BLUE ICE (ICE SERIES) (5 page)

My eyes were making that adorable thing of appearing murderous. My perfect record of not swearing in front of John was dead, and I only wanted to leave that fucking table. My boss almost never asked for anything, so saying no was a mean thing. He was asking, even if that meant to be humiliated in front of this jerk. There was no escaping here.
I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.

‘I am not appreciating this, but John you know I can’t say no to you. If Mr. Berkeley wins I’ll have breakfast with him.’

‘Dinner….’

‘Don’t push it Mr. Berkeley, I am doing this for my boss. I have no responsibility with you nor respect for your way of doing business.’

I could see John trembling, he was aware of my anger, he knew this was a bad idea, but the participation of a Forbes billionaire would mean a lot for our clients.

‘Oh Ms. Bianchi, you haven’t seen business yet, this is just for fun. And we’ll have dinner.’ His voice was deathly serious, he was not leaving me any room for negotiation.

‘Really pretentious of you, if you win I’ll agree to have breakfast with you.’

My boss interrupted the ping pong match he was witnessing. ‘Lunch?’

Reluctantly I finished with the discussion for the sake of my sweet boss. ‘Ok John, I’ll accept lunch.’

Blue Eyes asked for a coin, of course, rich men don’t carry change, that’s for stupid mortals. I had an internal fight, heads meant no more Blue Eyes, tails meant Him. I couldn’t decide what I wanted. The sound of the coin reaching the floor took me off guard.

Berkeley picked it up and smiled at me. ‘So I hope you like Italian Ms. Bianchi.’

Son of a bitch!
That was the moment when I remembered what I really wanted…to erase that smile off him with my fist.

‘I am sorry Witter, sometimes you lose.’

I could see John was worried but it had nothing to do with the campaign. He knew that this wasn’t right. That offering me, even when I said yes, wasn’t right. ‘Berkeley you won’t be an asshole, right? The bet was between you and me; Katie had nothing to do with this.’

‘John, Ms. Bianchi was aware, and she said yes, for you. So she’ll keep her word.’

This jerk was not only playing with me, he was bothering my boss.
I hate him, I don’t want to see his face ever again.
But I couldn’t run yet, that would have been so childish, and I was going for professional here.

‘Don’t worry John, even though I hate business lunches, I have them all the time. I can give Mr. Berkeley an hour of my time if that’s something all his millions can’t buy.’

Dismissively I took my phone out of my purse and ignored the rest of their conversation. If for a moment I thought he was an attractive man, that was gone. He was, as I thought in the first place, a bastard. I don’t deal with bastards, they don’t deserve my attention. And if he wanted to be a bastard I could show him why everyone thought I was a bitch.

They kept talking, I kept playing with my phone. I tweeted, texted and even bought a very nice pair of shoes without one, single interaction. After a rather uncomfortable hour, different people came to our table. Everyone seemed to want a word with the two men on my sides, mostly men for John, mostly women for Dylan. Blue Eyed Bastard was nice to all of them, a charming gentleman, but he kept that wall on, none of them caught his attention for longer than a minute.
Weirdo! Oh! Maybe he’s gay! I’ll research…
At some point an older handsome man came to the table, he asked John for a minute, he needed to talk to him about a private thing. My heart was beating in a crazy way, I didn’t want to be alone with Berkeley, especially not now. But my fears disappeared when his phone rang and he excused himself from the table.

Finally, after a really uncomfortable evening I had my way out. I had to be quick, Blue Eyes could come back at any time and John would look back to our table. I grabbed my clutch and started walking towards the glass door that lead to the garden. If I could get out through it I could walk and make my way to the entrance from outside the building; that sounded like a plan. Just as I was getting out through the glass door I noticed Dylan talking to a man. He was a version of Kevin Costner on The Bodyguard, he was rough and hot, and scary as hell. As I got closer I could listen them without being noticed.

‘Max, the lady that’s sitting next to me is Katherine Bianchi.’

‘Yes, sir, I know.’ The Bodyguard was stoic.

How the hell did he know? I hadn’t seen him before in my life!

‘Max, she’s off limits, to everyone.’

‘Yes sir.’

