Текст книги "The Spanish love deception"

Автор книги: Elena Armas

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 29 страниц)

“Oh.” I frowned. My mouth opened, but I still struggled for a few more moments. “Okay, you have every right to be pissed, but in all fairness, we are even because you should have warned me it would get that intense.” I laughed awkwardly. “If I had known, I would have added a ninja star or two to my outfit. They would have definitely come in handy with Lady in Red.”

Aaron towered over my short height, quiet and still gazing at me in that way that made me shift on my feet again.

Silence settled between us once more, bringing to my attention that we were no longer surrounded by the crowd that had gathered in front of the stage. Instead, the murmur of voices accompanied with a mellow tune came all the way from the other side of the rooftop.

Aaron broke the silence, saying, “Dance with me.”

Chapter Nine

He offered his hand, letting it hang in the small space between our bodies.

Dance?

Gaping at his hand, I hesitated. Not really sure whether I had a reason to doubt his offer or if it was just the way I automatically reacted to Aaron.

“Is this part of the deal?” I heard myself ask.

Aaron frowned.

“Us dancing, I mean. Just for show, right?” I explained.

I wasn’t blind—or stupid—and I was pretty sure that dancing wasn’t something we needed to do. But a big part of me was effectively confused, and I was growing more so by the moment. So, by saying that out loud, I was simply throwing myself a lifeline I could grab on to until I could clear up the mess in my head.

“Right,” Aaron answered, that frown disappearing and his hand still waiting for my decision. “Just for show.”

I accepted his offer, letting his large palm wrap around mine, unsure of how good of an idea it was.

Aaron pulled me gently behind him, and my legs shook with a weird mix of anticipation and unease. His hand was warm and firm against mine, making me feel good and tingly even though I could tell it weighted down that lifeline I was trying to hold on to with teeth and nails.

I was still unsure of how good of an idea this was when he softly dragged me where a small group of people had gathered to dance.

But it was when he stopped walking, turned, and stepped close—so very close—that my mind finally flagged this as a bad idea. So much that a part of me started debating whether I should run away or pretend I fainted right there and then so I didn’t have to face what we were about to do.

Dancing.

Together.

As in Aaron Blackford—the man I had been antagonizing for so long—and me.

Oh sweet baby Jesus.

Aaron draped his arms around my waist, and I felt a shock of electricity spreading across my body from the points where his hands rested on my back. My breath caught, and something heavy and solid dropped to the bottom of my stomach.

Swallowing hard, I tilted my head back. I thought I saw dare and wariness in his gaze. All at once. And that sent an unsolicited spur of anticipation through me.

I placed my hands on Aaron’s chest—noticing how hard and toned it felt under my fingers—but unlike earlier tonight, when I had accidentally touched him, this time, I let my hands rest there. Only then did he bring me to him. My small frame immediately cradled in his much larger one.

A heartbeat later, we were moving, almost every part of our bodies from our chests down pressed together. Aaron’s motions were sure, directing, while mine were stiff and incompliant.

Releasing a breath through my nose, I tried to relax my limbs. To focus on the mechanics of dancing. To calm that red-hot awareness raging inside of me. But the knowledge of how close our bodies were was blowing up alarms inside my head and making it impossible for me to think about much else besides that.

Dancing. We were dancing. Bodies flushed. And that was something we weren’t supposed to be doing. A situation in which Aaron and Lina, who barely tolerated each other, shouldn’t be finding themselves in because this wasn’t something that people who couldn’t stand each other did.

Aaron spun me in a circle with a swift motion and pressed me against him one more time, making my heart quicken in a way it had no business doing.

The music was slow, perfect for swaying and forgetting about everything outside the smooth rhythm. Ideal for getting lost in the peace that being in someone else’s arms could bring. But the more we swayed, the further I was from feeling anything that resembled peace. Not when Aaron was so … big and hard and warm against me.

That was probably why I tripped. Before I knew what was happening, my feet had messed up the beat and tangled together, and they would have probably sent me straight to the floor if not for the man—the pair of strong arms wrapped solidly around me—who held me in place.

“Thank you,” I muttered, feeling my face heat up and my body tense up further. “And sorry.”

God. I had never blushed so much in one single night. I didn’t recognize myself.

Aaron’s arms tightened around me. “Just for precaution,” he said, bringing me even closer.

