Maybe I should have messaged him.
Glancing about the table at the twenty or so colleagues who were all focused on Karun and his technicolour dreampresentation, I carefully placed my pen on my notebook and slid my phone out of my pocket again. It only took a few taps to open.
Paddy was last online two days ago.
My stomach twisted.
He hadn’t even been online to see ifI’dbeen online.
Discomfort twisted in my chest as I tried not to think about it. Patrick didn’t owe me anything. Sure, we had both wanted more than just fake dating, but maybe he’d only meant casually dating until our contract ran out. He hadn’t made me any promises of exclusivity after that.
Even if I wanted us to be.
Exclusive.
I couldn’t believe I’d caught feelings for a playboy musician who didn’t even have the balls to message me.
A sudden rise in voices made me stuff my phone quickly in my pocket, and my heart skipped a beat as I picked up my pen – but the noise wasn’t coming from in here. The room hushed as the crowd of voices outside our doors got louder.
What on earth is happening out there?
Whispers blossomed as people turned away from Karun’s insomnia-inducing presentation.
‘I wonder what –’
‘Did you hear that?’
‘What do you think it is?’ Cathy whispered, eyes gleaming at the potential for office gossip.
I shrugged. Honestly, I didn’t care. Nothing that happened at GSR Financials was ever that interesting.
But still, it was hard to ignore the noise that was coming through the door, even with Karun doing his best attempt at getting people to return their attention to the front ofthe room. ‘Come on, team, focus! We still have forty-six slides to –’
The door opened and the floor fell away underneath me.
Patrick stepped into the room.
Patrick. In my office.
‘Hey, sorry to interrupt.’ He didn’t look that sorry, I noted. As his gaze landed on me, he gave a small smile. ‘I was just looking for Jessy.’
I wanted to curl up on the floor and die.
For a multitude of reasons.
This time the gasp was closer to me. Cathy grabbed my hand. ‘Is – is that –’
‘Patrick Tetlow,’ breathed some guy from HR across the table from us.
What the hell did he think he was doing, coming to my job? How the hell had he even known I was here?
‘Can you believe it?’ squeaked Cathy.
‘No,’ I replied in an undertone, completely truthfully.
‘Hey, Jessy,’ Patrick said with that public performance smile I knew so well. ‘Can we have a moment?’
The entire meeting room had gone silent and turned to stare at me.