‘She’s more precious than your right hand Max, I want a man with her at every moment, ok?’             

‘Yes sir, I’ve already handed her file to our guys, and Joe knows her, you don’t have to worry.’

Before they stopped talking I walked towards the main entrance; he was busy, there was no way he would follow me. I asked one of the concierges for a cab. On my way home I could think.
What the fuck was all that about?
I couldn’t understand it, why did I have a file? What did it say? How was I off limits, why could no one get close to me, and why on Earth was I precious? All of that freaked me out. I was precious only to my parents, maybe to John because I was good at my job.
Oh, maybe that was what they were talking about.
Maybe he was thinking about hiring me. Was The Bodyguard some kind of headhunter?
Oh God, I don’t want to think about this anymore.
Of course my cell phone started vibrating a couple of minutes later, but I ignored it. I would deal with it later.

Once home, I grabbed my phone and texted quickly to John, deleting 10 texts without even reading them.

SORRY BOSS, I HAVE AN EARLY MEETING TOMORROW, ENJOY YOUR NIGHT.

After my nightly routine I got into bed and stared at the ceiling. I was sure about it, this was all about hiring me. I may not be pretty or kind, but I’m good at my job, and he could be interested in that.

Chapter 4

I don’t know when I fell asleep that night, but soon my alarm was waking me up. Of course there was no meeting, but I had to arrive early to justify my escape. I had been working for a while in my office when Mrs. Cherry knocked at my door. I know she had a stripper name, but in fact she was John’s assistant and the nicest old lady I’ve ever met.

‘Ms. Bianchi, sorry to interrupt you, but Mr. Witter wants to see you in his office.’

Shit!

‘Sure Mrs. Cherry.’

Why on Earth people want to talk about awkward topics, we can live our lives ignoring things that make us uncomfortable, why to talk about it!
I knocked on his door rather nervously.

‘Katie, come in. Please close the door and sit down. I want to talk about last night kiddo.’

I just stared at him, maybe he wanted to gossip about something that happened and this had nothing to do with me...

‘I am so sorry about last night, I went home and told Grace what happened. She wants to kill me. She knows how much I care about you and she thinks I am the worst man because I allowed Berkeley to bother you. I don’t know what happened, he must really like you kiddo.’

My sweet boss’s reaction broke my heart, I needed to take him out of his misery. ‘John, don’t worry, he doesn’t like me and I need to tell you something too. I met him a couple of weeks ago in San Antonio. I was going to tell you, but he acted as if he didn’t know me, so I thought that either he didn’t remember me or he was trying to avoid me. I am sorry I didn’t tell you last night.’

‘Oh Katie, that’s not a problem. I am so ashamed, you know I would never put a campaign over you. I just thought that a handsome man was pursuing you, no danger.’ He crossed his arms over his belly, he was getting comfortable, which meant he was just starting with this conversation.

‘He wasn’t pursuing me John, I think that I know what happened. I didn’t accept to have lunch with him in San Antonio. In fact I was kind of mean to him, and I guess he just can’t accept no for an answer. Childhood traumas you now? So this was a perfect opportunity for him to prove that he always gets what he wants.’ I couldn’t believe I was telling this to my boss, I didn’t even think before I said it. As always there was no filter to my mouth. We got interrupted by a knock on the door.

‘Come in.’ John got back on his bossy posture and acted as if we were working.

Jenny, the most annoying woman I’ve met, entered to the room. She was petite with green eyes and red hair. She had also been a pain in my ass since last year. She was always trying to compete with me, but that wasn’t what bothered me, it was the fact that she was more fake than a Chinese Louis Vuitton purse. I can’t stand people who fake nice; I would always respect a son of a bitch or a bastard, but never a hypocrite.

‘Good morning. Hi Katie, are you ok? You look a little tired darling, you need some sleep you know.’

I need to kick your ass “darling”.

She ignored me and went as close to my boss as she could. ‘John, I got the investigation you asked, I researched everything I could on Dylan Berkeley for our new campaign.’

I turned to John, this was OUR campaign, not hers! Why was she investigating THAT man, when I’d never heard a word about us being interested in him? He knew exactly what I was thinking.

