Page 19 of Return Billionaire to Sender

Noelle

I followLawrence up to the desk, heart thundering. I’m waiting for him to realize I’m not Stella and throw me out.

But it seems like I get to give him another lesson tomorrow. They all seem to be expecting it. I could actually make him watch more of Jada’s film.

I told my friends that if he watched enough of it, if he got to know the people in the building, maybe he’d have a change of heart.I still believe it—I don’t care what anybody says.

And more than that, I think there is kindness in him; I really do. I thought it from the first moment with us squatting on the floor, that strange moment where the hardness went out of his eyes and he tucked my phone into the correct pocket. Even my roommate, Francine, wouldn’t think to do that.

It was…sweet. The gesture of one person truly seeing another.

“Everything okay?” Lawrence asks, heading around to the other side of the desk.

“Yeah,” I say.

He hits a few keys. “You want your lanyard to say Stella?”

Gulp. A lanyard? With a fake name? That feels…so official. But if there’s a chance I can show him more of the movie tomorrow, I have to take it.

I straighten up. “Have the lanyard say Elle,” I say. “E-L-L-E.” I choose that because it rhymes with Noelle. It seems like it would be easier to answer to. And it feels less like lying.

He holds up his phone. “Smile.”

“What?”

He snaps a picture, takes a look, and laughs. His face softens when he laughs. I like his impish smile. “We better try that again. You look like you just saw a ghost.”

I give him a polite smile and he takes a new picture. He seems happy with that one. He’s doing phone things now and bustling around.

“What’s the picture for?” I ask.

“Your lanyard. Security credentials.” He bustles at the other end.

This is absurd—they actually think I’m his coach! Maybe I could do just one more session. Or maybe two. I bite back a smile when I picture the amazement on my friends’ faces when I tell them I not only got into Malcolm’s office, but I made him watch the video. And that I’m doing it again tomorrow. They’ll die.

“How’s the room?” Lawrence asks.

“The room?”

“You didn’t check in yet?”

“Uh, no,” I say.

“Mmm,” he says.

“Six hours it took me to get here this morning,” I hear myself say,echoing Stella’s words.

“Ouch. You leave your bags with security?”

What bags?I make a non-committal sound.

He comes back waving a card in the air. “Gotta let it cool down.” He puts a lanyard on the desk. “Clip those together.” He returns to his screen. “Not that you’ll need ID with the San Fran traveling team, but it’s unlikely we’ll be there the entire four weeks. I’m going, too.” He smiles up at me. I smile back. Something dings and he looks back down. “Hold on a sec.” He types something into his computer and then walks to the other end of the desk area.

San Fran? As in San Francisco?

What am I doing? I can’t go to San Francisco with them.

But then I remember the way Malcolm imitated a bulldozer, pushing things across his desk toward me. Like it was funny to him. And I picture my friends all waiting back at the building, counting on me.

---