CHAPTER 10: What Happened To You
1069 Words
Andra's feet were cold inside her heels as she swiped her staff identity card over the biometric scanner in the lobby of The Langston Line corporate block that morning.
The past forty-eight hours felt like a dream she desperately wanted to wake up from. She wished she could. Maybe, if she wished it hard enough, it would be true.
“Morning, Andra,” one of the very junior staff who was a regular beneficiary of her culinary ambitions greeted as she walked past him on her way to the elevator.
She heard him only faintly and turned to acknowledge him with a very weak smile. He stared at her weirdly.
“Andra, is something wrong?” he asked. Then she realised she had abruptly stopped walking and was standing in a spot, staring at him for no apparent reason.
“What?” She asked, then seemed to recollect herself.
“Oh…no, I'm fine. Just a bit distracted, that's all.”
He grinned at her. “Better fix it before he comes in.”
There was no need to clarify who ‘he’ was. She smiled. “Of course, ummm…”
She realised with shock that she couldn't remember his name.
“I'll get to my floor. See you around.”
She turned and hurried to the elevator before he would pick up that she had forgotten his name.
In the private elevator that rode straight up to the 35th floor, Andra leaned back against the wall, the chill from the stainless steel seeping through her beige-coloured silk shirt.
She turned her face away from the mirror opposite her, and tried to think. But the elevator rode too fast and soon she heard the ping as the doors slid open.
She stepped out onto the executive floor, walking mechanically. Her knees had felt brittle since those two red lines, like they would fold any moment.
She hoped her face wasn't betraying her. She went to her office, relieved that Lucas wasn't in yet, although she knew he wouldn't be. He didn't usually arrive at the office before her.
She wasn't sure how well she'd answer if he asked her why she called him repeatedly at 3 a.m. and then didn't answer when he called back. She had no explanation for herself either.
As she sorted through the files on his desk in the inner office, Andra got her mind busy. So, she was pregnant. That was a fact that wasn't going anywhere, at least not anytime soon.
One night, she had been in bed with Nate, glowing from the reality of her engagement as she told him she wanted to stop the pill. He had agreed without much debate. The next morning she was throwing away the bottle of her birth control pills. It had seemed so easy to do.
Now, three months later, she was alone with a pregnancy and she wasn't sure who was responsible. Her engagement to Nate had lasted for all of one month before he found out about her side job and sent her to hell.
The night before he broke up with her, she had been off duty at the club and they had spent the night together. They hadn't used protection.
And she slept with Lucas the very next night, unprotected as well.
Andra plodded into her seat at her desk, her eyes blank. What had she been thinking?
Bile rose in her throat as the door opened to let Lucas in. She swallowed it down, trying to get a smile in place.
“Good morning, sir,” she greeted.
Lucas smiled in response. “How are you, Andra?”
“Very well, sir, and you?”
“Can't complain.” He smiled again.
He was without the usual armour of black or gray, dressed instead in a sparkling white shirt with his hair not exactly groomed that morning. Andra felt…lighter, seeing him that way.
She caught herself smiling before she quickly turned back to her desk. The mild sunlight suddenly felt brighter and warmer.
Andra was writing furiously in a notebook, listing costs and inevitable expenses she would have to handle if she was going to have a baby, when the door opened to let Imogen in.
She looked breathtaking, wearing a flattering, form-fitting blue dress and her blond hair in a sleek, damp look.
Andra squinted her eyes in thought.
“Good morning, Ms. Smyth. You aren't scheduled to see Mr. Langston during his office hours today,” she said.
Imogen smiled sweetly. “That doesn't apply to me. Didn't Lucas tell you I'm his girlfriend?”
Andra pursed her lips into a tight line and didn't reply. She turned her attention back to her calculation, listening to the clink of Imogen's heels as she went into Lucas's office.
She tried her level best to keep from looking up and into the office to see what was going on, but she could restrain herself no longer when she espied Lucas striding towards the entrance door.
He snapped the blinds at the glass panel shut. Andra made a face, but her attention was again taken by the calculations before her.
A few minutes later, the door opened and Imogen walked out.
She avoided eye contact with Andra, her steps composed. But Andra could see the colour that had flared on her cheeks and how her face was as tough as nails.
A moment later, the intercom beeped. “Come in here,” Lucas said simply.
She braced herself and went in. He was reclining in his chair, arms propped by his sides.
“Who handles my schedule?” His voice was surprisingly calm.
“I do.”
“Was Ms. Smyth on it?”
Andra could taste her breakfast in the back of her throat.
“No.” Her voice was strained.
Lucas leaned forward sharply. “So why was she in my office just now?”
Andra opened her mouth to reply but suddenly felt faint, as if she was wearing someone's medicated glasses.
She moved her arms about, seeking a surface to hold on to. The room tilted sideways.
The blackout happened, but she didn't hit the floor. Instead she crashed into a firm figure, smelling of a woody oud that brought on another wave of nausea when the darkness cleared from her eyes.
Lucas's eyes were boring into the top of her head.
“What happened to you?”
- Writer
