Chapter 20
Four hours later, Leo closed the file with a snap. ‘I think that’ll have to do.’
Caleb finished typing the note he was making and said, ‘I concur.’ He scrolled up in his document. ‘We haven’t covered everything, but we’ve made notes on all the things that are held here.’
It had taken all Leo’s will power to concentrate this afternoon. Vidya wasn’t even in the room and she was taking up space in his thoughts. He checked the time. Nearly five. This would be the earliest they’d finished on a weekday in the time they’d been here.
‘Great. Let’s go see how Vidya is getting along.’ Caleb bounced to his feet.
Oh, God. Leo still wasn’t over the embarrassment of what had happened.
At least he had come to his senses before he’d kissed her!
He knew she must be interested in Caleb and not him.
All that talk about kids should have confirmed that, if nothing else.
She hadn’t cared about Leo’s views, she’d only asked him to be polite, as an afterthought.
What had he been thinking?!
Caleb was heading for the door and expecting Leo to follow.
‘We should get all this onto the filing trolley first,’ Leo said. He could ask Stella to do that, but it was a nice, relatively mindless activity that he could pretend was still work. It meant that Stella could file them quicker the next day. ‘Maybe we could save Stella a job and file them too.’
He set about putting the files in the right order. He couldn’t face Vidya now. He really couldn’t.
Leo shoved a file with unnecessary force.
He knew exactly what he had been thinking.
He had been thinking about how lovely she was.
How plump her lips looked. How soft and warm her cheek felt under his fingertips.
How she would taste of sugar and doughnuts.
How he only needed to move a fraction to kiss her.
‘Earth to Leo,’ Caleb said.
Oh. Right. Filing. He was supposed to be putting them away. ‘Sorry. Tired. Yes, let’s carry on.’ Leo trailed behind Caleb, pushing the trolley and watching as his friend used his key fob to access the file room. Even this room reminded him of Vidya.
Caleb started talking about what he was planning to do at the weekend. Leo made the right noises without actually listening. Between them, they got all the files back into the right places fairly quickly.
‘I haven’t done filing in ages,’ said Caleb. ‘It’s like being a trainee all over again.’
‘I guess it does us good to do these things from time to time,’ said Leo. ‘Although, economically, not really.’
‘Fee earners should do fee-earning work,’ said Caleb. ‘I know. I know.’ He put his hands on his waist. He looked around. ‘Well, we’re done here. We should go find Vidya now.’
‘She’s probably busy.’
‘We can help.’
‘I think we’d probably just get in the way if we try.’
‘What is wrong with you? Anyone would think you’re trying to avoid her. What’s going on?’
‘Nothing. There’s nothing going on. It’s just been a long day, all right?’
They left the file room, carefully pulling the door shut behind them.
‘You know what we should do,’ said Caleb.
What now? ‘Not karaoke.’
‘No. I was thinking we should go out for a nice meal. We’ve all worked very hard. The company could stand us a decent meal as a reward.’
Leo would have to sit with Vidya, watching her watching Caleb. It would be a hellish way to spend an evening. But he couldn’t say no without it looking mean. He would go with it for now and find a reason to leave early. ‘Sure.’
Vidya was still in her tiny cupboard office. As Caleb knocked and entered, she closed a file and added it to a stack on the floor. She gave them a vague smile, but didn’t make eye contact. Leo really had messed everything up with his lack of self-control.
‘We’re calling it a day,’ Caleb said.
‘I still have some more work to do.’ She indicated a much smaller stack of files on the desk.
Leo stayed outside in the corridor, holding the door open. There wasn’t room in that tiny office for him and Caleb.
‘Can we help?’ Caleb said. ‘We could take a couple of files each and—’
‘No.’ She looked affronted. ‘It’ll take me longer to explain my system than it would to do it myself.’
Leo almost laughed. That was exactly how he felt when people tried to help at the last minute. Finally, a woman who could understand him! He caught Caleb’s eye and raised his eyebrows.
‘That’s fair.’ Leo nudged Caleb with his foot. ‘Come on. I’ll buy you a drink while we wait for Vidya to finish up.’
Caleb made a face at him. ‘How long will you be, do you think?’ he asked Vidya.
