I looked at him carefully and then pulled him to the side.We had ended up, as luck had it, right by one of the company’s break rooms – a small open space with seating and kitchen facilities, the kind of place that was used more often by visiting guests than the actual agents, who all had their own coffee machines anyway.I lowered my voice.“I saw the footage,” I said.“You know I was there.”
He paled even further, if that was possible.“What did you do with it?”
“Nothing,” I said.“Yet.”I didn’t mention the fact that the full video was, as we spoke, sitting in Mr.Harvey’s email inbox.I’d sent him the full file when he requested all my footage.If he decided to watch the whole thing, he had every chance of seeing and recognizing Fernando.
Or maybe not.It was only because I was searching for Brody that I had even noticed him.Knowing he had already asked me to check, maybe Mr.Harvey wouldn’t watch it himself.
But I could still tell him and make him look.
“Oh,” Fernando said and visibly relaxed.“Great.Well, that’s good.There’s not really any need to show anyone, is there?”
“Why were you there?”I asked.I straightened myself up just a bit.My job was probably gone.I was about to be cast very, very far away from the man who had recently become my obsession.Clara was just about the only thing I had left, and I was going to protect her any way I could.If that meant interrogating her boyfriend, then I would do it, and he was going to answer me if it was the last thing I could achieve here.
“I was just drinking,” Fernando said with a dismissive wave of his hand.“Clara was busy.That’s all.”
“Why were you so shocked when you saw me there?”I asked.“You saw me and you backed off immediately like you didn’t want me to see you.”
Fernando shrugged.“I was already pretty drunk and I didn’t want to have to try to look good in front of my future brother-in-law,” he said.“Look, I love Clara, but you’re only her brother.You know?We don’t have to be best friends.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.“So, if that’s all it was, why are you so keen for me not to tell Mr.Harvey?”
“You know how it looks,” he fired back at me.“I can hear what you’re insinuating even now.Don’t you think it will look that way to him?Come on, man.Don’t get me fired for going to a club and having a drink.That’s all it was.You want me to be able to look after Clara, right?”
There were so many things that struck me as wrong right then.The idea that I expected him to stay in a good job so he could provide everything Clara wanted was very far from reality.That had never even crossed my mind.Iwas the one who had spent all these years looking after and providing for my little sister, not him – and besides, once she had this pilot underway and I had lost my job, it was probably going to be the other way around.Clara wasn’t some damsel in distress.
Voices came from the direction of the elevator, and Fernando quickly lifted his own back to normal volume as he backed away towards the hall.“I’ll see you later, anyway,” he said.“Got to get back to work!”
And he was gone.
I bit my lip for a long minute.After realizing I had nowhere else to go and the ‘trip’ I was supposed to be taking across town wasn’t supposed to be over yet, I sat down in one of the breakroom chairs, propping my head up with my hands.
Fernando had never really gelled with me.He was right to say we didn’t need to be best friends – which was good for him, because we weren’t.
But he was still Clara’s boyfriend.I knew how much she cared about him.
I sighed deeply.It didn’t matter whether he said things that rubbed me the wrong way or whether I liked him personally.He was Clara’s partner, and I loved Clara deeply.
I wasn’t going to tell anyone he’d been at the club.
Which meant now I just had to hope Mr.Harvey never noticed, otherwise I would be in even more trouble than I currently was.
Olly
Keaton finally walked back into the office an hour after I’d sent him away.He knew the order was a façade as much as I did.He wasn’t even holding a cup of coffee.
“Sir?”he said hesitantly.He was framed in my doorway.I could see he was shaking slightly.He looked miserable.
I sighed.“Sit down,” I said and pointed to his desk.“I’ve had to answer my own phone twice.”
He bit back a tremulous smile.“That sounds awful,” he said.He closed the doors and walked over to his desk but still hesitated before sitting down.He turned back to me.“I… I’m sorry.I should have come clean sooner.Actually, I shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
I paused.I had watched all the footage he’d gathered.It wasn’t bad work.The angles were good even for someone trying to film without being spotted.
I stood up and moved around to lean against the front of my desk.Only a few feet separated us.
“I should fire you,” I said.It was the truth.I would have already made the decision if it was anyone else.Ace would already have refreshed our usual job listing.I wouldn’t have hesitated.
But Keaton wasn’t like anyone else.
