He smiled. "Oh, of course. Rian, do you have a preference?"
I glanced between him and Olivia, waiting for someone to shed some light on what was going on.
Olivia sat back and rolled her eyes. "Whenever Ollie does it, he tries to go really fancy, getting some Brazilian roast that has to be shipped in overnight from some obscure carrier in Rio or something. Usually no one ever drinks the coffee, and most of it goes to waste. You can get basic coffee, you know, Starbucks or something."
He scoffed. "Oh please. You recognize that East and Bridge have already gotten to me. Cured me of Starbucks."
I furrowed my brow. "What's wrong with Starbucks?"
He didn't look at me. "It's swill." I wasn’t sure if a look of derision would have been better.
I’d be damned if I was going to be the prima donna who wanted the fancy stuff. "Right, okay then. I don't really need coffee."
Olivia gave me a warm smile. "No, it's his turn to be bossed around. Make your order as fancy as possible."
I coughed back a laugh. "A chance to run Ollie ragged?” I clapped in mock glee. “I have been waiting for this moment for all of my life."
Ollie rolled his eyes. "What will it be, Rian, something sweet and frothy?"
Jackass. I shook my head. "No, I'll keep it simple. Just black coffee with sugar."
He lifted a brow and shifted in his seat, brushing my leg with his. "Wow, nothing's changed."
That small contact made my brain short out. Not that I read anything into that other than he liked to annoy me. "Nope. Nothing's changed."
Olivia frowned then. "What do you mean by that?"
Oh shit. But Ollie took her question in stride like he was used to lying by omission. He shook his head. "I just made fun of her coffee order on day one. I thought she would have expanded her horizons a little."
Olivia's gaze bounced back and forth between us. I dropped my eyes when I saw she was studying Ollie closely. I pinned my eyes to my laptop and did not bring them up until I was spoken to. "Okay, think you can handle that, Ollie?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I got it. And obviously, I'm sorry that Rian got stuck doing it too many times. You know, I just had some business for Bridge and Ben, couldn't help it."
She lifted a brow. "Uh-huh, just make sure that we're keeping things even. While Rian is learning, she's not your personal assistant, all right?"
Ollie clamped his jaw shut, and I reveled in the way the muscle in his jaw ticked.
When time for the meeting rolled around, I was surprised when he handed me my coffee and it was exactly how I liked it. No cream, lots of sugar. But the joke was on me because thirty minutes into the meeting, I was shaking. I was sensitive to caffeine. I knew it. Moreover, Ollie knew it. Max used to like to show how sophisticated he was when I'd come and hang out, and he'd go and get me coffee from the fancy Italian place down the street. I always complained that I couldn't take all the caffeine. Max used to make fun of me, and Ollie had seen my reaction. He remembered. What the hell had he put in my coffee?
After the meeting I charged after him. "You did that on purpose."
"I don't know what you're on about."
"You know, Ollie."
"No, honestly I don't, is there a problem, Rian?" His fingers reached out and traced along a wave in my thick hair.
"What did you do to my coffee?"
"I didn't do anything to you or your coffee. Although don't you wish I would?"
My hands balled into fists, and I had to greatly resist the urge to hit him. Not that I'd do much damage, but God, how satisfying it would be.
"You have got to be kidding me. What did you do?"
"It's not my fault you like espresso. It's bound to make you jittery."
"You really mean to tell me you don't remember? You know I can't drink espresso."
He stopped and turned to face me, eyes wide with shock. "What? Was I supposed to remember that? Remember, I don't know you. So how would I know that?"
"Are you fucking with me?"
I kept my voice tight and hushed. Anyone walking by would think we were having perhaps a tense conversation, but they wouldn't be able to hear us. With every whisper we got quieter, but the words were harsher. "You did this on purpose."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about. But in the meantime, Kensington thought I did a fantastic job on the pitch for the theme, right? I mean, honestly it was great, wasn't it?"
I stared at him. "You sabotaged me on purpose."
His fingers rubbed over the silken wayward lock of hair once more. "Good luck proving it."
And I could only watch in fury as he sauntered away, trouser pants hugging his ass tight. I wanted to kill him.
No, I wanted vengeance. Killing would be too fast. Besides, he wanted to see me lose my temper. Wanted to see me lose control. Well, it wasn't going to happen. He wasn't in charge here. I was. I could do whatever the hell I wanted. I was in control of my life. Me. No one else. He would not get the better of me. And I certainly wasn't running. He was going to have to try a lot harder than that to get rid of me.
Rian
It wasn't until later that evening when I finally started to come down from the coffee infusion.
God, I was going to kill him. I hated him so much.
I had ordered take-away and left Miriam a note to come find me when she got home. I was left with too much time to think things through. Ollie wasn’t going to let up. We didn't like each other, true, but for the most part, I hadn't fucked with him yet.
The operative word here is yet.
I didn't want to stoop to his level.
Who are you kidding? You want to make him pay.
I did. But tonight wasn't about that. I'd been putting this off for too long, knowing full well I needed to make the call.
I pulled up my contacts, and the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention as I dialed. When my aunt's soft voice came over the line, I had to clear my throat and find a way around the frog that had lodged itself in there. "Aunt Hannah?"
There was a beat of silence. "Rian?"
"Yes, it's me, Rian. I am so happy to talk to you."
My aunt was silent for a beat. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to let you know I was in London, and I thought maybe we could see each other?"
The long, long, pregnant pause that followed had my palms sweating. There'd been a time when Aunt Hannah and I were thick as thieves. She'd been so excited to have me come and stay with her. We'd gone shopping and exploring and done all the things that you should do in London. We'd had a full food-travel tour where she'd taken me to all her favorite places to eat from around the world, and the rule was we couldn't repeat one. It was everything that I could have wanted. Finally, she said, "Rian, I don't think that's a good idea."
"I just... I'm sorry, Aunt Hannah. I thought maybe we could just have a coffee or something. I want to talk to you and explain. I know there are things that you believe, things you think I did. But I just want you to know that I am—"
"Rian, enough. I just... Sweetheart, I can't. I can't see you."