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“Hello good madam, but I couldn’t help noticing you seated by yourself.” He began, pausing afterwards, anticipating an invitation which Gloria offered.
“That is a rather strange way to ask for an invitation to sit.” Gloria remarked. “I am glad for the company though. I thought men were more aggressive these days.”
“Well I doubt it was as strange as a woman who was shy of male company-not in this day and age anyway. After raising hell and high water for the right to free sex, one would at least expect a woman to take the opportunity.” He retorted coolly, collecting a drink he had ordered earlier from a waiter.
“Here is to bygone eras then” Gloria said, raising her glass in toast.
Both of them, past the carefree point that exist just after you have had more than one glass, took big sips.
“You look different; assured.” The flushed face man remarked, “Almost like your sister, your twin.”
Gloria kept her face calm, although it was not entirely due to the drink that her face sparkled, “I could say the same thing about you, why you seem now to possess the personality to have steam-rolled that crowd to get to Gladys, no problem at all.”
“I guess we were both fish out of water then that day.”
“Hmmmh” Gloria mumbled sneaking a glance at the table she was watching.
Silence ensued for a few seconds, and then she observed Mr. Cowling get up and make to leave. Her interest peaked; she was most interested in seeing who the as of yet unseen partner was.
“Tell me, pray tell, what sort of woman feels at home watching two men having a drink?” The flushed face man asked as the blood drained from Gloria’s face at the sight of Viktor emerging from the other side of the table. “A detective perhaps, maybe even, if I may venture such a wild guess, a spy.”
Gloria was not sure what had her mind racing more: the unexpected turn up of Viktor (who still made her heart summersault with his perfect profile) or the discerning statement of the man seated next to her. Did he work for any of them? He seemed too distinguished today to be working for anybody, but that could just be an effect of his being sober. Was he spying on them as well? If that were the case, for whom?
Her eyes followed both men as they headed into an empty elevator; apparently the meeting was not over yet. It seemed a shame to waste a drink so she downed hers in one gulp before standing up to head for the elevator. She hoped to catch the number of their floor on the electronic panel display before it got lost in transit, but before leaving, she forked out her card and slipped it across the table.
“Call me!” she said, and she was off, not registering the look of intense interest that lay in the eyes of her former drinking buddy.
Chapter 5
Gloria sprinted across the floor, arriving just in time to see 12 switch to 4. There was another elevator by the side, and she stepped back as it opened up, spilling its assorted occupants onto the lobby. Gloria stepped inside, signaling for the thirteenth floor. Two minutes later, she got off the by then half full elevator, and made her way for the stairs. She had no idea what was going on but it would seem a bit obvious if she just appeared on the twelfth floor out of the blue; Ryan Cowling might not recognize her, but Viktor would.
She moved briskly, her feet barely making a sound on the soft carpeting of the floor as she headed for the seldom used stairs. She stopped just short of the bottom of the stairs, out of the light, but close enough to see that the corridor was deserted. Twenty minutes later, she saw the two men exit the room located at the farthest corner of the floor. They punched the button in wait for the elevator, prompting Gloria to tip-toe discretely across the short expanse of the floor that led to the next flight of stairs.
She was just short of heaving by the time she emerged upon the ground floor, but she was in time to see the two men emerge from the elevator with a nonchalance that belied all the time they had just spent with each other. Gloria hid on the side of the plant display and toyed with her phone to avoid being seen. She saw both men go out the door heading in opposite directions. She lingered for a few more seconds before dashing to the door to see the back of the limousine as it sped back towards the T-junction, and away towards the suburbs. There was no sight of Viktor, and she assumed she had missed his departure.
