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“I’ll walk you out then.”
“No,” Lisa says. “I’ll walk her. The last thing she needs is everybody staring at her because she’s being escorted out by HR.”
There’s not many people here to stare but I appreciate Lisa’s sentiment.
“Okay.” Monica nods. “I’ll just need your badge.”
I unclip my ID badge and hand it to her. Lisa slides her hand into mine. “This isn’t right,” she mutters as we walk out of the office and down the corridor. We pass one or two people who give me a strange look.
And then we walk through the front entrance. Like I’d forecasted, the sun is bright, the air is warm. The kind of Sunday for sitting in the park with friends. My heart aches.
“Do you want to grab a coffee?” Lisa asks.
I shake my head. “I just want to go home.” So we start to walk to my car.
And that’s when I see him. Striding toward us, the sun behind him lighting up his hair. Liam’s wearing a pair of light jeans and a gray t-shirt and he looks exhausted and annoyed.
But he still looks wonderful to me. And that’s when I start to cry.
* * *
LIAM
She’s crying and it’s killing me. A woman walks next to her, patting her arm, but I only have eyes for Sophie.
I don’t care that I’m supposed to be pissed that she drove home while upset, or that I’m also pissed at myself for being an asshole to her when she called – because I can’t stand to see her in pain.
“Come here.” I pull her into my arms and she almost melts into them.
The woman with her looks up at me with interest. “Hey, you’re the auction guy.”
“Liam Salinger.” I nod at her over the top of Sophie’s head. Her face is against my chest and I can already feel the dampness of my t-shirt where she’s crying.
“Lisa.” She pulls her lip between her teeth and looks at Sophie again. “You want me to drive you home?”
Sophie pulls her head from my chest. “No. I can do it. Thank you, for everything.”
“What’s happened?” I ask her. “What’s going on?”
And I know there are things we need to talk about. I know there’s one big almighty fuck up I need to explain. But right now I need to know what happened and what I can do to help.
“I’ve been suspended from my job,” Sophie says. “While they investigate my errors.”
My first inclination is to go into the TV station and talk to Donald Regan. I’m pretty sure I can get her back in there in two seconds.
“Tell me everything, please.” I slide my arm around her shoulders. She feels frail, but I need to hear this from her. I’m good at solving problems but only if I know what the hell the problems are.
Her friend goes back into the building after kissing Sophie’s wet cheek. She’s still leaning on me and I’m here for that.
I’m here forher.She needs to understand she can’t push me away.
“I’m sorry,” she finally says. “For leaving without telling you.”
“We’ll talk about that later,” I tell her, because there’s a lot I need to talk about, too. “But first let’s deal with this. I’ll drive you home. My place or yours?”
“Mine. But I have my car…”
“Leave it. I’ll get somebody to pick it up.” I wait for her to protest because I know she hates causing extra work. But she doesn’t and it makes me realize just how upset she is.
