Victoria was on the phone when she noticed Louise leave the outer office. It wasn’t something she’d ordinarily notice, or care about, but all of her senses were homed in on detecting the unusual. As she didn’t know what the usual was, it meant she was now hyper-focused on everything.
She continued her call but narrowed her eyes as she watched Louise’s retreating form. There was something suspicious about her behaviour.
Her view of Louise was suddenly blocked by Steven entering the outer office. He paused and spoke with Claudia for a moment. Victoria glanced at her schedule. As she thought, she didn’t have a meeting with him.
Then again, Steven wasn’t exactly known for booking meetings.
She finished up her call the moment he invited himself into her office.
“I have a schedule, you know,” she informed him, a smirk on her face.
He looked around the room comically. “Oh, yes, please excuse me, everyone. Is it okay if I take just a few moments of Victoria’s time?”
“Such a comedian,” she murmured.
He grinned widely and handed her a couple of documents. “I just need you to sign these. I would have put them in the internal mail, but things go missing and I thought I’d stretch my legs. And, of course, it’s Friday, so who knows when you would have received them.”
She took the papers and glanced at them before picking up her fountain pen.
“I was also going to ask if you wanted to go out for drinks tomorrow evening. You probably don’t, but I find myself at a loose end.” He flopped into the chair in front of her desk and let out a pathetic sigh. “I’m having to call my department in to work over this weekend, so I’m in everyone’s bad books. I’ll need something to look forward to in the evening. If you have some time?”
“Actually, I do have some time,” Victoria said.
Hugo had asked if he could take Alexia to the cinema that afternoon and then on to somewhere for dinner. Alexia had gone decidedly cold on the idea of spending the day with her, instead asking to go and see a friend.
With the prospect of an empty house looming, Victoria had decided to work on Saturday. Goodness knows she needed the break from the strained silence.
“I have some paperwork to catch up on, so I’ll find myself in the office tomorrow as well,” she lied.
Holly had yet to be in touch regarding times and dates for any meetings, not that they were planning to meet every night.
“Wonderful, dinner?” He suggested.
She signed the final document and handed the papers back. “Dinner.”
“I won’t get you in trouble with the missus, will I?” He took the papers and stood up.
“No, I’ll tell you about that over dinner,” she said, noting that the gossip about her love life seemed to only travel a certain number of floors.
He frowned but wisely seemed to sense that it wasn’t the right time to wheedle further information from her. He nodded and pointed at her desk phone. “Give me a call when you’re ready to head out.”
He walked out of the office at the same moment that Claudia walked in.
“Sorry to disturb you, Victoria,” she apologised as she handed over a letter that had been couriered. “It’s from Chantel.”
Chantel was an up-and-coming designer who hated email and had taken to sending handwritten messages over the city via bikes. Apparently, she was saving the environment. Victoria doubted she had considered the lungs of the poor cyclists she employed as they made their way through the grimy city.
She tore at the envelope when she noticed that Claudia was still standing there.
“Yes?” she asked coldly.
Claudia looked deeply uncomfortable but stood her ground. “I… I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about you and Holly. I thought you were a great couple. I hope you work things out.”
Victoria didn’t get a chance to form a reply before Claudia—wisely—ran from the office. Any other time such impertinence would have been met with blowback of Victoria Hastings proportions. But this was a unique situation, and Victoria found that she was overjoyed to hear from someone who seemed to think they’d been a good match and wished them the best.
So far, aside from Gideon, people had been telling her that it was just a matter of time before things fell apart, that Holly wasn’t good enough, that they didn’t have anything in common.
All of that might have been helpful if they’d actually broken up. But they hadn’t.
Victoria was just as deeply in love with Holly as ever, and, as far as she was concerned, they were the most permanent couple in New York. Their union would be ended by her death and her death alone.
But it seemed that Arrival didn’t feel that way. Most people who dared to speak to her seemed to think it was a fling, a passing fancy. They didn’t understand the depth of her feelings for Holly.
Not that she could blame them. She’d done precisely nothing to convince anyone of her true feelings for her younger girlfriend. She wasn’t one for displays of any emotion at all, never mind grand displays of love.
It had only recently occurred to her that she wasn’t entirely sure she’d even told Holly how much she meant to her. Holly was spot on when she called Victoria aloof. It was her default setting. She didn’t have the desire, or the emotional means, to explain herself. Certainly not to explain her feelings on anything, no matter how deeply they ran.
In all honesty, she’d kept herself a little back from Holly in order to give the girl some space. Space to run for the hills. Victoria didn’t have a clue what Holly saw in her, but she must have seen something because she seemed determined to stay.
Which led Victoria to wonder if she should be giving Holly space. Maybe it was time to admit that she couldn’t let Holly go. To confess that she needed Holly in her life. The ridiculous separation reinforced that feeling with every hour that went by.
She picked up her phone and dialled Gideon’s number.
She drummed her fingers on the desk, waiting for him to answer. When he did, she spoke immediately. “I’ve changed my mind; I don’t want the spread on heel sizes through the ages. I think we need something more classic. Wedding dresses through the ages.”
She slammed the phone down, happy with the new direction for the spread.