Page 47 of Pick Six
I stare at the text for a minute. While his mother is rumored to be very sweet, his father is a force to be reckoned with. A senator who’s almost as famous as he is, with a temper to match his son’s and a long shadow that casts over everything political in the city and beyond it.
On one hand, going to his parents’ house after last night feels like a lot. A huge step even in a fake relationship that I’m not prepared for. I definitely didn’t need one awkward intimate encounter after another. Especially when this is all just supposed to be a fictional veneer to protect his career. On the other, it means we’ll be so busy acting for them that we won’t have time to revisit last night. Plus his father has a lot of clout. A lot of ability to get attention, sway votes, and be heard on topics like say a levy we desperately want to see passed. It’s a long shot to get him to see reason where the museum is concerned, but he might. I could hope.
Sure. I can come. Might need to grab some caffeine though. It’s been a long day. What time?
I know that he and his father have an icy relationship. It’s been that way since college according to Drew. He’d gone on a football scholarship to a school that wasn’t an Ivy and pursued a communications degree instead of following in his father’s footsteps to politics and law. It had a bitter ripple effect on their relationship, one that had already been strained since Alex had never really been good at falling in line and obeying authority figures. A position Senator Xavier relished.
I can come get you when I get out of practice at 4.
I won’t have time to change.
Whatever you’ve got for work will work for this.
Okay. I’ll meet you in the lobby?
See you there.
* * *
A little whilelater and Scarlett and I are working on the object list for the upcoming exhibit. She works with the military collection, and I work with textiles, so we’re paired together on a WWII-themed exhibit on fashion and the frontline in the 1940s. Several of the upcoming fundraising events to help convince the community to keep the museum are centered around it and it’s our last-ditch effort to show them we’re worth funding. So you know, no pressure at all to make it perfect.
“What about these two dresses in this case here and then the uniforms opposite them here? When people walk in, it’ll give them that sense of them walking down the street past them.”
“Yeah. I like that. We just need to come up with a few more things for this case over here. Has Stacy had a chance to get the programming together yet? Do we know what interactives she’s putting in?”
“She’s getting back to me. I think she said today. I need to check my email.”
“You better do that. It’s already getting late, and you have a date tonight.” Scarlett gives me a look. She’s enjoying this way too much.
“Don’t start,” I say as I crouch down to make sure the bottom of this dress is off the floor on the mannequin.
“Oh, I’m gonna start, until you start acknowledging he’s hot and you want him.”
“Stop.”
“You want him. You need him. Oh, baby. Oh, baby.”
“Are you seriously quoting movies at me right now?”
“Yes. Until you admit that you have fun with him and you want him to do it again.” She laughs as she puts a couple of boxes up on the shelf.
“Fine, it was great. He’s hot as fuck. I love the way he talks, and I want him to pin me down and fuck me hard. Is that better?” I look up at her from my crouched position because she doesn’t respond. She’s frozen in place, her eyes glued to a spot up and over my shoulder—the doorway to our workroom. Then she blinks and her eyes shift down to me.
“Um… Harp…”
Shit.There was definitely someone in the doorway. No one ever comes back here except the curators or the collections staff. None of whom she’d be having this reaction to, so it must be upper management. I was going to die of embarrassment if it was the director or the business manager.
I stand to my full height, slowly as I grab the paperwork I’d temporarily set on the floor. Buying seconds before I have to face whomever it is.
“I brought you caffeine. Wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I got a few different things. Figured whatever you didn’t want, someone else might.” I recognize his voice immediately and my eyes flash to Scarlett for a moment before I close them and mouth, “Kill. Me. Now,” to her.
I turn slowly though, trying to act unbothered and plaster a strained smile on my face. Maybe he hadn’t heard. And if he had heard, it wasn’t like he knew for sure I was talking about him. There might be someone else I’m talking about.
When I finally turn and look at him though, the way his eyes dance with mirth, the tiny smirk at the corner of his mouth; he knows exactly who I was talking about.
“Who let you back here?” I try to sound pleasantly curious when I ask but fail miserably.
“The guy at the front desk. He’s a fan. Told me I didn’t need to sit around the lobby waiting and could come back here to see you. That you’re always in this room hiding out.”
