Sunday in New York

October 16th

Weeks had passed. Work was busy as usual and Hudson was receiving several offers to have his restaurant featured on different shows; I was happy for his growing success but also slightly worried that he'd let the spotlight take a bigger priority in his life than it should, but I knew that in order to make our relationship work and also make it stronger, it needed to be based on trust.

At the office it was nearing the noon hour, my second favourite time of the day (the first is the end of the day) and Amelia was coming over to pick me up so we could go out for lunch. Luckily the salon she worked at was only four blocks away, so we could have lunch together most of the time.

I sat at my desk across from Christian, laughing with him as we recalled last night's episode of The Office. He stood up and walked to the far side of the room where the Tassimo brewer was.

"How do you work this again?" He asked, picking up one of the coffee packs.

Still sitting at my desk watching him, I gave him instructions. "Lift the top of the brewer, and shake the pack." I watched him shake it. "Yeah, shake it, shake it real good."

He dropped his head back in laughter, "Isn't it push it, push it real good?"

I turned my eyes away to quickly think about it, I smiled and started to laugh when I realized I messed up the lyrics. "Whoops, my bad."

All of a sudden Amelia came striding into my office. "Avery! You have to read Fifty Shades of Grey! It's so freaking hot!" She failed to notice that Christian was standing in the back and remained oblivious to his existence. I smiled at her, wanting to embarrass her a bit.

"Oh? What is it about?" I asked, knowing exactly what it entailed.

She clutched the book in her arms like it was her prized possession. She used her hand to fan her face, "Oh Avery, it's so hot! The guy, his name is Christian Grey and he's so beautiful! He's into this whole kinky sex thing, BDSM, and he takes control of this young woman, Anastasia Steele and he takes her on this twisted whirlwind of a ride in the darkest levels of sex. Oh how I'd give anything to be Anastasia."

I glanced over at Christian who leaned against the table smiling and trying his hardest not to laugh. I smiled and looked back up at Amelia. "Wow, that does sound hot." I lightly laughed since that word wasn't a part of my everyday vocabulary, maybe my way with words wasn't so casual as I thought, at least with Amelia it isn't.

"Oh you have no idea Avery, I think I'm seriously falling for this guy." She closed her eyes and her lips formed a slight smile.

I grinned at Christian. "How rude of me. Amelia, I'd like to introduce you to my colleague, Christian. He works as managing editor as well as creative director."

Amelia's eyes shot open and she was frozen for a moment, looking at me with a mortified look. Her face that had been drained of it's colour quickly became beet red as she slowly looked to her right where Christian smiled.

He cleared his throat and approached her, holding out his hand to shake hers. "It's a pleasure to meet you Amelia." She shook his hand silently, staring at him in awe like she's never seen a man before.

"Your name is Christian?" She spoke in a quiet voice. Wow, he had quite an effect on her to make her usual loud and talkative voice become a very quiet one.

He smiled, "Yes, but it's Christian Reid. Though I do suppose Grey and I have a few similarities, we're not the same person. I for one, am real, and he is fictional." He walked back to the the table attempting to use the brewer again. He spoke over his shoulder to me. "Now you said you want me to push it, push it real good?"

I laughed, "Yeah, just. Like. That." I teased suggestively, but only to make the room even more uncomfortable for Amelia. She looked at me like she was going to strangle me but I just smiled sweetly at her.

"Shall we go to lunch now, Avery?" She spoke through her teeth. I grinned and nodded, "Yes, let's."

As I put on my jacket, I turned to Christian. "Christian, care to join us?" I didn't look at Amelia 'cause I knew she'd be giving me that 'how could you?' look.

He lightly smiled and shook his head, "No, that's alright. I have a lot of work here to get done. Thank you anyway."

I nodded. "Okay, see you in a bit." I then left the office with Amelia.

At the cafe she groaned and buried her face into her hands. "Why didn't you tell me he was there?"

I laughed and shrugged my shoulders. "I was just fooling around with you. There's nothing wrong with a little harmless joke."

"Yeah, but he heard my whole shpeel on how turned on I am by this book." She pushed it toward me. "You read it, and don't tell me you're not aroused by it."

"Wow, I think I just lost my appetite. Thank you Amelia." I chuckled, picking it up and reading the back cover.

"He's pretty hot you gotta admit." She said.

I flipped through the book, "There's pictures?"

She laughed, "No! I'm talking about Christian Reid."

I made a face and looked up at her. "I thought you only had eyes for Chester?"

"Oh we broke up." She waved her hand and looked out the window. My jaw dropped.

"Why didn't you tell me!"

"Why didn't you tell me Christian was in the room?" She smirked.

I made a face and sighed. "What happened? I though you were head over heels in love with Chester."

She shrugged her shoulders. "We've been arguing a lot over things. We have very different views on the world. I'm liberal and he's very very conservative."

"And you broke up because of that?"

She nodded, "Yeah, pretty much. Oh, and he was also pushing his hipster ideals on me a little too much."

"Is that a euphemism for something or is it literal?" I chuckled.

She rolled her eyes. "We've been broken up for two weeks now and I'm fine. I'm single and ready to mingle."

Even that hackneyed phrase made me sick to my stomach, I couldn't imagine breaking up with Hudson just because our views on life were opposite; I actually think it'd be an interesting relationship. But I just brushed it off and looked back at the menu.

