Dirty Little Secret

Chapter Eighteen - Mouret & Soy Latte's

I took a deep breath as I stared up at the tall office building belonging to The San Francisco Chronicle.

Come on Nina, you can do this.

Granting one last look at the busy city street behind me, I pushed open the two large glass doors leading into a clean looking spacious lobby. Almost everything was made out of glass, including the large front desk where a blonde woman who looked to be in her mid twenties sat with a telephone held up to her ear and a stack of files held in her perfectly manicured hand.

She looked up as the buzzer sounded, indicating my arrival, and motioned with her hand towards the waiting area.

I took a seat  on the white leather couch and sat my purse down on my lap, reaching for one of the newspapers that lay on the glass coffee table in front of me. I pretended to busy myself with reading, but I was much too nervous to actually comprehend any of the words printed on the crisp white paper.

I couldn't believe that I was here, I couldn't believe that this was really happening. But most of all, I couldn't believe that I had gotten away with taking a complete detour with public transportation this morning just so my mother could watch me get on the bus heading towards downtown San Jose.

Luckily, Rose hadn't contacted her at all since the incident and I had managed to convince my mother that the reason for my nervous behavior last week had been because I was being bullied by a boy at school, which wasn't entirely untrue. It wasn't very difficult to convince her after she'd received the phone call from school informing her that her daughter had physically assaulted someone with a dictionary.

Definitely not my brightest moment.

The secretary spent another five minutes on the phone before she finally hung up and called me over.

"How can I help you, dear?" She asked, looking me up and down with her eyes passively.

"I'm here to see Veronica Cavallo, I'm her new assistant." I informed her as I shifted from one foot to the other nervously, clutching my purse tightly in my hands.

This place was a lot different from the office lobby back at the O'loughlin law firm. It looked crisp, clean and official whereas the law firm had looked more welcoming and homey.

"Your name please?" The secretary asked.

"Nina Becker."

She nodded and reached for the phone, dialing a number before asking me to hold on for a moment.

"Hello Miss Cavallo, I have a young lady by the name of Nina Becker here to see you."

I could faintly here some mumbling coming from the other side of the line. "Alright, I'll send her up." The secretary put down the phone and pulled open a drawer by her side, extracting a plastic card from it before handing it to me "Use this to operate the elevator. Miss Cavallo will be waiting for you on the third floor."

I nodded and thanked her before making my way towards the elevator. As I stepped inside I immediately recognized Boccherini's Minuet playing softly through the speakers and  a gentle smile formed on my lips. My father used to be a great fan of classical music, Boccherini being no exception. Next to his love for poetry it was one of the only good memories I had of him. I remembered sitting with him in his study as he played Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky or Beethoven while reading me his favorite books and poems . I hadn't been in there since his death.

I was brought back to reality by the soft 'ding' of the elevator and I watched as the doors slid open, revealing Veronica standing behind them dressed in a red body con dress with a peplum skirt. She beamed as she saw me and leaned forward to kiss my cheek "Hey, how good to see you."