Page 24 of Money Reigns
***
She’s late.
By four minutes.
I know because I’ve been here eight. Standing in the lobby like I don’t own the fucking building. Like I’m not the reason every suit in this place stops to breathe different.
Security nods at me. People glance, then glance away. No one speaks.
Finally.
She walks in through the front doors like she doesn’t feel me watching.
Head down. Bag clutched to her side. Not rushing, even though she’s late, but not dragging her feet either, just… existing.
Polite. Soft. Invisible.
To everyone else.
But not to me.
My jaw grinds as I watch her.
The moment her heels click against the marble, I feel it in my spine.
She’s wearing that same navy skirt. The one that hugs her like a goddamn secret. Hair still damp from the shower. She smells like sugar and warm vanilla.
Like a drug store perfume.
Cheap.
Like she tried to make herself unremarkable.
Like she tried to disappear.
But I see her.
Ialwaysfucking see her.
Her eyes lift. Find me.
A small hitch in her breath. Subtle. But not subtle enough.
“Good morning, Mr. Beaumont,” she says, smoothing her perfect voice into something professional.
It irritates me.
Not the greeting.
The distance.
Mr. Beaumontlike I’m just a name on a door. Like I don’t think about her when I shouldn’t. Like I haven’t memorized the goddamn cadence of her laugh when she’s withhim.
Still—I let it go.
For now.
“Good morning, Ms. Baker.”