Each and every nerve ending in my body turned into the end of a live wire. My skin tingled, my heart raced, and my mind whirled.

“Oh. Okay.” The words reached my ears, strangled, as if it had come out of me in a gurgle. “Thanks.”

The skin on my face heated up further.

Aaron hummed, just as his thumb brushed my back very lightly, drawing one single circle that left a tiny trail of goose bumps behind. Goose bumps that traveled to all corners and nooks of my body.

As much as I told myself that this was a simple physical reaction to being held against a male body, being held by a man’s arms, it was Aaron’s male body and Aaron’s arms after all. So, either I had been alone for too long or I was losing my mind. Because this felt … good. Really good.

Too damn much.

Those ocean-blue eyes shifted to my lips briefly. So quickly that I was convinced I had imagined it. It didn’t matter though because then his face dipped, getting as close as it had ever been and making me forget all about that. Making me notice instead details that I had never paid attention to before. Like how full those lips were, which I saw pressed in a line so often. Or how his eyelashes were long and dark and framed the blue in his eyes so perfectly. Or how I could see the lines of the soft creases adorning his forehead, right above the spot where that frown that was almost a fixed feature rested.

I was so lost in all that that one of my feet tripped again, but Aaron’s arms tightened their grip around my waist as he shifted his head to one of my sides.

“Aren’t you supposed to be good at this, Catalina?” he asked a few inches from my ear. I felt the air leaving his mouth on my temple.

Trying not to pay any extra attention to how close his mouth was from my face, I focused on my feet and answered almost absently, “What do you mean?”

Aaron’s diligent and smooth motions spun us one more time to the soft tune.

“I thought you were supposed to carry the beat in your blood,” he explained in a low voice, his head not giving up an inch of space. “Or was it the music in your veins?”

I hoped my ears were not red with embarrassment. “This is not my style,” I lied. I’d never done a worse job at dancing, and it had nothing to do with the music and everything to do with the man I was currently flush against. “Or maybe it’s my partner that’s not the best fit.”

Aaron chuckled. It was low and short-lived, but it reminded me of the way he had laughed earlier, leaving me a little out of breath.

And so, I inhaled through my nose, trying to restore my breathing and immediately regretting it. Because what an awful idea that had been. The worst idea. All I had accomplished was filling my lungs with Aaron’s scent.

Aaron’s very nice and very heady and very, very masculine scent.

Could I unsmell it, please, universe? Please.

“Was that you admitting something you are not good at?” Aaron asked, pulling me out of my head. “To me?”

“I never claimed to be a spectacular dancer.” Not when my partner was someone who certainly succeeded in distracting me so damn much. “Plus, all that rhythm in your blood stuff is nothing more than a stereotype. There are more than a few hundred Spaniards who can’t follow a beat to save their lives.”

“I bet there are. I’ll keep leading then.” His voice was low, a little closer to my ear than before. “But just in case you belong to those few hundreds.”

“If you must,” I muttered because what was the point of denying something that was so obvious? I was doing a poor job at it. “I didn’t know you danced.”

Just when I thought it was physically impossible for Aaron’s body to fold around mine any more, for our bodies to come any closer, he dipped his head further. Impossibly low. His lips hovered directly above the shell of my ear. “There are a few things you don’t know about me, Catalina.”

My body went even more rigid in response. A flutter taking flight in my stomach.

I forced myself to remember that I was here to pretend I was his date—of sorts. That I had put on a little show at fighting that woman over him at the auction. So, fake or not, to everybody else, I was supposed to be someone who would welcome this kind of closeness and not someone who would jump back, startled.

So, I settled my hands on his hard chest with a little more decision. Unfortunately, the gesture only managed to turn that flutter in my stomach to a full-on flapping and waving and whirling riot.

“What’s on your mind?” Aaron asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Being caught off guard by the question—and the interest—I blurted the first thing that came to mind, “You said this had nothing to do with a woman.” I shifted my palms across his chest. “But it looked to me like it had everything to do with one.”

“I’ve never seen Mrs. Archibald so riled up,” he admitted.

I adjusted my hands on his chest again, trying not to get lost in how warm his skin felt, even beneath all the layers of fabric. “So, you are familiar with this Mrs. Archibald, huh?” I felt his head nod once, his jaw brushing my temple. “Let me guess. Tonight was not her first time getting into a little charitable quarrel over you.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Aaron Blackford, the cougar magnet.” I laughed lightly, the sound coming out a little shaky.

