Scandalous by Melanie Shawn

definitely put a little pep in her otherwise languid step.
    Of course, it's not as if she needed to put the proposal together from scratch. It had been sitting in her cloud account, being constantly updated, since Red had first begun to bring up retirement. All she needed to do was stop in at Kinko's on her way to the office and print it out.
    She grabbed her phone on the way out of Dominic’s room and saw that it was 7:15. She had only gotten a few hours of sleep, but it had been a very deep sleep. They had finally passed out from sheer exhaustion around 4 am.
    Well, good, she thought happily. Since Dominic had to be at work by 6, then there was no way he had time to go and drop his proposal off before starting his shift at the construction jobsite. She knew he wouldn’t be late for a job, even if it was just a cover job. He was definitely a man that stood by his word.
    She happily walked back to her room down the hall to grab her clothes before heading into the bathroom. As she stepped through the doorway, she was stopped dead in her tracks as her eyes alighted on the bed.
    It was still made from the day before, since no one had occupied it. Sitting on top of the cream-colored down comforter was the most beautiful arrangement of exotic flowers Cristal had ever seen.
    Obviously, she knew who they were from – the possibilities were somewhat limited – but she did check to see if there was a note attached. She picked them up and the aroma washed over her. They smelled fresh and bright, like a little piece of heaven. As she leaned in to bury her nose among the abundance of plush floral display, she did see a small note nestled in between the vibrant petals of the flowers.
    She gently plucked it from the bright bed where it lay. She couldn't help but smile as she worked the small, rectangular piece of cardstock out of its cream envelope. It read “Hey Beautiful! Hope you have a great day, see you tonight. Don’t miss me too much!”
    Cristal knew that, for most girls, this considerate gesture would make their day. The man they had just spent the night with takes the time to, not only procure flowers for them, but also to write a note that's sweet...if not utterly charming? Yeah, that was serious day-making material.
    For most girls.
    But Cristal was not most girls. Her first reaction upon seeing the flowers and reading the note was, “Shit! If he had time to do this, then he sure as hell had time to go drop off his offer to Red.”
    Damn. Cristal needed to get her rear in gear.
     
    --- ~ ---
     
    Cristal carefully parked in the back parking lot of the Red Hot agency. She was reasonably certain that she hadn’t been followed. Not only were the roads fairly deserted, making it easier to spot a tail if one existed, she also had good instincts about that kind of thing. She always had some sort of physical reaction when she was being watched or tailed. It could range anywhere from something as severe as her entire body tensing up to as subtle as light prickles dancing up and down her arms or the hair on the back of her neck standing up – but, whether intense or subtle, there was always something. She had experienced none of these responses on the half hour drive to the Red Hot offices.
    Nevertheless, that still didn't mean that it wouldn't be just plain stupid to walk right in through the front door!
    She quietly made her way through the back of the building, which also housed a nail salon, an MMA studio, an insurance and a therapist's office. She felt a thrill of anticipation shoot through her, and she realized how excited she was that the day had finally come. She could finally put this offer in front of Red. She had been dreaming of it for two years now.
    Red had never made any guarantees that he would sell to her, but she had a good feeling about her chances.
    She knew that the company was his baby and she wanted him to feel good about passing the torch, as it were, so she had put together a comprehensive ten year