She wrinkled up her nose but the blush spread to her face. “Um, you know, it’s nothing. I mean…”

My eyes got big. I’d been kidding, but there was something going on.

“Um.” She shot me a pleading look before her head looked down. Then she stopped and held her breath. “Oh, wow. Look at your shoes!”

My shoes? It was my turn to become flustered. I’d forgotten about the very expensive heels on my feet, and the expensive designer clothes that I was wearing.

“Are those Casadei?!”

“Um,” I bit on my lip. “Yeah…”

“Oh my gosh!” She jerked her face down to peer at my shoes better. Her shoulders straightened, her back turned rigid, and she looked back up with a stone face. “Emma, those shoes aren’t even out yet.”

“How do you know?” I huffed out and fanned myself. It was getting warm in her office.

Because I know someone who’s a shopper for Hagleys.”

As she named a boutique that was known for being exclusive, expensive, and one of the ‘it’ spots for celebrities, I was going to faint. Of course, Carter would have a closet full of shoes that weren’t even out to the public yet. I glanced down at my skirt and wondered how much money my outfit was worth? How much was I wearing?

I gulped.

Theresa had been eyeing my outfit as well. Her eyes were wide. “You look really nice, Emma, really nice.”

I didn’t like getting all this attention, but wait—she knew Noah personally. That was worth way more attention than my clothes. I jerked a hand towards the computer. “So what do I need to know for this presentation? Tell me what Noah wants.”

She jerked back in her seat like she’d been burned. “Oh, of course.” After readjusting her glasses, she ran a hand over her hair and then sighed. “It’s going to be a long night. You have a lot to catch up on with this account.”

CHAPTER NINE

Theresa wasn’t kidding. I sent Carter a text to tell him that I would be staying late at work. When I didn’t receive a reply, I tucked my phone away and didn’t think about it. After reading more and getting a sense of what Noah Tomlinson wanted for his new pet project, I started to get excited. He wanted this new liquor to be a household competitor. I knew if this bourbon was a hit, there’d be more to come and I would be on the team. In fact, it seemed that Theresa and I were doing most of the grunt work. Her boss and Mr. Hudson were our supervisors, but we were appointed the lead workers.

It was a big deal.

When it was nearing seven in the evening, Theresa heard my stomach rumble and grinned at me. She pushed her glasses up and collapsed against the back of her chair. “What do you think?”

“What do you mean?” I was on the floor in the middle of three piles of papers. I’d been there for the last hour and didn’t think my legs could work again. They’d fallen asleep forty minutes ago.

“Should we call it a night? It’s your first day back from vacation. Talk about a killer, huh?”

She was joking, but I sucked in my breath. She couldn’t have used different words? Then I forced out a laugh and tried to relax my shoulders. There would be permanent knots in them. “Uh, yeah. We can call it a night.”

“I don’t know about you, but I could go for a Joe’s pizza right now. You up for a slice and a beer?”

I started to push myself up from the floor and once I was up, I threw her a rueful grin. I wasn’t getting any younger. Then I saw she was serious and jerked upright. “Oh. Uh, sure.”

I’d been invited for drinks by some of the other assistants in the hotel at other times. It wasn’t a large group, but we were somewhat exclusive. A fair amount of people worked underneath us so my group of friends wasn’t too big, but Theresa was in another league. She was the Assistant to the Director of Sales and now I knew that she knew Noah Tomlinson personally. I was taken aback by her invitation, but I couldn’t turn her down. In truth, everyone was curious about Theresa Webber. She worked on all the higher accounts and she worked alone. She wasn’t known to go for after-work drinks, much less a slice of pizza and beer.

She flashed me a friendly smile as she shut down her computer. “Good. I’ll meet you there in fifteen? Or if you wait around, we can walk over together?”

“How about we meet in the lobby in ten minutes?”

“Perfect. See you down there.”

When I went to my office and shut everything down, I grabbed my phone and stuffed it in my purse. I needed to go to the bathroom before I met Theresa in the lobby so I used the one on the first floor. It was always cleaner since it was the same one that the customers used, and it was beautiful. The tiling on the floor was top-notch, with separate sinks along the wall. Each of them had been individually customized as works of art from Italy. The Richmond was a work of art in itself. I was proud of Carter if he had anything to do with it.

“Oh. Hi!”

My head jerked up from washing my hands.

Amanda stood behind me, she had just come in. She was pale in the face and grabbed onto the wall to steady herself.

I whipped around and tried to grab her. I didn’t think about it. I saw her foot slip and knew she was going down, but she caught herself against the wall.

She flinched away from my hand.

The smile fell away and my hand dropped back to my side. I wasn’t used to that reaction from my friend.

“Sorry.” She grimaced. “The last day hasn’t been so easy.”