The Beauty and the CEO

A few people included Zoe and Will in their here-and-there conversations, but Zoe was intrigued with Will’s story, especially when he told the table about his former soccer career last year. Lexi was right. She stood corrected on her thoughts of him being a workaholic. It sounded like his travels were equally balanced with work and fun. Why was he still single?

“Can you sue for someone ruining your career?” Zoe asked him after a waitress came and set down a bowl of fudge brownies smothered in homemade vanilla ice cream from The Scoop. She’d originally declined dessert after having the shrimp po’ boy sandwich, but seeing it on Will’s plate drew her in. Using his forearms, Will pushed the bowl toward her and caused a thin wrinkle in the linen tablecloth. Picking up an unused spoon, Zoe dug in.

“Accidents happen,” Will explained. “I skated by for years with no injuries to my knees. Soccer is not dangerous as, let’s say, football, but we all go into the sport understanding what injuries we might incur. And getting hurt is part of the job.”

The fudge from the brownie coated Zoe’s tongue. She closed her eyes and slowly rolled them to the back of her head. The satisfying taste threatened to steal her senses. When she opened her eyes, Will sat across from her, amused. A grin spread across his face.

“Is it good?”

“You ought to dig in.” Zoe nodded. “The Scoop makes the freshest ice cream ever, and because there are no additives, it melts quickly.”

“I’m trying,” Will said, scooping up a combination of ice cream, brownie, fudge and a cherry.

Their spoons played hockey for a minute over the last cherry and Zoe realized she’d been greedy. “I’m sorry. You can have my cherry.”

At that, Will sat back in his seat and gave a throaty laugh. Heat warmed her face when she realized what she’d said. “Oh, my God, grow up,” she ordered while trying not to laugh at her choice of words.

“Alright, I’ll try.”

“So tell me more about you and soccer,” Zoe asked, taking another bite. “You said you played in Germany. Do you miss it?”

“I did when I first came back, but I missed my family more.”

The family. Zoe knew all about them. If she told him she’d done a school project on them, would it freak him out? “Are you and your siblings close? I’ve hung out with Donovan and Marcus before. I never knew they had another brother.”

With a scoop of brownie on his spoon, Will nodded. “We are. Not as close growing up as I would have liked.”

“No?” Zoe forgot about the dessert between them. She leaned forward to listen.

“No, my folks didn’t want me to fall into the RC trap of being seduced by the money, and when a coach saw the soccer potential in me, my parents pounced on the opportunity to have me trained.”

“What did that mean?”

“I went to a boarding school that concentrated on sports for athletes. You know, the kind with no distractions.” Will lowered his eyes to Zoe’s cleavage.

Zoe sat upward. “So, no girls?”

“None.”

He probably became some wild child in college, Zoe thought. “What did you do for prom?”

“What’s a prom?” Will asked, and before Zoe could complete her gasp, he winked. “I’m kidding. My brothers and sisters went. I saw the pictures.”

“You never went to prom?”

“What’d he say?” Kenzie asked from her end of the table.

Zoe leaned forward again and craned her neck to look at Kenzie. “He said he never went to the prom.”

One of the men, a photographer named Gianluca, or Luke, as everyone called him, shook his head with an audible tsk. “What?”

The other staff all began to tell their stories. Prom had been a rite of passage for a lot of the men at the table. Considering the direction of the conversation, Zoe wondered about Will even further.

“It’s no big deal.” Even though he shook his head, the red tint creeping across Will’s high cheekbones said something different.

The conversation began to turn to everyone’s attire for prom. Zoe mouthed an apology and Will winked as an acceptance.

“How was your prom?” Will asked.