Page 40 of The Facilitator 1

“Are you sure there will be a nexttime?”

I felt a little shitty when I saw him blink rapidly a couple of times. Maybe he wasn’t as cocky as I’dthought.

“That will be entirely your decision. You can always stopme.”

“I wasn’t so sure about thatearlier.”

“You just sayno.”

Trouble was, I didn’t think I was capable of that. I was enjoying the ‘trysts,’ the surprise, not knowing when he’ll show up or what will happen. It was escapism and exciting, it had my heart racing, and my brain scrambled. He had my body humming withanticipation.

“I have a meeting, one I tried to cancel but couldn’t,” he said, as he drained the small cup ofcoffee.

I nodded, expecting him to turn and leave. Instead he took a step towards me, brushed a piece of hair away from my face and tucked it behind my ear. He gave a soft kiss to my cheek and then heleft.

It was a couple of minutes later that I heard a knock on my officedoor.

“It’s open,” I calledout.

Jenny came in holding two mugs of instant. I hadn’t the heart to tell her that since being introduced to the real stuff, I wasn’t sure I could drink it, but I took a sipanyway.

“So?” shesaid.

“So,what?”

“You’re still withus?”

“I don’t know what youmean.”

“He had meetings with all the heads today. The gossip mill is churning, people are scared for theirjobs.”

“He didn’t mention anything about people losing their jobs. He’s getting to know everyone and see exactly what they do, that’s all. It’s quite normal,” Ilied.

Had he been in the building all day and it was just my ‘turn’ to be seen? I’d have liked to think he’d made a specialeffort.

“And here are two of my favourite ladies,” I heard, as my office door opened. The only person who never knocked, and rightfully so, wasJerry.

“Mmm, that smells nice,” he said. I handed him mycoffee.

“Jenny, if you want to head off a little earlier, you can,” I said, wanting her out of myoffice.

“Cool.” She rushed from theroom.

“You okay?” Jerryasked.

“Sure, what can I do foryou?”

I sat in my chair and he took the one opposite. “So, Mackenzie wants to buy me out,completely.”

“He does?Why?”

“He thinks I’ve taken it about as far as I can. He thinks he can do wonderful things if he merged this into one of his companies, or words to thateffect.”

“How do you feel aboutthat?”

“I’m tempted, to be honest. Remember you asked if I have any other ideas? Well, I think I’d like to take some time out and think up newprojects.”

“You don’t feel he’s manoeuvring you out, do you?” Isaid.

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