Quaddra took a step back to make room for her, despite the lift being large enough to accommodate six people. The woman looked up and their eyes met for a fraction of a second. There was something in them that Quaddra couldn’t exactly place – some odd mix of anger, disappointment and sadness all rolled up into one. She extended her arm to press one of the buttons, but her shaky hand hesitated for a beat, as if she was unsure of which floor she was going to.
‘Which floor would you like?’ Quaddra asked, nodding at the button pad. His tone was comforting.
Her hand recoiled. ‘Umm…’ She breathed out heavily enough for Quaddra to hear it. ‘Ground, please.’
Quaddra pressed it and the doors, once again, slid closed. As they did, the woman did a mini jerk, as if the sound of the doors closing unnerved her.
‘Miss, are you alright?’ Quaddra asked, keeping his distance. He didn’t press the button to his penthouse floor.
The woman kept her eyes on the door. ‘I will be, as soon as I get out of here.’
‘Do you need any help? Can I call someone for you? Maybe get you a cab to take you somewhere?’
The woman finally turned and looked at Quaddra. Her eyes stayed on his face for just a moment before they moved down to his whiskey tumbler. ‘Are you going to finish that?’
Quaddra’s eyes blinked at the question. ‘Ahh…’ He half extended his arm. ‘Would you…’
Before he had even finished the sentence, the woman took the tumbler from his hand and drank it down in one large gulp.
Quaddra’s eyes widened at her. ‘Salud!’
The woman cringed, as if she’d just drunk gasoline from the hose. ‘What the hell was that?’
Quaddra blinked again. ‘Macallan, twenty-five-year-old sherry oak release.’
She gave the glass back to Quaddra. ‘Sounds expensive.’
‘Hum!’ Quaddra pressed his lips tightly together.
She nodded at him. ‘Thank you. It… helped a little.’
Quaddra looked down at the empty tumbler. ‘You sound like you could do with another drink.’
The woman breathed out, but didn’t reply.
They reached the ground floor and the doors slid open again.
‘Would you like another drink?’ Quaddra asked, just as the woman was about to step out of the lift.
She paused and turned to look at him. Her beauty was mesmerizing.
Quaddra half lifted his empty tumbler at her. ‘I could do with another drink. This one seems to be all done.’
The woman looked like she wanted to laugh at Quaddra’s joke, but something was stopping her.
‘I’m not going back up to that bar… sorry.’
There it was again – the odd mix of anger, disappointment and sadness all rolled up into one, but this time it was on her tone of voice as well.
Quaddra nodded. ‘I’m fine with that. This is Beverly Hills. There’s no shortage of bars and cocktail lounges around here. Do you want to go find somewhere else?’
The woman took a moment to study Quaddra.
‘I’m not sleeping with you,’ she said, as she looked Quaddra straight in the eye. ‘If that’s what you’re after.’
He lifted his left hand and thumbed his wedding ring. ‘Good, because that was never on the cards.’
The woman took another few seconds, sizing Quaddra up. ‘So… you’re offering to buy a complete stranger a drink out of the goodness of your heart?’ A thin layer of sarcasm coated her words.
