On a Friday night, Keira found herself sitting on a bar and tipping her head back with a glass of wine.
At least she wouldn't go to work tomorrow. She didn't plan to get drunk, but the thought of letting herself come undone and not thinking about Nate for once became more enticing each time she took a gulp of the free drinks.
That was the quirkiest apology ever if she heard one.
"Slow down, tiger," Hyde chuckled as he sat beside her on the stool.
Their other coworkers were occupying a table near the corner, having a nice discussion about the latest hit movie or their pet's cuteness overload. Perhaps it was also about a certain charming loaded man who visited the library for quite some time but stopped coming in due to an unmentioned reason.
Hence, why Keira chose to stray to the barstool after ten minutes of mingling with the one who paid for their drinks tonight.
"What are you doing here?" Keira asked the demoted assistant library.
"What, it's forbidden for me to sit here now?"
"Your lady is over there." Her eyes flicked to the Head Librarian – who was also Hyde's mistress – sitting surrounded by the library staff. She was having a good laugh about something both of them couldn't hear about. "Don't tell me you two are having a fight now."
Hyde raised his empty glass to get the bartender's attention, asking for more neat whiskey to keep coming. "Then, I won't tell you."
Keira sipped her own glass of wine as she peered at their peer's table again. Nobody seemed to notice her stealing looks at the boss in question. "I can't imagine how awkward it is for you right now."
"Then don't." Still, Hyde managed to pull a sad smile on his usually impassive face. "Just keep me company."
"At this rate, you'd pass out in twenty minutes."
"Speak for yourself," he chuckled, "But I think we make quite a pair tonight. Love defeats us all in the end."
She almost spits the fairly pricey drink from her mouth. "There's no love involved with me."
"Suuuuure…"
"Hyde, seriously!" Keira slammed her glass of wine on the table, giving her closest coworker a levelled look.
"I mean, you could've fooled me."
"There's nothing between me and Nate."
"Oh, did I say it was about you and Mr Mysterious Charming Smile?"
"Stop it."
"Seriously, if you really miss him, you should call him."
Keira shot him a glare then. "How would I call him if I don't have his number, idiot?"
"Oh?"
Shit.
She didn't mean to say that. Her damn wine was making her mouth run loose. Her face was already warm. She wondered if she had turned into a lightweight because she rarely drinks alcohol.
"What are you doing?" Keira narrowed her eyes as the man who escaped their co worker's table typing on his phone with a broad grin on his reddening face. "Hyde?"
"Have you ever tried googling your lover's name before?"
"Nate's not my lover," she vehemently denied. And then added, "No. I don't have time to do stupid thing like that. Why?"
With a Cheshire grin, Hyde showed his cellphone's screen. It made her drunken mind stutter.
|Nathaniel Wolfe is an American businessman. He is the adoptive son of Rick Leinster, the founder and CEO of Leinster Enterprises.
Nathaniel Wolfe was born November 17, 1990, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Nathaniel was adopted by Andrea and Rick Leinster when he was five years old, along with Lydia, a former child actress. He is also the adopted younger brother of Axel Leinster, the mayor of Banoufield City.
He attended Leinster High School, a private school in New York City that his adoptive parents founded. Later, he graduated from university with two degrees in Business and Literature. He currently manages Leinster Hotels & Resorts, as well as Leinster Foods.|
Keira tried to keep her eyes from boggling out at the pretty short article about the most annoying patron and the suspected mafia lord she knew as Nate. True to her guess that he was actually a wealthy man, but she didn't think he was this influential.
"Big catch," Hyde commented with humour in his voice.
She dreaded the moment he would not stop there.
Reading through the short article they found on the internet about Nate, she could easily imagine that a certain annoying man flayed around with big names in the states.
Surely, Nate would be smiling charmingly with a famous model or A-lister actress in his arms. He would also look comfortable sitting face to face with some political figurehead she had never cared about before. However, that train of thought came to a halt.
If he was such an influential and wealthy individual, what was Nate doing, annoying her as if he didn't have any other job?
Because it didn't happen only once.
The giggles that shook Hyde's shoulders pulled Keira back to the real world. The demoted library assistant was way over the moon for someone who usually didn't care much about the patrons. She wanted to smack his head for it, but her hand doubled in quantity, and she wasn't sure if they would move according to her muddy brain.
Keira merely grunted in disagreement.
"Let's look for his number," her fellow librarian chuckled again. He seemed to be just as forgone as she was. Good for him. At least she wouldn't be the only one with a massive hangover tomorrow.
She snorted, "You're so stupid, thinking that a man with such a high status like him would put his own number for anyone to find on the internet."
Hyde was silent for a few seconds.
"You're right." As always. But then, he typed something on his phone and grinned stupidly. "Let's try this."
Keira frowned and tilted her head to the side that her reddish birthmark under her right eye partly showed. That didn't matter now. What mattered was that Hyde was grinning dumbly as he placed his phone on the table as it rang. The number wasn't recognizable to her. "Who are you calling?"
"Your lover's hotel, of course!" Hyde announced excitedly, lit up like a kid on Christmas.
Keira's mind short-circuited.