I stifle a squeal as my heart leaps into my throat, it’s like someone up there has finally decided some good needs to happen to Jules McPherson for once.
“This is Jules McPherson,” I say, hoping I sound normal but my voice sounds like a wobbly recording trying to play itself.
He exhales loudly, and I can hear a chair creaking on the other end of the line.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. You ran off before I could…”
And there it is again. He stops himself.
“Before you could what?” I ask, trying not to sound deflated again, but it must be a reflex of mine, making sure I always come out bottom of the pile. Every time.
“Before I could go over these programs,” he adds, creaking forward in his chair along with the sound of pages turning, sounding more businesslike.
It actually sets me at ease.
“Well, I think Ms. Perkins… Uh… Karen might’ve already said… we had them all proofed before printing.”
I hear him breathing through his nose and making a low sound. Dissatisfied.
“Well, and this is just an example,” he starts, sounding as nice as he can about correcting me, “Next to your photo, your starting bid…” he says, and I screw my face up. Rolling my eyes and kicking myself for signing up for this stupid auction in the first place.
“Are you telling me those numbers are correct? Next to Karen’s. I mean, Ms. Perkins. There’s a much higher starting bid and reserve-” He continues. I Interrupt him clearing my throat when Karen comes back out of her office bathroom, giving me evil eyes and pointing at her watch before streaming out into the main office area.
Mason breathes through his nose again, and there’s a long silence between us. I feel all my butterflies coming back, wanting so badly to say something more to him. Wishing I’d kissed him instead of running away like I did.
“I’m sorry,” I finally manage. “For spilling all those programs… for running away,” I practically whisper, hardly believing I’m even having this conversation, let alone reminding myself I actually did run a mile when this man had me in such a vulnerable position.
Such a perfect position.
“I wished you’d stayed,” he says, roughly.
It’s all he has to say. I feel my heart in my throat again and I get the best kind of dizzy just hearing him say those words.
“I wished I had too… but…” I start to say, and he wants to know why I didn’t.
I know the answer, but I can’t bring myself to tell him. I don’t ever want to lie to Mason, not ever but right now, I just can’t bring myself to tell him it’s because I think he wouldn’t be interested in me.
That someone like me would never have even a one in a trillion shot with a guy like him.
It seems too surreal a thing to say to such a man, the Mason Thorne, to even put myself in the same sentence feels foolish.
Fantasy.
I should’ve kissed him, let him kiss me. I should’ve lifted up my skirt and told him to-
Karen suddenly appears in the doorway, and I know my time’s up. I tell Mason I have to go and register his hurt.
The space on the line filled with our feelings but neither being able to say a word.
I open my mouth to say something, anything, but Karen struts over, pressing the receiver down.
I can’t believe it. A dry croak is all I can manage.
“That’s quite enough of that!” she hisses. “What the hell were you two talking about? Who the hell was that guy anyway?” she probes, pushing me with her eyes, leaning in close.
But I’m still in total shock.
I hope he doesn’t think…
But I don’t even have time to think myself, Karen’s list has only gotten longer, and she launches into it all over again, barking orders at me like I’m some kind of machine.
I feel like telling her. Telling her that she just spoke to and then hung up on Mason Thorne.
The Mason Thorne.
But something in me tells me to stay quiet about it.
I recall his words in my mind, reminding me of all the things I think we might like to say to each other but can’t. Not yet.
‘I wished you’d stayed.’
It makes me smile when I should be mad. The thought of Mason suddenly makes me feel strong when I was feeling so ill just a few minutes ago. His voice, the memory of him, the scent of his cologne still on me.
I have to trust, to just know that it’s not my imagination, that maybe, just maybe…
A toilet brush appears under my nose, bringing me crashing back down to earth.
“You can start in there,” Karen grunts. “I have to go to the hairdresser’s now, and then pick up my gown that you ruined.”
I look at the phone again, half expecting it to ring. To have Mason’s voice in my ear again, to have him tell Karen she’s fired.
But nothing happens.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” she growls, and I straighten, taking the brush and heading for her bathroom.
CHAPTER SIX
Mason
I know Jules wouldn’t just hang up like that, and glancing over Karen’s photo again, then her employee profile, I get the picture.
How do we hire people like that?
I make a mental note of the charity Karen has chosen and also of the one Jules picked out.
My reflex is to call back, to introduce myself to Karen, and maybe ask her to come down for a little chat about her performance, but my mind is so full of Jules right now.
Glancing at my Rolex… again, it’s a good five hours before I even have to be at the auction.
So much for not even wanting to go.
I’m not sure I feel like going that long without Jules either, plus I never actually confirmed she was going. She mentioned she was feeling sick.
Yet she’s at work on a Saturday.
That’s the kind of employee Thorne Industries is all about.
My
