Beyond Business: Falling for the Boss / Her Best-Kept Secret / Mergers & Matrimony

Meredith sat in her office, trying to do the advertising analysis that David had asked her to do. But all she could concentrate on was Evan.

And he wasn’t even around.

Well, he was around, somewhere in the office, but she’d barely seen him, except for running into him occasionally when she was alone in the copy room and again when she was returning from an early lunch. Both times Evan had been cordial, polite, but basically he’d acted as if they were strangers.

Was he mad at her?

The last time they’d really spoken he’d admitted that he’d known his father’s intention had been to sabotage her father’s business. Or at least he’d suspected it, and that was enough for Meredith. He’d had an inkling of what was to come, but he’d barely alluded to it in conversation, much less actually come out and warned her.

She should be mad at him.

But she wasn’t. That was ancient history now, and whatever his culpability for not revealing what he suspected, he had been part of George Hanson’s campaign to steal her father’s newspaper and, in fact, after warning her in his far-too-subtle way, he’d left the country. So even the greatest cynic couldn’t say he was actually part of the conspiracy.

So, no, she wasn’t mad. Not at Evan. Not for that. Not anymore.

Instead she found herself watching for him every time she heard footsteps in the hall. When someone entered the room, she looked up quickly, hoping it was him. And when it wasn’t, as it inevitably wasn’t, she was disappointed.

What was going on here?

Finally, at almost five o’clock in the afternoon, when she was about to seek him out and ask if and why he was avoiding her, Evan knocked on her door and poked his head in. “Got a minute?”

She should have been cool and professional but she was so glad to see him that she couldn’t help the excited smile she felt on her face. “Sure.”

He came in. “I was hoping you might go out with me and grab a bite to eat. There’s something—” he hesitated “—there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

She frowned. “Sounds serious.”

“It’s not that big a deal. I just thought it would be nice to get out of the office. I’m not used to being trapped under fluorescent lighting all the time.”

“I guess it doesn’t compare to the Mediterranean sun.” There was a tiny sharp edge to her voice, and she hoped he wouldn’t notice it.

However, the quick glance he gave her said he had. “You should try it sometime.”

“Maybe I will.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

“I’m not, I just. You never expressed much interest in travel before.”

She shrugged. “I’ve never in my life had the time to travel. First it was school, then it was work, now it’s like some pathological habit. I think it’s time I broke it.”

He smiled, the smile that had always made her heart flip. “Starting tonight, then. We’ll go to a little Greek restaurant I know on the outskirts of town.”

She was ready to go farther than that. At this moment, she could have gotten on a plane and taken off for Greece itself, with nothing more than a bathing suit and some sunscreen.

Of course, the image was so unlike her it was almost funny, but suddenly she found herself—unexpectedly and uncharacteristically—hungry for something new, and Chicago just wasn’t offering it to her.

Maybe tonight it would at least give her a little taste.

“Should I change my clothes?” she asked, feeling unexpectedly girlish at his offer.

Evan looked her over, and her skin prickled in response, as if he’d touched her. “No, you’re fine.”

Fine. It wasn’t high praise, but it would do. Especially given the way he’d looked at her.

“Okay, then.” She shut her computer down and picked up her purse. “I’m ready if you are.”

They took the elevator down to the parking garage and went to Evan’s car. He went to open the door for her and she mused, “It’s been a long time since someone opened a door for me.”

“Chivalry’s dead, huh?”

“That or it’s been asleep.” She got into the car and leaned back against the buttery soft leather seats. “Sound asleep.”

“So.” Evan started the car. “Do you date a lot?”

She was taken by surprise at his question. “Do I date a lot?”

He nodded, his eyes on the road in front of him. “Or is that an inappropriate question.”

“I don’t know if it is or not.” She thought for a minute. “Do you date a lot?”

He gave a laugh and glanced at her sideways. “Never mind, that is a hard question to answer.”

“Because there have been so many?” She was unable to stop herself from asking.

“Hardly.”

But she wasn’t sure she believed him.

“Let me try this one,” he said after a couple of moments had passed. “Have you been married? Engaged?”

This was so weird to be talking to Evan about this. “I was engaged once,” she said, though part of her didn’t want to confess it to him for some reason. “But it didn’t work out.”

“Why not?”

She looked out the window and gave a dry laugh. “He wasn’t ambitious. Didn’t have solid plans for the future. I was afraid he might not be … reliable.”

The single moment that passed before Evan spoke was so rife with tension that she had no doubt he understood the irony of her failed relationship.

“Maybe you just expected too much of him.”

“Certain expectations are so basic that to call them ‘too much’ is ludicrous.” She kept her gaze fastened on the road, watching the yellow lines on the black street disappear under the car. But inside she was thinking, Please give me a good explanation for what you did, please make me understand.

“Sometimes people can’t fulfill basic expectations for really good reasons,” Evan said. “Sometimes things are different from what you think.”

“All I know is what I see,” she countered, wishing it was enough to believe him but knowing she needed something more. Something concrete. “It’s hard to speculate about ‘theoretically’ when the facts are slapping you in the face.”