Page 30 of Just Like You
“Really, Julian. Not all people are into that kind of lifestyle. No glass penthouses in my life.”
“I see.” I swallowed the inevitably intrusive follow-up questions I had sitting at the tip of my tongue. “But you spend your money on watches.”
“Indulgences. I don’t have many vices. Watches? Yes. I like them.”
“I do too.” I reached out and stroked down his arm. The Patek he was wearing was pretty. Simple but stunning. “This is a nice piece. I have your Rolex in my bag.”
“Thank you.”
“No more dropping stuff in my bag. I could get in trouble with Customs. Receipts and all that.”
“You’ll be fine. I have receipts and everything. I’d bail you out.”
“Idiot.”
He smiled. Dragged his fingers through his hair as I sipped my tea.
“Must be a lonely life, waking up in different hotel rooms all the time.”
“Not really. I like my own company. It’s just like waking up in your own bed every morning. It’s the night shifts that ruin it. The tiredness. Jetlag. Having to figure out what your body needs to eat when it’s craving one thing and screaming for something else. Trying to get exercise in and remember to pay your bills at home when you’re on the other side of the world. You can never plan anything. People invite you to weddings you can’t go to. You miss important things. Yet you see all the wonders of the world. Get to sit on a beach sipping tea like this.”
“I get that.” He spoke softly, his words coming out at a slower pace. “My life is really hectic too. I travel, a lot. It’s part of what I do.”
“And what do you do?” I had to ask because to be honest? I didn’t know.
“You know search engines?” He sat up straighter. “Comparison sites. Like when you need to renew your car insurance?”
“Yeah?”
“The company I work for, we handle a lot of different financial products, and we need to be on all the relevant sites. Notnecessarily for car insurance, but other kinds of insurance. Accounts. Money handling, financial advice, risk analysis… We need to have visibility there. Clients need to see our brand and our products and want to use us because we have that reputation of skill and safe handling of their assets. That’s what I do. I negotiate our presence so we can sell what we do.”
“Oh. Sounds complicated.”
“Not really. I used to work with other departments of the company, but I took over this a while back and found it suited me. My boss decided it was a way to keep me out of trouble.”
“Trouble?” I smiled.
“I’m not much of a people person. Trying to get clients to trust me with their money wasn’t always a good fit.”
“I noticed.”
“But when I like someone?” He winked. Weird.
“You go all in. Obsessively stalk people all across the world until you pin them down in the Indian Ocean and make them have tea with you.”
“I have a bottle of rosé chilling in the minibar. Thought maybe…we could take it down onto the beach. Sit in the evening sun.”
“Who would have thought? You’re a romantic.”
“A sappy one,” he admitted.
“And you’re good in bed.”
Now he grimaced, with a blush blooming on his face. I liked it. Liked how I could embarrass him and take him down from that high and mighty Mr Andrieu, with just a tiny sentence. The way he looked at me made me smile.
“You are. You know what you’re doing and what you like. It’s attractive. Few people do.”
“I agree,” he said softly. “It’s taken me years to figure out what I like.”