A soft puff of air hit my ear, rousing a wave of shivers. “It wasn’t only Mrs. Archibald enthusiastically bidding, if memory serves me well.”

“Smug,” I muttered.

But Aaron was right. There had been many other people—younger, attractive—interested in him.

“Is this why you asked me to be here?” Aaron didn’t immediately answer, so I continued, “I guess it all makes sense. What Angela said earlier and TJ kind of confirmed.”

“And what’s that?”

“That Aaron Blackford is scared of a bunch of overly motivated wealthy ladies who want to buy his company.”

His palms shifted on my back, spinning us into the changing rhythm of a new song. “Are you teasing me?” he said right into my ear.

I was. But I would never admit to such a thing out loud. I felt myself relax just the splinter of a hair in his arms. “Does it happen often?”

“What exactly, Catalina?” he asked very slowly. “Almost being exchanged for a man with a boat or having a questionable dancing partner?”

“Neither.” Feeling the smile tugging at my lips, I went on, “Women flaunting themselves at you. I saw how tense you were on the stage. You looked ready to jump out and get out of there.” I thought about that for a second. Him bringing me here … it kind of made sense now. “Does that kind of attention make you uncomfortable?”

“Not always.” I felt the brush of his jaw against my cheek, the simple and light gesture causing an electrifying wave of sensation to trail down my neck. “I’m not scared of a woman’s interest in me, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t send them all away.”

“Oh, okay.” My voice came out breathy and unsure.

Of course he didn’t. I was sure he had needs. And those needs were something I wasn’t willing to think about with his arms around me.

Aaron’s right hand shifted on my back, trailing down an inch or two. Meanwhile, the skin of my face—no, my whole freaking body—burned.

His arms tightened around me one more time.

“Thank you,” he said.

And I felt those two words like soft puffs of air against my hair.

“What for?” My voice was barely a whisper.

“For not stepping on my foot.” I opened my mouth to apologize, but he continued, “But also for not being deterred by Mrs. Archibald. Last year, things got a little … uncomfortable when she found out our date consisted of cleaning dog kennels and spending a couple of hours walking and playing with them.” I felt his sigh on the skin on the side of my neck. “Not that it dissuaded her this year.”

Something that felt a lot like protectiveness flickered in my chest.

I shook my head lightly, trying to make sense of myself. All this dancing and spinning was clearly messing with me. “Well, as much as I am sorry for your wallet, considering the amount the donation reached, I am happy I got to see that sulky face when I beat her,” I admitted, shocking myself at how pleased I had really been. “I’m also sorry for those doggies and what they had to endure last year with that woman. What kind of hypocrite donates money for a charity that focuses on animal shelters and doesn’t like dogs? Those poor guys. I’d adopt them all if I didn’t live in a tiny studio apartment. Hell, I’d happily volunteer to spend some time with them any day.”

“I can take you, if that’s what you want.” Aaron’s words hung in the air. A part of me wanted to say yes. Yes to the chance of seeing a new side of him. Perhaps another smile too. “You just bought a date anyway.”

“With your money.”

“Regardless,” he countered. “It’s part of the package deal.”

That pang of unprecedented hurt hit me again, reminding me of what this was. Part of the deal. That was Aaron, a man of his word.

Aaron’s head reared back, revealing his face. His gaze was searching.

“I …” I hesitated, feeling stupid for considering for just an instant that maybe he’d offered because he genuinely wanted to take me there. “I just …”

Shit.

Everything that had happened tonight was spinning in my head. Aaron in a tux. All these … new and different ways I was feeling around him. The auction. His smile. His laughter. Dancing. My body against his, flushed together. All of that and then the fact that we would be going to Spain in a matter of a few weeks.

Everything tangled together in knots that messed with my head.

Aaron kept looking at me, a strange emotion behind his blue eyes. He was probably waiting for me to say something that wasn’t mumbled words.

“Would that …” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble,” I finally managed to say. “I guess that someone could check if the auction contract was fulfilled?” I didn’t know if this contract existed. Didn’t even know if anybody would even check anything. “The last thing I’d want is to hamper the good that the fundraiser has achieved tonight.” I kept going, Aaron’s features unchanging, “Nobody needs to know that the date is fake anyway. Right?”

