Free The Meridian Gamble by Daniel Garcia Page A

prove that Adam is something
special, which is easy enough to do. “He’s some finance executive who handles
the company’s investments.”
    Staci hears hints of finance and
money, and she’s instantly excited.
    “Oh. Well, dish! What’s he like?”
    I wonder how I can describe Adam,
especially in a way that won’t terrify Staci. But I realize there’s so much
deliciousness to him, it will be easy to impress her while still leaving out
the fangs.
    “He’s hot. And super successful. And
really, really hot. This guy is so smoking hot I practically have second degree
burns.”
    “How successful is super
successful? I mean, I’m sure he makes a good salary from being an executive.”
    “I don’t know. It must be some huge
conglomerate with a real estate division. And it sounds like he’s one of the
partners or something. He offered to buy me an island. Or have his company take
over the agency so I could run it. And let me tell you something, he didn’t
sound like he was joking around. Can you believe that?”
    “Wow …”
    Staci’s eyes widen ever so
slightly, and a wave of emotions crosses her face, not the least of which is
fear. But she quickly collects herself.”
    “I don’t know. It sounds like he
was laying it on a bit thick. Are you sure this guy wasn’t bullshitting you
about this company?”
    “It wouldn’t matter if this guy was
a plumber. He was so cute. He had this dark, wavy hair and piercing eyes. And a
body like he spent half his life in the gym. Seriously drool-worthy. The only
problem was …”
    “What?”
    “Well, you’re right. The whole
throwing money around. And the rooftop thing. It was kind of creepy. Stalkery,
like you said. He reminded me of that movie about the Wall Street guy who goes
around chopping up women.”
    “Oh my God, was he Christian Bale
hot?”
    “He was Christian Bale and every
other hot movie star combined hot. Like you could not even imagine. You would
have pushed me into traffic to get at this guy.”
    “Yum,” she says, staring off,
dreamily. “Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider? You could meet him
somewhere public. And bring mace.”
    Or maybe a wooden stake. But
meeting him somewhere public is not such a bad idea. At least there would be
people around. I can’t believe I’m actually considering it. But I also can’t
get the subtle curve of Adam’s lips out of my mind.
    “It doesn’t really matter. I can’t.
I didn’t take down his number.”
    “Oh, shoot. Well, maybe you’ll see
him again on the roof now that you’re going to be up there every night. Or
maybe you can contact the company that owns the building and try to track him
down?”
    “Maybe. But I think for now I would
be better off calling the maintenance guy again, just to make sure he hurries. That
way Val won’t get me fired. And I won’t have to throw myself at rich men who
want to buy me islands, just so I have a place to live. I’ll call you later.”
    I drop my
crappy cup of coffee into the trash bin, and head back downstairs.
    I get off on the 16th floor, and as
I approach the receptionist station, I immediately spot some flowers sitting on
the back counter. They’re giant long-stemmed red roses with huge bulbs, and one
white rose in the center of the arrangement, and they look good at the station
where the receptionist sits. The desk is basically a big slab of beige marble,
with another slab of marble on the wall behind it, where the company logo is
embedded, a set of giant gold letters that spell out, “CQ.” And the colors
contrast nicely with the bland surface.
    As I get closer, I see that the
flowers are even more stunning than I had thought, with two big, green leaves
sticking out behind the roses that form a kind of backdrop. For a moment, I
wonder who the lucky girl is. Probably Lilliana in Accounting, a hot Filipina
who married a rich lawyer, who always brags about making her husband pamper
her.
    I never get flowers, not even from
Trevor after I put