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“Daniel.”
Her shoulder’s sagged as she appeared to visibly relax. Then picking up her magazine again, she said, “I thought we went over this already. Daniel’s out of reach.”
Sonya became defensive. “I never said that.”
Leaning forward, Audrey gave Sonya’s knee a reassuring pet. “Don’t worry. I’m not interested in Daniel. You were right, he’s not my type.”
“I wasn’t worried.” The solution in her hair was beginning to itch. She wanted nothing more than to scratch her head vigorously. “Why isn’t he your type?”
“I don’t know.” She shru
gged. “He’s the computer-techy-type of guy that I have nothing whatsoever in common with.”
Using the palm of her hand she rubbed a towel over an itchy spot on her head. “He’s really awfully smart. He just won an award for a computer development he designed.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, he’s actually quite the mathematical genius. At the age of ten he was already considered a prodigy. Did you know he has an IQ of a hundred and seventy-three, a masters in computer science, and was class scholar for four years in a row?”
Audrey stared at her friend. “No, I didn’t know any of that. Now, I definitely know he isn’t my type.”
Sonya frowned. An overwhelming sadness came over her. Poor Daniel. Audrey was right. He was different and rare, and he wasn’t anybody’s type.
“I don’t get it. Then why were you so upset when I throttled your attempts to date him?”
Audrey shrugged. “A girl like me doesn’t meet too many nice guys. I mean, let’s compare you to me. I can’t even have a decent conversation with our boss. You flirt openly with him.”
This piqued her interest. “Do you have something against Tristan?”
“Of course not. Why would you think that?”
“The other night, you were so formal with him. Has he ever, you know, made unwanted advances on you?”
The blonde’s quick but short laugh came fast. “Hardly. He only ever utters a few choice sentences to me. Like, ‘how was business’, ‘close up shop’, and ‘good night’. The latter only if we cross paths while leaving at the same time.”
Sonya took note of the girl’s words. It was true. Even in her short time at the bar, Tristan locked himself in his office and rarely made an appearance. He had utter faith in his staff to run the complete show without him. Her few encounters with him were on her instigation. They were so few that he constantly forgot her name.
She glanced at Audrey. He didn’t seem to have difficulty with her name. Granted, she had worked for him for the past year. One would hope he would eventually get the name right. Chuckling, she asked, “So how long did it take him to get your name straight?”
Audrey’s brows dipped. “What do you mean?”
“Your name. How long did he call you everything but Audrey?”
Her friend chuckled with the frown between her brows dipping further. “Never.”
Sonya’s smile wavered, then she ventured to say, “And you refer to him as Mr. Manning?”
“As I said, we’re hardly on friendly terms.” Her smile too disappeared.
She stared at her friend for the longest time before the smell of straightening solution began to sting her eyes and her head began to burn of the solution. “I think it’s time, Audrey.”
“For what?” She looked alarmed, then visibly relaxed when Sonya pointed to the towel covering the frizz ball on her head. “Right, your hair. Of course, let’s get it out and see how it worked.”
Sonya watched as her friend went to the back room to prepare the cleansing solution. She was in the process of getting up and following her when she heard some voices coming from the hall corridor.
Intrigued, she went over to investigate. One of them would obviously belong to Daniel, since his apartment was the only one on the opposite side. She figured the other voice would probably belong to Mrs. Sterling making yet another complaint against Sonya. She listened in with interest and amusement. This would create a bout of small fun.
However, she was surprised when the other voice actually belonged to an unknown source. It wasn’t Mrs. Sterling after all. Curious, she stood up on tiptoe and peered through the peephole. She could see Daniel standing in his apartment entrance and a redheaded woman was standing directly in front of him. He looked slightly grave and the woman’s voice sounded excited. Sonya pressed her ear closer to the wooden door.
