After You

chapter five

Just over half an hour later, I buy myself a new blouse (navy this time), get everyone their order from Starbucks, and make it to the elevator to take me up to the office. I keep an eye out for anyone wearing a suit and who's preoccupied, especially anyone with dark hair and striking blue eyes.

As I push through the frosted-glass door of Holt & Castle Real Estate, I spy Jessica sitting at my desk, a wide smile on her lips.

The reception area has large floor to ceiling frosted-glass panels, grey floor tiles, and a large floor to ceiling window that overlooks the street below. There's two dark grey sofas for people to sit and wait for their appointments, a water cooler, a couple of coffee tables with magazines. My desk faces the glass panels, and over my shoulder when sitting at the desk is the door leading to the rest of the office. Which makes Jessica's appearance all the more surprising.

"Hi," I say awkwardly, as I deposit my coffee on the desk beside the pile of documents I need to work through today.

"So ..." she says, accepting her coffee, "give me the details."

"About what?" I ask.

"Kyle Ward, obviously," she says, like duh. She props herself on the edge of my desk.

"There's nothing to tell," I say as I stow my bag into a nearby drawer.

Jessica clicks her tongue. "I doubt it," she says. "I mean, he had your phone and used it to text me. That's not nothing."

I shrug my shoulders, the movement constricted slightly by my new blouse. "He wasn't looking where he was going, so he bumped into me when I was coming into work," I say. "And the coffee went all over me."

She lofts an eyebrow. "That doesn't sound like what he said happened," she says. "He said he tried to avoid you when you were distracted, but he couldn't get out of the way quick enough."

Of course he said that. It must've been when I'd zoned out and was trying to work out why she was happy to talk to him, and lie to our boss about why I was late.

"What did you say to Ray?" I ask her.

Jessica smiles knowingly as she takes a sip of her coffee. "I said you had to take Liv to the doctor because she was too sick to drive," she replies, "and the reason you are only here now is because her boyfriend is able to take her home."

Good thinking. He hasn't met Liv before because she's never swung by the office during work hours for the whole time I've worked here. Ray knows of her, but that's about it.

"Did you say why she was so sick?" I ask, because I want my story to stick to whatever she said.

Jessica shakes her head. "Nope. I just said that you weren't sure what was wrong."

At least that gives me something to work with.

"Anyway, back to Kyle."

"Why?" I ask her.

"Why?" she echoes, indignation creeping into her voice. "Don't you know who he is?"

Now it's my turn to shake my head. "No."

She stands and moves around me to gain access to my computer. Having had the foresight to turn it on, she simply logs onto the Internet and googles Kyle. Multiple links appear, including news articles and photos. He even has his own Wikipedia page.

"Kyle Ward is the son of Derek Ward, architect, entrepreneur, the multi-millionaire who owns several businesses across town," Jessica says. "Does any of this not ring a bell to you?"

Maybe that was what I was trying to grasp earlier when I was with Kyle. Maybe this is where I know him from, that familiarity I was chasing when I thought I should know him.

"Kyle is a multi-millionaire," Jessica says in response to the blank look on my face.

Well, at least I was right about one thing: Kyle's suit definitely costs more than my entire wardrobe.