Page 5 of Once Bitten

Chapter Three

“Yup, Larry, I’m on the way now. Yes, I’ve got the file. And the latest report from research. Yes, the one YOU forgot and I had to remind you about. I’m here, so go! And give my love to Mel.” I hung up the phone, rolling my eyes at my boss’s control problems.

“That’ll be $14.50,” the cab driver turned around and told me.

“Er, yeah, I’m just going to run in and out, keep the meter running.”

I grabbed my files and got out of the cab. Larry had called me three more times after the first call this morning, with about 18 things he needed me to do RIGHT THEN, I hadn’t even had time to think about anything else. But as I climbed the stairs to the front door to the stunning apartment building on 5th, I wondered for just a moment if life had thrown me a curveball.

I pressed the buzzer and a sleepy voice answered on the crackly intercom, “what?”

“Um, I’m Kara, I’m Larry Hummel’s PA, I’ve come to bring the files about the Paris trip.”

There was a pause.

I pressed the intercom again, “hello?”

“Yeah, ok, I’ll be right down, I’m just getting dressed.”

Dressed? It was almost 9am. I was contemplating the kind of life where someone could still be undressed at 9am on a Tuesday morning, and yet live in a place like this, when the door opened.

Life hadn’t thrown me a curveball.

It had whacked me right in the face with a flying baseball bat.

It was him.