Desire & Blood - The Thorne Siblings

3. A Scent of Chlorine

I started the next day with a good swim.

The generous indoor pool that TCorp operated for its employees was one of the many things I loved about the company. I went there every other weekday morning before work, swimming twenty lengths. Breaststroke, front crawl, breaststroke again.

The pool had obviously been built by Thomas Thorne, acting CEO of TCorp. In contrast to his son Thierry, he had earned his money with hard work and wise guidance, or so they all said.

My regular routine of swimming days, and the swimming itself, with its repetitive motions pushing through the water, were like a clockwork driving me through the week. Their predictability and normalcy were reassuring.

I felt warm and comfortable from the exercise when I stepped into our office half an hour later. The fragrance of pool chlorine still clung to me. My skin felt dry.

Camille stood at Sandra's desk, whispering. When they saw me, they waved me over.

"Morning, what the—" I began

Sandra held a finger to her lips.

Something was going on.

Camille's grin almost split her face in two. "You won't believe who walked in here just minutes ago, and who's in there right now." She pointed her thumb at the door to Bob's office, her eyes emoji-wide open.

I shrugged. I still was all relaxed from the swimming, my brain idling.

"Thierry Thorne!" Camille said, grinning and shaking her fists in excitement.

My brain jumped to attention. Our CEO's son was hardly ever seen outside Top Floor. If he came down here, it had to be for some special reason. And I hedged a suspicion as to what it was.

"What's he doing here?" I asked, trying to keep my face neutral. I hadn't told my colleagues about the list of expenses.

Sandra scratched her short, black-gray hair. "We don't know."

"He just walked in," Camille added. "He smiled at me, that was the first thing he did... and only then he asked for Bob... He has such a charming smile."

I shrugged, not caring for the man's smile and irritated by Camille's mooning. Then I looked at Sandra. "So... with his Royal Thorness being in there, we skip work this morning?"

My remark made her smile. "No, we don't... Even if God were in there, we would work."

Camille groaned.

I sat down and logged into my computer. My chair was facing away from Bob's office, giving me a view of Camille's workplace. The morning sun entered the windows at my left side, setting my colleague's copper hair on fire. Her eyes kept darting to Bob's office behind me. She clearly wasn't focused on her accounting either.

Thierry Thorne was in Bob's office. They had to be discussing the list of expenses. The list I had drawn up. Why else should Thierry Thorne move his divine ass from the heavens of Top Floor down to the dark realm of accounting?

And I had no doubts—Bob would put any blame on me.

But it was too late to change things now. I shrugged and tried to concentrate on the numbers on my screen while gnawing the end of a wooden pencil. But my best efforts to gain a hold in the calm routine of work failed.

The heavy silence was broken by the sound of a door's handle being operated. 

I froze. Camille's gaze went up, and her lips parted.

I felt tempted to turn my head and face the doom approaching me. But every muscle in my body had turned to hardened concrete.

"Sure, quality's crucial." That was Bob's birdy voice.