Chapter 15

It was as infuriating as hiccups and as maddening as hell that he seemed not at all interested in her anymore.

And even more irritating was the fact that she was doing it again, that thing where her mind was more on Tobias than anything else. She’d been secretly looking out for a ‘happy birthday’ email from him yesterday but there’d been nothing. He hadn’t even appeared remotely interested when she’d invited him to her birthday drinks.

Her problem was that she couldn’t easily forget about him and the situation irritated her. It was difficult not to think about the man who sat a few minutes’ away from her.

At least watching the movie with Jacob last night, followed by pizza, had taken her mind off what hadn’t happened on her birthday.

Today was a new day and she was determined to wash that man’s memories out of her system. She watched her PC come to life and got out her files and diary, determined to have a normal working day of work, and not one where she hit the refresh key on her email inbox checking to see if anything had come from him.

But this morning an email from Tobias teased her as it sat in her inbox. Her insides jolted to life as she rushed to open it.

I would like to see 5 years’ worth of data reflected in the chart on page 6.

Tobias

This infuriated her even more because these were not the words she wanted to hear from him. When the phone rang in the next moment, she answered it quickly, her eyes still on the screen as his words taunted her.

“I’ve got a day of meetings,” Briony announced, with a sigh. “This is one of Tobias’s days isn’t it? Do you have enough to get on with?”

“Yes, I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.” The two days she was supposed to be working on researching companies became known as ‘Tobias’s days’. “He wants me to make an amendment to the report I handed to him yesterday.”

“I’ll leave you to it.”

Savannah hung up. Five years’ worth of data, coming up. Determined not to give him a further reason to complain, she worked hard for the next few hours and when the report had been amended as he had requested, she printed it off and arranged it into a professional looking report, with its plastic front and back and a plastic spine to hold it all together, as Briony had shown her.

She marched towards Tobias’s office and rapped her knuckles hard against the wooden door.

“Come in.” He was sitting down, with his chin resting on his closed fist and his other hand hovering around his mouse.

“I made the changes you requested.” She approached his desk with more confidence than she felt, and handed it to him. He lowered his chin and flicked through it quickly. “You didn’t make any changes to the charts on pages 13 and 17.”

“You didn’t ask me to.”

“I did.”

She swallowed, feeling her throat dry up as she stared into his cold blue eyes and forgot to breathe.

“I sent you an email straight after the first one.”

Shit. She gritted her teeth together but forced the corners of her lips up into a smile. She had been so determined to get to work on the change he had requested that it hadn’t occurred to her to check her email for subsequent updates.

Like a horny teenager, she’d been preoccupied with the thought of seeing him again. “I didn’t check. I’m sorry.” And now he probably thought she was totally incompetent. He handed the report back to her and sat back in his chair as if he was assessing her.

“Before you change your mind again, do you have any other changes to make?” She couldn’t help herself.

“Only the ones I emailed you about this morning,” he said tightly. “It’s always a good idea to make sure there aren’t any further amendments required.” He made her feel even sillier now, as if he was telling her the Basic 101s of doing her job. “My requests are always likely to change, so I suggest you get used to it.”

She forced herself to inhale slowly and smile, and to keep her mouth shut.

“How was yesterday?” he asked, causing her heart to jumpstart to life again. He did know about her birthday and he’d been waiting for the right moment to ask her about it. She felt suddenly lighter, as if a summer breeze had just kissed her cheeks. “We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and then had a pizza and…” She noticed his hardened face and stopped talking.

“I meant the meeting with Briony.” She took a deep breath as his words landed like a fist to her sternum. “I’m working my way through the new list you gave her,” she said, in a voice that was a little too loud, a little too bright, and a little too false. Yet she’d managed to string together a perfectly coherent sentence even though her pride lay in tatters around her ankles, making her feel as bad as if as if her panties had dropped.

Tobias Stone didn’t give a hoot about her birthday or what she’d done last night to celebrate it. “Good,” he replied and picked up his pen, as if he was ready to get on with his work.

A fireball of emotions started to burn way down deep in the pit of her stomach, threatening to come hurtling out of her throat. Shame made her want to hasten back to her room and hide. “I’ll make those changes,” she replied, trying to keep her voice strong as she left his office, her jaw clenched tightly. She rushed back to her office and checked her inbox.

There it was. Another email sent three minutes after the first one, requesting the changes.

Please also fix the graphs on pages 13 and 17. Five years’ worth of data for both.

Tobias

With humiliation burning her cheeks at her terrible faux pas, for thinking he was even remotely interested in her or her birthday, she couldn’t help but fire back a reply.

Before I begin to make the proposed changes, do you have any more? I’m conscious that your requests are prone to changing.

Savannah

He replied in less than a minute:

Any more what?

Tobias

Frowning, her fingers flew across her keyboard.

Surprises

Savannah

He replied, equally quickly.

I’m full of surprises, when I want to be.

Tobias

Her fingers hovered over her keyboard, her heart rate galloping as she found herself being reeled into a luscious web of flirtation. He was flirting with her, wasn’t he? His responses no longer sounded like marketing spiel.

You’ve surprised me enough times, Mr. Stone.

Savannah

Should she send it? Her breathing turned fast, her mouth open as her finger hovered over the ‘Send’ icon. Damn it, why not? She hit ‘Send’ before the logical side of her brain stopped her.

And she waited, and waited, and waited, her nerves a mangled wreck of anticipation. But he didn’t reply. After a good few moments, the fluttering in her belly petered away. Disappointed, she made herself concentrate on the report solidly, rechecking that she had done as he asked, and refreshing her computer screen constantly. But there were no further emails from him.

Perhaps he was busy.

Of course he was.

She rechecked his last email, rechecked her report again, reprinted it and rebound it once more. Curious, and nervous, she got up and made her way to his office one more time. She stood at his door, not having knocked yet, and tightened her quads in a bid to stand tall and strong. “What’s that?” Briony asked, walking up behind her.

“The report Tobias wanted me to fix.”

“I’ll take it,” said Briony, holding out her hand, “I’m about to meet with him and Matthias now.”

“Uh—” Her body tensed, not wanting to relinquish the chance of seeing him, not after their recent flurry of emails. She wanted to know if he felt what she did. She needed to look into his eyes, to discover if there was any difference in his demeanor from how he had been when she had first seen him this morning, to now. Briony grabbed the report, taking with it her hopes.

“Thanks,” said Savannah, and headed back to her office, mission unaccomplished.