Sheesh. Pippi rolled her eyes. “Touchy much?” But she was grinning as she said the words. The one good thing that came out from her breakup was that it had somehow granted her immunity to the opposite sex, and she was now able to handle Gareth Evans’ occasional flirtations without getting flustered —
“If you’re the one doing the touching…by all means.”
Like now.
“Ha ha ha, Mr. Evans. Very funny.”
Gareth released a sigh of mock regret. “You’re no fun these days, Ms. Jones. You used to blush so easily.”
She noticed him glancing at his watch as he spoke and frowned thoughtfully, trying to recall if they had any important meeting scheduled for today. Mm. She reached for her appointment book and flipped to today’s page. Odd. There was nothing scheduled for today so—
A phone alarm suddenly sounded off, and Pippi jumped in surprise.
“Finally,” she heard Gareth mutter just before reaching for the remote control to switch the TV on.
Oh no.
The last time he had done this, she had ended up with a broken heart.
“Are you waiting for today’s stock report?” she asked hopefully. Please say yes. Please say yes. Because if this ended up being about him again –
“Actually,” Gareth drawled, “there’s this indie movie I’ve been looking forward to watching.”
“An indie movie?” She would never have thought him the type.
Gareth grimaced. “You make it sound like I’m incapable of appreciating the arts.”
“Well—”
“Don’t bother answering that,” her boss grumbled. “Just grab a seat and watch this with me.”
“But—”
“It’s an order, Ms. Jones.”
“In that case – very well, sir.” She sat back down, back straight, hands on her lap, and gaze pinned to the TV. She worked hard to keep her face expressionless as well, wanting to hide her thoughts.
An indie movie, of all things!
The credits started to roll, and Pippi sent a quick prayer to God to keep her awake. It would be horribly embarrassing if –
Wait.
Her eyes widened when she realized she was staring at her face – on the TV.
She rubbed her eyes hard.
But when she returned her gaze back to the TV, she saw that it really was her still – and it appeared to be from the CCTV footage—
“This was the first night I met her.”
It was his voice, doing the narration for the movie.
“The woman I will love for the rest of my life, although at that time I didn’t know it yet.”
SHIT.
Oh, if only she could just have even a fraction of their strength…
At that point, she didn’t think there could be anything else that would make her cry harder, but she was wrong.
The second half of the movie comprised of a series of interviews, and the first “guest” to show up on the screen was none other than Gareth himself.
I never thought the day would come that Acheron Simonides would come asking for my help – and I had certainly never imagined my secretary would turn out to be the only woman who could bring Simonides to his knees.
And then it was Millicent Longbourn’s turn, and her words were as candid as ever.