Page 11 of Be My Valentine

“How formal of you.” she huffed “Can we make it up to you by giving you a ride, Kate?” she said giving her brother a dirty look “Where do you live?”

“In Queens. But I… here… I have a second job, I’ve reported it to the manager, it’s on my file, I didn’t hide it.” she was terrified she might be accused of something “so I’m on my way to work, here in Manhattan, the subway takes me to the pub very quickly, thanks for the thought though.”

Emma lost her boldness and suddenly became serious.

“And how do you get home after work?”

“By subway. The trip is a little longer, but it’s convenient.”

“Late at night? That’s no good! Mark, you have to do something, you can’t let her take the subway at an hour like that!”

Kate waved her hands in the air.

“It’s okay. I’ve been doing this for a couple of months now, it’s okay.” She repeated and ran toward the subway entrance.

She turned around before descending the stairs, and saw Arrow reassure Emma and open the car door for her, for a moment it seemed to Kate that he lifted his head to search for her with his eyes. No that would never happen, and with that she ran down the subway stairs.

Chapter 6 / Mark

Sometimes we meet people who are complete strangers to us,

for whom we feel interest from the first glance,

suddenly, unexpectedly,

before a single word is spoken.

(Fyodor Dostoevsky)

“I can’t believe you’re actually doing this.” Emma blurted out angrily at her brother.

“I’m certainly not going to go after her! She’s a grown woman, she knows what she’s doing.”

“How slimy were they with her?”

Mark clenched his hands on the steering wheel.

“The way they looked at her was very explicit. I thought I was going to have to tackle them as they jumped on her-and you should have heard Carson.”

“I hate that woman. Do you know how many times she’s tried to sneak onto our benefit committee? She’s a social climber. I really hope you haven’t slept with her or that would be the end of you.”

“Such consideration!”

“Don’t pretend you don’t understand! She’d be capable of anything! Damn it!” she cursed angrily “Did you see how upset that girl was? And now she’s going to have to put up with a late-night shift without even being able to confide in her friend!”

“I think you distracted her pretty well.”

“Every once in a while, my gift of the gab has a silver lining.”

“Annie Carson made it very clear that Kate is not a model employee and that she was not hired for her acumen.”

“That bitch!” she trotted out the last word, “Practically an invitation to try it on with her. But you talked to them, didn’t you?”

“Not explicitly, but they toned it down.” He confessed.

“And so, the famous ‘talk’ you just said you gave was a flat-out lie.”

“Give me a break, Emma!” he yelled back, “How was I supposed to act? What could I have said, ‘Don’t you dare even look at her because she’s mine’?”