She gave the remaining files an assessing glance. ‘Another half hour, maybe forty minutes?’
‘Okay, great. We’ll meet you in the lobby at seven. Since we’ve all been working so hard, we get to go and have a fancy meal on the company card.’ Caleb shuffled backwards out of the office; there really wasn’t any other way to leave the tiny space.
As they walked down to the bar, Caleb said, ‘Tonight’s your last chance to talk to her properly, before we’re all back in London and our busy work schedules get in the way. You should ask her out.’
‘Will you stop that.’ It came out snappier than Leo intended. ‘She’s clearly more into you.’
‘I told you; I’m not getting that vibe. She keeps eyeing you up when she thinks you’re not looking. And that day at the arcade, I honestly thought you were in there.’
Leo had thought so too, briefly. But that was just wishful thinking on his part. He could have styled it out and hidden behind the professional veneer, but he had blown that too this afternoon. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
‘Can you leave it? Please,’ Leo said, tiredly. Tonight was going to be a nightmare of awkwardness.
***
Vidya finally got to the end of the files on her desk, updated her spreadsheet and made sure she’d saved it. She looked at the stack of files on the floor and groaned. These were going to need refiling. Ugh. She stood up and stretched. There was plenty of time before she had to meet the guys.
When Vidya got to the file room, she video-called Angie and put her on speakerphone so that she could chat while she filed. She recounted the face touching, lip-stroking incident and smiled indulgently at the squeals from the other end of the line.
‘So, what happens next?’ said Angie.
‘Apparently, we’re all going out for dinner. Like that won’t be weird at all.’
‘Are you going to make a move on him?’
‘I don’t know. Like I said, it would be weird, wouldn’t it – if I start seeing Leo and if Udeni’s baby is secretly his best mate’s kid. He’ll figure it out. He’s clever.’
‘Wow,’ said Angie. ‘Start seeing Leo? An office romance? That’s serious talk. I thought you just wanted to jump his bones.’
‘No. I mean, yes, I do. But I also like him. He’s nice.’
Angie made a hmm noise. ‘Tell me what you like about him.’
Vidya pushed the last two files in her load into their hangers and came to stand by the desk where she’d propped her phone. ‘Obviously, I think he’s good looking. And he’s clever. And really good at what he does.’
‘Which we know you have the hots for, because you’re a weirdo,’ Angie agreed.
Vidya ignored that last bit. ‘He’s a little bit quiet, which comes across as grumpy, but he’s actually just a bit awkward and shy.
His sense of humour is quite dry, which, if you’re not used to it, might be taken as humourless.
I mean, I thought he was snarky and grumpy until I got to know him.
’ How had she been so wrong? ‘He’s kind and likes to help people,’ she continued.
‘He has lovely eyes and this smile … you don’t see it often, but when you do, it’s amazing.
’ She stopped talking and looked at the screen to see her friend had her hands clasped under her chin. ‘What?’
‘Your face! You had this lovely dreamy little smile,’ Angie said. ‘You really do like him a lot, don’t you?’
‘I do. We get on really well and there’s something about him that makes me want to hug him. I’d do it just to wind him up and he’d probably pretend to be mortified but secretly like it anyway.’
‘You absolutely have to tell him how you feel. If your little encounter today is anything to go by, he must feel the same way.’
‘I don’t get it, though. He goes hot and cold. Some days he’s really warm and approachable, flirty even. Other times he’s just stiff and awkward. I don’t know what to make of it.’
‘But from what you said about today … I’d say he does like you. There’s something bothering him, maybe. You should find out what that is.’
Vidya leaned her arms on the table and hung her head for a moment. ‘That’s not the main thing I was supposed to find out on this trip,’ she said. ‘I still don’t know for sure if Caleb is the guy.’ She’d had over a week. She knew a lot about him now, but she still didn’t have anything useful.
‘Actually, I have some news on that,’ said Angie.
‘You found out something about Piotr?’
‘No. Udeni remembered what that tattoo was of. It’s a dragon.’
‘A dragon?’ Okay. That made sense. It was a magical creature.
‘She said it was a dragon taking flight. About three inches long. A solid black tattoo, no colour.’
‘That’s useful. But I’m still not going to be able to see Caleb’s chest …’ Ideas whirred in Vidya’s mind. ‘But now that I know some details, I could straight up ask him.’
