Unexpected

Chapter Thirteen

Kai waited patiently for Cinder to contact him to hang out again. In the meantime, he busied himself with the mountains of work that had piled up while he was in Beijing. It was a bit mundane, but Kai felt a new skip in his step since his night with Cinder at the crepe café. Basically everyone on his floor had a proposal or project that needed his attention or signature, among other issues that he had to attend to.

His father's press secretary called to ask him to give a comment for a particularly relentless reporter. The press secretary was all apologies and regret for not being able to get rid of her, but insisted that not offering a comment might actually make things worse. Apparently, this reporter had seen him dance with Cinder at the Masquerade, and wanted to know the identity of his "mystery fling." This news put him on immediate alert. Now was not the time to make Cinder run away screaming from fear of the paparazzi. Kai wanted to ignore his press secretary's advice, but being secretive now might cause them to keep digging. He decided to have his press secretary tell the reporter that he'd just had a good time with some friends, and he wasn't sure to which specific person they were referring, because he'd danced with a lot of women that night. His response was all lies, but regrettably, situations like this often called just for that.

Someone had also tried to hack into their servers while the senior staff was away, but Huy Deshal told an entire office of executives that Kai had made a wise choice in hiring Crescent Darnel. Not only had she blocked the hack, but she had also managed to implant a counter-virus which had led to the eventual location of the would-be hackers, and their consequent arrest. Apparently, it had gone so smoothly that Huy hadn't even felt the need to alert anyone about it until their return.

The mention of Crescent Darnel brought Kai's mind back to the last time he had seen Thorne. Had he actually decided to see Cress since the elevator incident, or had he just been messing with Kai? He'd seen how uptight Kai had been about it—maybe Thorne was just trying to give Kai a hard time. He texted Thorne to see if he wanted to get together that night, but Thorne simply replied:

Can't. Going to see about a new girl tonight.

There were a few suggestive emoticons attached to the text as well. Kai was pleased to see that Thorne had clearly moved on from Cress, and didn't give it another thought. He animatedly texted that he'd hung out with Cinder at the Creperie. Thorne sent him some more emoticons that made him very nearly blush before putting his phone away.

When Cinder finally called him a few days later, he was surprised that she didn't invite him to her house. Kai thought that this would be a given based on their conversation walking to his car. Hadn't she insisted that he see "how she lived" first? He decided it was better not to press the issue, and gladly accepted an invitation to go to lunch during Cinder's break. They went to lunch together a few times after that as well, which mostly involved them driving around while Kai talked. Cinder listened intently, and it seemed like she cared about what he had to say. Despite her jokes, something about her was reserved, but he didn't get the impression that she was shy. She was holding back, and he was determined to find out what. Until she was ready to share, though, he simply enjoyed her presence. He felt lighter after hanging out with her. Less intense. And certainly less like he was forty.

When he finally did see Thorne, all he could do was gush about the time he spent with Cinder. He dissected the details like a giddy little school girl. At least, that's what Thorne told him. But Kai didn't care. He was so...happy. And he knew Thorne was happy for him too. The smile he gave Kai was practically one of triumph.

When Kai was driving Cinder back to the garage one afternoon, she finally said, "Sunday I have off. You should come over then." He couldn't contain his grin, thrilled at the idea of getting not only the privilege of seeing her in her home environment, but also on the weekend. When Cinder saw him smiling, she reached out and gave his thigh a quick squeeze before returning the smile. Kai nearly drove off the road.