“Exactly.” Eric took a sip from his mug. “I’m here for her protection.”
I scoffed a laugh and then glanced back at the woman sitting opposite Jeffrey. She had a pretty face, a blonde bob and was wearing a simple white cotton shirt and dark blue jeans. She delicately sipped at her paper straw and she seemed to be nodding politely at something Jeffrey was explaining, her expression unreadable.
“I just can’t believe someone agreed to a date with him, let alone someone seemingly normal.”
Eric lifted his eyebrows in agreement. “He hasn’t fully confessed, but I think there was some algorithmic manipulation going on at Ignite for these star-crossed lovers to match.”
“Holy shit, that isreallyunethical.”
He hummed in agreement. “Hence why I felt the need to be her silent bodyguard.”
The sound of a wooden chair scraping across tile pierced the air and I whipped my head around just in time to watch Jeffrey’s date throw an iced latte in his face.
The whole room went silent for a few seconds; even the milk frother stopped hissing. The only sound was her shoes clicking against the floor and the ringing of the bell as Jeffrey’s date left the building. My mouth agape, I turned back to Eric.
“Well, maybe I didn’t need to bother,” he said. “She can clearly handle herself.”
Jeffrey flicked a soggy paper straw from his soaking wet shoulder and ran a napkin over his face.
“I’ve never seen that happen in real life,” I said, still in shock at the blonde bob’s ballsiness.
“You clearly aren’t forced to spend time with creepy arseholes.”
I settled back into my chair and took another sip of my coffee. “No, just rich bitches like yourself.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Enjoying that free latte?”
Our lips curved in unison as we fully locked eyes for the first time in a week. I would never tell him, but he was on the shortlist of people I missed talking to while I was away.
“How was your vacation?” Eric asks.
Our little bubble burst as my mind left Wilfred’s and returned to Greece. Less beach and museum tours, which I would have preferred, more of an activity-based holiday followed by dinners with my parents. Early-morning jaunts, pedalos in lakes, climbing one million white stone steps to find the perfect sightseeing spot. William’s dream holiday, but not exactly mine.
I lifted my cup to my mouth and shrugged. “It was good, but I had to work a lot.”
“Susie gave you vacation work again?” he asked, brow furrowed in annoyance.
“Yeah, but I wanted to use what little time I get off to work on that Ever After idea I told you about.”
He nodded as his lips caressed the edge of his coffee cup. He knew how much the opportunity to pitch to Susie meant to me.
“Did they mind that?” he asked, eyes laser-focused on my face.
I knew he didn’t mean my parents. For some reason, it felt weird to offload the past week onto Eric. It felt like crossing a line into “confidante” territory. Really, to tell anyone about the series of arguments William and I had had in the confines of our hotel room so my parents weren’t witnesses, all stemming from me having to answer emails and take a couple of phone calls when we were all meant to be “out of office,” felt like a breach of trust.
Working on personal projects, development that could only be done outside of work, was also completely out of the question. My concept plans for Ever After, a potential in-app feature to retain Fate’s user base after they had found love, had been relegated to a pipe dream scribbled in discarded notebooks.
Words William said to me had started echoing in my head since we’d touched back down in London.
“Clearly, you’re not good at time management or organization if you can’t take a week off work without the place falling apart.”
“Yeah, they were fine with it,” I lied into my latte, glancing away.
Eric’s brow scrunched for a second, scanning his icy eyes over my face like an emotional X-ray. I cleared my throat, quickly changing the subject: “So you haven’t been tempted to do some immoral algorithm-twisting like Jeffrey then?”
“I don’t need to.” He shrugged, following my lead into the new topic.
I scoffed a laugh, holding my hands up defensively. “OK, Mr. GQ, I didn’t realize you were insuchhigh demand.”
