"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Jennifer," I replied, forcing myself to sound vaguely polite.
"Well good. It's good to keep in touch with our clients, don't you think? Speaking of which," she nodded at the older gentleman standing next to her, "this is Mr Chardy. He's the head of development at Marvin Lemac. We've been handling their fraud case."
I gritted my teeth. She had the most frustrating habit of making out that nobody else knew what was going on around the office except her. "I know who you are," I said to him, holding out my hand. "I'm Sophia Pearce. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise."
The others introduced themselves.
"Sophia, Elle, and Miles here are all part of our junior associate team," Jennifer continued. "I know when you meet with us it might seem like it's just me or Alan handling your case, but we really couldn't do what we do without these guys. They're the ones doing all the grunt work."
"Well you've done an excellent job so far," Chardy said.
I nodded in thanks, not trusting myself to speak. Backhanded compliments were Jennifer's speciality.
She glanced around the room. "Well anyway, it's been lovely chatting to you, but I want to introduce Joseph here to a few more people. You know how it is; so many Partners, so little time. Have a good night."
Taking his arm she led him off into the crowd.
"Well, she didn't seem that bad," Miles said, when she was out of earshot.
"Are you kidding?" Elle replied. "That smile was so sweet I think I threw up a little in my mouth."
"Have either of you actually done any work on the Marvin Lemac case?" I asked. They both shook their heads. "Exactly. She didn't need to introduce him at all. It was just another excuse to gloat." I threw back the rest of my champagne in a single long sip. "Fucking 'grunt work' indeed. I could strangle that bitch."
"It sounded like a compliment to me," Miles said quietly.
Elle and I looked at one another before bursting out laughing. "You have a lot to learn about this place," I told him. "Anyway, after that, I think I could use another drink. Back in a sec."
I could see my plans for a dry night evaporating before my eyes, but if that meeting was a sign of things to come, I'd need all the help I could get. Little did I know things were about to get even worse.
"What can I get you?" said the guy behind the bar.
And for the second time in as many days, someone answered for me. "She'll have a Cosmo. And get me another beer."
I rolled my eyes. "Actually, I'll have a glass of Shiraz," I said, turning to frown at my new companion. Taylor had started on my floor a year earlier, and since day one, he'd been trying to lure me into bed. I might have taken it as a compliment, if he hadn't done the same thing to every woman in the office. Sadly, many of them fell for it.
Objectively, I guess he was good looking, in that blonde, bulky, frat boy kind of way, but he was such a gigantic ass that I found it impossible to see anything else. His daddy was some big hedge fund type who was friends with everybody, so Taylor spent his entire life coasting around on his enormous sense of entitlement. I think it annoyed him that I was so resistant to his 'charms', although he'd never say it.
"If you're going to order for a girl, at least pay attention to what she's drinking, genius."
He gave a little laugh. "Hey, I was just trying to be friendly. Do you always bite guys' heads off when they try to buy you drinks?"
"This is the company bar, so you're not buying me anything."
He flashed a smile that he probably thought was seductive. "Not here I'm not."
I exhaled sharply. "Not anywhere."
"Come on Sophia, at least hear me out. It's no secret you hate these things, so what say you and I get out of here? My dad owns this sweet little wine bar just a block from my apartment. We could drink whatever we want, on the house. No Cosmos there, I promise."
I had to give him points for persistence, but at that moment I really just wished he'd disappear.
I looked him straight in the eyes and grazed my teeth slowly across my bottom lip in that way that guys seem to love. "Close to your apartment, hey?"
His face lit up. "That's right."
"What about your dad? Does he live nearby too?"
He blinked several times in confusion. "My dad?"
"Yeah. I mean if we're drinking on the house, that would mean it's really him buying me drinks. It'd feel kind of rude going home with someone else after that."
His expression crumbled, and I gave myself a little internal high five.
"Well, we could go somewhere else if you like..." he said lamely.
And then someone else spoke from behind me. "I don't think she's going anywhere with you." My heart turned a cartwheel in my chest.
Even before I looked, I recognised the voice; low and strong and smooth as caramel. For a moment I was overcome by a powerful sense of deja vu, but it passed as the reality of the situation came crashing into me.
"Hello Sophia," Sebastian said, sliding in next to me. "It's lovely to see you again."
I stared at him with wide eyes, my tongue frozen in shock. He was the last person in the world I'd ever expected to see again. But there he was in front of me, smiling like he hadn't caught me huddled in his office cupboard just a day earlier.
Taylor wasn't so easily rattled. He rocked back on his heels, an incredulous smile blooming on his face. "Hey buddy, we're having a conversation here."
Sebastian's eyes flicked to him. There was no anger there. If anything, he looked vaguely amused. "No, you're harassing a girl who quite clearly wants to be left alone."
Taylor bristled. "And I suppose she'd rather be talking to you?"
"She'd rather be doing a lot of things."
It was my turn to bristle, but nobody was paying any attention to me anymore. It was like I'd disappeared. They loomed up from either side of me, staring at one another as though they could make their adversary's head explode through sheer force of will. It was almost comical really, but laughter was about as far out of reach for me as humanely possible at that moment.
"Is that right?" Taylor asked, his jaw tightening. "And just who might you be, friend?" He gave that last word a sharp accent.