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“Sure,” he said, a little too quickly. He crossed the room to the desk and pulled out the office chair. “I’ll check my email.”
“Okay. I’ll order. What do you want?”
He said the first thing that came to his mind. “Scrambled eggs and toast.”
“You got it.” She picked up the phone and waited for room service to answer.
Derek plugged in his laptop and opened it. He could see the reflection of Nara on the bed on his blank screen. She was wrapping the cord around her finger.
“Yes, I’d like to order breakfast to the room today.”
As Nara ordered, he turned on his laptop. His screen came to life and the reflection of Nara wasn’t so apparent. That was probably a good thing. He wanted to forget what happened yesterday, and to do that he had to stop looking at Nara.
Her voice broke through his thoughts. “Do you happen to have strawberry syrup?”
Derek held back a smile. She’d been obsessed with strawberry syrup ever since they were kids.
“You don’t?” The disappointment dripped off her voice. “Oh. Okay.”
He made a mental note to have his housekeeper pick up a bottle.
“Thanks. Bye.” Nara hung up and crossed her legs. “When you’re done looking at your email, can I use your computer?”
He nodded. “Sure. What do you need?”
“I’m going to check to see if the deadline for the Poiz Design Award has passed yet.”
He hid a smile. This was a very good sign. If she already had a contest in mind, he was sure he could get her over the hump of insecurity to enter. He tried not to show his excitement. He didn’t want to make her feel self-conscious. “Sounds good.”
There were no critical emails he had to deal with, so after a few moments, he moved out of the way and motioned for her to take over. “All yours.”
She stood. “That was fast. Dad must be taking care of things at the office now.”
“Must be,” he said, sitting on the chair in the corner of the room.
Nara spent a few minutes clicking on the computer before she stood again. “Looks like the deadline is in a week.”
“Do you have enough time to enter?”
She chewed her bottom lip. “I don’t know. I mean, I have some great designs already done at home. Not only sketched out, but actually made. If I can work on it right when we get home, I probably can get it entered on time.”
“Perfect.”
Their food came twenty minutes later. Derek moved his laptop and set the trays on the desk. Nara set up the food and pulled the chair from the corner. “Are your eggs cold?” she asked after Derek had taken a bite.
“No.”
“These are hot, too.” She cut off another slice of pancakes and dipped them into the maple syrup.
Derek’s phone came to life, his ringtone echoing through the room. He picked it up and looked at the screen. Brielle’s name flashed across the top. He swiped to answer.
“Hello?”
The sound of muffled sobbing came over the line. Panic shot through him and he pressed the phone to his ear. “Brielle? Are you okay?”
Concern pulled Nara’s eyebrows together.
“Um,” Brielle said, obviously struggling to speak. “I’m sorry to call.” More sobs came through, and Derek stood, his breakfast forgotten.
