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“Yeah, right. You weren’t trying to impress Vadim King at all, and you aren’t lying to your favorite coworker,” she adds, laughing. “In any case, it worked. You look amazing!”
She hands me my forgotten coffee cup and walks away, leaving me standing at the doorway of the broom closet that serves as my temporary office. The one I was assigned when I first arrived is being renovated. New paint, new furniture, state-of-the-art equipment, a nice view: everything that comes with the position of deputy director, and which I fully intend to enjoy.
For now, I make myself as comfortable as I can in my cramped space. I slip off my heels to give my feet a break, take a sip of lukewarm coffee, and enter my computer password. My goal for the next thirty minutes: get that surreal meeting out of my head. His piercing eyes. His intoxicating smile. His powerful body.
Eighty-two emails to sort through, read, deal with, and delete. In other words, I have plenty to do. After a quick reply to one of our publicists, I spot a piece of pale pink paper on the corner of my dark wood desk. When I start to unfold it, I recognize Vadim’s barely legible handwriting instantly, and my heart starts to beat wildly.
Stop provoking me, or there will be consequences…
It’s impossible to know whether he’s playing a game… or whether he’s serious. Whether he wants to provoke me, or whether he does actually regret venturing into that kind of territory with me. Whether he might want to get rid of the problem and whether my job is at risk. With him, you can never tell.
Turning everything upside down is what he does best.
***
“I’ve been waiting for you downstairs for fifteen minutes! I have to pick up the girls in an hour. I’m in a hurry, Alma!” An annoyed Clémentine bursts into my office with a bag of food in her hand.
“Sorry, I completely forgot about our lunch.”
Clem makes a shocked face, but I win her over with some juicy gossip: my unexpected outfit change, the meeting that practically lobotomized my exhausted brain, and the cryptic, little note that I’ve been obsessing over ever since I found it. We decide to stay here in my little closet-office and share a platter of sushi, maki, and sashimi.
“He really wrote that to you?!” she asks, her mouth full.
“No, Clem, I wrote it to myself. Of course it’s him! Who else?”
“I don’t know, your sleazy boss who seems to love ordering you around so much?”
“No, Wilson wouldn’t have the nerve. And it’s Vadim’s handwriting, no doubt about it.”
“What are you going to do? Don’t you think you’d be better off smoothing things over with him once and for all? He’s the head of the company. And given your history…”
I hide my face in my hands. “I’m lost, Clem.”
“Get it together, Alma! Three days ago—even this morning—he was unbearable. He treated you like a nobody! Since when do you flip-flop like this?”
“I’m not flip-flopping at all. But I can’t just tell him to go to hell… if I take it too far, I risk losing my job!”
“And… Raphaël?” Clémentine adds in a small voice.
“Not now, Clem. I don’t want to think about it.”
“He’s not going to spend his whole life waiting for you, you know…”
“Exactly, I don’t want him to wait for me! It shouldn’t be this complicated. It should just feel right. And with him, it’s not like that.”
“Because with Vadim, it is?”
“It used to be,” I murmur.
Intense, passionate, undeniable… And the truth is, I’d like to feel all of that again, just like before.
6
Alma
After such a grueling day, all I want is one thing: some peace and quiet. So, I’ve just made a deal with myself: tonight, I’m not going to think about anything, not even him. My plans for the evening consist of a long, hot shower, some comfort food, a gripping movie—preferably a thriller rather than a romantic comedy—and a good night’s sleep.
I’m on my way out of our office building, fine-tuning the details in my head, when I run into Vadim. He’s with a smiling, young woman who is extraordinarily beautiful and seductive-looking. But I know she is also warm and friendly. It’s these last qualities that irritate me the most. If only she were unpleasant…
