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Josh Spencer was over six feet tall, with a head full of dark hair and symmetrical facial features. From a distance he checked the ‘tall, dark and handsome’ box but close up, Sophie discovered, each of his features were slightly too large to produce conventional beauty. Plus, he had the unbecoming tendency to deliver smirks instead of genuine smiles, and upon meeting him Sophie’s first instinct was to take a step away. This instinct she resisted. He was in charge of the HR department, so even though he was a little smarmy, he was obviously good at his job—or good at something that led to success.
“Sorry,” Sophie said after the introductions had been made and she had extracted her hand from his lingering grip. “Paige, uh, Dr Garnet is uh... tied up with another client. She’ll join us presently.” Sophie hoped this was true. She had not envisioned making this pitch by herself and the thought sent her sympathetic nervous system into overdrive.
They’d gotten all the way downtown, nice and early for their three o’clock appointment, and were less than twenty feet from their destination when a man carrying a gigantic cup of coffee had barrelled into Paige, knocking her completely off her feet and spilling his coffee all over her shirt. The man had been too busy staring at Sophie to notice Paige marching along beside her, but he certainly noticed her after the string of expletives that Paige had directed at him.
After he’d backed away, apologising profusely, Paige and Sophie had stared at each other in horror. Paige was literally dripping in coffee.
“What should we do?” Sophie said.
“I have a change of clothes at the office.”
“You do?” Sophie said, impressed and thinking she should do that same. People didn’t bang into her with the frequency they did Paige, but she’d caused more than her share of human fender benders and she’d certainly spilled food and beverages on herself enough times to warrant keeping a clean outfit or two at the office.
“Yep.” Paige didn’t add that the reason was because she’d seen this in a number of a PI movies—after working an all-nighter the private dick would pull out a fresh shirt and start his day. “I’ll be back in time,” Paige had promised, beetling away at top speed.
Sophie had watched her go, nervousness already washing over her shoulders. It wasn’t possible to get all the way up town and back down again in fifteen minutes, was it?
“Sophie?” Josh said. “Let’s go up. I’m sure we can manage on our own until your colleague gets here.”
Paige had just thrown on a fresh shirt—her skirt was dark blue and only slightly damp—and was about to leave the office when someone cried out in the hallway.
“Oh!”
The voice was clearly distressed so Paige quickly moved out to the landing area at the top of the stairs. Hazel was standing outside her office, looking in the direction of the darkened hallway.
“Is someone there?” she called, then without waiting for a response, “did you hear that?”
“Hazel?” Paige said. “Are you talking to me?”
But instead of replying, Hazel looked around wildly then abruptly disappeared into her office, only to emerge again a moment later with a set of keys. Paige watched her go over to 2B, the office at the top of the stairs, and unlock the door. She disappeared inside but returned after only a few moments.
“Oh,” she said, seeming to only then notice Paige. “You didn’t hear that? The voice?” she asked.
Paige shook her head.
Hazel turned away and muttered in a perplexed voice, “It sounded like my sister.”
A second later, she’d disappeared inside her own office.
Paige stared after her.
That was weird.
After a moment’s indecision, Paige followed Hazel into her office.
“Hello?” she called as she moved past the front desk and into the second room that housed the piano. She found Hazel sitting in the dimly lit room in front of the piano, with a strangely blank expression on her face.
“Hazel? Are you...?” Paige looked around for a student. “What are you doing?”
Hazel swivelled her head toward Paige slowly and frowned. “You’re not supposed to be here,” she said.
“I saw the door open and...” Paige trailed off.
Hazel’s frown deepened. “Did you want a lesson?”
“What? A lesson? Uh, no. I, uh, Hazel. It’s me, Paige. From across the hall.”
An awful sensation was crawling over Paige’s skin.
Hazel blinked. “Yes, oh. Um. Sorry. Not now.”
Paige stared at Hazel, unsure what to do.
Silence descended on the small room, making Paige feel almost claustrophobic.
“It was my sister,” Hazel said into the silence.
“What was?” Paige said.
“The voice.” She pointed across the room. “I’m sure of it.”
Suddenly Hazel looked wary. “I think you should leave.”
“Um, okay.”
Taking slow steps, Paige exited Hazel’s office. What on earth was all that about?
***
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, as Josh was trying to adjust his chair so that it was closer to Sophie’s and Sophie was trying to surreptitiously check her phone for a message from Paige, the door to 14-04, one of the smaller meeting rooms on the fourteenth floor—but still very nice—banged open.
“I’m late,” Paige announced rather than apologised. “Dr Garnet. Co-founder of S & S.”
How did someone so small generate so much noise, Sophie wondered as her colleague entered the room. She hoped Josh didn’t find her aggressive and intrusive. Or at least, so much so that he didn’t want to work with them. But Paige could have walked in with a marching band belting out Pomp and Circumstance for all Josh noticed. He’d taken the opportunity of Sophie’s averted gaze to indulge in some unabashed ogling.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” Paige said.
An hour later, Josh leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. “Well, that’s that then. It all sounds great.” He beamed at Sophie. “The final decision will be made upstairs, but I’m sure they’ll be just as keen on introducing psychometric testing as I am.” He sat up again and snapped his fingers. “But I do need you to sign the non-disclosure agreements before we go any further. Even what we have discussed today is confidential, you realise.” Josh opened the leather document holder in front of him and slid a small wad of papers toward Sophie. “You both sign this one. Excuse me while I make a phone call.”
Sophie and Paige grinned at each other as Josh left the room, refraining from squealing and high-fiving and instead sensibly focusing on reading the small print.
