Page 72 of Love Spell

“Happy engagement.”Noah smiled, catching Timo right in the dopamine and making him grin stupidly back.

“Engagement rings this week?”

“Maybe.”

As close to jumping for joy and shouting from the rooftops as he was going to get from Noah.Timo would take it.

23

“Congratulations.”Chandler met Noah with a leer on Tuesday morning.“Allow me to be the first to shake your hand?”He did so, while Noah simply blinked at him.

Chandler went past to his own terminal.

How did he know?Shaken, Noah hurried to the kitchen, where Spencer was setting out initialled coffees, a couple of the guys already in there collecting theirs.

“Good morning.”Even Haoyu looked supercilious, which wasn’t like him.“You had a busy birthday.”

“Congratulations, Noah,” Spencer said happily, sounding like he meant it.

Maksim took his coffee and walked right past Noah, as usual.Maksim ignored everyone unless he had a good reason.Congratulations on impending nuptials would not be considered a good reason by someone like Maksim.

Noah stared after them and accepted his own drink from Spencer.

“How does everyone know?”he asked under his breath.“This is brand new.”

Spencer was clearly startled.“The business page.”

“What?”

“Our page?The feed was updated last night.”Now confused, Spencer took a step back.“Was it not supposed to be?You are engaged?”

“Thatjusthappened.I didn’t know it was common knowledge in real time.”

“Oh, well … sorry about that.”

Timo didn’t need a website for the prop shop but he had a public Facebook page and group chat for the Wolf Pack.All the big news, market shifts, conferences, trading gossip, and more went onto both.It had never crossed Noah’s mind that his engagement to his boss, which was, after all, for legal reasons, and not something he was comfortable with, and only just happened, would appear on that page overnight — to use Spencer’s delicately passive-voice phrasing.

A wave of fury rose in Noah’s chest the like of which he’d not felt since the morning he’d kicked Dave.Noah whipped around to follow Spencer and find Timo, who’d also just arrived but would be in his office checking emails and industry gossip for the day before the market opened.Voices were rapidly approaching; not Spencer returning, but Dave and Arthur.

“I thought I was on the wrong page.”

“It’s a bloody soap around here, isn’t it?”

Noah half wanted to confront them, but none of this was their doing.He’d rather avoid everyone, punch Timo, and get the hell out of here than face one more leer.They would only be popping in here for their coffee.

He could avoid them if he dodged into the cupboard that contained the office cleaning supplies and vacuum cleaner — Hoover as they called it over here, even though it wasn’t a Hoover.Classic dumb move, being caught in the broom closet, but there was no chance either of them would have a look in there and it was the work of seconds for Noah to vanish inside.

He’d just silently pulled the door shut, closing himself in darkness, when they walked in, still talking.They kept their voices so low, Noah could hardly hear and resorted to cracking open the door.Not enough to see out, but enough to put his ear to.He could also detect the sweet, greasy scent of pastries.Dave was a fan of doughnuts and occasionally brought a box.

“So they must have been up to something all along, you reckon?”Dave asked.

They moved to the counter to set down the box and take up their coffees.

“You think it was a plot?”Arthur murmured.“Make it look like a real romance when all they wanted was a legit way to get Red to stay here?”

Red?Noah’s surname meant red, but why would they call him that?This was a new one — or new to Noah since he’d been unable to overhear any gossip lately with all the dropped conversations and fake smiles.

“What else could it be?”Dave asked.“No one gets engaged that fast.”

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