The Proposal (7 page)

Straightening herself up,
she nodded her head approvingly. She could do with some time to herself.
"Charge anything you want to the room," she called after him. 

She flopped onto the bed
and lay down, closing her eyes and enjoying the silence. It wasn't only that
she needed to shower and dress in peace.  She needed to think about what
had just happened. When Ethan had held her close to him and hugged her, the
look on Sandra's face had been priceless. The sense of completeness and
closeness she had felt when they had held hands, had all seemed so natural.

Then she reminded herself
that this was his job.

This was what Ethan did
for a living, albeit part-time as he had told her many times.

But she had enjoyed that
feeling of belonging to him. They had a nice camaraderie and banter and they
could also remain in silence with each other, without either of them feeling
the need to fill the silence with idle talk just for the sake of it.

But it worried her that
she was starting to enjoy his company.

It worried her more that
he might not feel that way.

She couldn’t think about
this now, she would think about it later. She needed to get ready.

She locked the door,
feeling that the last thing she needed was for him to walk in and see her
naked.  She took a shower; she would be ready within the hour.

An hour and a half later,
an angry looking Nadine walked into the cocktail lounge for the drinks
reception.

She was dressed and ready
and Ethan had shown no signs of turning up. She had called his cell phone but
it had gone to voicemail each time. She hadn't bothered to leave any messages
or to text him. Feeling the rage welling up inside her, she sprayed Chanel
Number 5 over her wrists and collarbone and headed out towards the lobby to
look for him.

"Hey Nadine!"
yelled Melissa rushing up to her. She had on a touch of too much make-up and
looked exhilarated to be here.

Nadine felt a surge of
relief seeing her loyal secretary. "Hi, Melissa. Nice dress."

"Thank you, but I
think you've won in the style stakes," said Melissa sweeping her eyes over
Nadine's slender figure.  She was wearing a floral print dress, cut on the
bias, in lilac and white and it was nipped in at her waist.

"By the way Nadine,
Ethan's gorgeous. Where did you find him?" Nadine's heart raced. The question
threw her. She took it literally and wondered if Melissa suspected anything
about where she got Ethan from. She muttered her thanks when she caught sight
of him standing over by the far wall and rushed off towards him. She couldn’t
see  who he was with because her view was obscured by the Marketing
crowd over from Europe. 

She walked quickly in his
direction, trying to avoid Stefan, who was over from France, and Mario, from
the office in Milan.

"Oh Nadine! How good
to see you!” Thierry burst in, clasping her by her shoulders and planting a
soft kiss on each cheek in turn.

"Thierry, how 
wonderful to see you, and you Patrice."  Nadine was good at
names  and this was not a problem for her. Thierry worked with Stefan in
their Paris office, and Patrice was Thierry’s wife.

She turned to Mario and
embraced him cheerfully. “Mario, how lovely to see you." She didn’t
recognize his partner though. Mario hastily stepped in and introduced his new
girlfriend, Chantelle. The tall  leggy blonde, the same height as Nadine,
looked her over. With her eyes and mind half on Ethan, Nadine glanced at her
quickly, "Lovely to see you, would you please excuse me one moment, I'll
be back." She gave her most winning smile and raced off towards Ethan, who
had his back turned.

He was talking to Michael
Zimmerman and Sandra Donnelly.

Nadine's color drained
from her face. She knew Sandra's motives and she knew Sandra had a knack for
discovering details in a roundabout way. She could only hope that Ethan had
been able to hold his own. She temporarily forgot that he wasn't even properly
dressed. Rushing up to him, she took his hand softly, "Hey honey, I was
beginning to wonder where you had gotten to."  Ethan turned to
acknowledge her and she saw a quick flicker of delight spread across his face
as his eyes dropped down, taking in her whole outfit.

Nadine had picked the
right dress for this evening and she knew she looked good in her pure white
floaty number.

"You look stunning,
" said Ethan staring at her dreamily and completely forgetting about
Sandra Donnelly and Michael Zimmerman who were standing next to him.

Something in Ethan’s eyes
and the way he said it, told her that he meant it.

"Mr. Zimmerman, how
nice to meet you." said Nadine brightly, stretching out her palm and
shaking it warmly.

She liked this man and
the few meetings she had had with him gave her the impression that he was a
shrewd but fair man. He rewarded loyalty and hard work and merit and had no
time for people who slacked off or for those who treated him like a god.

"Nadine, please.
Call me Michael. After all, we're all here to relax as well as do a bit of
work." He laughed and his silver grey eyebrows lifted as he did so. He was
not particularly tall, and Nadine felt as though she and Ethan towered over Sandra
and Michael.

But even with his small
height and slim frame, Michael Zimmerman was a force to be reckoned with. He
had built up his advertising company from nothing forty years ago to now being
one of the most successful advertising agencies in San Francisco. Many other
companies had come and gone but his had remained with the largest market share
because he believed in the power of relationships, something that many
companies, especially in this digital age, forgot about.

"We've been having a
wonderful conversation, Ethan and I," he turned to Ethan and chuckled.

Great
, thought Nadine. She dreaded to think what these
two could possibly have in common.

Michael Zimmerman beamed
at her, "Art. Structures and architectural metalwork,” he said. “I never
knew your boyfriend was so talented.”

"Metalwork?"
said Nadine, a little weakly. Oh dear god. She didn’t want Ethan’s little white
lies to turn into huge episodes that would come to haunt her in months to come.

Sandra Donnelly continued
listening quietly. She had been studying Ethan and watching him in delicious
silence.

