In the corner of the office we were in, what I took to be a space to the side of a cabinet turned out to be an alcove created when the new office was squeezed in between the original oak columns. Vince ducked inside, pulling me after him and pulling me tight into his body so we both fit.
I pushed away from him, still smarting from the cheeky kiss he stole and very much not wanting to find myself pressed up against him.
Yet again, he clamped his hand over my mouth and wrapped his other arm around my torso to keep me from moving. He’d forgotten about my legs though. They were free to move and as instinct took over, I drove my right knee upwards.
It connected with something soft just as the light came on. Vince choked out a breath and sucked in a gasp of air. To prove a point, I clamped my hands over his mouth and cocked an eyebrow at him.
We were completely invisible in the alcove but would still have to stay quiet and hope whoever had come in wasn’t planning to stay long.
‘Right,’ said a man’s voice – a young man, if I was any judge, ‘time to erase the evidence.’
Erase the evidence? I heard the words and forgot about my racing heart for a moment as my curiosity took over. What evidence was he erasing? What was it evidence of?
Vince and I were as quiet as quiet could be. I was pressed tight up against him, his heat radiating into me and his aftershave tickling my nose. It was making me very uncomfortable but there was no way to escape yet.
The young man continued chattering to himself. ‘Almost done. Nothing left to trace anything back to me.’
I was so desperate to stick my head out to see who it was. Why hadn’t I set my phone to record and popped it on a shelf? We could have had this all on video!
‘There. All done,’ the young man said, and we heard the sound of the chair moving across the carpet and then the pneumatic springs in the legs resetting the chair to its usual height as the man stood up.
My stomach grumbled again, and it was sooo loud. If Vince and I hadn’t already been motionless, we would have frozen like statues. Instead, I held my breath and tried to convince my heart to stop beating because the young man had also stopped moving.
He’d heard me.
The blood began to pound in my ears as I refused to draw my next breath. Any second now a hand was going to grab me from behind and we were going to be caught. Goodness knows how many different things we could be charged with.
When the young man laughed, I spasmed in fright, but he said, ‘You’re getting jumpy.’ The sound of his footsteps retreating, accompanied by a rueful chuckle came just as the demand for oxygen reached critical point. I sucked in a deep breath barely able to believe we hadn’t been caught.
Vince, however, was on the move. He didn’t say anything, but I knew he was trying to get to the office door to get a look at the young man. I had to admit I was desperate to identify him too.
I went after Vince, who was walking funny I noted guiltily, and stopped right on his shoulder as once again he sidled up to the frame of the office door.
The young man, whoever he was, was locking up again. When he rattled the door to make sure it was secure, Vince peeked around the frame and then took a step out into the corridor beyond. Terrified that we might still get caught, our curiosity denying us the clean escape we seemed to have won, I went too.
I needed to see who was burying evidence even though I had no idea what might be going on.
All I could see was an outline. A tall, lean young man, going up the hill. He was there for less than a second and then he was past the window and gone.
‘Well, that was fun,’ said Vince. ‘Shall we get some dinner now?’
Dinner Interruption
I slapped his arm as hard as I could. It had much the same effect as a fly headbutting a car and just made him laugh.
‘Vince Slater you almost gave me a heart attack. How on Earth am I breaking into buildings and nearly getting caught by the people who work there? I’m a respectable wedding planner I’ll have you know. Getting arrested is not part of my plan.’ The plan being to get the job of organising the next royal wedding.
‘Stop loitering inside then,’ he chuckled, heading for the back door. ‘Honestly, woman. Anyone would think you wanted to get caught.’
I felt my lip curl as a retort came to my lips, but I bit it down and followed him back the way we came in. I never once thought about throwing a four-hole punch at his head and you can’t prove I did.
As predicted, The Wild Oak had kept our table open though that was mostly due to Vince having some of his things still on it. Keys, reading glasses for the menu and what looked like a past-its-best whisky on the rocks were arranged on one side of the table. The doorman took my coat and the Maître D arrived to escort us through the restaurant.
My heart finally came back to its normal rhythm only once I had been sitting for five minutes and could distract myself with mundanity
