Page 59 of Luxe

“Should you still be here, then? Isn’t he done with you?” Not a lot of women can intimidate me. But she is all venom.

“I… I guess,” I stammer. I have never met any woman who is so blatantly rude and confrontational and it knocks me off guard.

"Then you should leave.” She dumps her bag on the counter and stares me down.

"I’m going. Tell Kylian..."

The words fade into nothing.

I swallow and pull myself together. I haven’t done anything wrong and I shouldn’t act like it. I set my jaw and stare at her back.

"Look, I just came to return this.” I slam the key card Kylian gave me into her hand.

She looks at it, and then up at me. “Why do you have his key card?”

I push past her as I make my way to the elevator, hissing with more courage that I actually have, "I could ask you the same question."

Then I flee.

Luckily the elevator is still there, so I'm zooming down the inside of the Baxter apartment building and then out into the road in less than a minute.

And I run.

Where?

Anywhere but here.

nineteen

Kylian

"Hey, I found something that my assistant left here the other day. Maybe it's a little more decent than my Wharton T-shirt. She won't mind."

I step into the kitchen to see a blonde standing in the space where I'd expected to see Kiara.

"Um, hi, honey..." she says in a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, hi, honey," I respond, rolling my eyes, as I do every time. "What are you doing here? Didn't I say you had to call before stopping over?"

"I came to pick up your dry cleaning that I left here yesterday. And what do you mean ‘your assistant won’t mind’ if you give away my dress?” She reaches over and snatches it out of my hands. “I can tell you now, I most certainly would mind if you gave this dress away. That's a Stella McCartney."

"Yeah, I know, Odette. I’m the one who made the mistake of taking you to the fashion show where you saw it and demanded I get it for you or else you'd quit. And it had been almost a whole week since the last time you'd threatened to quit so I almost took you seriously." I push past her and walk over to the stove, checking on my food.

"Hey, it’s not my fault that you don't pay me enough to buy one myself."

"Odette, you're literally the highest paid executive assistant that exists on this earth. Some of the VPs are envious of what you get paid."

She giggles, "I know."

"Bitch."

"Fucker."

I grab the ladle and give the congee a stir, making sure it’s not clumping and sticking to the bottom. "Where's Kiara? I heard her voice out here. I thought she was talking to me."

Odette's face blanches. “Shit. That woman was Kiara?"

Something is wrong. "You saw her?"

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