FIVE
Corrine
“Tell me everything,” Sarah breathes as we walk the block to work from the parking complex.
“There’s not much to tell.” I take a sip of my steaming hot macchiato. “He fucked me stupid and then kicked me out of his house.”
“Asshole.”
“Is it wrong that I want him to do it again?”
She grins, tucking closer to avoid collision with the oncoming foot traffic. “Nope. Did you at least get his number or leave him yours?”
I shake my head and pull in a deep breath. “He literally pulled out—” I hesitate until the guy walking past us is out of earshot “—and then asked me to wait in the foyer after I’d cleaned up.”
“What?” Sarah’s brow furrows. “I mean the guy looked like a cold hearted bastard, but really?”
“Really.” I shrug. “At least he splurged for a corporate cab.”
“Gee. Lucky you,” she drones.
I let her go first when we reach the revolving door that leads into our building, tucking my coffee close as I push around. I wore it once when my elbow caught the stationary part of the frame—not doing that again.
“We need to cyber-stalk the guy,” Sarah states with finality when I rejoin her in the lobby.
Clearly she’s had some time to think this over while we navigated the death trap.
“Have you looked him up yet?”
I roll my eyes at her. “What do you think?”
“And?”
“He likes flashy cars and showing off his wealth, it seems. Typical ego-driven ‘entrepreneur’.”
“Hey,” she scoffs. “At first glance you look like a wannabe fashion blogger, so remember that we’re not all what we seem at face value. Maybe that stuff helps sell his work, or something.” She frowns as we stop for the next lift. “What does he do?”
“How would I know? Something to do with technology. He hardly gave me the guided tour of his house for me to get any clues.”
“True.” She reaches into her purse and pulls her phone out, whispering when a woman in a pantsuit stands too close. “What’s his name?”
“Jordan.”
She winds her hand, indicating she wants his surname.
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “He didn’t exactly tell me that before he ordered me to get on the bed.”
“Was it not on Instagram?”
I shake my head. “His full name wasn’t in his bio.”
“How did you find him then?”
“Chase follows him.”
“He knows your brother?”
My eyes widen at he thought of involving him in this. “No way.”
“I’ll ask. Say I bumped into the guy myself.”
“No,” I hiss as we step into the lift with pantsuit lady. “He’ll figure it out.”
“How?” Sarah frowns while her thumb flies across her screen.
“What are you doing?” I try to see over her shoulder, yet she keeps turning on the spot to fend me off.
“What have I done, is the question.” She rotates the phone to show me a message to Chase.
Met some guy last night who said he knows you—Jordan. Should I be worried if he offers to buy me a drink again?
“I can’t believe you did that.” My ass hits the glossy brass rail as I slump against the lift wall in defeat.
“Well, you weren’t about to.”
Pantsuit lady gives us both a scathing glare before exiting on her level, two below ours. I poke my tongue out at her retreating back before realizing their reception has a mirrored rear wall. Oops. Hopefully I don’t see her at the end of the day then.
Sarah’s phone chimes with a reply. The two of us scramble to see the message, losing balance as I crash into Sarah’s side.
The lift dings and then opens on our floor, the two of us crammed into the corner as we read the simple, blunt answer to Sarah’s question.
Stay the hell away from that guy, S. He’s trouble. Make sure Corrine doesn’t go near him, either.
“Well.” She cocks an eyebrow at me, stepping sideways into our office foyer. “Looks as though you’ll have your hands full.”
“How?” I shake my head. “There was no exchange of numbers, remember?”
She parts ways with me to head to her department, while I veer left to mine. “Doesn’t mean a thing.”
Apparently it doesn’t. I spend the entire work day being bombarded by emails from Sarah with questions about how I know him, what I remember of Jordan, and links to possible Facebook accounts for the guy.
It’s no use—I tried that already. If he is friends with Chase, he has his account locked down so that people who aren’t connected with him can’t see him. And yes, a simple question to my brother would save us all this hassle, but like hell I’m asking Chase for information on Jordan when he warned Sarah—and me—away from the guy.
I already have an over-bearing father; I don’t need a brother who acts like one too.
“Corrine.”
I swivel my chair to face our manager, Ted. “Yes?”
“Would you be able to stay behind a little later today?” He turns his wedding band around his finger—a sign he’s nervous.
“Sure. I guess so. Why?” Only big projects require extra time, and even then it doesn’t happen more than once or twice a year at most.
“We’ve got a major client threatening to pull their account if we can’t do some damage control after a breach that happened over the weekend.”
“Flynn & Taylor?”
He nods. “You know about that?”
“Yeah. I heard the stories going around the office.” Their website—which our company designed and maintains—was compromised. Two hundred customer files were harvested with credit card information stored inside.
The breach wasn’t our fault; it was the result of a hit on the third party used to process the store payments. But our company was the one who chose that third party, so the blame lies with us.
“Can you help with some damage control?” Ted asks hopefully.
Not that I know what I can do, but, “Sure.”
“We’ve got an expert coming in to work some analysis on what we can do to make our systems watertight. Hopefully that’ll be enough to assure F & T it won’t happen again.”
“Okay. What can I do?”
“I need somebody to run down to the deli and pick up refreshments. It’s going to be a long night.”
Hear that hiss? Yeah, that’s my balloon of confidence screaming around the office as it deflates. “I can do that. Of course.”
“We’d only need you here for another hour or so.”
“Honestly.” I wave a dismissive hand at Ted. “It’s no problem. I’ll just make a phone call, and then I’ll go set up the boardroom.”
He runs a hand through his short curly hair. “Thanks, Corrine. You’re a real help.”
No. I’m a web technician. But if being the sandwich lady gets me brownie points toward a promotion, then I’ll give it a try.
I pull my phone out as he walks away, sinking into my chair with a sigh.
“Hey, babe. I’m in the foyer still.”
I stand and wave to Sarah across the expanse of cubicles. “I have to stay back for a bit.”
“You want me to wait?”
“No.” I drop back into my seat. “I’ll be a while. I’ll catch you tomorrow morning.”
“Okay. See you then, babe.”
I disconnect, and then stand to watch as she gets into the lift and disappears from view. Ted’s voice drifts from his open office door, the call on speaker as I walk past to prep the boardroom.
The answering tones of his caller leave a chill tickling my spine. No way. My steps falter, and I hesitate just out of view to listen in.
“I’m on my way over. Stuck in a bit of traffic, but I’ll be there soon.”
“Thanks for coming in at such short notice, man. I owe you one.”
“Hey, I owe you plenty after the shit we pulled in college. Don’t sweat it.”
Ted knows Jordan. Is there anybody in my goddamn life who doesn’t know the guy? I totally should have moved interstate after graduating; would have avoided these kinds of run-ins, that’s for sure.
I continue to the far end of the office space, yet instead of entering the boardroom like I was supposed to, I veer right and head for the restrooms instead. I’ve had a long day, and I can’t guarantee that I look all that great after fidgeting with my hair like I do while transitioning data from one site to the next.
He might not have intended on seeing me again, but I know without a doubt that after Jordan sees me today, I’ll make sure he won’t ever feel that way again.