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His voice comes back to haunt me, just as I see him walking past the kitchen in the company of two other execs and Zara. They’re talking and laughing, but he still takes a split second to just… look at me before they all disappear down the hall. It’s like a kick in the stomach, all over again.
“Either way,” I say to Tony, “they’d have to start small before they convince the government to go nationwide. Think of the hours they’d need just for the training of 911 call center staff on the software side of things. It’s a huge project to push through.”
“I’m genuinely in awe of you,” Tony says, his eyes sparkling with admiration.
I grin, my cheeks burning. “We’re so used to undervaluing ourselves, aren’t we?”
He nods slightly as I pour hot water over my green tea. As soon as the leafy scent hits my nostrils, however, it’s like my stomach surrenders and turns upside down. Heat bursts up my throat, and I know there’s something awful coming.
Tony can tell I’m not okay. “Olivia, you’re really pale…”
“Excuse me,” I manage, and bolt out of the kitchen.
* * *
Ten minutes later, I’m washing my face and rinsing my mouth after having puked my heart out. The nausea persists, but if I don’t feed it anything, it might leave me be for the remainder of this exceptionally long day.
What is happening? I’ve never been this anxious and out of sorts. Then again, I haven’t been eating much lately, and when the hunger does strike, it’s usually late at night. More than once, I’ve raided the fridge at ungodly hours.
The smell of soap and hand sanitizer mix up my nose, making me shudder.
“Get it together,” I whisper to myself, then pat my face with a paper towel. I’m clearly taking the whole Will thing a lot worse than I thought, and I need to pull myself back on track. Work-wise, I’m fine. It’s every other aspect of my life that is now faltering, and I cannot let a failed affair pull me back. “Get. It. Together.”
The door swings open, lightly startling me. Zara comes in, and much like Tony before her, she can tell I’m not okay.
“Oh God, you look like crap.”
“Thanks…”
She comes closer, giving me a genuinely worried look. “I’m serious, Olivia. You should go home. Or I can drive you to the hospital? You’re so pale, it’s scary.”
“It’s really not that bad,” I reply, trying to brush it off. “I’m just nauseated. Got some kind of food poisoning, most likely…”
“Need me to take you home? Can you drive?”
I shake my head. “I took a cab coming in, I’ve been iffy all day. Thank you, Zara, but I can manage. I’ll be okay. Some water, a light lunch, and I’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Yeah… No. You’re gonna go home or I’m gonna tell Will.”
“Please don’t!” That sounded way more desperate than I intended. “Sorry… I mean, there’s no need. I’m okay, I swear.”
Zara crosses her arms, giving me a moment to check myself in the mirror. She’s right, I do look like crap. I feel even worse. “Olivia, don’t think I haven’t noticed. The others don’t pay attention because they think Will is a solitary and generally uninterested creature, but I have seen other sides of his over the years. I can tell when he’s… stirred. And you’re an open book, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You and Will. I know something happened between you two back at the resort,” she replies, smiling only for the purpose of making it clear that she got me a long time ago. Quickly enough, she switches back to her most serious mode. “You can’t go anywhere near him, Olivia. If the tabloids get a whiff of romance in his life, it will affect the company’s stock value.”
“Wait, what?” I’m not making much sense out of these statements.
“You don’t want to get involved with Will, that’s all I’m saying.”
I offer a shrug. “I’m not involved with him. There’s nothing going on between us.” That isn’t a lie, and Zara can tell. She’s also a prolific lawyer and well aware of when people are giving her half-truths, so I might as well heed her raised eyebrow and be a little more honest at this point. “There was… but it died quickly.”
“Good. Will needs to keep himself romantically unattached until after the FEMA bid.”
“I don’t understand…”
Zara sighs deeply. “Of course you wouldn’t, you don’t know the whole deal. So… a while back, the company went public. The stock value was quick to soar, and for a long time it fluctuated, but Will never paid much attention to it since he generally considers the whole thing to be a fraud. Still, it’s the kind of fraud that can inject ridiculous amounts of capital into the company, the kind of money not even a government contract can get him.”
