Chapter 29
+40 Bonus
The waitress quickly brings the bottle of wine and pours each of us a glass before leaving it at the table.
“This is a great year, one of the more expensive ones, too,” Billy says, lifting his glass to me before sipping on it. I do the same and then ask him about the online boyfriend. “Right. Well, my friend tracked down his address. It was in an older neighborhood that was full of empty houses that were going to be demolished.”
We sip our wines, filling a second and third glasses as he recalls all the details.
“There was no car, since it was the middle of the day. The ‘boyfriend‘ must have been at work, so my friend and I snuck around to the back of the house. We found the girl tied up in the basement and got her out before calling the cops. They swarmed the house when the man got home, and it turned out that he was a forty–year–old man who was already suspected of kidnapping in another state.”
“What? That’s insane,” I gasp, finishing my third glass of wing. A buzz sits between my eyes, and I try to chase it away with the rest of my dinner.
“So, I decided at that time that I wanted to help people and that I liked investigating,” Billy says with a shrug. “And here I am.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
Something touches my shoulder at the same time Billy’s eyes raise above my head. Turning, I blink several times when I find Nolan standing behind me. He couldn’t be there, but when I look to the table he was at, it’s empty.
He really is standing behind me.
“There is some urgent work that came up, Fiona. I need you to return to the office with me to deal with it,” Nolan states sharply, ignoring Billy. I try to shake off the drunken haze that clouds my vision, remembering that I promised to be on call twenty–four hours a day.
“Fiona, you-”
“It’s fine, Billy. I’m always on call,” I tell him when he protests as I stand. He sits there stunned as I grab my things and follow Nolan outside. I stumble a bit while trying to get in the passenger seat.
Nolan, though, climbs in the back with Tara. Of course, she’s here. I study them in the rearview mirror, noticing how well they match. They’re both dressed in expensive clothes, looking like they walked right out of a magazine with their perfect features and put together outfits.
Tara locks eyes with me suddenly, her nose crinkling in disgust.
“Couldn’t you find a secretary that dresses above the substandard code or at least someone who doesn’t lack the etiquette required in such a formal setting?” She sneers, and I look down at my suit. It’s not that bad, but it’s definitely not anywhere near the quality of her dress and heels.
Chapter 29
+40 Bonus
A sudden weight of self–consciousness falls over my shoulders, and I sink back into my seat. Do I need to get better clothes? I
she voicing concerns that everyone else hasn’t? What if my clothes aren’t up to the company’s standard?
“Fiona is dressed in the appropriate clothing for the professional setting in which she works. It would be more inappropriate for
her to glam herself up like you do,” Nolan tells Tara, standing up for me. “And her etiquette is fine. Who hasn’t gotten a little drunk off one too many glasses of wine. In fact, I think she handled herself gracefully for how much she had.”
Tara’s eyes widen as her mouth drops open, but I ignore her, pinning my gaze on Nolan. He nods to me, and I smile gratefully.
Perhaps their relationship isn’t what the rumors paint it to be. And frankly, I feel… relieved.
P