"Anyway, nice to
meet you. I hope we can carry on with our conversation another time Mr.
Zimmerman." Ethan seemed enthused to have met the man who Nadine had
wanted to impress the most.

"Call me Michael,
please," said Michael. 

"Would you excuse us
for a moment, please?” asked Nadine. She grabbed Ethan's hand and frog marched
him slowly away from the group.

"What are you
doing?" she hissed between clenched teeth, smiling at all the people she passed
on the way. 

Ethan held her hand
tightly, "What's wrong now? You need to relax a bit Nadine."

"This was not our
agreement!" she glared at him when she had him in the elevator.

"The proposal, you
mean," he said slowly, looking at her calmly. Cleary he was enjoying
watching her wince. These people didn't mean anything to him.  He couldn't
care less about the other people here but he was trying to show Nadine in a
good light. He didn't think he had done anything wrong by getting to know
someone like Michael Zimmerman on good terms either. So he was confused as to
why Nadine was so angry with him.

"I don't want you to
draw any unnecessary attention to yourself Ethan! And making a beeline for the
founder of the company is not what I asked you to do!”  

She leant against the
lift wall as the elevator bell sounded, signaling that they had arrived at
their floor.

“And you don’t have to
make up wild stories about architectural metalwork, for goodness sake. I don’t
even know what that is!” She sounded very stressed.

“Who says I’m lying?”
asked Ethan quietly.

“Aaaaargh! You’re
impossible. I swear you’re doing this to me because you think its funny!” raged
Nadine, searching frantically in her clutch bag for the keycard.

"Chill out Nadine,
for goodness sake. You know what your problem is?" he continued as they
walked along the hallway to their room, “you’re too uptight.”

But Nadine wasn’t
listening to him. Once inside, she let her emotions rip.  "Sandra
Donnelly is a hawk eyed bitch."

"I figured. By the
way, what are we doing here?" he stopped mid-sentence and looked at her
blankly.

"You need to get
changed. Freshen up a little." She said through gritted teeth.

"Are you ashamed of
me?" he asked her pointedly, staring at her with his now dark blue eyes.
She felt ashamed, "No" she denied hotly, feeling her face getting
redder, "but you do need to change out of your jeans and t-shirt and maybe
put on a smarter pair of pants and a slightly smarter shirt."

He was silent for a while
and then he said, “You know, Nadine, if you’re ashamed of me, maybe you
shouldn't have bought me here in the first place. Maybe you should have thought
twice before making your proposal."

"Just get changed
and come downstairs. And lay low," she ordered, pacing the room. She
couldn't work out why she was being so nasty. This was a different side to her
and she didn't like it. In a gentler tone, she added, "I'll see you
downstairs Ethan."

With his back turned to
her, he started to take off his t-shirt. She left the room and headed back
towards the cocktail reception.

A short while later,
Ethan walked into the drinks reception and dutifully sidled up to Nadine. She
looked at him and then did a double take. He looked deliciously sexy, in a
casual and effortless way.

Sandra brushed past them,
"I was beginning to wonder what you had done with him Nadine," she
said smiling at Ethan rather provocatively. Once again he found himself feeling
slightly intimidated by her overpowering look.

"Can I get you a
drink, honey?" he asked Nadine sweetly. She watched his face, trying to
discern if he was being genuinely caring and attentive or trying to be over the
top sweet.

"Another wine, if
you don't mind," Nadine answered and stared after him as he made his way
through the crowd and over to the bar.

"Where did you find
him and are there any more like him?" asked Sandra, with a little touch of
vindictiveness to her voice. She was watching Nadine like a hawk. Nadine
wondered whether Sandra had found out any information that she would rather
Sandra did not have. For the rest of the evening, Ethan was the perfect guest,
entertaining, lively, animated and able to converse and mix with all of
Nadine's friends and colleagues.

"You're regaling
them with your anecdotes and impressing the pants off everyone" said
Nadine in an attempt to reach out to him. She had hated the way she had behaved
towards him earlier.

"Interesting,"
said Ethan, "because the only person I'd like to impress the pants off of
is you," he whispered softly into her ear. His words sent an electric
current shooting through her body. He moved his face away and then winked at
her just as Melissa came around with another round of drinks for them.

“I’m sorry for the things
I said to you upstairs Ethan. I’m just-“

He cut her off by placing
a finger against her lips. “I know. Don’t worry about it.”

The dinner was short and
formal, and in the Grand Ballroom. It was a buffet style meal where every guest
went up to the buffet table and filled up their plates.

"He's absolutely
gorgeous," Melissa nudged Nadine, when Ethan's back was turned. 
"You'll have to be careful though, Sandra has her eyes clamped on
him." A lightning shudder flitted through Nadine's body until she realised
that there was no way that Melissa knew anything about Ethan's occupation.

They sat together, with
Michael Zimmerman, Mario, his girlfriend, Stefan, Thierry, Patrice and Sandra
whose husband had not yet arrived.  The meal was short and swift and
afterwards most people lingered a very short time over at the drinks bar before
retiring to bed because the next day was going to be full on with lots of
presentations and meetings for the employees of the Zimmerman Group. The
partner guests, like Ethan, were to indulge themselves by using the gym,
swimming pool, playing golf, or getting some treatments from the spa.

One down, one more to
go
, thought Nadine, thankful that
the Friday night was over. She knew the nights were going to be the hardest to
get through. And if she was honest with herself, she would admit that she was
starting to enjoy her private time with Ethan.

“How did I do?” asked
Ethan, settling down on the sofa chair, his long legs spread out comfortably
before him. He placed his thumb under his chin and his index finger under his
bottom lip, striking an almost thinking pose as he watched Nadine.