He kept looking at me in that searching way I didn’t understand. “No. Nobody needs to know.”

“Or that we are going as friends, right?” That had not sounded right. Were we even friends?

“Is that what you want to be, Catalina?” Aaron shot back calmly. “Friends?”

“Yes,” I answered. But did I? We had never been, and that had never had anything to do with me. That hadn’t been on me. “No,” I rectified, remembering that one big obstacle that had stood between us since the beginning. One that Aaron had put there, not me. It had been him, the one who never liked me, not the other way around. It wasn’t fair of him to ask me now. “I don’t know, Aaron.” My palms felt clammy and my throat dry, and I was … confused. “What kind of question is that?”

Aaron seemed to ponder my words. “Yes or no?” he pressed.

My mouth opened and closed. We had stopped dancing at some point. My palms, which had been on Aaron’s chest, dropped down. Aaron’s gaze followed the motion. Something locked tightly behind that unreadable mask that was his expression.

“Forget I said anything,” he said, his arms, which had been still around me, falling down. “This was a bad idea.”

That made me physically flinch, and I didn’t really understand why I had done that or what he’d meant by this.

Both of us stood in front of each other, unmoving. And as much as Aaron had been distant and dismissive in the past, he had never looked this … aloof. Almost as if I had said something that hurt him.

The urge to reach out and place my hand on his chest resurfaced again. And I couldn’t, for the life of me, begin to fathom why. Not when a small voice in my head—which I assumed was common sense—was telling me that I should be glad, that this was us getting back on track to where we should stand.

But I wasn’t any good at listening to sense these days. So, when my arm lifted—because I was like that and I couldn’t help but comfort those around me with hugs or touches or whatever they needed—and Aaron stepped back, away from me, it actually stung. So much that I had to scold myself for being that stupid.

“See?” I said under my breath. “This is why I don’t know if we can be friends. Why we have never been.”

Tonight had been a fluke, and this was the reason. Everything always escalated out of control when it came to us.

“You are right.” His voice was unspeakably flat. “Being your friend has always been the last thing on my mind.”

His words, together with mine, felt like hail falling unrelentingly on me. On us, as we stood there in front of each other. Poking holes in the little bubble we had been in for the past few hours. The one we had been in while we danced. Right before the truce that had been silently established blew up in our faces.

Just like I should have expected.

I blinked at him, not knowing what to say.

“If you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I’ll be back in a few minutes and take you home.”

He turned around and left me right where I was.

Rooted to the place.

Standing on legs that I didn’t trust without the support of his arms. My heart beating ruthlessly against my chest. Feeling the cold seep through my blood in his sudden absence and my head questioning everything that had happened tonight regardless of how much I reminded myself that it meant nothing.

Nothing at all.

We had never been friends.

We were back to being the same Aaron and Lina we had always been, and that was something that would never change.

Chapter Ten

When I entered InTech headquarters the following Monday, I was feeling like I had swallowed a ball of lead with my coffee that morning. And with every step I took in my office’s direction, the sensation kept intensifying, as if the ball were expanding and taking more and more room in my stomach.

I hadn’t been this … uneasy ever since that awful call a couple of weeks ago when I had heard that Daniel was engaged. The one phone call where the lie had come to be.

But this was different, wasn’t it?

This heaviness in the bottom of my stomach had nothing to do with something I had blurted out in a moment of desperation and stupidity.

Although maybe it did.

Because as much as acknowledging that the way I felt had anything to do with how Aaron and I had left things on Saturday was the last thing I wanted to do, I had. And as much as I refused to waste a second of my time worrying over it, I had.

Which was absolutely ridiculous because why would I want last Saturday—or him—to take any space in my head? I had no reason to. Not consciously at least. We weren’t friends. We didn’t owe anything to each other. And whatever he had said—or done, or looked like, or smelled like, or the way he had smiled or held me as we danced or even whatever he had whispered in my damn ear—should have bounced right off me.

But apparently, my mind had other ideas.

“Being your friend has always been the last thing on my mind.”

Those had been his words. He couldn’t have said it any clearer.

Fine by me. I had never wanted to be his friend either. Except maybe for a couple of days when he had first started at InTech.

