Wild Honey

Chapter One

Honey peeped out her office door, across the shared hallway at the glass door of Holt Holdings Ltd.

Opportunity knocked on that door in the form of a soaked-to-the-skin courier.

A brown rectangular parcel tucked under one arm, the courier peered through the glass into Holt Holdings. He went for the door handle.

"Hi." Honey rushed into the hallway armed with her best smile. That package was her way into Holt Holdings, her nonconfrontational, ease-into-it conversation starter.

Dropping his hand, the courier blinked at her. "Hi?"

"Nomhle isn't in today. The executive assistant." She gestured to Holt Holdings. "She took the week off, what with the New Year falling midweek this year."

"Right." He nodded. A water droplet wriggled out from beneath his bike helmet and down the side of his face. Plastered to his chest, his shirt badge announced him as Winston. "I'm finding that everywhere."

"Right." Honey joined him in nodding. "I'm sure you are. Must make your job more difficult."

"Not really." Winston reached for the handle.

"I'm not sure anyone is in there." Lightning cracked outside in a cosmic objection to her barefaced lie. Oliver Holt was in there, and she needed to speak to him. Actually she needed to soften him up first and then speak to him, set the mood for effective dialogue.

Winston frowned at the door and then his package. "Oh."

"But I could take it for you." She winced at how eager she sounded and toned it down. "If that would help, I mean."

The package was addressed to Oliver Holt himself, even better. She now had a valid reason to knock on his office door and break the ice, the three feet of ice that constituted their relationship thus far.

"I'm not sure..." Winston frowned at the package. Water dripped from him to the brown paper. "I'm supposed to deliver them myself."

"Of course you are." Honey nodded vigorously. "And rightly so. Can't just go giving your packages away to any stranger on the street."

"Yes." Winston squared his shoulders. "I can leave it on a desk."

"No." Honey needed that package. "They keep the door locked when Nomhle's not at her desk."

Winston looked baffled.

She prayed to whatever deity happened to be listening that Winston wouldn't try the door.

His frown deepened. "I suppose I could leave it outside in the hallway."

"In Johannesburg?" Honey pulled a face. "That's asking someone to steal it. Let me take it." She got her fingers on the package. "I know them really well, and I'll make sure someone gets it."

"I don't know." Winston kept hold of the package.

"Storm's getting worse out there." Honey jerked her head at the floor-to-ceiling windows. "You want to get somewhere safe and dry."

Thunder grumbled and gave Winston the prod he needed. He pushed the package into her hands and then held up his little machine. "You need to sign for it."

Honey took the stylus and gave the man her mark. She fully intended to deliver the package and then engage Oliver Holt in meaningful dialogue, which would lead to her not losing her office lease in the building.

Waiting until Winston got into the lift, Honey gave him a little wave and then pushed open the door to Holt Holdings Ltd. The atmosphere in there rivaled the grim, roiling clouds brewing a massive Highveld storm outside.