Chapter 11
Angie: Why are you up so early? You only have to go downstairs to get to work.
Vidya: The boys said they were going out for a run this morning. I thought I’d make it so that I was outside when they came back.
Angie: What? You think they’ll run with their shirts off?
Vidya: No! I was thinking if Caleb’s wearing something light, I might be able to see if there’s something that looks like a tattoo on his upper chest
Angie: Ooh. Maybe they’ll do that thing where they lift the hems on their T-shirts to wipe the sweat off their brows.
Vidya: That’s not going to be much help, unless he’s trying to wipe the back of his head. He’s not going to lift the T-shirt up past his shoulder, is he?
Angie: No, but you’d see abs …
Vidya: That’s not relevant to my interests at this point.
Angie: Fun though.
Angie: Do you think Leo has nice abs?
Vidya stopped typing. This thought had crossed her mind too, in the middle of the night. She wasn’t going to admit that to Angie though. She would only get the wrong end of the stick.
Viyda: Who cares?
Angie: Do you think Leo goes jogging in a suit?
Vidya grinned at her phone. Angie had a point. She couldn’t imagine Leo in anything other than a suit either. Then again, he wore a suit so well. He was always so immaculate. She hit the laughing emoji.
Vidya: I’ll report back about what he wears when running.
Angie: You have the most fun assignments. I just get to try to be invited to team drinks with the legal gang. Piotr is back in the office now, so I’m trying very hard to find out more about him.
Vidya: Good luck.
Angie: Have fun ogling lawyers in their running gear. I hope you get lucky and Caleb takes his shirt off.
Vidya: That would be so helpful. I need to think of ways to see his chest. I tried asking about the anniversary party but didn’t get very far with that either. I’m not anywhere close to confirming he is the guy.
Angie: 50 percent chance that he is, though.
Vidya: 50 percent chance that he’s not too. I wouldn’t want to spring the pregnancy news on the wrong guy. Listen, I’d better get outside. I’m going to call Udeni.
Angie: I don’t think she’s up yet.
Vidya: She’ll be late for work! Bang on her door and wake her!
Angie: On it.
***
Leo was regretting this run with Caleb.
‘I saw you sneaking glances at her,’ Caleb said.
His friend was far too observant. ‘I did not.’ He had. With every passing hour, he seemed to think of Vidya more and more often. It was really annoying. ‘I can’t get distracted,’ he said. ‘We have to get this done and I’m not sure we have time. A week is just not long enough.’
‘I wonder why Charlie insisted that we couldn’t have anyone else. I know the others were already on projects, but he could have allocated more admin support. I’m sure of it.’
They split apart to go around a man walking his dog and joined up after they’d run past.
‘I think he wants us … me, in particular, to fail to get it done. Or mess up because we’re rushing. I told him how many personnel hours we’d need.’ Leo sniffed. ‘I don’t know why he’s got it in for me.’
Caleb made a noise that might have been a scoff, if he weren’t so out of breath. ‘You did publicly question his decisions a few weeks ago.’
‘Because he made a stupid decision. And I was right.’
‘Yes, but he’s not going to like that, is he? I’m just pointing out why he doesn’t like you.’
Leo grunted. If he hadn’t spoken up, they would have missed a vital part of the company’s liabilities and there would have been hell to pay when it came out. What was he supposed to do? Keep schtum?
‘Tell you who does like you though,’ said Caleb, his voice rising a little. It always did that when he was trying to be funny. Leo braced himself.
‘Vidya,’ said Caleb. ‘It wasn’t just you sneaking glances at her, she was looking at you too. I felt like a proper gooseberry yesterday. The tension in the room was … wow.’
No. He wasn’t going to rise to this. ‘We were both working. You should have been working too.’
Caleb side-eyed him. ‘Stop deflecting. I know you like this woman. You’re showing all the signs. Including this excessive denial thing that you do.’ Caleb shook his head. ‘You know I’m right. Just admit it.’
Leo didn’t reply for a few minutes. They reached the end of the promenade, turned round and started back. He listened to the rhythmic thud, thud, thud of his feet on the pavement. This run wasn’t particularly challenging. He should speed up.
‘It’s been a while,’ Caleb said, suddenly. ‘I understand if you’re nervous.’
Nervous? Hah. That wasn’t the half of it. He wasn’t nervous. There was so much wrong with what Caleb was saying, it was hard to know where to begin.
