Page 42 of In This Together
‘Fine. We’ll sit by your electric fire. We’ll get talking. We’ll laugh. We’ll flirt. We’ll dance. Then we’ll sleep together.’
‘I mean, that kinda sounds… No, no, I’m just playing with ya. I promise no sleeping together.’
She smiled in response to his hands held out in surrender. ‘No, Tommy.’
‘You’re a hard woman to crack. Look, I’d really like it if you were involved in the new album, whatever way they’ll let you be, but I get if you can’t make that happen. I just miss the old days, you know? Anyways, you’ve got my number. The offer stands.’
He started to walk away and Andrea said, ‘For how many seconds?’
She heard him laugh as he walked out of her office. She watched him lean on Hannah’s desk and say something to her, then tap his hand down and walk away.
‘Probably givingherhis number,’ she mumbled, but found herself laughing.
If nothing else, Tommy’s visit had taken her mind off Hunter.
Whohappened to be walking past Tommy in the opposite direction… toward her office.
What did he want? She’d already said everything she had to say to him. Now, what she really needed was space to get past him. Oh, but he was wearing her favourite light grey suit.
‘Psst, Hannah. Hannah. Hannah!’
Hannah jumped on the final shout, turning in her desk chair positioned outside Andrea’s office. Andrea ushered her in subtly with her hand.
Hannah glanced in the direction of Hunter then looked around her desk, grabbed a bunch of papers and hurried into Andrea’s office.
The women stood on either side of Andrea’s desk, staring and pointing at the paper stack between them. Andrea dared a discreet glance and saw Hunter was almost upon them.
‘You need to call, erm… ah… Sean Deacon, over at ah… the… ah…’
Hannah’s nerves were making Andrea more nervous. ‘At Platinum Management?’
‘Yes,’ Hannah said. ‘And don’t forget about the thing… the, ah, erm, urgent thing.’
‘The urgent thing?’ Hunter’s voice was as smooth and assured as ever. Clearly breaking off their affair hadn’t made him flounder at all. ‘Now that sounds very important.’
Andrea stifled a nervous laugh when Hannah said under her breath, ‘Dick.’
‘Ladies, how are you both?’ he said, swaggering into the room. Andrea had never noticed the familiarity of his swagger before. But it came to her now. It wasn’t sexy, at all. It wasLiberace.
‘Very busy, Hunter, I’m afraid. Did you need something?’ Andrea spoke with her shoulders back and her chin high because, yes, finally, she was doing the right thing and taking the moral high ground.
He slipped a hand in the pocket of his tailored slacks, drawing Andrea’s gaze to his crotch.Damn it!
‘Right. With veryurgentthings. I do need to speak with you and this isurgenttoo.’
He eyed Hannah in a way that said,I don’t care if you’re my daughter’s friend or not, get the hell out.
Ultimately, he was the big boss so Andrea knew that Hannah could do nothing more than offer an apologetic look and pick up the math homework pages she had printed using the work printer, probably for her middle kid, from the desk between her and Andrea.
Hannah kept the office door open, which Andrea silently thanked her for.
‘What can I do for you, Hunter?’
‘I saw Tommy Dawson leaving your office.’
She folded her arms across her chest.Jealous, are we?‘He had a meeting about his new album.’
‘In your office?’