But that ship had sailed long ago. I had blacklisted him for a reason, and that was where he should have stayed. In my blacklist.

The only teeny-tiny problem was that I sort of needed him. And I … God. I’d deal with that later.

Shaking off all of Aaron’s drama and burying deep that kernel of uneasiness so it did not grow into something else, I placed my bag on my chair, grabbed my planner, and made my way to the room where our monthly Breakfast & Broadcast was held. Jeff, our boss and head of the Solutions Division of the company, and all five teams that he coordinated attended. And no, we didn’t have breakfast and watch the news. Unfortunately. It was just a meeting that took place once a month, where bad coffee and a really sad excuse for cookies were provided and where Jeff updated our division on the latest news and announcements.

Being one of the first in the room, I took my usual place, opened my planner, and went through a few reminders I had noted down for the week while the room filled out with people.

Feeling a soft brush of a hand on my arm and the light scent of peaches, I turned, already knowing who I’d find smiling down at me.

“Hey, Jim’s or Greenie’s for lunch?” Rosie asked in a hushed voice.

“I’d sell my soul for a bagel from Jim’s, but I shouldn’t.” Today was definitely not a salad day; my mood would plummet down even more, but the wedding was right around the corner. “So, Greenie’s.”

“Are you sure?” Rosie’s gaze slid to the cookies displayed on the narrow table placed at the entrance of the room. “God, those look worse than usual.”

I chuckled, and before I could answer, my stomach grumbled. “Kinda regretting not having breakfast,” I murmured, looking at my friend with a grimace.

“Lina.” Rosie frowned, her voice holding a warning edge. “That’s not you, sweetie. That diet you have been on, it’s just stupid.”

“It’s not a diet.” I rolled my eyes, ignoring the voice in my head that was agreeing with my friend. “I’m just watching what I eat.”

She cut me a look that told me she didn’t believe me. “We are going to Jim’s.”

“Trust me, after the weekend I had, I’d let you take me there, and I’d raid the place, but it’s gonna be a no.”

My friend searched my face, probably finding something in there because an eyebrow arched. “What did you do?”

I leaned back on my chair, a little huff leaving my lips. “I did not—” I stopped myself. I had done plenty. “I’ll tell you later, okay?”

Her eyes filled with concern. “At Jim’s.” With one last nod, Rosie shifted past me and walked to the chair next to Héctor, her team leader.

When I caught the eye of the old man, I waved at him with a small smile, receiving a wink from him.

And then—catching me completely off guard, even when it shouldn’t have—my Aaron radar went off. Warning me of his presence.

My heart lurched in my chest, and my gaze hunted him down.

He is not that good-looking. He’s just tall, I told myself as I took him in.

Something in my rib cage sped up.

It was the tuxedo because my body is surely not reacting to that button-down shirt and those pressed slacks, I thought as my eyes followed his long strides to the chair I knew he’d take a couple of rows in front of me and to my left.

Yeah, his face is certainly nothing to write home about, I reminded myself as I studied his hard and masculine profile, from his jaw to the dark line of thick hair framing his forehead.

See? I’ve got this under control. My body is back to normal. I didn’t need the comfort of a cream cheese and salmon bagel.

But then Aaron looked back. His eyes met mine across the room. Finding me looking at him in a way I presumed was a little too intense for someone who had sworn wouldn’t pay him any attention only a few minutes ago.

I felt my cheeks flush a deep shade of red, and I’d bet I looked like my whole face was on fire.

And yet, the one who averted his gaze first wasn’t me. It was him. Aaron’s eyes fell down and stayed somewhere ahead. Somewhere that wasn’t me.

Something about that did not sit well with me. Something about the fact that he had just dismissed me so quickly bothered me more than ever.

But before I could delve too much into that, Jeff’s voice pulled me right back. “Good morning, everyone,” he said, and the low muttering in the room turned into silence. “This Breakfast & Broadcast session will be fairly short. I need to run to an impromptu meeting I was called to in about thirty minutes, so don’t get too comfortable, and have your fill of cookies before it’s over.” Our boss laughed lightly.

Nobody bothered to move. Obviously.

“As you know, we are undergoing some important changes in the structure of InTech. A rearrangement of the responsibilities will take place—among a few other things, of course. Everything will have a repercussion on the structure of the company as we know it today. But this is not a reason to worry. Most of the changes will be integrated gradually and throughout the upcoming months.”

