Page 7 of Billion-Dollar Attitudes

The receptionist called into my boss as I took a seat, clutching my bag nervously in my lap. Before I could overthink too much though, the office door opened and Clint came out with a huge smile. “Sicily, so glad you’re finally here. How was your trip?”

“Good,” I replied. “I’m glad to be here.”

“Excellent,” he said. “Why don’t you come on in, and we can go over everything and then I’ll show you to your office. Today is going to mostly be a meet and greet, briefly, and you can do your own get to know you’s the best way you see fit for your team. We’ll start working on getting you caught up on where we are tomorrow. Don’t want to inundate you all at once.”

I chuckled. “I appreciate it.”

He stepped to the side as I walked through his door. Behind me, a voice rang out. “Hey Clint.”

The sound of that voice was absolutely unmistakable, yet so unbelievable, my brain wouldn’t catch up with my thoughts. I stopped in my tracks and slowly turned around, staring at the man standing in the doorway, his hair shaggy, his suit perfectly pressed, and wearing flip flops with his dress shoes in his hand. I locked eyes with his blue glistening orbs, staring at the one man I had convinced myself I would never run into, I’d never haphazardly bump into shopping or walking down the street.

I was staring into those familiar eyes that were the one thing my daughter had gotten from her father.

It was Daniel.

Chapter Five

Daniel

My feet were planted, the gritty sand rubbing my heel. I stared at the vision in front of me like it was some kind of dream. The light from inside of Clint’s office cascaded around Sicily, making her look like some sort of angel. Her hair was a bit shorter now, bluntly cut above her shoulders, still wavy, dirty blonde, and beautiful. Her lips were slightly parted and her bright green eyes were huge, staring back at me.

My moment with Sicily, was just that, a moment in time before I went into my senior year at Berkeley, but it was a moment I hadn’t been able to shake for years. I could still remember what she looked like laying in my bed, her hair sprawled out, giggling as the sun began to peak over the horizon. It was a moment that was just mine and hers, something that we shared briefly before she was gone. She hadn’t left her number or information, and I had been too stupid to ever ask her friend for it when I had seen her once or twice in passing at school.

“Daniel,” Clint said, breaking the silence, not seeming to notice the awkward freeze between us. “Glad you stopped by. I want to introduce you to the new Software Testing Manager. This is Sicily. Sicily, this is Daniel, he is basically my bosses’ boss. He is one of the owners of the company.”

It took everything in me to step forward, one sandy flip flop snap at a time, my hand extended outward even before I had crossed the room. “Sicily. It’s…wow. Talk about coincidence, right? It’s, I mean…it’s a small world.”

It’s a small world? Dumb ass.

She unfreezed and reached out to take my hand, her eyes shifting toward her boss in a panic like state. I guess I shouldn’t have let on that we knew each other. It probably wasn’t how she wanted to start her first day.

I immediately glanced at Clint who looked slightly confused. “We…uh…we met years ago.” I nervously pointed at Sicily. “I believe she was visiting a friend at Berkeley and we met briefly.”

Clint nodded, seeming to buy it. “Well, that’s good luck.”

I chuckled, shaking her hand a moment too long before realizing and pulling my hand back. “Yeah…good luck. I do remember you saying you were interested in tech. Well, that’s great.” I pursed my lips, going silent for a moment before clearing my throat and taking a step back. “Anyway, I will let you get to it. I just remembered Clint said you were starting today, and since we didn’t get to meet in interviews, I wanted to stop by and say hello. You’re definitely in good hands here with Clint, he’s got the answers.”

She nodded, looking as if it was hard to swallow. “Right. Well, thank you. It was good to see you…again. I… am looking forward to working here.”

Completely incapable of controlling my own functions I pointed like a used salesman at Clint and turned, immediately rolling my eyes at myself as I beelined it out of the office. As I turned the corner, I just about took down one of the techs. I balanced the folders in her hand and shook my head. “I’m so sorry. Not paying attention to where I’m going.”

She smiled nervously. “It’s okay, sir. Do some surfing this morning?”

I looked at her confused and she glanced down at my flip flops. I chuckled. “Yeah, oh. Yes. Caught some early waves. Not too bad out there with the storm off the coast.”

She smiled at me as I nodded and headed straight for the elevator. I shoved the key in the controls and hit the top floor, waiting for the door to shut before falling back against the wall. I tapped my head against the mirror as the elevator went up, finally stopping at the top. As soon as the doors opened, I headed out, throwing open the first office I came to.

Guy jumped slightly at my intrusion, and raised a brow. “Shark after you?”

I shut the door and dropped down into the chair in front of his desk, letting my shoes fall to the ground. My head was spinning and my heart was fluttering wildly in my chest. “You’ll never fucking believe who I just ran into.”

He blinked wildly at me, his expression blank. “The Dalai Lama?”

I rubbed my hands over my face and looked up at him. “Sicily.”

“Sicily…” I could see his wheels turning and then his eyes went wide. “Ohhh. The one that got away. Holy shit.”

The one that got away…was back.

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