Atonement(34)
The thought of sex brought my mind back to my ultimate deception against him the night before. How could I have done that? I used the excuse it had been purely physical and the attraction I’d felt for Liam was fleeting and untenable. He would be—correction, he was—my employer and the thought something could happen between us was silly and unreasonable.
Not because of the whole issue of sexual harassment it brought up and I should know this more than anyone working soon as a manager in Human Resources. However, the feelings I had for Colin were sincere and true. I wanted to be with him and my heart skipped a beat just thinking about him possessing me in the same way his brother had the night before.
It didn’t escape me it all seemed a bit incestuous and a tad bit gross. What kind of hussy did that make me? Sleeping with brothers? How much lower on the scale of “yuck” could I slide down? Did it make a difference I’d only had two lovers before Colin—if we ever became lovers—and one of them just happened to be his brother? My moral compass buzzed in my ear like a bee and warned me I was stepping into very dangerous territory.
Before I could even contemplate whether I should tell Colin about our tryst, his phone call ended and he smiled. “My grandmother wants to meet you as soon as possible. So, I’ll go ahead and cancel the hotel I got for us for our first few days in Paris. I’ll lose the deposit but who cares. Are you okay with boarding yet another plane once we get to Charles De Gaulle to Oslo? I mean, it’s a lot of flying in a short amount of time.”
“Why would I mind? I haven’t left the States in ages and I am really excited about seeing what Norway looks like not to mention meeting your grandparents.” I downed the rest of Guinness and set the pint glass down. “What exactly did you tell them about us?”
“I told my grandmother she would be meeting my future wife,” he replied truthfully without a hint of guilt.
This caused me to do a double-take. “Um, whoa there, tiger. We haven’t even shared a kiss and all the sudden I am your future wife? I refuse to marry a man who works at a coffee shop and a bar by night. Call me an elitist but I know you can do better and I won’t be satisfied until you live up to your full potential.”
“Yes, I know. Which is why you will be very happy to find out I leased an extremely expensive piece of real estate in Pike Place Market. It’s smallish but the owner had a liquor license I could have it grandfathered in. The lease starts when we get back and I plan to do what you want me to do to the letter. I will open up a bar that sells food as well. And guess what, I’ll be cooking it. Well, some of it eventually. I will be hiring a chef in the interim while I get the place up and running. Does that make you feel better? Your future husband is an entrepreneur just like his brother instead of some bum who works as a barista during the day and a bartender by night?”
I bit my lip as I realized the severity of what he was telling me. He was willing to invest in a venture that might fail just to please me? This was a tall order.
“I’m assuming you quit your other two jobs?”
“Yep, yesterday was my last day at both. O’Shaughnessy was pissed—he said I was his best bartender and he hated I was moving on but the coffee shop couldn’t care less. They had a replacement before I left my shift. Looks like there are people better qualified to be a barista than I am.”
I didn’t know exactly what to say to that but was saved by the announcement our flight was beginning to board. Colin and I immediately stood and began to make our way to the gate. As we were in first class, we were some of the first to board the plane. We immediately found our seats and sat next to one another. The seats were luxury themselves and it felt so strange not to be close enough to touch. However, Colin leaned toward me as I had a window seat and we continued to chat as we looked out the window.
The weather wasn’t that great. Although it was dark, the sky was overcast and quite typical for this time of year in Seattle, however I couldn’t help but think we wouldn’t see anything different until we arrived in the south of France but who knew when that would be? I don’t know what it was but something inside me told we would be spending more than just a few days in Norway.
Chapter Ten
ALTHOUGH COLIN AND I had endured a flight that would have tested the patience of Job, first-class made all the difference. Instead of arriving at Charles De Gaulle feeling bloated and tired, we actually both felt quite energized and it took very little effort for us to claim our luggage and navigate the airport to the SAS desk where we immediately booked tickets to Oslo.