage.  At the door, he
suddenly turned around and waved his hand, before heading inside.

As Nadine pulled away she
suddenly remembered the payment she owed him, for their business arrangement.
She had drafted a check for two thousand and four hundred dollars the day
before they had gone away. She had forgotten all about the payment until now.
In fact all thoughts of the proposal she had made had skipped her mind since
yesterday.

This past weekend hadn't
seemed at all like a business agreement. It had become a much needed weekend
getaway with someone she was starting to fall in love with.

She put the payment out
of her mind. It didn't seem right to be offering that to him, although she knew
it was the right thing to do. But she didn't want to offend him.

Then another thought hit
her squarely in the face. What if she had fallen for him but for Ethan, this
was all just a regular business arrangement? What if this was a normal part of
his job? She might like to think that she was special to him and believe that
he had strong feelings for her but what if he didn’t? What if he treated each
woman as a client?

What if he thought of
her as his client, and nothing more?

He told her he didn't
sleep with any of the women but wouldn’t he say that to all of them?  

She might not view their
weekend as an arrangement but what if this was all it meant to him? In which
case he would most certainly expect the payment. And as suddenly as that, the doubts
about the weekend, and her time with Ethan, took over and sullied the happy
memories she had.

The sudden swing to more
negative thoughts caught up with Nadine. Without thinking it through, she
turned the car around and parked outside his house again.

She took the check out of
her handbag and walked up to the door. She wouldn't be the dippy damsel in
distress. The door opened and her face dropped as a short, slender girl, with
delicate features and her dark hair held up in a pineapple hairstyle, peered at
her. 

"Hi, can I help
you?" she asked. Nadine heard Ethan's voice behind her. She suddenly felt
very afraid and silly and wished she could turn and run. A bitter taste was in
her mouth and her throat suddenly went dry. Ethan turned up just then, bare
chested and with no t-shirt. Nadine’s legs felt weak and she looked at the
girl, noticing in her desperation that she was wearing a super tight short
cropped top that showed off her mid-riff.

"I think it’s for
you," the girl said as she walked off. Ethan's face registered surprise
when he saw Nadine, then a beautiful smile spread along his face.  But
Nadine's face was tight, and her eyes looked sad. She struggled to keep hidden
the torment that was ripping her insides to shreds. She felt shaky, as though if
she stood here a moment longer, she would topple over. "Nadine?"
Ethan's voice was gentle. He moved forward, to take her arm as if to steady her
but she pulled it away. He cocked his head, wondering what it was that he had
missed. And then it clicked.