"So, is Christian single?" She smirked.

I looked up at her in surprise. She just met the guy and, if I remember correctly, was utterly embarrassed in front of him.

I held my tongue and shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, he's never mentioned it." Come to think of it, he's never led on that he was in a relationship and with his age, though 'age is just a number', he wasn't wearing a wedding band either.

"Hmm, maybe I'll just have to ask him out." She smiled, looking down at her menu. The waitress stopped by to give us our drinks; I ordered my usual iced tea.

I waited for the waitress to leave. "He's thirty-six. In case you wanted to know."

"So?"

I bit the inside of my cheek and looked at her innocently. I shook my head. "I just thought you should know."

"Well, twenty-six or thirty-six, he's still a babe. Don't you think so?" She giggled.

I gave a half-smile, "Well yeah, but I only have eyes for Hudson."

She brought her elbows up on the table and held her hands under her chin, looking past me in thought. "I wonder what he meant when he said that he and Grey had a few similarities..."

I raised my eyebrow at her. "What? You think he's some business casual guy by day and dominating nymphomaniac by night?" I laughed. From what I've seen of Christian (Reid) these past couple weeks he doesn't seem like that type of guy.

She grinned, still thinking about it. "I would hope so."

I made a face and shook my head.

After an uncomfortable and talkative lunch I came back to the office. I set down a Starbucks coffee and a bag with a cookie in it before Christian.

"I thought I'd bring you a little something, since you had to work through lunch." I chuckled, walking back to my side of the desk and tossing down the book Amelia had forced me to borrow.

"Thanks, that Tassimo thing had to be the worst brew of coffee I've ever had. That 'push it' method doesn't work for me." He chuckled.

I laughed, looking over the papers that Jann left on my desk.

"Ah, I see you've borrowed the book." He smirked, staring at the book on my desk.

I gave a laugh. "She wouldn't take no for an answer."

"I'm sure Christian Grey wouldn't either." He lightly laughed.

I sat down. "You know, she's convinced herself that you're him."

"Grey?"

I nodded, smirking at the thought.

He turned his eyes up, "Maybe I should consider changing my name."

I chuckled, "She's always been one to voice her thoughts. No matter how...twisted they are."

He smiled and leaned back in his chair, taking the lid off his coffee and taking a sip. "Women always ask me that."

I looked up from my paperwork at him. "Do you have a girlfriend? Is that alright of me to ask? I mean, you did ask me if I had a boyfriend."

"Ah, but you had mentioned it earlier in that conversation, I merely inquired about it."

"Touché." I smiled, looking back down at my work trying to figure how I'd go about starting it.

"No, I don't have a girlfriend." He spoke, I could feel his eyes on me, watching. So I looked back up at him and nodded. "Okay."

Again I looked away but now turning my attention to the computer screen, going onto iTunes to play some music.

"Are you going to further inquire about my relationship status?" He smiled.

I couldn't help but smile, I didn't want to be rude and ask him anymore questions but now that he's giving me permission, I asked away. "Well you said that women always ask you if you're, Grey. I take it you're a ladies man. A Barney Stinson type."

His cool smile became an amused grin and he shrugged his shoulders. "I wouldn't use those terms, but yes. I enjoy the company of beautiful women. But with the whole overly-sexualized sadistic and masochistic persona that this character seems to have, I am not similar to him in that way."

I just smiled. "That's good to know."

"Is she interested in me?" He asked, referring to Amelia.

I looked up at him, just as surprised as I was when Amelia suggested that she'd ask him out. "Uh...yeah...she is."

He chuckled, "Don't worry, I was just curious. I won't ask her out, I don't want it to be weird in the office."

I smiled. "You can do whatever you want, she's just my best friend in the whole entire world and I'd kill anyone who would hurt her or break her heart. I'd have to break their legs if they did. And then kill them."

He burst out laughing. "Ah, I understand your technique. Break their legs to make them suffer and then kill them."

I grinned. "Exactly."

As we were goofing off and making jokes, Jann came in and set down an envelope on each of our desks.

"What's this?" Christian asked, sitting forward and taking his envelope.

"Your plane tickets." Jann smiled.

"Plane tickets?" I asked, taking mine and looking it over. It was to New Orleans, Louisiana for October 27th.

"I'm sending the writer and the creative director to cover the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans." Jann grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Three days of pure music."

My jaw dropped. "Are you serious?! Voodoo is like, one of the best festivals in history." I was grinning just as much as Jann.

"This is great, thanks Jann." Christian smiled.

"Now you kids are okay with going right? It's an all expenses paid trip, courtesy of Rolling Stone." Jann knew we'd say yes. But then Hudson came to mind. I wasn't sure how he'd feel about me going to New Orleans on a weekend trip with Christian, but this was for work and I couldn't possibly turn down an offer like this; this trip would be more pleasure than business in my eyes, musically speaking.

"I am." Christian replied, nodding.

I bit my lip and grinned. "Of course I'll go."

"Perfect." Jann clapped his hands and left the room.

"This should be fun." Christian smiled.

I nodded, smiling back. "Oh yeah."

"And you can read Fifty Shades of Grey on the way there." He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Oh of course I will."