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“How does Lucy feel about that? I can’t imagine she’s happy they’re treating her like that.”
“No. I think she’s hoping you’ll tell them to go to hell for being misogynistic assholes.”
“Tell her that I’ll make my feelings clear about them not treating her with respect, and have any communication so far forwarded to me so I can get started on catching up with the whole thing.” I considered leaving it, knowing that it would delay the project until the next day, but I knew it also gave me a good excuse to be late for dinner and avoid the worry that Kit would be looking for me.
“Sorry to do this to you on your last evening. None of us felt we were the right ones to tell these guys where to shove their opinions, and Lucy is about ready to murder someone.”
“It’s okay. I was about done here anyway. Only so much socializing I can handle, and I’m all tapped out. This is oddly welcome.” It was the closest I would admit to having something go wrong, or at least feel like it had.
This seemed to make Henry uncork his filter, and he launched into a twenty-minute explanation while sending document after document to me. It was thorough, and it was clear he had already looked into all the information Lucy had given him and read the communications as well. Although I would still have to solve the problems, it was good to know he had been trying to sort it out.
I pulled the emails and documents up on my tablet while I stayed on the phone with Henry. It wasn’t a small amount of information. Lucy had been doing everything she could to get the client to cooperate, and she’d explained everything well enough, in my opinion.
Once I’d been through it all with Henry and gotten him to clarify anything I was still missing, I ended the call and sat back. This wouldn’t take too long to fix, but it was clear that I would need to. It was sometimes that way with really pushy clients. Until the head of a company told them no and made it clear no meant no, there was nothing anyone else could do.
Over the next half an hour, I worded a similar email to one of Lucy’s from the beginning, knowing that it should have been enough on its own. I also made sure they knew that Lucy had already said all this to them, and I was well aware of it.
Although I doubted it would make much difference, I wanted Lucy to know I would stick up for her and didn’t appreciate that her word wasn’t respected well enough. Only after I sent it did Isit back and relax for a moment. It was getting late, but I had no reason not to go down to dinner anymore.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I made it to dinner just as my phone buzzed and beeped in the pattern that let me know I had another email. Although I ignored it, I shifted my hand and stuffed it into the same pocket, wanting to make sure I was sensitive to any further attempts at communication.
The veranda outside the main accommodation was already almost entirely full of people, and it didn’t leave much space for me. I looked around for a seat I could slip into, most people already partway through the numerous courses that would constitute dinner.
A waiter waved me toward a seat, sending for the first course for me. Despite feeling a little bad that I was making it harder work for them, I was grateful they’d kept some food aside.
To my dismay, the seat was right beside Kit. She had another woman I didn’t know on the other side of her.
I tried to hide my frown as I had no choice but to go and sit down beside her.
“Lukas!” she exclaimed as soon as she noticed the commotion and my presence. I nodded to her, not liking how many heads turned toward us. The last thing I wanted was todraw more attention to us when nothing was going to happen between us.
“Hi,” I said quickly and dismissively before looking to see who was on the other side of me, but the guy was paying far more attention to the woman on the other side of him, and I knew I wasn’t going to get much conversation out of him.
“Did you have a good day?” Kit asked, and I could hear the worry in her voice. But it was she who hadn’t wanted to give me the time of day.
“I chilled out. You seemed to be engrossed at breakfast.”
“Yes. I looked for you, but I didn’t see you before I was pulled into another conversation.”
“You appeared to know what you were doing,” I replied, sounding as curt as I felt. I didn’t look her way, focusing on the food in front of me instead. She didn’t reply, and for a moment, there was nothing but awkwardness. Finally, she finished her meal, got up, and left the table.
I barely even looked her way as she went inside the house. No one else seemed to notice, everyone already engrossed in conversation and sitting next to people they were happy with. The waitstaff helped me to catch up to the same part of the meal as everyone else, and the guy beside me was soon rebuffed by the woman he was trying to talk to.
“Gonna be good to head home tomorrow, isn’t it?” the guy asked, waving the waiter over to get more wine.
“I’m definitely ready to. Get back to work and forget about everything here.” I spoke without really thinking, but it was only as I finished that I noticed Kit had returned and was settling into her seat again.
Although I glanced her way, sort of expecting her to want to initiate conversation, she didn’t even look at me as she dug in to the dessert that was being served.
I considered declining mine and going back to the room now that I’d eaten, but the plate was placed in front of me before I could decide to get up. Looking down at the large chocolate brownie and ice cream, I hesitated.
“Don’t like it?” the guy asked, having already eaten a large chunk of his. He spoke with a mouth half full of food, and a small glob of brownie came out and landed on the tablecloth. He didn’t seem to notice.
“Brownie is my favorite. I always have that hesitation eating a new one from an unknown place. Is it going to be good enough?”
“It’s the best I’ve ever tasted,” Kit said, her voice sounding small. “Go ahead and let me know if I’ve been sheltered from brownie heaven.”
