Page 169 of Lovestruck at Sundown
“I see.” Aaron didn’t have to tell me any of this, but I appreciated it all the same. He knew I cared about Nathan, even though he was my ex, and we weren’t necessarily friends. But I loved him once upon a time and wanted him to be happy and fulfilled in whatever he chose to do. “And what will William do with Agent Hawthorne?”
“William sent a notice on an early termination of the contract, which they were expecting, but will not be proceeding with any legal action,” Aaron explained. “They’re good people, Mark and Oliver, and William knows that. He wants to make it easier for everyone to move on from this.”
If my mother loved Agent Mark, I was sure he was a good man.
“There’s more.” Aaron cleared his throat. He stared at me and took a moment before continuing. “I’ve been laid off by your father.”
My eyes widened with panic.No!Why did Aaron’s job have to suffer from this mess?
“So what now?” I was in denial. I’d yearned for my freedom for so long, but at the same time, Aaron made me feel safe. There had been so many times that I didn’t know what I would’ve done without his reassuring presence. He was more than just a bodyguard. He was like a brother to me, a dear friend, and a trusted confidante.
Aaron held up a hand, silently asking me to allow him to explain. “Your father is doing this to let you know that, and I quote, ‘She’s free to live the life she wants to live in the best way she sees fit.’ He also wanted me to tell you that he trusts you and always has. The person he never trusted and continuously doubted was himself.”
Cecile grabbed my hand and squeezed it. She knew how deep the rabbit hole went when it came to my father, the nuances and complexities of our relationship, and the breadth of the wounds. She knew it all. She knew how big of a deal this was and how I’d been waiting for this moment for years, but not expecting it to happen.
“But where will you go?” I asked, slightly agitated. “What will you do? Does Naomi know you’ve been laid off?”
“Since William fired his bodyguard,” Aaron said with a hint of a smile, “he was looking to hire someone new.”
I jumped from my seat and rounded the coffee table to tackle Aaron with a hug. “He hired you? Did William hire you?” I broke off the embrace after feeling Aaron nodding in affirmation and sat next to him. “Tell me everything.”
“Your father agreed to lease the apartment to us, so Naomi and I will continue to live in it,” he explained. “William will send over the paperwork this week. But I will be mostly yourdriver—”
I cut him off with an overexcited squeal.
“—andwill accompany William and you to any events you want me to attend. You are free to roam around the city on your own if that’s what you want. Or things can continue as they have been. The difference is it’s all up to you now. I even brought you this.” His hand reached into the inner jacket pocket, pulled out a subway map, and handed it to me with a laugh.
“Shut up!” I slapped his shoulder with it and laughed. I could hear Cecile giggling behind me. “Wait, but what about Cooper?”
“He’ll be assigned to Tobias now,” Aaron explained. “He was looking to hire a driver, so the timing was perfect.”
“Good,” I said, feeling relieved. I knew Cooper needed the job and I didn’t want him to be affected by this. “Can I hug you again?”
Aaron rolled his eyes playfully. “Get in here.” He opened his arms and swiveled his fingers.
“Can you call me Billie now?”
“I don’t think so, Miss Murphy.”
I rested my face on his chest. “Ugh, okay. Whatever.”
The doorbell rang, and I stood to get the door, but Tobias had let himself in.
“Ton temps … est … écoulé!” He shouted in his chopped-up French, pointing at Cecile. “It’sécoulé, right?” He asked, looking at me for confirmation, making us all laugh.
October 11, 2012
Maya Chen’s portraitturned out stunning. Abigail and the rest of the team loved it. When I explained to Maya that my black-and-white close-up portraits relied solely on lighting without Photoshop editing, she kind of freaked out. And then when she saw the end result, she was floored by it.
I’d provided the magazine with seven more portraits after Maya’s, but today, I was going to photograph the notorious French gallerist Louis Beaumont. He and his wife were in New York to inaugurate the first Beaumont Gallery in the United States, and Abigail’s interview started in ten minutes. I grabbed my camera, dropped a USB off with some files Becca had asked me to work on earlier, and headed to Empire Magazine’s headquarters on the 21st floor.
I greeted Abigail, whom I’d been getting to know better after working with her for almost two months, and the only word I could think of to describe her wasbadass. Abigail was in her late fifties and had curly, dirty blonde hair that landed just above her shoulders. Her wayfarer-style dark-framed glasses heightened her natural intellectual persona.
When we first met, I felt intimidated by her, but even ifshe wasn’t the most affectionate person, she had her own way of showing appreciation for the team. She was careful with words and with how and when to use them. I’d been trying to learn as much as I could from her. I looked up to her and wished I could learn to convey that level of confidence with my peers and in my work. I was still figuring out myself and my role in the company and often felt like an orbiter who moved from room to room, unobtrusively but effectively doing what was expected of me. I was afraid to stand out more, knowing that I wanted to. It was an intimidating environment I’d learned to feel comfortable in, but one that was still filled with a varied range of personalities one sometimes needed to tiptoe around.
I greeted Abigail and took my place behind the scenes where I could be present in the interview without invading the intimate setting she had carefully curated for this purpose. An office assistant would bring in a kettle with hot water and a tray with an assortment of teas, always prepared to attend to any specific requests from Abigail or her guest.
Louis Beaumont arrived at 5:00 p.m. sharp with his wife, Simone. Judging by his tailored attire and perfectly groomed appearance, Louis seemed like a man with a keen but balanced fashion sense. Simone exuded timeless elegance and understated sophistication with her neutral color palette outfit and glowy, effortless beauty.
