“Well, as much as I’d like to stay and entertain you I must be off to the convention and make sure my marketing team is setting everything up for Foothill Studios the way I’ve ordered it to be,” Marshall said.
“Sounds good. I’ll get right to work so I can give you an update when you get back later tonight.”
“I might be very long. Don’t wait up if you get tired. You have plenty of time to work…and whatnot.”
I didn’t know what the whatnot was, but I was definitely intrigued.
Chapter 8
The table in the casual area of the suite easily fit my lap top and all the documents that were brought along for me to review. I am not sure why they were not scanned and in a folder that could be viewed online, but such wasn’t the case. People had always said that Hugh Henley had been quirky and marched to a different beat so it must have been him. Marshall was organized, efficient, and made the most out of his time. It was easy to tell that.
After about six hours of working diligently on everything in front of me, I was interrupted by a knock on the door, saying that room service had arrived. It was a pleasant surprise and one that reminded me that I was indeed hungry. I looked over at the clock and it was 6 p.m.
I opened the door and there was a man with a cart that contained a vase of beautiful flowers, a bottle of red wine, and several plates of food. It smelled fantastic and the way it wafted into the room made me instantly hungry.
The room service attendant whose name tag stated Anthony, began to tell me what I was going to be enjoying that evening. I would be drinking a Harmonique 2002 Pinot Noir, which was the perfect accompaniment to the grilled fresh water salmon, homemade bread loaf with dill and herb whipped butter, plus the mixed vegetable blend. For desert, there was a platter of chocolate covered strawberries; each hand dipped just minutes earlier and all delightful with the wine.
The feast before me was one made for a queen and I was looking forward to playing the role of queen. I tried to tip room service, but he politely declined, telling me that Mr. Kent had already taken care of him quite well. Then just like that, he was gone and I was preparing to eat about as great a meal as I’d ever had by myself. I decided to take a break from work while I enjoyed it, not wanting to miss any part of the delectable combination that it was promised to be.
As if on cue, after one bite I received a text from Marshall, asking if I was enjoying the meal. I said that I was and offered to save a glass of the wine and strawberries for him when he returned. He told me that he’d be back well after midnight though, making my heart sink a bit. Even though I didn’t know what was going to happen I enjoyed the thought of seeing how I’d respond if it did. Maybe he was keeping his distance from me too, not wanting to be distracted by me. I could tell by the way he looked at me and responded that he was interested, but also somewhat resistant. Did he wonder about the same things I did? We both clearly had relationship hesitations, but mine were certainly for a different reason. Brandon had really broken my heart and wore down my joy for a long time after the unexpected dump. I doubted that Marshall’s heart had ever been truly broken, although I remembered a time when Sophia said that a woman did break his heart badly, only to try to get back together with him after he came into his fortune.
It was time for me to stop relaxing from a full stomach and get back to the paperwork for Marshall’s merger. I was reviewing some information that really didn’t add up for this merger. They seemed to be looking at purchasing a company that was interested in similar type films as what Foothill Studios was. That wasn’t logical to me and it made me speculate just how involved Marshall’s father had been in the merger idea before he passed away. His signature wasn’t on anything and the people that had been making the shots were primarily executives that worked under him. They were all there now, but I didn’t know what their involvement was at this point or if they’d simply been told to step aside for Marshall to handle the entire matter.
From my perspective, the merger was not a sound idea at this point and the more I reviewed, the more I believed that to definitely be the case. There were too many unanswered questions, including ones about the executives. What would they have to gain by the merger? From the looks of the documents in front of me they wouldn’t gain a thing, which made their desire to make the merger happen suspect at best. I needed to find out what their intentions were.
I was typing notes into my laptop as fast as my mind could process them, ensuring that I had everything documented that I wanted to point out to Marshall. I couldn’t wait for him to get back to the hotel and it was disappointing that he wouldn’t be back so late. I looked up at the clock and saw that it was 10:00. I decided to take a shower and then enjoy another glass of wine before falling asleep.
The shower didn’t disappoint and enjoying the glass of wine in the soft luxury of those Egyptian cotton sheets was like relaxing on a cloud. I set the timer on the television and drifted off to sleep long before it went off. I had on my tank top and pajama bottoms. Since I hadn’t known we were going to be sharing a room I was thankful that I hadn’t packed anything skimpier or anything frumpier either.
I must have been sleeping soundly because I woke up and saw that it was 4 a.m. I turned around and saw Marshall in the giant bed, very close to me. It was almost like he was spooning me, but had stopped just short of touching me. If I moved any more he might wake up and I chose that moment to just watch him sleep. I hoped that Marshall wouldn’t wake up with me watching him, but I couldn’t help myself. He seemed like such a different man as he slept there. He almost looked like an angel or a small innocent child. There were no signs of his punctual and dictatorial side, just evidence of an amazingly beautiful person who had a calm and serene look up on his face. His full lips were slightly separated and I could see his chest breathing in and out in the gentlest way.
Eventually I turned back around and faded back off into sleep. I didn’t want to fall asleep looking at Marshall because if he woke up he’d be able to look at me too and somehow that made me uncomfortable. I wondered what I looked like when I was sleeping. Would I look as peaceful as Marshall? Was the reason why he slept so peacefully because he was able to work out his aggressions during the day? Whatever it was, I found myself drawn to this beautiful complex man more and more.
Chapter 9
Morning came and I had woken up to find that Marshall had already gotten up. I could hear the shower running and it made me instantly drift off into thoughts that were definitely not geared toward work. I still hadn’t had a chance to talk to Marshall as in-depth as I would have liked to about the studio either. I’d hoped that I’d get that chance this morning.