LITMIR.BIZ

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      ‘Will do,’ Audrey replied.

      ‘I...I’d like to fix my face before I go out anywhere,’ Harriet requested.

      ‘Fair enough,’ Alex said. ‘I’ll meet you at the lifts in five minutes.’

      * * *

      Grabbing her handbag, Harriet dashed out of the office and along the corridor to the ladies’ room, which thankfully was empty. She groaned when the vanity mirror showed flushed cheeks and red-rimmed eyes. Sighing, she splashed them with cold water, glad that she didn’t wear eye make-up during the day. Otherwise she might have ended up looking like a raccoon.

      Grabbing some paper towels, she dabbed her face dry, after which she swiftly replenished her red lipstick before running a brush through her shoulder-length brown hair. When it fell into its usual sleek curtain without a strand out of place, she conceded that her monthly appointment with one of Sydney’s top stylists was worth every cent. It saved her heaps of time every morning and in moments like this. Because, when Alex said he’d meet her in five minutes, he meant five minutes. Patience was not one of her boss’s virtues. Kindness was, however. And compassion. He’d shown both with Romany and now with her.

      She should have known he’d be nice to her.

      Not that she’d expected him to hug her like that. That had been a surprise. So had her bursting into tears in the first place. It wasn’t like her to be so emotional. But she supposed it wasn’t every day that your dreams for the future were shattered. Maybe if she’d cried buckets during the days after the split with Dwayne, she wouldn’t have broken down just now. She hadn’t even told Emily, knowing perhaps her friend’s critical reaction. She’d just bottled up her feelings, then stupidly started worrying that telling Alex her news would jeopardise her job. As if he would be so cruel as to sack her because she was suddenly single. The very idea was ludicrous!

      With a final swift glance at her reflection in the mirror, Harriet hurried from the ladies’ room and strode quickly along the grey carpeted corridor which would bring her to the lift well. Alex was already there, his expression shuttered as he looked her up and down, probably searching for signs that she had herself under control. No way would he want her weeping by his side in public. She gave him a small, reassuring smile, but he didn’t smile back, his gaze still probing.

      ‘Better now?’ he said.

      ‘Much. You don’t have to do this, you know,’ she added, despite actually wanting to go and have coffee with him. ‘We could just go back into the office and have coffee there.’

      ‘Absolutely not. Audrey and the others can hold the fort.’

      The lift doors opened and several office workers piled out, Ark Properties not being the only business with rooms on that particular floor, though theirs were the pick, with Alex’s office having a wonderful view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. ‘Nothing like a good view of Sydney’s spectacular icons to help sell property in Australia,’ he’d told her on the day he’d hired her.

      Harriet agreed wholeheartedly.

      ‘So when did all this happen?’ Alex asked her as he waved her into the now empty lift.

      ‘The weekend you flew home from London,’ she told him.

      He threw a sharp glance over his shoulder as he pressed the ground-floor button.

      ‘Why didn’t you tell me straight away?’ he went on before she could think of a suitable answer. ‘Did you want to give yourself the opportunity to change your mind? Or for Dwayne to change it for you?’

      ‘No. No, once I made up my mind, I knew I wouldn’t change it. Dwayne hasn’t tried to change my mind, either. After our last argument, he knew it was over between us.’

      ‘That must have been some argument.’

      ‘It was.’ A rueful smile teased the corners of her mouth. What would Alex say, she wondered, if he knew he’d been the subject of most of that last argument?

      His eyes narrowed on her. ‘Want to tell me about it?’

      She looked up into his gorgeous blue eyes, then shook her head. ‘I don’t think that would be a good idea.’

      ‘Well, I do,’ he stated firmly just as the lift doors opened on the ground floor. Taking her arm, he steered her across the spacious lobby and through the revolving glass doors which led out onto the chilly city street.

      ‘So which café do you prefer?’ he asked, nodding towards each of the two casual eating establishments that flanked the entrance to their building. It occurred to Harriet that Alex had never actually taken her for coffee before. She’d lunched with him a few times—always with clients—but only at the kind of five-star restaurants which catered for businessmen of his status.

      ‘That one has better bagels,’ she said, pointing to the café on their left.

      ‘That one it is, then.’

      He found them an empty table at one of the windows which overlooked the street, seeing her settled before heading for the counter. Harriet found it odd watching him queue up to order food, thinking he wouldn’t have done that too often. But then she recalled that he hadn’t always been rich and successful.

      When she’d secured a second and personal interview for this job, she’d looked him up on the Internet, unable to find out all that much information, the best being an article written about him for a men’s magazine a couple of years back. Harriet had been surprised to discover that he’d come from a down-at-heel migrant family, living in government housing in the outer western suburbs of Sydney. His near-genius IQ had given him access to special schools for gifted children, followed by various financial grants to help him through university, culminating in his being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.

      The magazine article she’d read had outlined his rise to success in Sydney, first as a realtor based mainly in the western suburbs, then as a property developer with his head office in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. The article made no mention of any business interests in England, or his personal life, except to say that he was one of Sydney’s most eligible bachelors. There’d been no mention of his family or friends.

      Harriet rolled her eyes at what happened when Alex reached the front of the queue. The very pretty young brunette behind the counter beamed at him as she took his order, her eyes and manner very flirtatious. Harriet found herself decidedly irritated, hating the thought that Alex might have already found a replacement for that silly Lisa. The sudden thought that she might be jealous seemed ludicrous. Jealous of whom? And of what? And, more to the point, why?

      Harriet frowned, wondering and worrying that Alex’s hugging her earlier might have unlocked feelings which she’d always had for him and which she’d successfully hidden, even from herself. Harriet couldn’t deny that she’d liked the feel of his big, strong arms around her; she liked his bringing her here for coffee as well.

      Whatever, when Alex turned away from the counter and started heading towards her, Harriet found herself looking at him with new eyes, the same new eyes which had examined Dwayne with brutal honesty and had found him sadly lacking.

      The word ‘lacking’ would never apply to the boss of Ark Properties. He had everything that any woman would want. In a boyfriend, that was, but not in a prospective husband.

      So lock this unwanted attraction of yours away again, Harriet, and look elsewhere for your life partner. Because it’s never going to be Alex Kotana!

      Perversely, however, as soon as he sat back down at their table, she opened her silly, jealous mouth and said waspishly, ‘I suppose that happens to you all the time.’

      ‘What?’ he said, sounding perplexed.

      Whilst kicking herself, Harriet quickly found a wry little smile and a more casual tone. ‘The brunette behind the counter didn’t half make it clear that you could have put her on your order, if you’d been so inclined.’

      Alex

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