The screen that hung from one of the conference room walls showed an organizational chart of our division with our boss’s name highlighted on top—Jeff Foster—and the names of the five team leaders right under his—Aaron Blackford, Gerald Simmons, Héctor Díaz, Kabir Pokrehl, and me, Catalina Martín.

There had been rumors—nothing more than corridor whispers—that something big was about to happen in the company. Something that would shake things up. But no one really knew what was about to come.

“Having said that,” our boss continued after clearing his throat, “there is an announcement I’d like to make now, before any of it is officially released in a corporate statement.”

The man—who my friend and colleague Rosie had referred to as a silver fox one time when she was a little tipsy—who was all gray hair and natural charm, seemed to hesitate for a moment. His hand flew to the collar of his shirt, tugging at it lightly.

Jeff pressed a key on his laptop, and a new slide was displayed on the screen. One with a diagram that was very similar to the one presented previously. Almost a duplicate, it was essentially the exact same, except for one single detail.

The name filling the blue square above the five team leaders in the Tech Division was no longer Jeff’s.

That ball of lead I had been feeling since early that morning fell to my feet.

Our boss clasped his hands together, my gaze bouncing between him and the screen. “I am pleased to announce that Aaron Blackford will be promoted to head of the Solutions Division of InTech.” Jeff’s words entered my ears, traveling all the way to my head, where they seemed to bounce from one wall to the next, unable to be processed by my brain. “Aaron has been one of the most consistent and efficient members I have ever had the pleasure to oversee, and he has proven himself worthy for this promotion time and time again. So, I have no doubt in my mind that he will do an amazing job as head of the division.”

Everybody had been shocked into silence. Just like me.

“It hasn’t been decided when he’ll take over all my responsibilities while I undertake a more advisory role for InTech, but I wanted to give you—the Solutions family—the news first. Even if it hasn’t been officially announced yet.”

Jeff continued talking then, probably going through whatever was in the agenda of the Breakfast & Broadcast next. Or maybe not—I didn’t know. I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t when his announcement was the only thing spinning in my head.

Aaron Blackford will be my boss.

My gaze shot to Aaron, who was leaning back in his chair. His gaze kept fixated somewhere in front of him, his expression impassive. Even more than usual.

There was a pause and some clapping. To which my hands joined in automatically.

Aaron Blackford will be promoted to head of the division, and I just went on a date with him. A fake date but one to anyone looking.

For an instant, I was hurled back in time. To a past I had left behind and did not want to remember. Or relive ever again.

Shaking my head, I tried to appease the whirlwind of unwelcome memories. No, I wouldn’t think of that right now, not in front of everyone.

My gaze, which was still latched on to Aaron, studied his vacant expression.

This changed everything. Whatever was … between us.

It no longer mattered that he was my only option. It didn’t matter anymore that no one in Spain would believe we were dating because we bickered and argued constantly. It did not matter that he had confessed he never wanted to be my friend and that I didn’t know where that left us.

None of that mattered because, now, the deal was off. It had to be off.

I would not play charades with the man who was to be promoted to head of my division. My boss.

There was no way I’d put myself in a situation I had already been in, which had ended up so badly. For me. Only for me. So, even if all of it would be fake—had been fake last Saturday—I simply would not risk it.

The screeching of chairs brought me back to the room. I watched everyone swiftly stand up and scatter, Aaron included.

I met Rosie’s gaze, gaping green eyes framed by dark curls.

Holy shit, my friend mouthed.

Holy shit indeed.

And she didn’t even know all of it yet.

I caught a glimpse of Aaron’s back somewhere behind Rosie, and a resolution that hadn’t been there a moment ago solidified in my mind. Mamá had taught me better than to leave things hanging over my head. Ignoring and waiting for them to go away on their own wasn’t the smart thing to do. Because they didn’t. Sooner or later—and just when you least expected them to—they’d fall off right on top of you, and chances were, they’d take you down with them if you let them.

With newfound determination driving my body, I waved at Rosie and let my legs walk me out of the meeting room. My short limbs were on a mission, trying to catch up with the long strides of the man I was chasing.

In the matter of a couple of minutes, which wasn’t long but about enough for my heart to start racing with a weird and strange anticipation, he reached his office. I entered only a few steps behind him.