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He sits down next to me and rests his back against the reception desk, and out of the corner of my eye I notice people gawping at us. I’m sure they’re not used to seeing the CEO sitting on the floor in the lobby with a down-and-out, and my lips curl up. Something is niggling at my brain though, and the more alert part of me remembers that Janus hates bankers.
“Wankers, did you say?”
He laughs loudly and I grin at him. We’re a couple of fucking teenagers. I straighten.
“Shit, I came in a cab …”
But Janus puts his hand on my arm. “I sorted him out. He told me you had no cash and promised him ten times the fare to bring you here.”
My eyes widen. “The fucker! I said three times!”
Janus grins and nods. “I’m just messing with you. He did say three—I gave him $100.”
“I’ll pay you back. Fuck, that’s more like five times the fare.”
The receptionist appears before us with two cappuccinos in fancy cups—saucers and everything. I can’t hold back the laugh now. This insane day just got officially hilarious. I’m sitting here in my filthy gear looking like God knows what, and someone is giving me bone china?
“I’ve got a story to tell you,” I say, inhaling as I knock back a huge gulp, wincing as it scalds the back of my throat. I need caffeine like I need to breathe. “You’ve got to go back to your meeting, though, right?”
Janus shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it, my afternoon is free.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You fucking cancelled them, didn’t you?”
He turns to look at me, gaze roaming over my face, warm and grinning. “You’re my best friend, you idiot. You passed out in my reception—of course I ditched my goddamn meetings.”
Ugh. This shouldn’t be such a one-sided friendship.
“Would you like another coffee, sir?”
The sharp-suited receptionist in her pencil skirt is standing looking down at me, so I nod at her and she scampers away. We’re sitting in his fancy glass atrium, being served cappuccinos by professional, no doubt highly paid, people. Talk about going from one end of New York life to another.
“How much does all this shit cost?”
“What?” he says.
“This?” I swing my hand around at all the marble and chrome.
He laughs again. “I’ve no fucking idea. I’ve got a department that sorts all that stuff out.”
Janus was the relaxed, lively one at college, and my partner in crime. I reach out and tap his arm.
“Are you okay? Doesn’t it all drive you a bit bonkers?”
He looks down at his hands, blowing out a long breath and then shrugs, crossing one leg over the other on the floor. “Sometimes. But I’ve got a team of amazing people, which is the best feeling in the world. You know me, Fab, I love working with people.”
I never did. I’ve always been a loner, skating around the edge of everything all the time: life, other people, eating, looking after myself. And now fucking look at the state of me.
“Have you heard any more from those hackers?” he says.
Two weeks ago, Jo and I chased a bunch of hackers out of Janus’s company systems: Some people I’d annoyed started taking his company’s systems down and wanted me delivered to them in return for stopping. Like Janus, I’m not holding out hope that we’ve heard the last of them.
“I can still get into their system, so I’m keeping an eye on it. I’ll keep Jo in the loop.”
He looks away, nodding.
“I took this drug that gave me an insane hard-on,” I mumble into the steam rising from the rim of my cup as I take another gulp of coffee.
Janus doubles over laughing, just as another cappuccino appears in my peripheral vision. Heat rises up my cheeks; I hope to fuck she didn’t hear that. I don’t want to offend his employees. I’m already sitting like a hobo in his reception, so surely that’s offensive enough. He seems to have the same thought as me.
