"Dinner was great, you should have been there!" Kallie groaned from her desk. Her charcoal pantsuit matched the stark decor of the office. Even the heavy black that lined her eyes fit in with the office's 'I've given up on life' vibe.
Mia shrugged awkwardly. "Yeah, sorry about that. Last minute plans came up. Wish I could have been there," she lied. Man, Mia was getting good at that. If she was Pinocchio her nose would have been in the heart of China by now.
Kallie shook her head. "No worries. But you're coming next time!" she confirmed with a wink.
Mia smiled weakly. "For sure."
Kallie looked around the mostly emptied office. It was still early so most of the senior partners wouldn't be in for another half hour. Most of the people at the office this early were assistants and junior interns.
Kallie leaned in, her voice lowered in the way she does before spilling a pot of gossip. "Did you hear about the new CEO's party last night?" Kallie asked, her eyes wide like a child talking about Christmas.
Mia blinked. "Uh." She cleared her throat with a shake of her head. "No, I didn't. There was a party?"
Kallie nodded, her bleached brows so high they threatened to disappear in her hair line. "A friend of a friend was there and they told me that Mr. Veers' ex showed up."
Lucy.
Mia cringed as the memory of last night played on repeat. The longer she sifted through the events of last night, the more painfully clear it became that she never belonged there.
"Really?" Mia asked.
"Oh yeah. She made this big scene I guess. She went around the house and shattered all the TV screens! She even tried to light the house on fire! They had to evacuate the party before the fire department showed up." Kallie blew out a long breath. "Crazy stuff."
Mia nearly choked on her own spit.
The fire department?
Harlan had said things between him and Lucy were complicated. He conveniently left out that things between them were lethal.
"Crazy," Mia echoed. She supposed it was a good thing she left when she did. Mia had a good feeling that Lucy would have tried to turn her into fire kindling.
"It sounds like Mr. Veers has a thing for hot psychos," Kallie added while turning on her computer. The bah-dum sound of her computer roaring to life tore through the still office.
Mia shook her head. "What makes you say that?" she asked.
"Well," Kallie began. She never did seem to run out of gossip. "I hear he has a loooong list of lovers. All of them models of somekind, and all of them insane! One of them last year even broke into his house and tried to cut off his...you know," Kallie said.
Mia hissed. "Oof," she muttered.
Kallie nodded. "Yeah it was in all the papers."
Mia leaned back in her chair. She bit the inside of her cheek as a question rang throughout her cranium. "Soo," she drew out, rolling back and forth in her chair. "What else do you know about this ex? The one that crashed the party last night," Mia asked.
It wasn't her business. It really wasn't. But she couldn't help but ask. Couldn't help but wonder about that woman with the electric blue hair who made Harlan react in a way she'd never seen before.
Kallie looked up in thought. "Lucy Morris, I think her name is? I guess her and Mr. Veers go way back. And I mean like way, way back since they were in highschool. They've been on and off for years now. She moved to LA for this big modeling gig with Covergirl a few years ago and she just moved back in town last week."
Mia slumped in her seat. Of course Princess Beauty was a freaking Covergirl.
"So are they back together?" Mia asked. You don't need to freaking know, she reminded herself. Because it's non of your business!
Kallie shrugged. "Not sure. But come on, two people as gorgeous as those two? How could they not be an item?" she half muttered under her breath while rearranging the partition of succulents lining the top of her cubicle.
Mia didn't know what to be more upset about. The fact that Harlan was very realistically taken by that horror of a woman Lucy, or the other fact she actually cared.
She didn't even know him.
Like she told him last night; they didn't owe anything to each other...
So then why did it feel like she was losing something?
"Oh my God, are we talking CEO tea?"
Mia jolted in her chair, swiveling quickly in time to see Sevian burst through the back doors.
Kallie smiled widely with a nod. "Obviously," she exclaimed dramatically.
Sevian plopped down in his chair. The air around him sizzled with the frost remnants from outside. The cold tinged his nose and cheeks a bright red, matching the crimson lining of his blue suit.
"You know about Mr. Veers' party last night right?" he asked. Sevian tossed his scarf onto the back of his chair with an eccentric wrist flourish.
Kallie and Mia nodded. "Old news," Kallie said.
Sevian rolled his eyes with a wink. "Well I'll bet my scarf that you don't know about what happened after the party?"
Mia and Kallie shared a glance before shaking their heads in unison. "No?" they admitted at once.
Sevian's smirk grew tenfold. "Benny's half sister was there and she said she saw Mr. Veers and this godess of a woman practically having sex."
Mia sat back, her heart sinking inch by inch deeper into her gut.
"Practically?" Mia managed through her suddenly dry throat.
"Ass naked, reaching for the condom," Sevian confirmed. "They didn't even close the door! She said it was like they wanted an audience," Sev whispered despite the empty office.
Kallie let out a breathy laugh. "Mr. Veers sure knows how to throw a party," she giggled.
"Yeah," Mia muttered absently. Her breath quickened as beads of sweat broke out along her spine.
The image of Lucy and Harlan, together, seared into the black partition behind her lids.
So much for thinking Harlan was single.
Mia slung her arms across her torso as an ache clanged throughout her chest.
Wow.
She hadn't even felt this crushed when she walked in on Lake and Gigi.
Kallie tossed her head back with a laugh. "Awe. They would have the cutest kids!" she squealed.
Sev nodded. "So true."
Mia shot up from her desk as a pounding flooded her chest. She had to leave. Now.
She couldn't hear another word about Harlan and Lucy. It was turning her insides into shreds for no damn reason.
"Uh." Mia adjusted her skirt. "I have to use the washroom."
"Thanks for the update, girlie," Kallie teased with a wink as Mia shuffled out of the main floor.
She rushed to the washrooms in the back of the office, wading through the maze of empty cubicles and half full water jugs.
Mia closed her eyes as she quickened her pace for the washrooms.
She felt sick. And she hated that more than anything. Mia didn't get sick from guys. She didn't get...jealous of total strangers. Harlan wasn't hers.
He never was and he never would be.
So why the hell did she feel like the walls of her chest were collapsing?
"Jeez!" Mia yelped as she collided with a wall. She stumbled back only to realize it wasn't a wall at all.
Rather a wall of muscle clad in black from head to toe.
Harlan.
He looked down at her, brows drawn in slight amusement. His lips pulled up in a smirk.
Those perfect lips.
Mia shook her head.
Damn it, Mia! Get it together!
"Morning, Fray," Harlan drawled. He held a coffee in one had and a croissant in the other.
Mia rubbed the spot on her arm where she'd run into him. "Morning, Mr. Veers," she said. The urge to call him by his first name sat heavy on the tip of her tongue.
"Croissant?" he offered, holding out the pastry.
Hesitantly, Mia took it. Some of the topping fell to the floor in a cascade of powdered sugar.
"It's raspberry, you're favorite," he said before taking a sip from his coffee.
Mia scrunched her brows. "Um." She shook her head. Raspberry was her favorite. But how did he know that? "How do you know raspberry's my favorite?" she asked.
He smiled, the whites of his teeth gleaming against his pink lips. "I do now," he answered.
"Oh, thanks." Mia held the pastry in her hand as the sickness in her stomach calmed down.
"Meet me in my office, Fray," he called out as he headed back down the empty hall.
"Am I in trouble?" she asked. Mia shook her head. "And why are you so early?" she added.
Damn, the croissant smelled goooooood.
"Too many questions for the morning, Fray," he said. He was half way down the hall now. "I'll see you in five minutes."