Page 34 of Tell Me What you Think

Marina stands and Olga follows, relieved, breathing in deeply as they step outside.

The first meeting starts around ten. Duarte has brought in the office's CFO, and they go through the Portuguese client portfolio carefully, contract by contract. Olga is sitting to Marina's left with her laptop open, her planner beside it, all her attention on what's being said, cross-referencing data as it comes up and pulling up whatever her boss asks for.

While Marina discusses a specific client, Olga pages through the file closely and spots something that doesn't add up. It's a small thing — a numbering error — but it could also be a deliberate omission: the contract has appendices numbered one through four, but the third one is missing. She checks the index and scans every page to see if it's been misfiled somewhere.

The CFO is speaking and she's not about to interrupt, so she goes back to the two contracts they've already reviewed and realizes the same thing is true in one of them. When the woman finally finishes, Olga leans toward Marina, and Marina mirrors the gesture, tilting close so Olga can speak quietly in her ear.

For a moment Olga goes completely blank. Marina has a tiny, faint freckle just below her ear that Olga has never noticed before and is now going to dream about, and that, combined with the perfume that makes her feel like she's been drugged, freezes her long enough that Marina turns slightly toward her and those infuriating lips end up far too close.

"Were you going to tell me something?" Marina murmurs.

"Yes, sorry," Olga says, snapping back, pointing at her screen.

"The Ribeiro and Baltar contracts have appendices that aren't in what they sent us," she breathes, barely moving her lips, glancing at the other assistants out of the corner of her eye. "Both of them are missing appendix number three."

Marina goes still, appearing to study the screen while Olga moves the cursor, but she isn't actually focused on that — she's looking at Olga's hand on the mouse. Her fingers are slender, and there's a silver ring on her thumb. She likes it, and she has no idea why she never noticed it before.

"Did you check whether they might be somewhere else in the file?" she asks at last.

"Yes, I went through every page of both contracts. It's not there, but I can go back through again in case I—"

"That's not necessary. I trust you."

Marina straightens up, makes a show of jotting something in her notepad, then looks up at Duarte.

"By the way — to review the full documentation and sign off on this section, we'd need all the appendices complete. Two contracts are each missing one. I'm sure it was just a scanning error." Her voice is calm, but her gaze is fixed on Duarte, and the man loosens his tie.

"Of course — we would never withhold anything from you. I'll have them sent over this afternoon, without question."

When the meetings and lunch are finally done, Marina and Olga say goodbye to the executives and step out of the restaurant. It's later than they planned and there's no time for a walk, so they settle for going back to the hotel on foot to pick up their things.

"Do you think they did it on purpose?" Olga asks.

"I don't know. I'd like to think not, because backing out wouldn't be in their interest, but I wouldn't bet on it either. Duarte is so charming he's starting to rub me the wrong way."

Olga laughs.

"Nice catch, by the way."

The assistant flushes, still not used to her new boss acknowledging her work.

They cross the street and turn left onto a very narrow uphill lane that doesn't get any sun. The cobblestones are slick, and when Olga steps off the curb to climb onto the sidewalk, her shoe skids on a smooth stone and she feels the world tilt sideways. In a split second her mind sees exactly what's coming — herself sprawled in the middle of the street, as if she could survive another humiliation in front of her boss — but then a firm hand closes around her arm and pulls her upright hard, and the momentum carries her forward until she's pressed against Marina's body.

"Hey, are you okay?" Marina asks, but her voice fades at the end when she realizes there are only a few inches between them.

"Yes, fine." Olga's heart is beating in her ears. "I slipped…"

"Yeah," Marina confirms, glancing at Olga's mouth for just a second before looking away toward the sidewalk. "These cobblestones are a death trap. Watch where you're going."

The vice president takes a step back, trying to let some air come between them and cool her body down, which has warmed up in a very strange way.

Olga looks at the ground as she adjusts her bag, which had slid down to her elbow, and finally finds the strength to turn and look at Marina.

"Thanks for catching me," she says, still feeling the heat of Marina's fingers on her skin.

Her arm is tingling and her pulse is everywhere at once.

"Keep your eyes on the ground, okay?" Marina's lips curve into a smile, and Olga curses under her breath in both languages she knows, because she's starting to think she must have done something very wrong in a past life to deserve being punished like this — having this woman right in front of her, knowing she's out of reach. "I'd hate to get back to Barcelona and have to explain to HR that I lost my assistant on a wet street in Lisbon."