A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [37]
He kissed her back, unable to help himself. Later he could be strong, but when she was in his arms all he could think of was keeping her there.
At last she came up for air. “I start tomorrow.” Her brown eyes shone with excitement. “They handle some really big authors, Zach. I won’t get to work with New York Times bestsellers right away, but I’ll be in the same building when they come in. I might be able to bring them coffee. And the authors I do work with could become bestsellers, because this is a really good house. Did you thank Ed again for me? I should call him.”
“He might be at lunch.” Zach didn’t want her calling Ed just yet. He had some things to explain first.
“Even better!” She wiggled out of his arms and dug in her purse for her cell phone. “This is why I took his number while I was there, so I could let him know what happened.” She found a pad of paper and flipped it open to where she’d written Ed’s cell number.
“Listen, before you call, there’s something—”
“It’ll only take a minute. Then we can go celebrate! Where can you go? I know you don’t have much time, and I don’t want to make you late for work again, so we could put it off until—” She paused and stuck her finger in her ear. “Hello? Ed? I can barely hear you.”
“Reception’s bad,” Zach said. “You can call him back later.”
Instead she stepped up on the sidewalk. “There, that’s better. Ed, this is Hannah. I got the job!” Then she smiled. “Yeah, it is wonderful. Thanks for recommending me to your client. We really got along. What?” She glanced at Zach. “Just a sec.” She put her finger over the speaker.
Zach would have liked more time. He’d wanted to give her a chance to bask in her glory before hearing his announcement. “Hannah, listen, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“I’m guessing so.” She looked worried. “Ed says he forgot he has a Little League practice and wonders if he can drop your boxes off tomorrow morning at your apartment. What’s that all about, Zach?”
“I quit.”
“You what?”
“It just isn’t the place for me, so I quit.”
Hannah groaned. “This is my fault. I should never have said that! Is it final? Maybe you could go back this afternoon and say you’d reconsidered.”
“No, I can’t do that.”
“Oh, Zach.” Still gazing at him in concern, she brought the phone back to her ear. “Ed, are you still there? Listen, we’ll call you back about the boxes. And thanks again for the recommendation. Bye.” Then she snapped her phone shut and tucked it in her purse.
“First of all,” Zach said, “it’s not your fault that I quit. I’m grateful to you for showing me that I didn’t have to accept what Medford had laid out. I told him I didn’t want the corner office, and he should give it back to Ed.”
She sighed. “Not a good move.”
“It was a perfect move. Medford got all purple in the face. You would have loved it. He totally lost his cool.”
“Really? He turned purple?”
“Like an eggplant.”
Hannah put both hands to her mouth. “I shouldn’t laugh. This is serious. You just threw away a perfectly good job.”
“It wasn’t a perfectly good job. Not with Medford in charge.”
She lowered her hands and cleared her voice. “Okay, maybe this isn’t so terrible. But I still feel responsible. You wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t come up with the idea.”
“As I’ve told you, I want to thank you for that. I’ll sleep much better tonight knowing I don’t have to go back there.”
She gazed up at him with a tiny smile. “Do you think you’ll get to sleep tonight?”
Here came the hard part. “Yes. Because…because…I’ve decided we should stop seeing each other.”
She looked as if she’d been slapped. “Why?”
“I’m out of a job, Hannah. You just got a really good one. You said yourself that this wasn’t the time for you to make a commitment. That’s doubly true, now. I refuse to be a stone around your neck right when you’re ready to enjoy this great city.”
“But—”
“Trust me, this is the right thing. For both of us. Goodbye, Hannah.” Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked down the street. He wasn’t sure where