‘Indelicate, but … you could,’ Angie agreed. ‘If you do it subtly.’
‘I did try before, but the conversation sort of got away from me and I didn’t want to make it weird.’ Vidya thought about that. ‘Or weirder, I guess.’
‘Sometimes the direct approach is best.’
‘I can’t tell him why I need to know, can I? It’s not my secret to tell.’
‘Unfortunately, no.’
‘Not unfortunately,’ Vidya pointed out. ‘If it were my secret to tell, then it would be me that was pregnant and that would be a completely different conversation. I would remember who I slept with, for a start.’
Angie gave a small laugh. ‘Fair point.’
‘Don’t tell Udeni I said that.’ Vidya closed her eyes and grimaced. ‘And yes, I know I am judging her. It’s just … such an enormous thing and she’s acting like it’s a trivial little mistake. It’s a whole life. Several lives. The baby’s, hers, mine. Nothing is going to be the same again.’
There was a silence at the end of the line that went on for so long that Vidya came to check the screen to see if Angie had disappeared.
‘Ange?’
‘Are you going to ask me to move out? You’ll need the space when the baby arrives …’
Oh, crap. She hadn’t even thought about that. ‘Do you think you’ll want to move out?’ she said, cautiously. ‘Babies are noisy and messy.’
‘I love living with you guys, but it’s going to change things, isn’t it?’
Vidya sighed. ‘Probably. Yes.’
‘And you guys are family and I’m not, so …’
‘Family is what you make of it,’ Vidya said, firmly. She thought suddenly of Leo, being brought up by his grandmother because his parents weren’t able to. ‘You would be an awesome aunty. Found family counts.’
‘Aargh. I’m only twenty-eight. I’m too young to be an aunty.’
Me too, Vidya thought. But when was anyone ready to be an aunt, really? Or a mum? ‘Yeah. Sorry about that.’
Angie huffed out a laugh. ‘You should probably talk to Udeni before you commit though.’
Vidya was about to reply that Udeni would feel exactly the same.
The three of them had shared that flat for a few years now.
Angie was practically another sister. But Vidya couldn’t predict Udeni’s feelings anymore.
‘Yes, you’re probably right. We should have a meeting, all three of us, when I get back.
’ It would force Udeni to talk to her properly too. That could only be a good thing.
Vidya checked the time. ‘I should go. I need to have a quick shower and get changed before I meet the guys.’
‘Vid. If you have to choose between making sure about Udeni’s guy and getting your guy. Go for your guy, okay?’
‘Normally, I would, but … a baby is kind of a big deal, so …’
‘Vidya. So is you falling for someone.’
‘I’m not falling for him.’
‘Every phone call, you’ve talked about him.’
‘I’ve talked about Caleb too.’
‘That’s because you have to talk about Caleb. It’s part of your mission and we keep asking. But you didn’t have to talk about the other guy. At the start of all this, Leo was just some cranky dude, heading up the project, who you found aloof and annoying. Things are a little different now, right?’
How had she ever found him aloof and annoying?
She thought of all the emotions that she’d seen in his eyes.
The quiet humour, the kindness. People only thought he was aloof because they saw his guarded expression and didn’t notice his eyes.
She noticed them though. She could look into them forever.
Angie was right. She was falling for him. Shit.
‘Vidya, you okay?’
She pulled herself together. ‘Yes. I’m fine. I’d better go.’
‘Think about what I said, okay? I know you love Udeni, but you can’t let your worries about her get in the way of your happiness.’
‘Yes. I’ll think about it. Love you, bye.’
After Vidya had hung up, she put her phone away and spent a few minutes staring at the wall.
She was falling for Leo, wasn’t she? She’d told him about her and Udeni and how she felt responsible.
She rarely talked about that with anyone, apart from Angie.
Yet she’d felt comfortable telling Leo. Was Angie right?
Should she just go for it and damn the consequences for Udeni’s secret?
Why was she even thinking about this? Her sister came first. No man was going to get in between them.
She’d made a promise to help her sister and right now that meant finding out as much as she could about the baby’s father.
Tonight was her last chance to do this. She needed to get it done, her attraction to Leo would have to wait.