A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for keeping you waiting so long for this update. Anyway, I just wanted to apologize. Oh, and thank you to all those who reviewed!
(By the way, I'm using a different application to type this up because the other one was just not keeping it's form when I posted...I felt this one was much more equipped...but it doesn't have spell check so bear with me!
Reviews:
haruslave: Thank you so much! your review is so awesome, and it's long (which is something I like!) To answer your question, I am writing as I go along. This idea kind of just popped into my head one night, so here I am!
Moonlight-6056: I just adored your review! It tells me what I needed to know about my writing and my chapters, and I want to thank you for those personal compliments! Anyway, I better get back to the story, but keep up the GREAT reviews!
Yanalala: I enjoyed your review. It was short, simple, and to the point. I do adore long reviews, but I also enjoy ones that tell me everything in those few lines too. Keep it up, and thanks!
PLEASE NOTE: THE MENTION OF A SUPRISE AT THE END OF THE LAST CHAPTER HAS BEEN DECIDED TO BE MOVED TO A LATER CHAPTER! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE
Chapter 3
"Meeting"
Tonight was one of those nights where after work you really just wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out again. Even though I felt like it, I instead went to a bar. I was going to cruise, or get stinking drunk, or both. I really didn't care which one. I love convience too, so I hit on the bartender as he poured me my Appletini.
"Salt or sugar on the rim?"
"We're using food too?" I grinned cockily at him.
He gave one of those short little laughs that says, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Ugh! Great, now bar sleeze was turning me down. I didn't look up when he slid it towards me. Tomorrow was Valentines Day. I didn't have a date. This wasn't the first time, but I wished to god it was the last.
When I came out to myself, I felt that I could just snap my fingers and a magic catalogue would appear and I'd pick out my boyfriend. However reality struck and I was without a boyfriend, instead sitting alone in a bar, years later, with a sneer on my face and a sour taste in my mouth.
"Hey do you come here often?" a voice asked beside me.
"Not really." I shrug. I don't dare look.
"Can I get another for my friend?" he asks the bartender.
"Thanks." I utter, trying to sound like I care.
"You look like you need it." pause. "My name's Jess. You are...?"
"Draco, Draco Malfoy." I say back and it's the first time I take a look. Good LORD he's beautiful. I'm not one for blonde's but...this guy had it all. Blonde hair, hazel eyes, nice complexion, charming demeanor complete with smile, and great body.
"Nice to meet you Draco, Draco Malfoy."
I blush at the joke and he smirks. Hey! I'm the one who is supposed to smirk! I'm the Malfoy here! "You too um..."
"Jess." He says again, and I blush more furiously. "It's alright I suck at names too."
I had downed my second Appletini, and again he looked up in between our conversation. "Another, please."
"What, trying to get me so sloshed I go home with you?" I joke.
"Hmmm, do you have to be sloshed?"
"Nah...besides, I like it when a man buys a lady a drink."
He laughs, and I realize, that tonight might not be so bad after all, and that tomorrow I may indeed have a date.
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"SHIT!" I scramble from my bed. Today is the day I'm supposed to have that meeting with Mr. "High-and-Mighty" and I'm late. The day of all days and I'm late...not only that but Jess got me so drunk that I'm STILL drunk, and the hangover is starting to come into effect. I think this is like the height of the punishment. The fact that I'll be awake and in a meeting with someone when my head will be hurting like a bitch. Maybe I'll get lucky and 'International Magazine' owner will be soft spoken...
Jess is still lying in my bed I notice. I stop and watch him as the sunlight shifts slightly lower and spreads over his naked chest. I smile to myself, and lean against the door frame. He was good...Today, I think I won't send him out by 11 by Franc. I run to the desk and grab a pen and paper, then silently and gracefully, scrawl a note to him. I don't know what it is, but I have a feeling about this one.
I take my shower, and for today's outfit choose a pinstripe suit that goes with a black silk tie. Today I'm all business, and if I'm going to meet Mr. International Magazine, then I have to look like I mean business too.
"Mr. Malfoy, I see you had the decency to grace us with your presence." the office secretary says to me as I walk through the double doors, reminding me oddly, of Snape "I'll send our guest to your office. You have three minutes, and I suggest you make the most of them."
"Yes ma'am." I reply bitterly, with a bit of a bite in my tone. "I'm ready." I don't know if she believes the words anymore than I do.
I get to my desk, and there's an invoice message...from Jess.
Hey sweets, Do you know what today is? It's Valentines Day. Wanna Hook up later? Let me know
-Jess
I shake my head and smile, thinking about jack-russel terriers and a simply country cottage-style mansion in my future with Jess...when I hear a slight clearing of a throat that brings me back to the present.
"Hi I'm --" I stop. Standing in front of me is "Harry Potter?"
He seems to be in shock as well..."Draco Malfoy?"
I try to wittingly lighten up the conversation with my remarks as usual. He was handsome. He hadn't changed much, except for a scar or two there, and a couple of inches in heighth. "Well...the last time I checked...although that was three months ago, when border patrol was strip searching me."
It didn't seem he got the joke, and he just shrugged it off. "What...What are you doing here?"
"I um...work here..." I offer lamely up in the air.
'Oh god, Oh god, Oh god, Oh god, Oh god, It's HARRY FUCKING POTTER! Shit...what am I going to do?'
"Well..." He begins uncertainly, "I'm here to discuss the chance of the selling of Star Shine Magazine. I am supposing this is the right room?"
"Yeah...yeah I guess it is."
"Ok, well. Why don't I take you out to lunch? I don't think you would have a problem with that. I know it is Valentines Day but..."
I must've seemed offended by the statement because after taking a look at me, he added hastily "That is I just thought maybe you hadn't been busy. We can move along the schedule and just have dinner...er...unless...you're busy then too.."
"I might be."
"You have plans for lunch or dinner?"
"As a matter of fact, " I pause to use wandless magic to conjure a bouqet of roses from behind my back. "I do have plans for lunch...and I might be busy after that as well." I say this while fluffing the flowers petals and add a little seductive tone to the last part of my statement. If he was shocked he hid it better than I did. I had a feeling that my professional life was not about to get any easier.
Harry
Holy SHIT was I shocked. Draco friggin Malfoy stood before me, looking more handsome than ever. He hadn't changed much, and I could tell he had an eye for appraisal of me. He was definitly checking me out.
I say some stupid things as soon as I walk in the door, and I knew that it might happen. His attractive looks have never failed to draw attention, or keep my own attention off focus. I hoped he didn't know that, because if he did, he would definitly use it to his advantage. Don't get me wrong, I'm not easy, and I know when and how to keep my personal life away from my business life, but...DAMN.
That's all I could really say the rest of the day. He had agreed to meet me the next day for lunch, where we would be discussing business terms, but I just hoped it would go quickly and smoothly, because the more I was around Draco, even for that brief time, I found myself looking more and more at him and less and less at the big picture. The fact of the matter is that I'm a corporation owner, and he's a magazine worker, and I was there to buy that company out. I had to be ruthless, and cold, and to the point...and I definitly had to stop staring.