For Richer, For Poorer （To Have or To Hold, Book Two）

CHAPTER 8

　　My head was still in a whirl of working out Jace as well – why was he now offering to sort out the legal side of getting shut of my old home? His mood swings gave me whiplash. It seemed that he didn’t want me, yet always wanted to help me, if that made any sense at all. Perhaps he had some sort of ‘hero complex’. It probably made him feel all powerful. Or maybe he just cared for me in a ‘friendzone’ way, but it didn’t help to take my emotions along for the ride.

　　Sighing and finishing up my fifth coffee of the day, I started to file the papers away that were on my desk. I hadn’t paid a blind bit of attention to anyone around me today, and as I was gathering the papers up from my desk, was suddenly aware of someone standing next to my workstation.

　　Looking up, it was the man that had been with Jace this morning, and I snapped out of my trance to give him a brief smile of wonderment.

　　“Hello,” he greeted, stood with his suitcase in one hand, and the other hand flipped under his jacket suit in his trouser pocket.

　　“Hi,” I replied in a bemused fashion, looking at him a bit strangely.

　　That’s when I noticed Jace in the background, emerging through the office door and watching the scene unfold.

　　“My name’s Theo,” he introduced, outstretching his hand to me.

　　“Becca,” I replied, taking his hand in mine and lightly shaking it.

　　“I know that this isn’t the best time or place to be doing this, but I was wondering if I could take you out for a drink tonight? Nothing heavy, because I understand that we both have work in the morning.” He shyly smiled, ducking his head down.

　　Ordinarily, because I was so tired, I would’ve said no and made up an excuse, but seeing as Jace was watching everything that was going on, yet pretending to do something else in the background, I decided to accept the offer of a drink.

　　“Yes, that sounds nice.” I smiled, ducking down and grabbing a post-it note, before writing my address and phone number on it. “This is where I live,” I continued, handing it to him.

　　“Great.” He smiled, looking quite relieved. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

　　“Lovely, I can’t wait,” I half-lied, wondering if I could go for a drink in my PJ’s and slippers.

　　Tucking the post-it note into his inner pocket, Theo gave me one last smile before moving away to leave the office. Spotting Jace in the distance, his face was like thunder, before gathering up a file and exiting the office through a different door. He didn’t want me, so what was I supposed to do? Live like some Nun for the rest of my days? That wasn’t going to happen.

　　Placing my work belongings away and taking hold of my bag, I thought over the prospect of a drink with Theo, and to be fair, he did seem like a genuinely nice guy – for all of the five minutes that I had known him. At least he wasn’t some weirdo, as he had been in meetings with Jace for most of the day.

　　Now there was a thought – the guy I was going on a date with, sitting with the guy that I had been sleeping with. I’d never been so in demand. In a sense it was quite liberating, and it was nice to reclaim some of my misspent youth that I’d wasted on Scott, and was good to keep my options open. I was a young, successful woman, and I should’ve been able to have my pick of the lot.

　　Getting back home, I was glad to see that the apartment was in one piece, and that Kitty hadn’t gone all feral on me. I was dreading the fact that she may have trashed the place in my absence, but luckily all was well.

　　“Mama’s got a date tonight,” I explained to Kitty, filling up her food and water bowl.

　　Kitty, with her translucent green eyes, looked up at me with a sense of not even being remotely arsed about my date, and I did kind of feel the same way about it.

　　Heading off to get changed, I had a good mind to put my joggers and a t-shirt on, but being a non-scruff, placed a pair of smart trousers and a nice top on instead. It was only a drink, and I was hardly going to be wearing an evening gown for it.

　　Willing myself to feel remotely awake, I made sure I had everything in my clutch bag, and I was ready, and sort of raring, to go. At seven o’clock, Theo buzzed to get into the building, and I pressed the button to allow him to get to the front door. It was nice that he was prompt and on time. There was nothing worse than a guy who was sloppy with his timekeeping.

　　“You look lovely,” Theo complimented, handing me a bunch of flowers.

　　“Thank you. Step in,” I replied, passing him a smile and locating yet another vase to quickly place my second lot of flowers in.

　　“Aw, you’ve got a cat,” he spoke in the backdrop, as Kitty rubbed herself up his ankles.

　　“Yeah, she’s a recent addition,” I explained, fixing up the flowers in the vase. “She landed on my doorstep a couple of days ago, and decided that she didn’t want to leave.”

　　“Cats tend to do that. I had a ginger Tom once, and he was a stray that wandered into my parent’s house,” he continued, bending down to stroke Kitty.

　　“Are we ready?” I smiled, venturing back over to him.

　　“Yes, let’s go.”

　　Taking my arm in his, we left the apartment building and got into Theo’s flash car that was waiting in the carpark. It was certainly a step up from Scott’s Volvo, although it was a bit of a step down from Jace’s Ferrari. Having said that, it was nice to have attention off guys with money – I certainly wasn’t used to it, and it was nice to be taken out in style.

　　Heading to a swanky wine bar that was located a few streets away, Theo parked up the car and we both headed inside. Around the posh and shiny exterior of the glossy bar, were some bar stools, so we both took a seat and Theo ordered our drinks.

　　Opting for a glass of white wine, I was only having one or two and then it would be water for me. At the rate of the tiredness that was still seeping over me, I would be on the floor if I had any more to drink than that.

　　“So, tell me about yourself,” Theo began the conversation, sipping his shandy.

　　“What do you want to know?” I chuckled, thinking that he wasn’t the only male that seemed to ask me those sort of questions.

　　“How long have you been at Morgan Estates?”

　　Okay, not too intrusive, which made a change.

　　“Not long. I only started a few weeks ago,” I replied, gingerly sipping my wine and wishing I didn’t have to drink it at all.

　　“I thought I hadn’t seen you around before,” he filled in.

　　“If you don’t mind me asking, in what capacity were you at Morgan Estates today?” I asked, figuring it would be nice to get a little bit of information out of somebody.

　　“I’m Jace’s, or Mr. Morgan’s, financial adviser.”

　　“Ah right, I see,” I replied, trying to be all cool about it. “You were there a long time. Is everything okay?”

　　“Ooh, trying to figure out what’s going on behind enemy lines?” Theo chuckled.

　　“Something like that.” I smiled back.

　　“Everything will be fine. Just a few hiccups in certain departments, but I can’t say much more than that. Confidentiality and all that lot.” He winked.

　　“Of course.” I nodded, feeling disappointed that I couldn’t find out more about Jace’s business, because he seemed to know enough about mine. “How long have you known Mr. Morgan?” I wondered, trying to look all innocent about the question.

　　“A few years. Mainly in a work capacity. I took over from the guy who used to run the company I work for. I don’t know, I find him to be…” He looked at me, and I could see that he was about to divulge too much.

　　“Aloof? Strange? Stand-off-ish?” I chuckled.