Page 37 of King of Deception

“You said he liked to swim. Why don’t you guys do that, instead?”

“How do you expect me to fit that into my lunch hour? It’s a whole production.”

“Why can’t you land a millionaire for a change?” he chortled. “At least he’d fly you out in jets and—”

“And what? I won’t need to work anymore?” I raised a brow at him in return.

“Isn’t that the dream?”

“Sometimes it is.” My eyes looked away pensively. “Other times, I wonder what I’d do with my time if it weren’t for my job.”

“You’d go shopping… buy a little beach hut and spend all summer there… invite me over…”

We both giggled. “Of course. But then I’ll get bored.”

“Then you can volunteer like all rich women do.”

“Believe me, none of the women I saw at Lucid looked like they volunteered anywhere.”

“As personal shoppers, maybe?”

Laughing again, I felt a hint of guilt. Perhaps we were judging wealthy women a tad too harshly. After all, many of them could have worked their asses off for their money.

Monday rolled around, and I kept spotting Abel in every corner of my mind. Whatever I was doing, there he was, lurking in the background. Looking at the budget sheet, I wondered how he planned his finances. Analyzing the performance of our various divisions, I tried to guess the hidden tasks a waiter was expected to perform. We had spent the past week meeting every day at the park, but he never actually talked about his job.

When the alarm on my phone went off, announcing the time for my lunch break, I picked up my purse and rushed out of the office, looking forward to the little time we were going to spend together.

There he was, standing by the ice cream vendor with a smile on his face. “Hello. You’re so dressed up today!”

I caught the vendor’s grin as he saw me and nodded as I approached before quickly kissing Abel on the lips. “I have a big meeting at four.”

“Oh, interesting.” He proceeded to pay for the ice cream the man had prepared for us. I let him.

“All the VPs will be there,” I explained as I accepted the cold treat from him.

“Wow, that’s big, huh?”

“Yeah. I’m rarely invited to those.”

We began to slowly walk side by side. “Does this mean that the Powers that Be are happy with you again?”

I sighed, taking a bite. “I guess.”

“You’re working really hard; I don’t see why not.”

“I am, aren’t I?”

“These people aren’t stupid. They recognize your potential, and I’m sure that when the time comes for a promotion, your name will pop up.”

Chuckling, I turned to examine his face. “For someone who isn’t in corporate, you seem to have a lot of faith in them.”

“I know more than you think.”

“Yeah?”

A cyclist passed us by, and I noticed that he was wearing a suit and a helmet. I wondered if he belonged to my world or Abel’s.

“Pretty much everyone I know is in corporate, one way or another.” Abel shrugged before taking a big lick of his cone.

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