Page 24 of Irresistible

Chapter 11

The evening passed quickly, and Scarlet went to bed much earlier than she usually would have. She didn’t need much sleep to work her average day as a bank teller. But spending the day with Richard required her full attention, and she was not about to let fatigue get in the way of presenting her best self.

She showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, and was ready to go by seven-thirty. The hotel was, at most, a ten minute drive. There was some time to kill. Rather than wasting time perusing the latest celebrity gossip blogs, she decided to do something that she had oddly neglected to do: do a deep dive on Richard Grant on the internet. She had done a quick, two-minute search before he arrived, but nothing else. Scarlet smacked her palm against her forehead, marveling at her failure to do what she considered to be the most basic step in vetting a potential romantic prospect.

“Please don’t be a perv. Please don’t be a perv. Please don’t be a perv,” she begged as she entered his name into the search engine.

Nothing in that vein popped up on the screen. The search mostly contained news articles on his elevation to CEO, interviews with him on the economy and banking generally, and some business profiles on him in fancy magazines. This was what she expected, so she decided to dig further into the search to find the good stuff. She couldn’t remember the last time she went past page one of the results. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

The second page yielded some interesting information. He was spotted on a red carpet with a young starlet at one of her movie premieres. There were a few other similar pictures. This was hardly surprising. In fact, it’s rather what she expected. She was surprised this wasn’t on the first page of the search. Most rich men love to flaunt the young, skinny women on their arms, as if they serve as some sort of status symbol. In reality, they generally seemed to be counting down the clock until they needed to find someone younger. The fact that Scarlet could only find a few of these pictures was astounding. But then an interesting headline crept up at the bottom of the second page.

“CEO RICHARD GRANT GETS REAL ABOUT EDUCATION”

The headline was associated with a nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of inner-city schools. She clicked on the link. The wall of text that came up appeared to constitute a whole interview that Richard had with the nonprofit’s director. Based on her cursory search, he hadn’t even had these sorts of in-depth interview with business magazines or other trade publications. It appeared that he shirked the interviews that could actually benefit him and the bank’s stockholders, but hid nothing when it came to actual good works being done in the community. And who said that CEOs only acted for money and their own self-interests?

She only had time to skim the interview before she had to take off, but Richard Grant really cared about education. He was on the board of several education nonprofit organizations, including the one that was interviewing him. It seemed as though he was in a school every other week, talking to the students about the importance of hard work and a decent education. He reallocated the bank’s charity efforts to contributions made to needy schools and enriching after-school programs, as well as scholarships that enabled students of lesser means to attend college. His passions were incredibly clear. Scarlet both admired and envied him. He had his priorities straight, whereas she was still struggling to figure out what hers were.

One set of quotes stood out to her, in particular.

“Richard, what role would you say that education, particularly classroom learning, played in what ultimately became your path to success?” the interviewer asked.

“Well, it was everything for me. It gave me a centralized focus. I knew that if I could get good at this set of skills, get good grades in that subject, or get that letter of recommendation, that I was one step closer to getting out of my predicament.”

“But so many students today view education as a tool, a means to an end, rather than something that is part of building a well-rounded person. Is that how you viewed it, especially given your background?”

“Admittedly, yeah I did. But I think at the same time I understood that the reason that education held so much value for me was because of what it did for me as a person. Education cannot in and of itself make you successful apart from the changes that it brings about in you as a person. It’s a package deal. I’ve never heard of someone who had a degree without the underlying transformation and development that come with the education that led to the degree. It just doesn’t happen.”

He had clearly thought these issues through. It’s rare for men, especially these days, to have a firm passion outside of the things that directly affect them on a day-to-day basis. But Richard was being entirely selfless in these endeavors. He could have just as easily said thank you, taken his diploma, and walked off to make millions of dollars as a bank executive. But he seemed to genuinely want to give back, which just made him all the more attractive in Scarlet’s eyes. Not only was he hot, he was inspirational. It’s not common to find that combination.

“Crap,” Scarlet hissed under her breath as she looked down at her watch and noticed that she had less than ten minutes to get to the hotel.

She raced to her car and sped down the road. Luckily, there were no cops out this early. Otherwise, she would definitely have been pulled over. But she knew she couldn’t be late. Even though this wouldn’t be her “first impression”, she resolved that she would do everything she could to give this a fair shot. Being late definitely wasn’t in that job description. She finished what would ordinarily be a seven to ten minute drive in under five minutes, screeching to a halt in the valet lane of the hotel. Being the perfectionist and the control freak that he was, Richard was ready and waiting inside the doorway. He had his suitcase and portfolio ready to go. Sporting his usual flawless coiffure, Richard opted to go with a cardigan over his shirt and tie. It made him seem more relatable while clearly being an authority figure. Scarlet was sure that he had arrived at this decision after painstaking research regarding the demographics of Janesville.

“Hey! Long time, no see,” Richard said as he scooted into the passenger seat.

“Haha. Too long,” Scarlet said wistfully.

The two exchanged smiles, and Richard leaned in for a hug. She felt the rippling, lean muscles in his back as she reached around him. It took everything in her power not to lose it and start making out with him right there. But she had to do this the proper way, and throwing herself at Richard first thing in the morning seemed like the wrong way to go about that. Still, he was chiseled like a Greek statute. She lingered in the hug, taking in his aroma. The combination of his cologne and his natural smell drove Scarlet wild.

“Shall we get going?” Scarlet asked, reluctantly releasing her grip.

“Yes. I took a look at the weather app on my phone before I left my room. According to that and the traffic report, we should have pretty smooth sailing.”

“Very good.”

Scarlet shifted the car into gear and took off toward the highway. Unlike her trip to the hotel, she went to great lengths to seem like a capable and safe driver. A car accident would undoubtedly sour things, and that certainly would not be a good start to the day.

“I assume you know where we’re going? I programmed it into my GPS, so let me know if you need it,” Richard said.

Scarlet had been to Janesville more times than she could count. If anyone but Richard had made such a remark, she would automatically assume that they were being condescending. But Richard seemed like he was legitimately trying to help, which was cute in its own way. Scarlet smiled and insisted that she knew the way.

“It’s a beautiful morning, isn’t it? Mornings like these always get my blood pumping. It’s something about the cold air. It really wakes you up.”

Scarlet cringed on the inside. He was a morning person. If there was anybody who was the polar opposite of a morning person, it was Scarlet. The only reason she had anything remotely resembling pep in her step this morning was because she was spending it with Richard. She filed the observation back in the “things to consider later” corner of her mind.

“Yeah, it’s really great. I feel jazzed up, don’t you?” Scarlet said, cringing again at her white lie.

“Absolutely. By the way, I hope you don’t feel like you have to take part in this presentation at all. I’ll likely just need you for set up and take down, as well as various odds and ends.”