All I could recall was the way he had looked at me, like I mattered, in a way no man had ever looked at me. As if his life depended on whether I lived or died. Our lives had connected in a fundamental way. For, at least, four minutes. That was the time we’d been in the elevator, the technician had later said.
It had felt like a lifetime though.
I was aware of my thoughts, by the way, of how romantic and sentimental I was sounding. I tried to tell myself that this was lonely Grace imagining all sorts of intrigue for herself. This was a powerful man, who could have any girl he wanted. He probably wouldn’t even remember me. All this Hallmark drama stuff was in my mind. He’d see me and barely recognize me. No harm done, I thought. I would carry on with the investigation and cry quietly into my herbal tea. Nothing I hadn’t done before.
But I had to know.
Whether he’d remember me too.
Chapter 2
Paul
I pushed myself hard on the treadmill, turning up the speed until I could feel my muscles burn, my breath ragged in my chest. I liked punishing myself like this, seeing how far I could go.
Afterwards, I had a shower and grabbed a water, sank into my couch. My phone pinged with a message.
How R U?
It was an unknown number.
I looked at the message for a moment, then tossed the phone aside. I never answer texts from people I don’t know, especially from women. Especially since that article appeared in a big city magazine about my last bonus at Ladden, which pushed me into the billionaire income bracket. Suddenly, I was the hottest new young billionaire in town. I was constantly harassed by beautiful women looking for a rich boyfriend to pay their way. I had learnt to be careful about the women I dated.
Don’t you remember me from last nite?
I looked at the message and tried to recall the night before. I had been out, where again? It came to me: a dance performance, my sister Elise asked me to go with her, she had an extra ticket. It was an excruciating interpretative performance with plenty of dramatic lighting and loud music, which gave me a headache. During the interval, I made my way to the bar, not intending to go back for the second act. My sister came out to join me.
“I’m so sorry! I had no idea it would be this tedious!” she rolled her eyes and smiled merrily at me. One of her friends came towards us, “Oh, my God! I thought the interval would never come!”
Elise had a friend on stage, we were there as support, but I felt I had done enough by sitting through the first half. “Have you got some blow?” my sister’s friend asked me, tapping her nose as she dropped her voice.
I shook my head and she turned to the bartender, calling over a young woman with an eye-catching tattoo of a snake on her neck. I turned away as the two of them engaged in conversation. I told my sister I intended going home.
“What about Sami?” she asked me, pouting, while looking over at her friend who was coming back from the bar.
“Don’t you like her?”
I understood that my sister was trying to set us up.
“I got us a round of shooters!” Sami said, whispering loudly, “It’s the strongest stuff I could find.”
“Not for me,” I said, a bit stiffer than I probably needed to. “I’ve some work left to do.”
“What do you do?” Sami asked, but I could see right through her. That feigned interest in my work, the artificial brightness in her smile. She was on something already, I thought. Just another one of my sister’s vapid friends. I had no energy to even engage with her. I turned to the bartender and asked for a whiskey. I’d have one and head home. Call it a night.
“Not one for dancing?” she asked me, as she handed me a glass.
“Was that what it was?” I responded, turning back to face the lobby where most of the guests were beginning to return to their seats. She chuckled softly.
“I told your friend I don’t have what she was looking for, but that is not exactly true.”
I turned back to look at her. She was giving me a smile and a sidelong glance that was definitely a come on.
“Oh?”
“You don’t tell everyone, everything, all of the time, do you?” she said with a shrug. Then she smiled, very invitingly, at me.
“I get off at eleven,” she said. “We could go find some real entertainment?”