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Chapter Four
Twelve floors and Davidcould be working on any one of them. There was a window cleaning cart preparing to rise. Penny briefly considered paying the man to take her up but she had no stomach for heights. Spotting a coffee shop across the road, she went and sat at a window table and watched the front entrance, impatient for a glimpse of him. At barely seven in the morning she was fairly certain she would see him arrive for work.
Her coffee cup clattered onto the saucer with surprise at how quickly she spotted him. David walked briskly up and disappeared through the automatic doors. Penny felt cheated by the anticlimactic moment. What should she do now?
Quickly gathering her things, she raced outside and waited impatiently for traffic to clear so that she could cross the street.
Once inside the large foyer she was confronted by a large state of the art reception desk.
“May I help you?” a slim and smartly dressed receptionist enquired.
“I should like to see Mr. David Forrester, please,” she said.
“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, dabbing her bright red lipstick with a tissue.
Did she? Hell, yes!
“I do,” she lied.
“What name?” the woman asked.
“Penny F—West,” she quickly corrected.
With her eye on Penny, the woman picked up a phone and pressed a button.
“A Penny West is here. I see, one moment, please.” The receptionist narrowed her eyes.
“Mr. Forrester’s secretary says there are no appointments in his diary for today,” she said.
“Oh, I am surprised because I spoke to his mother this morning. She said she’d phone David and tell him to expect me.” Who knew she was so good at improvising?
More conversation followed that Penny tried, but failed, to listen in on at the other end of the phone.
“Here is a lanyard you need to hold it over the scanner to enter the elevator, please wear it while you are in the building and return it to me when you depart. You want the eleventh floor. Mr. Forrester’s secretary will meet you at the elevator door on your arrival.”
She was in!
The secretary introduced herself as Sharne. Friendly and approachable, or maybe she just appeared that way after the icy receptionist. “Can I get you a coffee while you wait?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” Penny said with a smile.
“Okay, well, I’ll be over there if you need anything. Mr. Forrester won’t be too long, he is just finishing up a call,” she explained.
She stared at her feet. Despite the throb of her injured toes, she’d worn her black heels because she knew David liked them. In fact she had dressed wholly for him in a short pleated tartan skirt, thick hosiery, a white blouse, and a short black military-style jacket.
The sound of a cough caused her to lift her head.
It was him. Dressed in an expensively cut dark suit worn with a crisp white shirt and dark patterned tie. Those incredible blue eyes met hers.
She felt the lift of her lips pull outward into a radiant smile.Daddy!
“Good morning, Miss, er, East?” he asked.
