“Oh, she’s… holy hell. And she’s coming over here.”
When she walked up to us, she opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when Eloise started talking, reaching her hand out to introduce herself.
“Hi! I’m Eloise. This is my boss, Cara. What are you guys working on?”
Her eyes flickered back and forth between me and my assistant. “Hola, Eloise. Cara, a pleasure.”
She extended her hand to me and I took it, a familiar feeling causing me to be confused. That accent sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. She brought my hand up to her lips before placing a gentle kiss. What was I, the queen of England?
“We’re just replacing the sidewalk. So, what is it that you ladies do?”
“I’m a publisher. I own a publishing house. We have a floor in this building.”
“I’m her assistant. I don’t think we caught your name.”
The woman kept looking at me. Did she think she knew me or something? While I was getting a weird deja vu vibe, I didn’t think I’d ever seen her before.
“I’m sorry, where are my manners? I’m?—”
“Okay, Vera. Break’s over. Quit flirting and get back to work, chica.”
I stood there stunned, not blinking. My lungs felt tight and I grabbed the rail to steady myself. She looked at me with a titled head and cocked an eyebrow. “You okay there, princesa?”
I took a step back, only to have forgotten there were steps there, and almost tripped. I stopped her when she tried to reach out a hand to help me. “I’m… yeah. Low blood sugar.”
“Okay… Well, I better get back to work. Take care of that blood sugar before it gets serious.” She looked skeptically at me, but didn’t argue my lie and turned around to head back to work.
There was no way Vera washere. And working in front of my building. That just couldn’t be. I was dreaming. I still didn’t think I had blinked since the whole encounter started. My eyes were stinging and I jumped when I felt a hand on my arm.
“Who was that, and why did she call you princess.”
“Princesa,” I corrected, unable to stop myself.
“What?”
I shook my head. Still staring at the spot where my mystery hook-up had just been standing. “Nothing. Our break is going to have to wait.”
I had so many questions but mainly, why? Why the hell was she here? I mean, clearly she was working, so that would be why. But also, why? I was fully prepared to only fantasize about our night in the confines of my dark bedroom or shower, and now I had a walking reminder?
I found myself following Vera back to her coworkers, watching that ass I remembered so vividly get farther and farther away.
“What? Why?” Eloise's voice startled me and I dragged my eyes away from Vera, just as she turned back around.
“My office. Now.” I didn’t give her time to reply as I turned on my heel and tried not to run back to my office.
As soon as she came in, I shut the door and locked it, finally catching my breath. I hadn’t breathed since those brown eyes found mine, and my heartbeat was trying to keep up with itself, basically jumping out of my chest.
“Okay, Cara, you’re actually scaring me. You don’t look so good. What’s going on? Who was that?”
I sat on the couch in the corner of my office and groaned. I steadied myself before I answered, still not believing this was real life. I didn’t want to believe that my one-night stand had been standing inches away from me. And recognized me, no less.
“That was Vera.”
“I’ve gathered that much. But who is she, to you? Why did seeing her make you have an out-of-body-experience?”
“Because, El, we… You remember a few months ago when I was out of town?”
“Yeah. You went to that speed—Oh my God, did you meet her there?”
