“There's nothing to consider, Vincent. You made yourself clear about me a long time ago. I don’t believe in wasting time going back.”
“I heard about you and Balthazar.”
The smile that was faint to begin with was gone completely.
“Of course, you did. You were always a man that liked to get your way, no matter what. I guess that’s why you are here for me?”
Vincent tried to talk to her, but Mallory interrupted him and said that she was busy. She finally ran into the back room where she didn't have to face him. It felt like something that she wanted to do the whole time.
Vincent left a little bewildered. What had just happened?
He looked back once more and couldn't believe that she had dismissed him so thoroughly. Had he really been that awful to her? He certainly didn't remember it that way. He remembered them having a very good time together. Why, all of a sudden, was she so against them even being together long enough to have a conversation? What happened to her to make her so different than how he remembered her?
Vincent was pretty much thrown off the rest of the day. He tried to imagine why she was so different, but he couldn't come up with anything. Instead, he just lamented the idea that she wouldn't even give him the time of day. Would it have really been that hard?
Was he now her enemy? Wouldn’t that be something and about his luck.
Chapter 15
“What the hell is up with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“You can call off those people.”
“What?”
Nathan put down a stack of papers that he was looking at and looked up to see Vincent. He said that he’d never seen that expression on his face before and he was a little worried. There must have been horrible news. Vincent could see the concern written all over his friend’s face. It must have been that clear.
“Are you going to tell me what's going on?”
“You will never guess who I just saw.”
“Who? You know I don’t like those games.”
“The woman that I've been trying to get you to find for months now. You know, the one that we have put all of that time and energy into finding, with absolutely no results.”
Nathan looked uneasy. “Yeah.”
“Well, it turns out that she was here the whole time.”
“Wow. Where did you see her? What do you mean by here?”
“You'll never guess, Nathan. I saw her at that damn donut shop you keep sending me to. Can you believe the irony of that?”
“Do you have them?”
“What?”
“My apple fritters. I've gotten used to getting them every day. I think I'm kind of getting addicted to them. It must be the sugar in them.”
He handed his friend the donuts, that he was now considering some of the luckiest donuts.
“So, what happened?”
Nathan had a mouthful of the cinnamon goodness in his mouth. He wasn’t chewing with his mouth closed and it distracted Vincent.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you have been looking for this chick for months now and you finally found her. Why are you standing in front of me and not with her?”
