“One drink.” Jonah searched for a stern expression and plastered it on his face. “You’re not dragging me to that gin pub again. I don’t have time for that kind of hangover.”
“But it’s Christmas, boss.”
“Onedrink.”
Carl snorted and wheeled away to give the team the good news.
Jonah watched him go, torn between amusement and irritation that he still couldn’t see Sacha’s face. He fiddled with the coffee machine some more, changing the filter, and setting it up for whoever came to it next with the Christmas coffee Sacha had supplied that morning. It was from a specialist shop in Chelsea, close to Jonah’s flat. He wondered if Sacha lived there too—he’d never said, and Jonah hadn’t got round to asking. In fact, he didn’t know much about Sacha at all, save that he called a Christmas tree ayolka.
The Blutecc meeting broke up. People drifted back to their desks. Sacha migrated to the back and Jonah finally caught a glimpse of his face, his features cut into severe lines. He opened a drawer and reached for something. His frown deepened, and he shut the drawer again with more force than seemed necessary and disappeared into the nearby alcove, leaving Jonah with the distinct impression that he could do with a drink.
I can fix that.
Jonah returned to his office and shut down for the day. He packed his laptop into his bag, slung his coat over his arm, and made for the exit, slowing only when he reached the sliding door to the Blutecc side of the office. He reached for the handle, but Carl reappeared before he got there, and clapped him on the shoulder. “Ready?”
“Think so. Go ahead without me, though. I just need to check I switched the coffee machine off.”
Carl stared like Jonah had grown antenna on his head. “Since when do you do that?”
“Since now.Go.”
Jonah gave Carl a gentle shove. He was close enough to him, and perhaps Nico, that he considered them friends, but until they left the office, he was their boss, and Carl knew it.
He left. Jonah considered the Blutecc door, and then the team members still hunched over their desks, clearly dealing with a crisis. What was he about to do? March through them and ask their boss out for a drink?
Leave it. He’ll find you if he wants to.
But would he? Jonah tried to picture Sacha showing up at his apartment unannounced with a pizza and a bottle of wine, and just couldn’t do it. The simplest solution was to lift Sacha’s contact details from the Blutecc wall of fame, but that felt wrong too. If Sacha had wanted Jonah to have that information he’d have handed it over by now…right?
Jonah had no idea. Sacha was no ordinary man, and if Jonah didn’t want Carl to come back for him, he was running out of time to fret over it.
Mind made up—kind of—he backtracked to the coffee machine and propped his business card against it, close to the mugs, hoping Curtis wouldn’t find it first and throw it away. Then he left, forcing himself to keep his gaze to himself and not sweep it around the Blutecc office one last time. There were only two ways this could go: Sacha would call, or he wouldn’t, and Jonah resigned himself to spending the rest of night pondering which way it would go.
He was twenty feet from the office when his phone buzzed.
Unknown number:later, Jonah Gray.
8
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Helga asked Sacha again. “This place has the best vodka in the city, at least that I can afford, and you’ve been saying you need one all day.”
Sacha shook his head, only half listening as he poked at his phone on the descent to the ground floor. “I have vodka at home. I don’t need to waste my money on someone else’s opinion of what is good.”
“So come and be social then. It might make your grim reaper impersonation at staff meetings less traumatic.”
Sacha sighed and pocketed his phone, still waiting on Jonah to send his current location. “Traumatic for who? I am not traumatised.”
“I meant the rest of us. You’ve got everyone running scared that they’ll be made redundant before Christmas.”
“They will be if we do not make our deadline. And they should be scared. If they are not, they should work somewhere else.” Sacha was bored of saying it. In fact, today, he was bored with his own voice entirely, especially as no one seemed to be listening.Why would I want to spend more time with these people?Helga aside, he stood by his initial assessment of them.They’re all idiots.“I cannot come with you,” he stated. “Even if I wanted to, I have other plans.”
“With who?”
“Why do you care, Helga?”
“I don’t.” Helga’s gaze flickered as close to humour as her stern, beautiful features ever got. “I’m just curious about whoever has you itching to get your phone out again. I’ve never seen you text and smile at the same time.”
“You’ve known me a matter of weeks. You have never seen me do many things.”