Page 107 of Until He Confesses

"Hello?"

"Hello, this is Miss Callie Jacks, right?" she asked, and it was near impossible for me not to respond.

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, I'm Jennifer Murphy, and I would like to have a meeting with you." I pulled the phone away to stare at it and then returned it to my ear.

"What's the meeting about?"

"I've seen you before," she said. "Back in the restaurant in New York. I was with Lucas at that time, but I didn't get the chance to introduce myself properly."

I knew exactly what she was talking about, and I could finally put a face to the voice. But still, I didn't get any explanation as to why she was calling.

At my prolonged pause, she went on. "I'll get straight to the point. I don't know if Lucas ever mentioned this, but I run a makeup brand called Glad. Actually, I'm the founder, and over the last few years, we've been able to become extremely successful, currently nearing the billion-dollar mark."

I was unimpressed and simply wanted to know why she was reaching out.

"Lucas's company and I are in collaboration for worldwide distribution of our products, but enough about that. Where you come in is that I have found that you're an air hostess. We're looking into creating a new line specifically catered to air hostesses. These products should be portable and contain all the essentials that they need to remain fresh throughout their shift and even after."

I frowned at her words, not particularly intrigued by the idea.

"Okay," I said, and she briefly went quiet.

"Can we meet?" she asked. "I’d like to see how we can collaborate with you to make this happen. As an air hostess with your level of experience, I’m pretty sure we'll be able to extract much-needed information on the direction that we should go.”

I finally understood what she was asking, but I didn't have a response that I could give. I started to reject the offer, but then I paused for a moment and decided to think about it a bit further.

She went on.

“I don’t know how long you’ll be in Paris but I’m currently here as well for Fashion Week. If you have any time at all I’d truly like it if we could meet,” she said. Her words all sounded reasonable, including the invitation, but I was not Lucas's girlfriend, and the clout they wanted to bank on currently was only temporary.

"I'll get back to you," I told her and ended the call.

I thought of informing Lucas because he was sure to immediately warn me of going ahead or ignoring the woman. I truly didn't want him to be the one to make this decision. In the end, when I couldn't take my much-needed nap, I sent him a message.

Lucas had never been one for texting, but recently he didn't seem too averse to it, and I didn't know what I would say on a call, so I simply told him about her and asked for his opinion.

Me: I know we're not a couple, so I shouldn't pay attention to things like this, but it sounded intriguing, and I wondered if I should at least hear what she has to say.

It took him a few minutes, but eventually, his response came.

Lucas: Go for it. It's just a meeting.

I nodded, beginning to suspect that perhaps this was a genuine interest on the woman's part.

After I booked an appointment with the woman for later that evening, I was finally able to rest.

I immediately recognized her the moment I found her in the restaurant. It was a gorgeous place that I had constantly heard rave reviews of, so I was excited to try it, even if the discussion went nowhere. What I soon found, however, was that a place I considered incredibly interesting was too low-class for her. From the moment I sat down, she told me about all the much better and much more expensive restaurants that were available to us and that we needed to pay visits to these places together.

I was direct with her.

"This place is good for me," I said. "I only have an air hostess salary."

She laughed too loudly at this and then leaned forward to touch my hand.

"You can't say that when you have Lucas," she said, and I sighed because it was clear to me now that this was going to be an aggravating evening. So, the moment our food was delivered, I immediately started eating.

She didn't mention anything concerning the project like she had pitched to me on the phone. Instead, her focus was on Lucas and how we had met and reconnected, and to that, I only had simple one-word answers for her.High school. Recently. A smile.

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