Sold #3 - A Haunting Hope

Chapter 12

Sitting in the boardroom, going through the various notes and files that lay about the office concerning the Amy Stevens case and listening to Travis' ideas from that morning, as to how to solve it, quickly became much more interesting the moment that Victoria took Lani off to the canteen around three o'clock that afternoon, in hope of finding something decent to snack on, since it was clear they could be there all night with how little progress they were making. They all knew that any dinner plans would have to wait until six o'clock at the earliest and Antony was only disappointed to hear the suggestion that they should all go to dinner together at a restaurant, to make sure they had a break from working and ate something decent. He had quickly realised that, regardless of the lack of information Tai had given about his relationship with Lani, he was the only male in the room who had no-one to go to dinner with and being the fifth wheel didn't interest him in the slightest. But what he didn't know, was that Tai and Travis had already managed to finalise their sneaky plans to catch him in a trap along with Arena, who was yet to come back from her unexpected trip out of town. There had been a quiet moment when Antony had left the office to deal with another mess Tai insisted needed attention from someone with a higher seniority in the office, which each Tai and Travis took to discuss the matter in hushed whispers while Victoria and Lani got to know each other better, filing through the various notes they had on the case and making references to anything that seemed unusual. And since the girls had disappeared from the room, it didn't seem so wrong for Antony to turn the conversation around to the love lives of the two other men in the room.

"Is anyone going to mention Tai and his new girl, or am I the only one who's noticed that he hasn't taken his eyes off her all day?" Antony threw his question out to the room, unable to help but notice the sly smile that Tai gave his words, as he kept his head down and continued to write notes on the crime scene photo's he had been given to look over. No-one spoke, although he could see that Travis seemed to agree with him, stopping in his work to stare at the youngest one of them, waiting for him to confirm or deny the fact that there was a certain chemistry brewing between himself and Lani.

"I noticed it, but I was waiting to see if anyone would bother saying anything as to what was going on. But I was just waiting for Victoria to drag all the details out of Lani, and she'd tell me everything tonight anyway. What do you think about it?" Travis smiled, deliberately excluding Tai from the discussion as he and Antony mulled over the situation together, trying to find a solution that would result in more than just a sly smile from Tai. They each agreed that something was going on and as they talked it over between them, without a word from their young friend as to whether they were anywhere near to being on the right track or not, they knew they were getting close. "Yeah, you're right...there's definitely something about the way she looks at him, but then, you could say there's something about the way he looks at her too. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what little surprises come to a certain someone before his brother comes back from Tokyo." He winked across to Antony with a broad smile, the very thought of what he meant forcing Tai to sink down in his chair and hide his face with the documents he was reading. He couldn't help it. He'd been thinking similar thoughts since Lani had arrived at the house and now that it was being spelt out to him in no uncertain terms that Lani shared his attraction and that it was all too possible that she might just give in to the temptation it was to explore their flirtations, he couldn't keep the thoughts from spinning round his head with hope.

"Yeah, dead handy too that his big brother...who's really the only one around to look after him and keep him in line...happens to be at the other side of the world." Antony agreed on the highest levels that Michiaki had left his brother in the prime situation for something spectacular to finally happen to him, at least where his love life was concerned. And it was blatantly obvious that he might just not mind it if it did happen, a clearly elated smile that spread across his lips as Lani passed by the open door, heading towards Victoria's desk, where her phone was shrilling out with what they all hoped was exciting news.