‘Kiddo, you were gone when it occurred to me that he’s just the man we need.’

‘Oh! He’s the man every girl needs!’ She fanned herself dramatically, like a teenage girl on drugs.

Not only fake, but slutty. Good to know.

‘Jenny, I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to tell you earlier. We don’t need the research anymore.’ Without even reading it, my boss was giving Jenny her reports back.

The deception on her face was obvious, but her unprofessional pouting was worse. ‘Why? He’s just perfect!’

And as if I were living in a romantic comedy another knock came just in time.

‘Come in.’

Sweet Mrs. Cherry entered after the acknowledgement of my boss. ‘Mr. Witter, I have Mr. Berkeley’s assistant on the phone. He wants to know if Wednesday is ok for Ms. Bianchi for their lunch.’

I could hear Jenny’s jaw falling to the floor.
What about that “darling”?
John looked at me and I nodded with pain in my face. There was no point in delaying this so I just asked Mrs. Cherry to let them know I was available. ‘It’s fine with me Mrs. Cherry. Please just ask him where I have to be.’

‘Sure Ms. Bianchi.’

              After Mrs. Cherry left the room Jenny started pleading her case.

‘I don’t get it John, is Dylan Berkeley collaborating with us? Because if he is, I am the one who should be dealing with him, I know everything about after all those reports.’

              Note to Myself: Grab one of those reports about Blue Eyes.

‘No, Jenny. Berkeley didn’t accept to work with us. And he’s having lunch with Katie for other reasons.’ My dear boss was as disgusted about this as I was.

              But not everything was that bad. Jenny, without noticing it, gave me the best idea ever. I couldn’t avoid that lunch, but I could make it a job assignment, a moment to research everything I could that would help us on our campaign.

‘I am not following you John.’ The disbelief in Jenny’s face was evident.  ‘When did you ask Berkeley?’

‘He made a last minute appearance at the gala last night, I learned about it the moment I arrived at the saloon. They had been asking him for months and he refused every time, but this week he decided he could make it.’

Did he just go because he learned I was going?
Sure princess, that beautiful piece of ass is following you, in your dreams baby.

‘So? You asked him?’ That girl was even nosier than I had thought.

‘Yes, but he would rather be killed, so we left it to luck.’

‘And?’

‘We lost.’

Angry, she put her hand on her hip, with a brat attitude. ‘So why is Katie still having lunch with him?’

‘That’s what losing meant, if he won he would have lunch with Katie.’

‘Oh God! I want that kind of defeat for myself! No offense Kate, but I was the one who was supposed to be there! I know I came to work here just a year ago, but I have learned everything about the life of that man.’ She was whining again, moving her hands, just being the drama queen we all knew lived in her soul.

With a smile on my face I dismissed her tantrum. ‘Non taken Jenny, you can have him whenever you want, for research, of course.’

‘So that means you will let me go in your place?’

              Mrs. Cherry came to the office again.

‘Ms. Bianchi, Mr. Berkeley has a meeting that day, do you have a problem with a late lunch?’

My boss interrupted me before I could answer. ‘Terry, please tell Berkeley’s people that one of the other girls in the agency wants to fill in for Katie. She really admires Dylan and would love to have lunch with him.’

              Whoa! How did that happen?
I didn’t want to see Him again, but I didn’t like the idea of Jenny and Blue Eyes. After a brief moment Mrs. Cherry had an answer.

‘Sir, I can’t repeat Mr. Berkeley’s message, but cleaning it up, he says that he expected Ms. Bianchi to be a woman that would back her word. And that he won’t take anyone but Ms. Katherine Bianchi.’

That jerk, I was so tired of this game. ‘Tell them I’ll be there Mrs. Cherry, I always make my word count.’

‘Sure, Ms. Bianchi.’

Without leaving the room Terry continued to talk on the phone, making a show of it.

‘Did you hear? Tell your boss she’s coming. She’s an exceptional lady and her word has value… No she wasn’t the one who refused to go, it was my boss who proposed it…No, as I’ve already told you, she’s coming. ‘

              And with that, the adorable Terry Cherry,
yes that’s her name
, left the room.