What Nobody Knew

Part 18

I cleared my throat causing Ian and Julie's eyes to land on me again. I had to fight the smile that wanted to creep onto my face.

"Ian, I would like to introduce you to my sister, Julie."

They shook hands whilst exchanging nice-to-meet-yous.

"We were just about to sit down for lunch, would you like to join us?" I offered.

He looked down at his watch before answering.

"I really wish I could," he looked directly at Julie, "honestly. But, unfortunately, I have a skype meeting starting in 10 minutes. Maybe some other time?" 

The last question wasn't directed at me.

"Oh, yes, of course." A blush was spreading across her cheeks.

"Until then." He grinned at Julie, "Goodbye Elizabeth." He nodded at me and with that he left the room.

Julie sneaked a glance at his retreating form as we walked towards our table. 

We sat down and I sipped my coffee, studying Julie. She hadn't noticed, she was too deep in her thoughts.

She finally looked up and noticed me smiling at her.

"What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?" She started dabbing at her face randomly.

"Oh no, it's nothing, just seemed like you had something on your mind that you wanted to share," I said with a knowing smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She tried shrugging off my comment, but her cheeks once again betrayed her.

She tried to cover it up by busying herself with eating her wrap.

I kept smiling at her until she budged.

"Who was that?" She asked, avoiding eye contact.

"Well, that was Ian, you know that silly." I teased.

Julie smiled, making eye contact again.

"You really enjoy teasing me, don't you?"

"I really do, yes." I took another sip of my coffee.

That was a good cuppa joe.

"Ian works at Knight Inc. I don't know the details of what it is that he does, but as far as I can tell, he's pretty high up. This is judging from his demeanour, expensive suits and the fact that he has his own Elizabeth running around arranging everything for him."

"He seems quite nice." She said absentmindedly.

In translation, Julie is completely smitten with him. She's never been very expressive about her feelings. Throughout the years I've learned to look for the small signs that betray her emotions.

"He is, he's one of the few kind people I've met here. His only negative quality is that he chooses his friends very poorly."

"Why would you say that?"

"Apparently he and Mr Knight are very close friends. Until he said it, I would never have guessed. They are such opposites that it seems completely incomprehensible."

Had I known they were such close friends from the beginning, I would probably never have spoken to him as casually as I had. But, he was nice enough and didn't seem to find my manor unprofessional, so maybe it was for the best that I didn't know from the start.

"I think that in and of itself should be proof that maybe Mr Knight isn't quite as bad as you thought him to be."

I looked at her uncertainly.

"I don't know Julie. Ian is nice and all, but I find it a lot easier to believe that he's a poor judge of character than Mr Knight being a pleasant person underneath the surface."

We continued talking about more light-hearted subjects, from what I still had to do today to what Julie's plans were for the next couple of months (she was leaving again for Italy in six months). 

We finished lunch and when Julie left, I was once again alone in Mr Knight's huge office.

...

Another week passed by uneventfully. If I thought it was terrible at the end of the first week of Mr Knight being gone, this week was even worse. I never thought he would be away for this long and without even once making contact while he was away. I was starting to itch.

This job wasn't exactly all that stimulating without new tasks being loaded onto me to do or without meetings that needed to be organized. I was too productive, which I never thought to be a bad thing. But, I have streamlined my routine so well, that by 12 o'clock there wasn't anything left for me to do.

That's why, by 1 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, I was busy sharpening all the pencils that I could find in the office. Yes, I was sharpening pencils.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

My phone rang and I picked it up by the second ring without checking the screen.

"Good afternoon, Elizabeth Bennet speaking."

I made a neat pile of all the pencils, arranging them from longest to shortest, before picking up the next pencil that needed sharpening.

"Good afternoon, Miss Bennet."

The point of the pencil snapped inside the sharpener.

Mr Knight.

"Afternoon, Mr Knight," I answered breathlessly.

I hadn't heard his voice in over two weeks, it all of a sudden sounded foreign to me.

"I'm flying back today. I want you to meet me at the airport at 6 o'clock. We have a lot of arrangements to get through for the Baxter launch." He went on in his business tone.

"Yes, of course, sir, I'll be there." 

"Goodbye, Miss Bennet."

"Goodbye, sir." 

He hung up.

At least he greeted me this time. Maybe he has forgotten about our argument by now. Of course, he has. Why would he be thinking about something that was probably a passing insignificance in his day? He was probably way too busy for that. Unlike myself, who has been left alone for way too long with my own thoughts. 

Only four and a half hours to go.

I felt excited, legit excited to see Mr Knight again. Which was insane. He irked me on so many levels. These few weeks of solitude have driven me mad.