Jo, was speechless for a moment, she planned to go to China but not now. Well if the job was asking her to do it, then she couldn't do anything else but to comply.
"Sure, when do you want me to fly out there?"
"Next week!"
"No problem"
Chris nodded and asked Cath to book the flight and accommodation for Jo, she would be staying there for about two weeks.
After the meeting ended, it was already time to go home. Jo went to her office and quickly skimmed through her emails, then she turned the computer off and prepared to leave. Out in the hallway Millie was carrying her belongings heading for the elevator.
"What are you doing hun? Are you moving again?"
"Oh... Yeah! This boyfriend was a moron as well!" replied Millie with a tinge of sarcasm in her tone.
"It looks like its becoming a habit of yours. Where are you staying now?"
"I haven't figured it out yet, I have called some hostels and I am going to check two now!"
"With all this luggage dragging behind you?"
"Do I have any other choice?!"
Jo pondered for a few seconds, then she replied to the homeless girl.
"If you want you can stay at my place, until I come back from China. I have a spare bedroom and this will give you a few weeks to settle down and look for your own place rather then leech off from your ex-boyfriends"
After hearing Jo's words, Millie's eyes were so big and teary that she could pass off as a cartoon character, she was deeply moved.
"Jo you are amazing, you are indeed my guarding angel... I love you so much..." The girl dropped all her stuff from her hands and pounced on Jo. "Thank you, thank you thank you..." Said the girl with shaky voice. She was so excited, that meant she would be sleeping like a princess from now on, rather like a pig of how she used to.
Jo lived at Landmark Place, a residential complex on river Thames across the Shard and right next to Tower Bridge. She rented a two bedroom flat on the seventh floor facing the river. The view was breath taking and the weekly rental for such an apartment was her whole salary for two months, but Jo was loaded. She used to freelance before and her design fees made her a little millionaire. Also her parents had a very good background.
"No worries girl, thank you for defending my back all the time, from these snakes that hibernate in the office"
"Jo! That is my duty!" Replied the girl proudly and with starry eyes. " Also Boss you are the kindest the prettiest and most helping Boss there is in the whole country"
"Haha... is that so!" Jo said with a light chuckle.
The girls took the elevator and headed towards the car park underground. Jo helped Millie put all her belongings into her car boot and car drove towards Jo's apartment. They ordered a take out dinner and while eating the girls gossiped about everything and anything. Then each headed to their respective bedrooms.
Jo took a shower and entered her bed. She took her phone and checked all her messaging platforms to see if by mistake she missed a new message. She didn't find anything. David hadn't texted her for a long time now. Her heart was hurting so much to the point of tears. She pulled the comforter on top of her head and sobbed quietly until she fell asleep.
That week passed in a flash, between preparing herself to fly out to China and finalising Dumont a week earlier, then what it was scheduled. It was the weekend and Sunday night she had to go to Heathrow, to embark on her seventeen hours flight to Beijing.
The girls were getting ready to go out for breakfast at the French restaurant around the corner. It was a nice, dry, sunny day this morning, after weeks and weeks of rain and strong winds. It was a shame to stay inside, so after breakfast the girls planned to do some shopping on the Oxford Street.
At the restaurant a waitress guided the girls towards their table, Millie took the sofa seat, while Jo sat in the armchair opposite. They gave their order straightaway, as they already knew what they were having. The waitress left to prepare their drinks and the girls made themselves comfortable. On the table, there was a newspaper, probably left by the person who sat there before them. Millie was happily texting and laughing with a new guy on the phone, while Jo skimmed through the newspaper. that was left behind. From the corner of her eye an article caught her attention. Jo paused and read the article from the external news page.
"Famous Chinese Actress Found Dead In Her Car". As Jo was going to Beijing tomorrow, her eyes seemed to catch these type of news lately, while Millie was distracted, the girl engrossed herself in reading the article, about this famous actress that was found dead in her car, at the bottom of a lake. What was weird, was that she dissappeared from a prestigious club where she attended a celebratory event in her honour. Another suspicious factor was that she came by taxi, so how on Earth she appeared in her car, a week later, at the bottom of a lake, was a complete and utter mystery.
The waitress brought the coffees for the girls, along with their breakfast and they both stopped what they were doing and started to eat. After breakfast the girls left the restaurant and headed towards the tube station, to go to Oxford Street.
Both of them were exhausted, by the time they came back home. Jo has bought a few things for her business trip and started packing her suitcase. The next day, after a lot of rest she headed towards the airport.
When she landed, it was evening already, so she took a cab and went to the hotel that Cath booked for her. On the cab journey Jo was looking out the window pensive, she had a full schedule, a lot of research to do and she didn't even knew where to start from.
At the hotel Jo unpacked her luggage and headed downstairs for dinner. The next day she would have a meeting with the Architectural team in charge of the project, so she hoped she won't suffer from jet lag.
The next day Jo woke up refreshed, she dressed up and went to the meeting. The team there, was very friendly and polite. She thought to herself, that moving out to live here wasn't such a bad idea. After a short introduction of each other, the team presented the project to Jo and then they all went out to show her the site location, followed by lunch at a famous traditional Chinese restaurant.
Jo had a very good time and enjoyed both the food and the company. She returned to the hotel quite satisfied. In the following days Jo made some research about the site location and gathered information about the local material suppliers. She barely had any time for herself and didn't even manage to go out sightseeing.
This evening she was meeting Mr. Sun and Harry, his translator for a welcoming dinner. Jo was wearing a black turtle neck top, paired with a midi brown leather skirt and a pair of animal print stiletto. She put her trench coat on her arm and headed downstairs. She got in the cab and half an hour later she arrived at the address, Harry had given her the previous day.
She entered the restaurant and gave the hostess her name. The hostess welcomed her while looking on the computer screen for the booking. Jo was looking around in the meantime, when her eyes landed on a man at a table far away in the corner of the restaurant. He was wearing a black suit and he had dark short hair. He looked familiar, but Jo couldn't tell where she saw him before.
Both men arrived at the same time, the hostess found their reservation and guided them to the private dining room, booked in advance. They were having a amiable conversation during dinner about their collaboration on the projects and also about nice places to visit during her staying in Beijing. When the dinner was finished, Jo left first.
It was still early and Jo wanted to google if there was anything interesting around this place. She searched her coat pockets for her phone, then her bag and realised a short while later that she might have misplaced it. She tried to remember the last time she used it and she was heading back to the restaurant. She definitely had her phone with her during dinner, so maybe she left it on the table.
Jo entered the restaurant but the hostess wasn't at the entrance any more, she turned her head and she couldn't see anyone seating in the open dining area either. There was an odd energy floating in the air, Jo shivered and headed towards the private room where she dined earlier. There was an odd sound heard when Jo opened the sliding doors... what she saw next was Harry's head falling on the ground while a man wearing a black suit, was holding some sort of a sword in his hand that had blood trickling on the floor from its blade.