Page 61 of Return on Love

“She is, but in a very in-your-face kinda way. I mean, she probably wears the right makeup, the right dresses, matches her clothes to her accessories and all the rest, but her expressions aren’t soft. Her eyes aren’t kind. Like yours.” I look up and our gaze locks for a moment before he looks down and continues. “What I mean is, she is good to look at from a distance, but I wouldn’t want her in my life or anywhere near anyone I care about.”

“For a lot of men, pretty is all they like. Ask Bob.” I scoff. Somehow, even after a year, it still hurts. Maybe it’s because I tried to change myself to meet Bob’s expectations and he still left me. Or maybe it’s because I was too foolish to even know about it before it was too late. Or maybe that I lost to a person like Priscilla and am probably losing to her again.

Ryan places his hand on mine. “Bob was stupid. If he wanted pretty, he already had the prettiest girl who’s also smart and fun.”

I’m sure the entire restaurant can feel the heat of my cheeks burning. They could cook the salmon on my face. As I look into his eyes, I feel like kissing him right now and making wild love to him right here on the table. From the way he’s looking at me, with hunger, devouring me with his looks, I think similar thoughts are running through his mind, too.

But we have work to do. I let out a deep breath and calm my thumping heart. He drinks some water, then lowers his eyes and attacks the food. So do I. I wonder if I should ask him to follow me to the washroom. I’ve never done it in a washroom. The surface is hard and chances of germs are everywhere, not to mention the fear of people getting a glimpse. I’m sure Priscilla has no such qualms. No wonder Bob thought I lacked adventure.

With lunch over, I try to rid myself of my horny thoughts and focus on the task at hand. No point focussing on something which is destined to end before it can even begin. I take my laptop to the meeting room and sit with Ryan. Given that he’s my client, no one should doubt we’re doing anything other than preparing for the presentation.

Ryan shows me the email communication regarding CashCross. Around ten days ago, Neil had sent him the ‘clean’ version. Not updated or revised, but clean. I download the file and copy it on my laptop. They are CashCross financials. I study them for a bit while Ryan’s looking for other Bernard related emails.

I text Alex to send me details of the person who had looked at CashCross from his company. He responds after ten minutes with a number and says that he has told Mark, his colleague, that he can expect a message from me sometime today.

“Hi Mark, I’m Eva. Alex’s sister. I need to talk to you about CashCross. What would be a good time?” I message Mark.

He replies almost immediately. “In a meeting right now. Anytime between 7 and 8pm?”

I give him a thumbs up and get back to browsing with Ryan. He’s searching for Priscilla!

“Really! Don’t tell me she has you too smitten by her charming looks.”

“Do I smell smoke?” Ryan says with a wink. “I can feel a green monster rearing its head.”

I flick him on the forehead. “Seriously. Why’re you searching for that woman?”

“I was wondering why she was with your colleague, Neil. Apparently, she has been communicating with Weber frequently.”

“I don’t see many emails from her,” I say, as I scroll through the search result.

“Not emails, but chats.” He opens another window and I see that Weber and Priscilla have been chatting every day. “Do you want to read them?”

I’m not too sure. I mean, emails are work related, and I didn’t feel weird going through them, but chat is like going into personal space. It’s the difference between going into someone’s living room versus the bedroom.

“Have you read them?” I ask Ryan. If he can confirm there's nothing there, maybe I don't need to go through them.

“No. I wasn’t sure I should do it. Should we?”

It seems wrong. But I don’t want to lose to Priscilla again. But is this fear leading me to do unethical things? Lily peeps in before I can answer.

“How’s it going out here?” she asks, wiggling her eyebrows at me and grinning like the Cheshire cat.

“We’re working on the presentation,” I reply with a shrug.

“Well, it’s Friday. Take Ryan out instead of working. Remember what you said before tests in school, that last-minute studying is no good. Prepare ahead or don’t prepare at all.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t you give me back my advice.”

“You really never studied right before exams?” Ryan asks.

Lily comes inside and takes a seat opposite us. “She didn’t. She was one of those study-a-chapter-before-it’s-taught-in-school kinda girl. Smart and always well-prepared, but she made the rest of us look a little stupid.”

“No. I never,” I reply defensively.

“Was she like that in grad school, too? What did you think of her when you were taking your classes together?” Lily asks with an innocent face that fooled no one. I hate this girl. She knows what Ryan thought of me and what I thought of him, but she has to bring it up now. How bad can friends be? How desperate to put you in a place of misery?

Ryan looks at me with a twinkle in his eyes and a small grin. “Thinking about it, she was exactly as you described. We had to make presentations about the books we read. Hers were by far the best researched with the best analysis of plot, character and everything else. I doubt the author also thought so much about it.”

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