Page 67 of The Grand Duel
“No,” I assure her, laughing myself. “Well, I don’t think so. He’s too stiff to like someone as messy as me. But, Jove, I don’t smell bad—I obviously checked, so maybe he just liked the smell.”
“It’s weird. Send me a picture of him, I need a visual.”
“Let me find one.” I reach for my laptop and punch his name into Google again. “He’s gorgeous, Jove, I’m warning you now.”
“Yeah, my gorgeous and your gorgeous are two very different things. I still remember when—” I turn the laptop around with a zoomed-in picture of Charles Aldridge stood at the forefront of Charles Aldridge Headquarters, Edna and two other men stood alongside him. “—Holy fucking smokes!”
I nod. “Thirty-five, six-foot-three if I had to guess, and single,” I say in awe, looking sidelong at the image. “He’s delightful. A workaholic. Has the cutest dogs.”
“Lis, do you like him?”
“What, no!” I feel my cheeks heat.
“Are you sure? Do you even know the meaning of the word flaw at this point?”
“Fuck off,” I snap defensively. “He’s a tosser for the most part.”
Although he did buy me ice cream.
“You just said he’s delightful.”
“To look at,” I correct. “He calls me Miss Elton as if it’s his favourite sport and sniffs my clothes.”
She chuckles again. “You haven’t quit yet, though, so…”
“I haven’t quit yet because Edna is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, a few years off retirement, and in need of my help. Helping her helps us, and unfortunately, that leads to me helping Mr Sternface.”
“I’m sure you can loosen him up. Have you tried rubbing yourself on him?”
“You’re ridiculous,” I say, though I can’t help my smile.
“No, seriously, though. Edna said she wants to see him relax a little before she retires, didn’t she? Did I dream that?”
“No, she did. She said she wants to know she can leave him and he won’t crash and burn. For him to find the time to build something for himself outside of the office.”
“Get him to relax then. Do your job.”
“How do I even do that?”
“Lis, you’re one of the greatest people to ever walk this earth, just be you. Make him have some fun.”
“I tried being myself with him, and it went horribly. I’m probably just going to carry on with the files I’ve been sorting this week, to be honest. There’s a load still to go through, and he seems to appreciate that over my mouth.”
“You’re so boring.”
“I’m trying to set us up for life. Leave me alone.”
“Please.” She rolls her eyes. “You still need to tell me more about cop boy. I’ve not forgotten.”
“There is no cop boy,” I tell her. It’s been well over a week, and I’m almost certain I made the whole encounter up. “He’s not been in since.”
“I thought you said people had to be a member to come to the club.”
“They do.”
“So where is he?”
I’ve asked myself the same question over and over for days now. Who is he? Where is he? Why hasn’t he been back?