Sold #2 - A Desperate Love

Chapter 2

Darcy knew she was being childish, being so scared of walking into Michael's office because she thought that everyone was going to stare at her and talk behind her back, each of them knowing the circumstances that had brought her and Michael together. She was scared of being judged as she knew his father had judged her inside his head...studying every inch and hating each one more than the last. There was so much about her that was like honey to the bees when it came to people scrutinising her and she vulnerable to it. She was blonde for a start and considering Asato's preference for a sumptuous Japanese wife for his son, being blonde was the last thing he wanted her to be, though she did fit the picture of being of a delicate frame and quite a bit smaller than Michael, which he seemed to hold in high regard. Darcy wasn't blind, every time she had to look at her reflection since meeting her boyfriend, she knew that she wasn't what his father wanted, but that didn't explain to her why Michael wanted her.

Stepping out of the wind and into the small book shop behind her, she quickly decided that it didn't matter. What was important was hat Michael did want her and he did love her which was more than anything she could ever have dreamed of, especially after only two short days together, of which he'd had to work some incredibly long hours. But he seemed to feel the way she did, that each minute they spent apart only gave them a chance to miss being together and miss seeing each others face...allowing them to fall in love without realising it until it was too late. It wasn't as if Darcy would have stopped it if she could have, but she knew that if Asato had been aware of what was happening, he would have decided very quickly to put a blockade between them. Brushing the thoughts aside, she realised that she was only putting more fears between herself and the silly little office floor that frightened her so much. If she didn't pull herself together then she wouldn't get to see Michael and that was how she was going to have to keep thinking until she got up the courage to walk across the street and into the building. She didn't need to persuade herself that no-one would look at her or talk about her, all she had to do was remind herself that her boyfriend, who was already worried about her, was sitting up on the twentieth floor, waiting for her and she would be letting him down if she didn't stop being such a coward.

Darcy took just a moment or two to browse through the poetry section before choosing a book that would preoccupy her from what she was about to put herself through, quietly making her way over to the desk and paying for it. She decided to do things quickly and with as little thought as possible so she couldn't talk herself out of it and as she crossed the busy road carefully and stepped inside the building, a mixture of fear and relief flooded over her. She opened her book and found a poem that would keep her thinking happy thoughts, reading it silently as she made her way over to the elevators, about to reach out to the button when a voice boomed out to her, stirring a shocked squeak from the back of her throat as she jumped in surprise. "You'll need to sign in miss..." Jerry reminded her as he read his paper, only looking up when she let out a chirp of surprise that said he'd caught her off guard. "Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you." He smiled, almost laughing the words as Darcy took a deep breath and turned to walk over to the desk.

"It's fine, really." She apologised, embarrassed beyond belief that she was being so silly as he opened the log book and slid it towards her, not sure where he knew her from but recognising her face all the same. "I'm just a little jumpy right now." She sighed, smiling at Michael's signature before signing her own, the sight of her smile making Jerry realise why she was so familiar. He reached down to the shelf under the desk and lifted out the pass key that his boss had asked him to find for her, about to speak when she offered him a smile and moved away from the desk.

"Wait...I've got something for you." He called out to her, crossing the foyer as he took in the look of surprise in her eyes at his words, but he didn't bother explaining as he took the chain between his hands and lay it over her head, letting her fix it into place as it fell around her neck. "The boss asked me to give you this. It's not exactly important unless you get up there and everyone's disappeared. It opens all the office doors, so if you come in and the boss is in a meeting elsewhere, just swipe this into the lock and you can nip into his office and wait for him there." He smiled at her, his teasing words relieving a little of her nerves as she looked down at the pass with a thick black line over the middle and her name written underneath.