ten days » javier peña

prologue

When Steve first saw Maeve, he knew Javi would go crazy about her. She walked into the office with a big smile and was nice to everyone. And she was exactly Javi's type - hot.

All Steve knew about her was that she was the ambassador's niece, and that she was excited to leave the States, because of her recent divorce. Apparently her divorce was a whole shitshow, but he didn't know the details.

Steve spoke to her for the first time when they were standing in front of the coffee machine together. She was filling up her water bottle when she noticed him next to her,

"Hi, you must be Steve Murphy, right?" she asked with a polite smile and took a sip from the bottle.

"Yes that's me, Maeve Hayes, right?" he asked back and pressed the button on the coffee machine.

"Yes" she replied and scanned the room with her eyes.

She was obviously nervous, but Steve could understand that. After all, it was her first day here.

"You want coffee too?" Steve asked to break the ice.

"Oh, yes sure" she said and he got a second cup from the shelf.

While the coffee poured from the machine into the cup, someone else entered the room. And Steve recognized Javi immediately out of the corner of his eye.

Javi smelled like cigarettes and alcohol, and he was late. So he probably spent his night 'questioning' an informant again.

"Thank you Steve" Maeve said, which drew Javi's attention.

With furrowed eyebrows, Javier watched the two and approached them.

"I don't think we know each other yet," he said with a charming grin and held out his hand to the woman in front of him.

After a moment's hesitation, she shook his hand, "And you must be Javier Peña"

"Ah you know who I am? I hope you only heard good things about me" he replied, still grinning.

"Well, uhm sure" she said. Actually, her aunt had only told her bad things about Javier Peña. Like really really bad things. But it was her first day, and she wanted to get along well with all her new colleagues.

"You're a bad liar" Steve said with a laugh.

Overwhelmed, Maeve looked back and forth between them.

"Don't worry about it, the ambassador calls him a manwhore. So I can already imagine what kinda thing she told you" Steve then added with a chuckle.

Javier just ignored Steve and stood himself between him and Maeve, "Todays your first day?"

"Ah, yeah" she replied mumbling.

"I look forward to seeing you more, mi amor" he said with a grin, gently lifted her hand and pressed a kiss on her knuckles.