IWMR | Bbangsaz

Chapter 6

Hanni's

I let the town house door slam closed behind me and then stalk up the stairs into the living room. I throw my purse down on one of the three sofas crammed into the room and kick my shoes off.

I don't know whether I want to laugh, scream, or punch something.

I can't believe Minji is The Kim Minji.

I can't believe I'm going to be stuck working with her for the next couple of months.

I can't believe I let her do … that … to me in the elevator.

Oh God, I need a glass of wine. I need a whole bottle.

I shuffle into the kitchen and pull a bottle of white out of the fridge, then pour myself a generous glass.

"You can stay right here with me," I tell the bottle, taking it into the living room with me instead of putting it back in the fridge.

I take a big gulp of wine and sink down onto the comfiest of the three sofas, the one with the floral velvet upholstery. It may look like it belongs in a grandmother's house, but goddamn it's comfortable. I curl up into a little ball and get cozy.

I can still almost feel Minji's hands against my skin. Her fist twisted in my hair. Her lips on my throat. Her fingers sliding through my …

Stop.

That is so not happening again.

Just the thought of what my father would think about this is enough to make me shudder. Leaving aside the fact that he's my father, and never thought anyone was good enough for his little girl, I have to think he would hate the idea of me hooking up with the competition.

And I hate it too. I had come back here to honor Dad's wishes and run his company. The last thing I needed was for his legacy to become nothing more than a social media scandal.

I take another gulp of wine.

This is crazy. I've only met the woman once — well, twice now. It really shouldn't bother me this much, that I can't see her anymore. In fact, I had already decided that I wasn't going to pursue anything with her so that I could focus on work. That was the whole reason that I'd walked out of her apartment the other day without giving her my number.

But that was before I saw her again, a little voice whispers. Before she touched me in the elevator. Before she made me …

"Gah." I take another gulp of wine, then dig my phone out of my purse. There's only one person who can talk me down right now, and thank God, the time difference is working in my favor this time.

I punch Danielle's contact info and it rings just twice before I hear her breathy voice on the other end of the line.

"Darling!" she says. "I was just thinking about you."

"Hi Dani."

"What's wrong?" she says suspiciously.

I laugh. Danielle and I have spent so much time together over the last few years that I sometimes think she knows me better than I know myself.

"Nothing's wrong."

"Bullshit." Her Australian accent makes the word sound strangely elegant.

I laugh again. "Fine. I met someone."

"Darling, that's wonderful! It's about time."

I'm shaking my head, even though she can't see me. "It's not so wonderful, really." And then I'm telling her the whole story, about meeting Minji at the Design Times party the other day, and who she is, and how I saw her again today and what I let her do to me in the elevator. Okay, I don't tell her exactly what I let her do to me in the elevator, but enough that she gets the idea.