Chapter 11 #2
‘Um. Yes. Fine. I’d better—’ She pointed to the interior of the hotel.
‘I’ll see you at work.’ She gave them both what she hoped was a carefree smile and practically ran inside.
When she turned to look at them again, Leo was braced against the wall, stretching his hamstrings.
She walked back to her room, fighting the urge to fan herself.
***
Leo ironed his shirt in his underwear. He liked ironing.
There was something soothing about the process of pressing crumpled fabric until it was smooth, like he was creating order from chaos.
The little travel iron hissed. The sound always reminded him of his grandmother.
She and his great aunt used to split the chores between them and Grandma always did the ironing while watching TV. He missed her.
He carefully repositioned the shirt. Wearing a properly ironed shirt was important to him.
Despite his disdain for his parents’ chosen profession, the one thing he had learned from them was the power of costume.
He saw how both parents could step into different versions of themselves, but the thing that cemented the change into a character was putting on the costume. That’s what his suits were to him.
In a suit, he was Leo the lawyer. He wasn’t socially awkward; he was focused and detail oriented.
He wasn’t odd; he was clever. They were different names for the same things, but he liked the ‘in a suit’ version much better.
Besides, his sisters told him he looked good in a suit.
All at once, he was swamped by the memory of walking into the living room in his interview suit for the first time and the way his grandmother’s face had lit up, just as her eyes welled with tears.
The weakness had lasted only a second or two, before she fussed about finding him a tie, but he had seen it and it meant something …
No. It meant everything. No one had seen him the way Grandma had.
He wondered what she’d say about his current predicament. He switched the iron off and held the shirt up. Crisp. It was still warm when he slipped his arms into the sleeves.
As he buttoned it up, he gave himself a stern talking to.
Okay, he fancied Vidya. That happened. He was only human, and she was very attractive …
and good at what she did … and curiously vulnerable, in a way that made him want to jump in and do things for her, which was probably completely at odds with what she wanted.
And okay, it had been a long time since he’d felt that way about anyone.
But the fact remained that she was clearly more interested in Caleb than him.
She was nice enough to try and include him in the conversation, but she was always on the lookout for Caleb.
Like this morning, he had reached her first and she had clearly been about to talk to him, but when Caleb made it to the top of the hill, all her attention had instantly been drawn to him.
Jealousy stabbed Leo in the gut again. He sighed and did up his belt.
He should be used to this, he thought, as he knotted his tie.
Caleb always commanded more attention than he did.
That was how it worked. It was only in the office that everyone took Leo more seriously than they did Caleb.
In all other scenarios, Caleb won. The only difference this time was that Leo cared.
He pulled on his jacket. None of this was Caleb’s fault.
If anything, Caleb was doing his level best to push him and Vidya together.
His excuses to leave them alone with each other were becoming increasingly thin.
He couldn’t blame Vidya either. She was a grown woman and allowed to like whomever she chose.
No. The problem lay entirely with himself.
He had to pull himself together and keep a lid on these feelings.
Workplace romances were a terrible idea.
He suppressed a little shudder as he remembered the awful embarrassment of the last time.
When he and Jessica had got together, he had done his very best to remain professional at work, even if Jessica occasionally teased him about being uptight.
He had thought everything was going well between them, until she got drunk at a work social and snogged some other guy.
It was only then he’d realised she’d been cheating on him all along.
It seemed like he was the only one who hadn’t known.
The embarrassment had made it very difficult for him to remain in that job.
He still didn’t understand why Jessica hadn’t simply broken up with him.
Why try to keep two relationships going if you were unhappy?
He came to the conclusion that he would never understand it.
He also decided that office relationships were a risk to your career.
Leo buttoned up his jacket – all but the last button. No. Romance wasn’t his strong point and another office romance was definitely out of the question.
Looking in the mirror, he checked his tie was straight. Now his costume was complete.
Caleb was his friend and Vidya was his colleague. He just had to go out there and act accordingly.
***
Vidya was in the file room. She wasn’t hiding. She really wasn’t. The files had to be taken out and she needed to be in there to get them. She had a list and everything.
It wasn’t taxing work, which meant her mind could wander.
Unfortunately, that meant it could wander in the direction of Leo.
Ever since she’d seen them come back from their run that morning, she couldn’t get him out of her head.
Her plan to try to spot Caleb’s tattoo had backfired.
If only Caleb had won the sprint up the hill, she would have been able to focus a bit more on him without being distracted by Leo.
She really didn’t want to be attracted to Leo.
It was all so awkward. She had to work with him.
Time was tight and it really wasn’t helpful when she had to re-read things over and over because her eyes and her mind kept drifting across the room.
It was so damned inconvenient. Leo clearly wasn’t the type to entertain any sort of romantic shenanigans in the office.
If only he’d remained the cold, aloof guy she’d initially thought he was.
But nooo. She had to find out that he helped old ladies with suitcases and got flustered when his friends teased him.
That he had a dry sense of humour. That he stood up for his team when something went wrong.
That he went out of his way to make sure he looked after people.
That he smiled with his eyes, before the rest of his face.
That he liked his chips without vinegar just like she did …
and he shared them. That his legs looked amazing in running shorts.
Vidya rested her head on one of the uprights in the filing rack and groaned. She had a job to do. This was no time to fall in lust.
The door opening made her jump. She quickly held up the list and stared at it. Files. She was searching for a file. Yes, it was somewhere here. She hurriedly studied the rack in front of her.
‘Oh. Hello,’ Leo said.
‘Hi.’ She gestured with her list. ‘I’m just getting the files for today.’
Durr. Obviously, she was. She was in a file room, standing in between two racks of files. What else would she be doing? She really had to pull herself together.
‘Handily, you’ve opened the rack I need.’ He came down the narrow aisle. He read out the file number. ‘Can you get that for me?’
It was right at the top. She stretched but couldn’t reach. She would have to get the kick stool.
‘It’s okay, I’ll get it,’ Leo said. There was barely room for two people. ‘I’ll just—’ He reached past her and up to the top rack. This meant that he was partly behind her.
Vidya could feel the warmth coming off him and smell his aftershave.
If she leaned back or even to the side by a centimetre, she would be leaning against him.
Her skin was screaming at the proximity of him.
She glanced up and had a close view of the column of his neck, the sharp jawline. Suddenly her heartbeat was louder.
Leo got his file and looked down. Their eyes met and, for a second, she saw something that felt like want in them. He swallowed. She watched his throat move. Her heartbeat was deafening now.
Leo moved back, slightly. ‘I … er … got it.’ He reversed out of the file stack, clutching the large file. ‘I’ll see you back in the … erm … the room.’ He backed out, then practically fled.
Vidya let out a long breath and slumped against the rack, making the file hangers rattle.
Oh. God. She needed to get herself together. They were here for a week and it was only day two. She couldn’t keep doing this.
***
Outside the file room, Leo checked both ways, then leaned against the wall and pressed his hand against his racing heart. That was close.
He was supposed to be getting over these awkward feelings. Vidya was interested in Caleb, not him. He needed to shut this attraction down. Instead, the last few minutes had just made it worse.
He pushed himself away from the wall.
Note to self: Never go into the file room if you know Vidya is in there.