Page 89 of The Bet
No! No! No!
He would go mad.
She had meant to email it to him just now, but had become preoccupied with her cell phone messages.
She sat leaned against the wall, trying to get her breath back.
It wasn’t even her laptop.
Xavier would hit the roof.
She slapped a hand to her cheek, the weight of Xavier’s document and everything that rested on it, dragging her spirits to a new low. The memory stick was gone too.
He had a copy—but all her changes, everything she had worked on and fixed over the past few days, were gone. She hadn’t even thought to back it up to the cloud for safety.
When she had collected herself together, she returned to the coffee shop, wanting to be somewhere warm and inside, and made the call.
“Hey, Izzy. Is it done?”
She wanted to tell him, but somehow couldn’t find it in herself to say it. “Almost,” she managed, swallowing and pushing down the white lie. It would soon become the whopping big mother of all lies.
He sounded happy and told her he was looking forward to seeing what she’d done.
“Are you at home?”
“I’m knee-deep in paperwork.”
“I’d better let you go.”
“Can you email me the final document?”
“Sure.”
She hadn’t had the heart, or the guts, to tell him. Instead, she turned up at his apartment block and pressed the buzzer.
~ ~ ~
Sweet Jesus.
For a second he thought he heard the sound of his buzzer.
Couldn’t be.
He grunted like an animal as he released, jerking off in the bathroom. He hung his head on his chest, letting the heady sensation engulf him from head to toe. This what was what happened when he wasn’t getting any action. It was having a serious effect on his day to day moods.
He heard the buzzer again, but he decided to ignore it, preferring to come down slowly from his high.
But when the buzzer sounded continued, he was forced to clean up quickly, then rushed out to answer it.
“Yes?” he shouted into the intercom.
“You’re in,” she said. “I thought you’d gone out.”
“Izzy?” Fuckity fuck. Had she mentioned that she was coming over? He was sure he’d told her to email the damn document. “What is it?”
“Uh. Could I come in?”
He rubbed his forehead, not needing this interruption, but she was here now. “Yes.” He pressed the button, letting her into the building. And waited.
