Sapphire Blue [The Grim Reaper Chronicles, #1] (Editing)

chapter thirty three

"......!"

Walking further into the room with his strong cologne engulfing the room, he asked again firmly with his gaze still unwaveringly on Penelope. "Who dared threatened my guests?"

Penelope swallowed in shock and moved a foot backward in fear, her hands trembling under her shoulders. She hadn't expected her boss to arrive so quickly when she was in the middle of a heated argument with his friend. If he didn't fire her this time considering the faithful years she had stayed by his side as a loyal secretary, there would definitely be a change in the way he regarded her, and that meant there would be no way to get closer to him in the future. How could she had talked so carelessly knowing fully well he might arrive at any moment?

"I....I.... We.....," She stuttered, trying to find an excuse for her uncompromising behavior. "I really didn't mean to....."

"To what?" He demanded, his face darkening by each passing second. If he had misheard what she said earlier on, she might as well repeat it to clear the air.

Penelope's breath became shaky and she found herself shaking uncontrollably in what's about to happen to her in any minute. There was no way she could repeat what she had just said to Samantha to her boss, yet he badly wanted to hear it. And if she repeated it, she might not be really lucky to go scott free. It was very obvious luck wasn't shining on her today. It would have been better if she kept her anger for another day when he wouldn't be anywhere near them and would not know she had that kind of grudge against Samantha. What was she to do now?

Gathering her thoughts together and deciding to spill the truth, she nudged forward and attempted to speak but was cut off by Samantha who to her surprise, walked up to Lestat and held his hands to divert his attention. Just when she thought her stay at the company was going to end miserably, Samantha had stepped in to help her.

"We were gossiping about someone and didn't expect you to walk right into it. Penelope thought you might get mad seeing her converse with me freely so she got scared. I was the one who brought the topic on."

"Really?" Lestat asked and faked a smile, knowing fully well Samantha was only trying to cover Penelope to avoid trouble for her. "What was it about? Tell me about it."

By this time, the girls who had been doing a thorough search of the wine no one knew existed had finally found a match and in their excitement, walked back to Samantha to show off their find, unaware of the little argument their friend had with Penelope and Lestat's arrival until they saw him. Little did they know they had interrupted an awkward situation at the wrong time.

"You're back." Veronica muttered and sent him a small wave in which was returned with a warm smile. She was the one who had found the wine so she wasted no time in announcing her success to everyone despite noticing the sour look on Penelope's face. It wasn't like she had interest in knowing what was wrong with her. "I finally found one after many fruitless searches. It's really hard to find a raspberry wine these days. Everyone one just wants alcohol."

Samantha laughed at her friend's words to shake off the gloomy atmosphere and was deep down glad in her heart Veronica had interrupted just when Lestat had asked her a question she didn't know how to answer. It would have been another case if she had also stuttered when asked the question and Lestat would have suspected she was lying. It was better she kept the flow going and make Veronica have all their attentions so the matter would die now. She really didn't want a feud between herself and Penelope over a man. Nothing would make it worth it.

"How come Lestat has a non-alcoholic wine in his rack? I thought he took only alcohol." Martha said, checking out the wine in Veronica's embrace with an amused snort.