‘I know you’re worried about seeing someone from work again after what happened before. But, mate, that was years ago. Everyone has forgotten about it.’
‘I haven’t.’ It came out more like a growl than the calm statement of fact that he’d intended.
‘You should. It’s time to move on. No one is thinking about it, apart from you. And just because one relationship went wrong, doesn’t mean you should run away from the next one.’
Leo picked up speed. ‘First of all, I don’t avoid relationships. I just avoid getting involved with people from work. Secondly, she’s not interested.’
‘What do you mean she’s not interested? What gave you that idea?’ Caleb was sounding a little short of breath now.
Leo knew she wasn’t interested because she only wanted to talk about Caleb.
He had seen her staring thoughtfully at Caleb in the pub the night before.
Even when they went for ice cream, she’d been too busy asking Caleb about his family to talk to Leo.
It was so obvious; it seemed impossible that Caleb hadn’t noticed.
Caleb, who could spot female interest from a mile away.
Leo increased his speed again. Caleb sped up to keep pace. Now the run was starting to hurt. He leaned into the pain. Thud, thud, thud.
They reached the bottom of the hill that led up to the hotel. ‘Race?’ Caleb said, and shot off with an increased turn of speed.
Sod that. Leo drew on the last of his reserves for a final uphill sprint. He gave it his all, legs and arms pumping, heart and lungs burning. He passed Caleb and carried on until he got to the portico. When he finally stopped, he leaned over, resting his hands on his thighs, gasping for breath.
It was only when he finally caught his breath, that he looked up. Vidya was standing in front of him, staring, her mouth slightly open.
Leo was too winded to speak. What must he look like right now? A sweaty, out-of-breath lump. He tried to take in a bigger breath, but he was still panting too much.
Vidya closed her mouth and smiled. ‘Hi.’
Leo nodded. He was about to have another go at speaking when her attention abruptly switched to something behind him.
Still leaning over, he turned and looked back to see that Caleb had slumped against the wall and pulled his T-shirt up to wipe his face.
A quick glance confirmed that yes, that was indeed what Vidya was looking at.
Leo shut his eyes. Proof, if proof were needed, that she was interested in Caleb.
She might be trying to use Leo to get closer to Caleb.
That must be what Caleb had mistaken for interest.
The stab and twist of jealousy in his gut was almost painful. Leo straightened up and drank some water.
***
Vidya watched as Caleb dropped his T-shirt back down and bent over double. There was no way she was going to get a glimpse of his shoulder through that dark T-shirt. Which was probably just as well because she was standing next to Leo and it was really hard to stay focused.
It turned out that Leo did not go running in a suit. He ran in T-shirt and shorts, just like everyone else, which was only semi unexpected. What was really unexpected was that he had amazing legs.
She had watched him run up the hill, muscles moving rhythmically under his skin, his face set with concentration as he raced his friend to the top of the hill.
He had been too focused on his destination to notice her, so when he finally stopped right in front of her, she’d had plenty of opportunity to observe the way his T-shirt stretched across his chest and shoulders, the way his torso tapered down to his waist. And those legs.
Those thighs. For a moment, every single thought fled from her head.
Then he’d looked up and caught her ogling.
Right now, she wanted to die of embarrassment.
He had staggered off to find a wall to lean an arm against, so that he could stretch. The muscles in his arms stood out as he leaned. She dragged her eyes up to meet his face. ‘Er … good run?’
‘Not bad,’ Leo said. He seemed to be talking to a spot just to the left of her head. ‘The sprint up the hill was a killer though.’
‘Tomorrow,’ Caleb wheezed, ‘I’m going to beat you.’
Leo looked over his shoulder, his face unreadable. ‘You can try.’ He switched legs. ‘Were you enjoying the morning air?’ he asked Vidya. ‘Or did you need us for something?’
His voice was terse. Vidya frowned. Had she annoyed him? Had he somehow guessed why she was loitering here? ‘Er … no. No. I don’t need you for anything. I just … just had a phone call and needed a bit of space.’
Leo nodded. ‘Everything okay?’ Now, there was genuine concern.
Cranky but kind. Why was that combo so attractive?
Oh, no, she was staring at his legs again.
She quickly raised her gaze to his face.
Which was glowing a little and shiny from the exertion.
She fought back the desire to touch his skin, to see if it was as warm as it looked.