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So lost in my thoughts, I don’t notice the door of my office opening and someone calling my name.
A loud rap on my desk has me jumping in alarm. “What?!”
I look up and freeze when I see Caleb. “Hey. Hi.”
Caleb blinks at me, and then frowns. “You look sick and tired. When did you get back last night?”
The way he so casually says ‘get back’, making it sound like we have a familiar living arrangement makes me shift in my seat. “Around two,” I mutter. “I’ll bring you a—"
“Have you had lunch?” he asks, abruptly.
“Lunch?” I repeat, stupidly, as if the very concept of that word is foreign to me.
He studies me. “Clearly not. Order up something, for me as well. We’ll have lunch together. I need to discuss the arrangements for Friday with you.”
Having in such close proximity is making all those thoughts from last night rise up again, and I just nod.
Within an hour, I’m plating Indian curry into two plates and taking it inside.
Caleb has taken off his jacket, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbow, and he’s running one hand through his hair, the other playing with something dark and dense in his hand.
When he sees me enter, he immediately slips it into his pocket, and accepts his share. We’re sitting at the small coffee table in his office, and he puts the food aside and stares at his laptop screen. “There’s been a change of schedule. We’re flying out tomorrow.”
“Flying where?” I reel back at the sudden news.
“To the Dorthman meeting in LA,” Caleb says, his eye still on the screen.
“I didn’t know you wanted me to go with y-you,” I stammer out, surprised.
“Yes, well. Now, you do. We have one meeting a day before that Heiman’s thing and the second meeting is three days later. So, pack clothes for a few days.”
I start mentally counting out the things that have to be done. “That’s too soon. I have to make hotel reservations and—”
“All that’s arranged by Dorthman’s team,” Caleb cuts me off. “They were too eager to please me since my meeting them is technically a favor.”
“So, you need me in LA for these two meetings?”
“And the ball.”
My head shoots up at this, startled. “The ball? I – Aren’t you taking Reina Sheffield?”
Caleb raises a brow at me. “I never said that.”
I gape at him. “You didn’t deny it either, yesterday.”
He just gives me a small smirk. “I hope you have time to get a dress between now and morning because my jet’s going to be leaving early morning. And we do have a lot of work to do today.”
“You planned this.” ?he words slip out of my mouth without me knowing I would even say them as realization dawns on me. “You’ve been planning this since I gave you that dress back.”
“Eat your lunch, Miss West. Before it gets cold.” Caleb has a satisfied look in his eyes as he digs into his meal, a triumphant smirk on his lips.
I feel both hot and cold at knowing I’ve been played so thoroughly but words are beyond me at noting how neatly I’ve been trapped.
Ass-fucking-hole.
LA is a loud city.
Beautiful, but loud.
