Page 4 of Once Bitten

I couldn’t help but grin. I had had my own share of scares while baby-sitting Larry’s 9 year old son. The bigger the fall, the happier he was. I utterly adored him and this was just about the worst kind of call I could get, and Larry knew that.

“Aw, Larry, he’ll be fine. Your son’s inherited your hard head- ”

“Hey!”

“- and he’s going to be good as new in a few days. Don’t worry too much until there’s something to worry about, ok?”

“Thanks, Kara.”

“So...I should cancel our flights?” I asked, not without a little disappointment.

“No, that’s the main reason I called so early. I won’t be going, of course, but you still will.”

“Oookay...”

“Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to tell you this but Paul Ascot, the new CEO, has just remarried, which you know. What you probably don’t know is that he now has a stepson. Who he wants to take on a role with the company. So he’s going to take my place on this trip. And he’s going to need a LOT of help from you.”

“Huh.”

I could just tell Larry was trying not to grin. He knew how I hated breaking in new people. “I heard he’s a real piece of work, too.”

“Double huh. Maybe we should wait until Dean’s better...and you can go...?”

“Nice try. You’ve seen the schedule, these meetings need to happen ASAP. You’ve got this, you know the numbers better than I do, just think of it as babysitting a younger, less handsome me.”

I snorted. He really was the most amazing boss, to be joking around even with his son in hospital.

“Ok, fine. I still get my advance, right? I’m going to need a lot of money to spend to stay away from Mr. Piece of Work on our days off.”

“Yes and my undying gratitude.”

“Humph, I should have that already.”

“You do,” he said earnestly before switching back into business mode, “so, I need you to book tickets for him and cancel mine. And then I need you to drop off the file you printed out for me to read on the plane to his place on your way to work. He’ll meet you at the airport two hours before the flight to check in. I’m texting you all the details now.”

“OK, boss. You don’t worry about a thing, I’ll take care of it. You just be there for Mel and Dean, ok?”

“Ok. And bring me back an éclair.”

“I promise I’ll eat one for you.”

***

The phone buzzed as I stepped out of the shower. There hadn’t been any point in going back to sleep and I wanted to be ready to call the travel agent at 7am on the dot, when she was available to take calls.

I wrapped the towel around me and grabbed the phone, walking back to my bathroom. I scrolled through the five messages from Larry with all his instructions, until I found the one with the details for the plane and hotel bookings.

“Name...name....name.” I skimmed the message, looking for the information, “come on Larry, yada yada..what’s the na- ”

I froze.

And I read it again. And again.

“Finn O’Reilly.” I said it out loud.

No. It couldn’t be.

I shook my head. Surely, there was more than one in the world and as far as I know, his mother hadn’t remarried.

But you wouldn’t know, would you? The voice in my brain nagged me. You don’t know anything about any of them since that night.

But this, this was just a coincidence, I told myself.

“Yeah! Come on,” I forced myself to laugh. “There’s no way it’s the same person. No way in hell.” I busied myself with getting dressed and ready for work, pushing back even the hint of the thought that it might be him.

Life couldn’t possibly be that cruel.