Idolatry

“Win?” her boss said.

She just nodded.

“Great” Cole said with a smile. “I have a meeting with a new client tonight and she insists on it being a dinner meeting.  I get the feeling she may be interested in more than business though and I want to discourage her. I thought that if she turned up and we were having a working dinner anyway she wouldn’t be tempted to make things difficult.”

Win’s smile faded. Of course he just wanted her as a buffer. She had got her hopes up for nothing, stupid Win. She should have known better. Still her disappointment wasn’t enough for her to say no to him. Looking down at the desk she said “okay.”

“We’ll go straight from work” he said with a bright smile that she caught sight of when she glanced up. He added “that way it will look like we were already working.”

Win looked down at her hands on the desk again “okay” she said.

“Thanks Win” he said “I won’t forget this.”

“I’m happy to help” she said in a tone that was anything but happy. She flicked her eyes up and he gave her a warm smile before heading to his office.

For the rest of the afternoon Win wondered why Cole had asked her to go to dinner. He wasn’t normally opposed to mixing business with pleasure so the reason he was keeping his distance this time had to be the woman herself. She couldn’t help but wonder what she would be like.