When Josh returned, Paige said, “All we have to do now is discuss our fee structure.”
“Oh, well, I thought we might—”
“Nonsense.” Paige cracked her knuckles. “We’ll just take care of the financials and then we’re good to go.”
Sophie smiled to herself. Paige might have the tendency to offend everyone she met, but—Sophie took in Josh’s suitably alarmed expression as Paige brought out a calculator—she also could do this.
***
JOSH CHOSE AN OSTENTATIOUS place in Chancery Lane to take them for a celebratory drink.
The sole reason for scheduling a meeting at three o’clock on a Friday—normally knocking off time—had been so that he could transition the meeting into a drinks situation. When Sophie had shown up alone he’d felt the universe was conspiring with him—it would be just the two of them having a cosy drink together! But even with the unwelcome arrival of her small and annoying colleague, Josh was not ready to say goodbye to Sophie. And so, despite still having to get this entire scheme approved, he insisted on taking them out in anticipation of celebration.
He swaggered in, pretending to be best friends with the Maître D, who pretended right back because he knew how to play the game. The provision of elevated status and the appearance of hotshottedness was paid for via an overpriced menu and the expectation of generous tipping. This system was one that worked well for the restaurant, for people like Josh, and even the poor wait staff who had to put up with this kind of obnoxious charade on a daily basis, because at the end of the night they got the tips. The drunker these types of people, or the more they were trying to show off, the bigger the tip. When Josh strutted in with Sophie on his arm, the Maître D thought cha-ching. Sure enough, Josh ordered an expensive bottle of champagne for the table, took a seat on the patio and leaned back as if the surrounding environs had been built at his command.
***
AN HOUR LATER, SOPHIE was done. She was one hundred percent over it. She’d now had to endure two hours of small talk, business mumbo-jumbo and Josh’s fairly constant, albeit subtle, leering. Every time she’d looked down or away, she’d felt his eyes crawling over her face and she’d, quite simply, had enough.
“Well,” Sophie said in her best wrapping-up voice. “Thank you so much, Josh,” she continued. “For the drinks.”
“Don’t forget the oysters.” Josh smiled.
“And the food. But I really... I have a prior commitment I have to get to,” Sophie said as politely as she could.
“Nonsense. We must celebrate. Or don’t you want to work with me?” Josh’s pouted.
“Oh, um...”
Paige eyed Sophie, who was now looking around with large, almost panicked eyes. “Unfortunately, we do have to get going,” she stated. “We do not renege on our prior commitments, as you will see once we start working with you.” Paige stood up, extending her hand for him to shake.
“Okay, I guess.” Josh sulked.
“I’ll just use the loo,” Paige said, darting away before Sophie could prevent her from leaving.
As Paige scurried away into the recesses of the restaurant, Josh brightened and leaned in to Sophie. “This is going to be great. Working together. You and me.” He smiled, but then adjusted his expression to attempt a more brooding one Ryan Gosling was known for.
For a moment Sophie wondered why Josh was squinting at her and wondered whether the oysters were repeating on him, but when he shifted position in his seat and brought his hand up to stroke his jaw, she realised he was trying to look cool.
“Yes. I look forward to it.” Sophie stood up and made to leave. She didn’t care whether Paige was out of the toilet yet or not. “So, shall I call to follow up on Monday morning?”
Sophie had no intention of making that call herself—phone calls were Paige’s department—but it was the right thing to say in the moment.
Josh also stood, seeming to enjoy the way he could tower over her. Sophie was not at all short, but he was still several inches taller.
“Yes. We’ll need to clear it with the boys upstairs,” he winked, “but with my go-ahead, it’ll all be fine. I’ll take care of everything,” Josh added, his voice dropping a few decibels. “Just give me a few days,” he added, leaning down to grip both of her shoulders.
Sophie flinched at this invasion of her personal space. In the distance, she could see Paige’s brown hair bobbing toward them so she extracted herself from his grip and extended her hand.
“Thanks again. Have a good weekend.” She nodded, backing away before he could say or do anything else.
On the street, Paige beamed at Sophie. “We have a corporate gig!” She raised her hand so that Sophie could high-five her.
Sophie, feeling tension slip away, slapped her hand and grinned.
“What about a martini at The Gin Room?”
“Perfect,” Sophie said, following Paige into Vulcan Lane.
***
JOSH STAYED FOR ANOTHER fifteen minutes after they’d left. There was still a glass of champagne in the second bottle and while he’d consumed one bottle almost all by himself and was light-headed, he was not ready to go home yet. He would detour past the White Lady for a burger before he drove home, just in case.
Josh knew his promise to get everything sorted by Monday meant he’d be working this weekend, but it was worth it. He’d have to put together a presentation for the aforementioned boys upstairs before this would become an approved part of the corporate restructure. He himself could hire Sophie as an HR initiative within his budget, but if he wanted to have Sophie around on a more regular basis, he needed to get their okay.
He sipped the champagne, letting his mind return to Sophie. He thought about how when they’d stood up she’d looked up at him, her big eyes wide with innocence and a sweetness he could almost smell. How did she manage to make a basic shirt and skirt look so... intoxicating. Her hair had been pulled back in a simple ponytail and he had spent the last hour aching to pull it out. Or for her to pull it out herself and then shake out her gorgeous mane of hair. He shifted in his seat. Oh yes. He looked up to find the whereabouts of the waiter and motioned with a languid wave of his hand that he was ready to pay. While he waited he leaned back in his chair and, looking very much like an evil mastermind one might see in a movie, he let out a low, calculating chuckle and rubbed his hands together.
In a few months he’d have everything he wanted.
