Page 38 of 12 Days

We continue to walk down the hall. Finally reaching one of the smaller conference rooms, I open the door and stand to the side to let Alyssa in.

“Hey gents, look who I found!”

Simon, Eason, Tate, and Tristan are all waiting in the room, and they each greet Alyssa. All of us are genuinely happy to see her.

“We were wondering where you got lost, Finn. I see the lovely Alyssa has been holding you up,” Simon says with a bit of a smirk.

I smile, and look at them. “You know, she wanted to talk to almost everyone we passed.”

“Ah, finally,” Alyssa says. “Now that I have you all here, there are some question that I would love to go over with you guys, and some things that I would like to clear up. First?”

“Hold that thought just a second, Alyssa.” I turn to face the other board members. “What time is our dinner reservation?” I ask the room in general.

Eason looks down at his watch. “It's in about 20 minutes.”

“Perfect! That's just enough time to get there.” I look at Alyssa, and size up her outfit, as if I am just noticing it for the first time. “And to find you something suitable to wear, of course.”

Alyssa, appearing a bit dejected says, “I'm actually not that hungry.”

“Not that hungry? I don't think you understand. This is Cassoulet's!” I’m shocked by the lack of her shock. “It's only the finest in French cuisine around. We’re all going to dinner, and I’m sure that Ademar will not mind us adding one more seat to the table. You must come with us.”

She seems to think about it for a second, before finally smiling and nodding. I turn to Tate. “Could you take her to Synthia and see if she could find her something, stat?”

Tate holds his arm out, and Alyssa takes it, the two of them heading out of the room. I realize as they are leaving that I am already starting to miss her. This is becoming hard.

“We'll meet you two at the car,” Tate assures us.

Tristan comes up next to me, and we watch them leave. “Did you have any trouble distracting her?” he says in a low voice so they don’t hear.

“No, it was almost too easy.”

Instead of feeling accomplished, I felt like I was betraying someone that I cared deeply about. Perhaps even…someone that I loved.

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