Page 44 of Return on Love

“Who’s there?” Yup. I’ve made it a point to ask before opening the door.

“Ryan.”

I smile despite my tension. He enters and sees the laptop, my notebook, and pencil spread over the couch. “You’re working?”

Given how he looks, I’d say he has been doing his fair share of work as well. Unless, he’s been awake for other reasons. The green monster is up again. Did he refuse to come in because he wanted to be with someone else last night?

“Hope I’m not disturbing you,” he says, bringing me back from the very uncomfortable thoughts.

“Nah. It’s okay. Remember Weber said that one of my clients is in trouble. It seems Bernard is being accused of something. I was trying to figure out which client it is.”

“And? Did you?”

“Yup. But he says Bernard himself told him to do something, which might put him and the firm in trouble.” I look at Ryan. He looks genuinely concerned. “I’ll need a few minutes to study what he’s just sent me. You want some coffee in the meantime?”

“You go ahead. I’ll help myself. Don’t worry about me. You’ve eaten anything?”

I shake my head. “There are some fruits somewhere, if you’d like some.” My eyes are now focussed on my screen as I open the attachment James has sent.

It seems Bernard did send him that email. The email id is my ex-boss’, no doubt. James was right. Despite the lack of legal approval, Bernard clearly instructed him to proceed. Then my eyes wander to the PS below the signature.

“I might be out of office, and Eva is not handling your company anymore. So, going forward, email me only on the id that I’ve ccd.”

I go back up and check the CC email id. Bernard.grey! The thing is Bernard’s real id is Grey.bernard. It has Weber written all over it. He did the exact same thing with Ryan. What is he doing? Creating false email ids. What game is he playing? How did Weber send out an email from Bernard’s real ID? I know Bernard too well to believe that he’d ever suggest such a move.

“Stomach needs to be satisfied for the brain to work, d’ya know that?” says Ryan. He has two plates in his hands and I can smell fried eggs and toast.

As soon as he hands me the plate, I attack the food. I haven’t had a proper breakfast since… well, since that Saturday at his house.

“There was really nothing else here, so that’s all I could get you,” he says.

The plate is clean in minutes. Somehow, Ryan can make even the humble eggs much tastier than any I’ve eaten elsewhere.

James sends me confirmation of pulling down his app. So far, only a couple of people had transacted, with no completed transactions.

I let out a sigh of relief. “One thing handled, at least.” I look up at Ryan and find him staring down at my face. “You wanted to discuss something. I don’t think you came here just to cook me breakfast.”

He smiles and that dimple forms on his cheek. I could eat it right off his cute little cheeks.

“I could come only to make you breakfast. I like cooking for you.” OMG. How is this guy still single? I look away so as not to give away too much of my feelings through the hunger in my eyes. It was a mistake, I remind myself. “But,” he continues, “I wanted to discuss the projections with you.”

It’s funny he should say that, because Gabriel and I plan to meet on Monday for that. I say nothing and decide to play along.

“Sure, what do you wanna discuss?”

“Um. You have the file?”

I open the file on my system and turn the screen towards him. “Here you go.”

It’s clear that he hasn’t even seen it yet. That’s understandable because he’s been busy with the coding stuff. “What’s this?” he asks. “How did you get this valuation? And what are these other numbers? Why are there so many valuation figures?”

I lean in a little so I can see the screen. “These are valuations through different methods. That first one is DCF, Discounted Cash Flow, where you calculate the present value of the projected cash flow. The other is the Comparable Company Transaction, and the third is the Comparable Transaction Method.”

I begin explaining what they mean, but a few minutes on, and I can feel his warm breath on my hair. As I lift my eyes, I find his face staring into mine, lips slightly parted. He bends forward a little and his face is inches from mine. He rubs his thumb over my lower lip, that sends a burst of lightning down my spine.

“I don’t want you to think I came for this,” he whispers, still staring at me with those smoldering blue eyes.

“So, did you come to understand the projections?” I say, easing a little towards him.

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