H.A.

6

He went back upstairs after eating breakfast in the hotel cafeteria. Having had no luck in spotting the dark-skinned beauty, he passed by reception to inquire after her room number, but of course he had no such luck. Hotel policy! He wanted to curse what the hell was with that hotel policy! Of course he knew it was standard in most hotels, he just felt frustrated. In his dream it had all gone so smoothly, except the foot-in-door incident. The girl at the reception desk had even thrown him a quick glare before schooling her expression into a professional frown. He'd felt the urge to throw her his own disapproving frown but had refrained from it, he was in the wrong and he wouldn't be a man if he couldn't admit to his faults.

He went back up to his room to change into his sportswear and went up to the hotel gym. He had a one-hour workout before heading back down, taking a shower and getting ready to go to the conference room downstairs.

Getting off the elevator in the lobby he immediately spotted Adalyn talking to the receptionist. She wore another one of her long black dresses, hiding her luscious curves from view.

Walking past he noticed the two women seemed really close and wondered if that was the reason for the receptionists' murderous glare earlier.

Walking around the corner, he leaned against the wall and waited for her to come by. Hearing her animated voice he wondered if she would be mad at him. Of course she'd be mad! You treated her like a slut who couldn't keep her hands of you...

He waited for over five minutes then seeing the doors to the conference room close, he figured she would skip the presentation - after all she had already skipped most of his presentation yesterday - and dashed to the closing doors. He'd have to talk to her during lunch.

He grabbed an empty seat near the aisle and tried to focus on the presentation, but his attention kept turning towards the door hoping to glimpse Adalyn. Only a few minutes into the presentation he finally caught a glimpse of her as she entered the conference room and stepped to the right to lean against the wall.

It was a slow two and a half hours till lunch, and when the last presentation was finally over and he stood, gathering his notebook, and looked to the spot Adalyn occupied, she had already vanished. He sighed, put away his things and went straight to the cafeteria.

He was surprised to find her there, in the company of the receptionist, and wondered if he could approach them but refrained. He would find another time to get her alone. He joined a couple of Irish businessmen and professors he knew from before, having done business with them, but the dark-skinned girl remained his sole focus throughout his lunch and near the end of lunch he noticed his companions throwing him a mix of worried and annoyed frowns.

Afternoon was torture, the receptionist joined Adalyn in the conference hall and they sat near the front, where seats were occupied before he'd even reached the room.

He watched the two interact quietly during the remainder of the presentations and knew his chances at getting Adalyn alone had dwindled tremendously.

Dinnertime came and the two women were still glued to each other. He saw Adalyn introduce the receptionist to some of the attending guests and figured she'd decided to groom the girl. They both seemed to enjoy themselves trying out the different dishes on the buffet table and he finally saw his chance when the receptionist stepped away to get their drinks refilled.

Before he even reached her, Adalyn turned around to face him and to his surprise, looked him straight into the eye, as if she'd known he was making his way towards her.

He came to a stop in front of her and searched her expression for signs of emotion. They were non-existent or at least he could not read them. Her features showed nothing of what she was thinking. As he opened his mouth to deliver his apology, she seemed to take a step closer to him then whispered, barely audible, "My apologies, SIR, as you seem to be engaged, I will not bother you with my presence any longer." Stunned he was unable to move as she stepped past him and joined the receptionist who was nervously hovering about.