Page 22 of Fighting Fate

With that thought, she reached for her keyboard again, and logged into her personal cloud storage. It had been a few years since she last updated her resumé, she’d been promoted since and taken on all kinds of new responsibilities. Time to make sure she looked as appealing as possible to her prospective new employers.

CHAPTER NINE

BUSY with work, Rosie completely lost track of time. It wasn’t until she found herself squinting in low light to read the text on a printed form that she looked around and realised the sun was almost below the horizon, the light coming in through the window beside her desk fading fast.

Which meant it was already after six, she thought, and she needed to pack it in, go have a shower and get ready for Adam to pick her up.

A ball of excitement knotted in her stomach at the thought, and she reached to shut down her computer with slightly unsteady fingers.

Nadiya was just picking up her things at her desk as Rosie left her office, and everyone else had already gone for the day. They walked out together, Rosie checking that the locks engaged automatically behind them. The Personnel offices were swipe-card access only, restricted to the staff who worked in them because of the confidential records kept there.

“Want to go get some dinner?” Nadiya suggested as they made their way downstairs. They’d have to pass by the staff dining room to return to the staff quarters, so Rosie supposed it made sense that they could eat before going back.

“I’m meeting someone, actually,” she said.

Nadiya gave her a quizzical sideways glance. “A man? A date?”

“Yeah,” Rosie admitted. “You don’t know him,” when Nadiya made a gimme gesture, inviting her to continue. “And no, he’s not a resort guest. Staying in one of the private villas.”

“Well.” Nadiya grinned at her. “You move on fast, huh? Well, have a good time!”

“I intend to!” Rosie gave her a quick wave and sped up her steps, hurrying down the path to the staff cabins. She needed to hurry or she wouldn’t really have time for more than a speedy shower.

Jill was in the small living room they shared, and immediately demanded details of the previous evening’s date.

“I’m meeting him at seven outside reception,” Rosie cut her off. “He’s not a resort guest, either. He’s staying in one of the villas.”

“Really!” Jill followed Rosie into her room. “Come on, you can fill me in while you have a shower and get ready,” she said, when Rosie tried to shoo her out. “Let me pick out something for you to wear.”

Rosie gave up and headed for the bathroom. As she washed off hastily, she called out answers to Jill’s rapid-fire questions as best she could, filling her friend in on everything she knew about Adam. She’d resisted the temptation to do more research on him, knowing well that what was on the internet might be a long way from reality, considering his celebrity status. Her innate sense of fairness just wouldn’t let her do it, anyway, knowing that he couldn’t do similar research on her. They’d just have to get to know each other the old-fashioned way.

Wrapping a towel around herself, Rosie went back into the bedroom to find Jill had emptied half her wardrobe onto the bed.

“You’re putting all this back when I’ve gone,” Rosie warned.

“You should be putting most of it in the donation bag for the charity shop, or tearing it up for rags!” Jill held up a cotton dress so old it was almost shapeless, the hem half down, the fabric worn thin and nearly transparent. “What is this?”

Laughing sheepishly, Rosie grabbed the dress off the hanger, balled it up and shoved it in the bin. “All right, all right, I do need to have a wardrobe clean out. But not right now, okay? I’ve got to be outside front reception in fifteen minutes.”

“You’d better do your face, then. And put this on.” Jill shoved a hanger at her, and Rosie frowned.

“That one? I don’t know…” It was a dress she’d been given, a turquoise silk sheath she’d worn at her friend Lucy’s wedding a few months ago.

“You were absolutely stunning in it, and you haven’t worn it since. Put it on.” Jill pulled a pair of strappy tan sandals from the bottom of the closet and waved those at her. “And these.”

“You’re so bossy,” Rosie said, without any heat in it, as Jill set the shoes down and started poking through her makeup. With a sigh, Rosie started digging through her underwear drawer to find the bra she needed to wear with the dress, secretly not unhappy to be wearing the pretty pale blue silk plunge.

“I’m just confident in my decision-making,” Jill said airily, moving around Rosie to pull up her zip. “Here, give me your eyeliner. I’ll be quicker than you.”

“You’ve also got a much heavier hand than me. No thanks.” Rosie held onto the pencil. “Why don’t you start hanging my stuff back up while I do this?”

Jill sighed as though put-upon, but did start picking up the mess she’d made after Rosie gave her a pointed look. “Will you be coming back tonight?” she asked, apparently casually.

“I don’t know,” Rosie admitted. “Don’t wait up.”

“I’m not your mother,” Jill laughed at that. “But that said… just in case I need to send out a search party…”

“I don’t know exactly which villa number it is, but it’s the one owned by Tad O’Dell. Shouldn’t be too hard for you to track down if you need to.”

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