Rules of Harte (Harte Series #1) (8 page)

______________
____

From:
[email protected]

To:
[email protected]

Cc
:
[email protected]

Subject:
Nice of you to join us.

Date
: Wed 15
th
July 09.51

Hi Eva,

Don’t worry about being late this morning. These things happen.

You can make the time up this evening.

Best,

Mia

Mia Sutton

Production Manager

Ignite Technologies

Block 6

Plaza Exchange

Dublin 2

Eva looked at her watch. She was almost an hour late. She had been at least a half an hour early all this week. Didn’t that make up for it? Of course not. And of course Mia wouldn’t hesitate to let the boss know about Eva’s tardiness. Eva grimaced. After the idiot she made of herself in his office, this was the last thing she needed; being the idiot who shows up an hour late.
Damn, today couldn’t start out much worse.

________________

From
: [email protected]

To
: [email protected]

Subject
: Coffee

Date
: Wed 15
th
July 09.22

Hi Eva.

I was getting one for myself and thought you might like some. It’s from the place across the road. Yikes - that place is posh. I put on a weird accent to sound more important when I was ordering. We still okay for later?

Nathan.

Nathan Shields

Software Developer

Ignite Technologies

Block 6

Plaza Exchange

Dublin 2

Later? Oh crap. She’d completely forgotten they were supposed to meet up after work. Eva looked at her outfit again. She couldn’t go out wearing that. She would have to make an excuse and cancel. She picked up the coffee waiting for her beside a large pile of papers to be filed. It was cold, and a horrible grey scum lined the top, but Eva couldn’t help smiling. No one had ever bought her coffee before, and posh coffee at that. Posh coffee was the best kind of coffee in the world, wasn’t it? It was long past drinkable but Eva didn’t throw it out. She felt more important than usual just having its cream paper cup beside her.

             
How could she blow Nathan off now? He didn’t deserve that just because she didn’t like what she was wearing. Maybe she could grab five minutes to dash out at lunch time and pick up a pair of trousers. It would have been nice if someone had taken the time to help her settle in when she was new.

_________________

From:
[email protected]

To
: [email protected]

Subject
: Good Morning

Date:
Wed 15
th
July 09.16

Good morning, beautiful. Did you enjoy last night’s game? I did.

You will need to give me your address.

I will pick you up at 6.45pm next Friday for the ball.

I look forward to it.

Yours,

Julian

He would pick her up? Eva nibbled on the edge of her nail. Julian’s emails turned her into a skittish school girl. Eva just assumed she’d meet him there. She instantly began to wonder what kind of car her drove
, and if he would want to be invited in first. It gave her so much to panic about. She definitely couldn’t meet Nathan after work now. She would have to clean her apartment. Eva took a large mouthful of coffee and almost turned green as the cold, tar-like substance swished around her mouth. She spat back into the cup with an unattractive bleugh noise that she just couldn’t keep in. Yuck, she protested, her tongue suddenly feeling furry. She kept her head down, too embarrassed to look up and find out who’d seen her practically throw up into her coffee cup.

__________________

To
: [email protected]

From
: [email protected]

Subject
: Apologies

Date
: Wed 15
th
July 10.05

Hi Mia.

I’m so sorry I was late this morning. It won’t happen again.

I’ll work through lunch to make it up.

All my best,

Eva.

Evangeline Andrews

Administrator

Ignite Technologies

Block 6

Plaza Exchange

Dublin 2

Stupid Mia, Eva thought angrily. She was angrier with herself. She didn’t have the nerve to stand up to Mia. No one did. Mia had free rein on the title of Office Bitch, and she took the job very seriously.

__________________

To
: [email protected]

From
: [email protected]

Subject:
Re: Coffee

Date
: Wed 15
th
July 10.09

Hi Nathan.

Thank you for the delicious coffee. You’re very thoughtful. I’m so sorry but something has come up, and I won’t be able to meet you after work this evening. I hope we can do it another time.

All my best,

Eva

Evangeline Andrews

Administrator

Ignite Technologies

Block 6

Plaza E
xchange

Dublin 2

Eva felt awful. She hated lying. She fought the temptation to swing her chair around and check if Nathan looked upset. She knew she was being silly. He was probably busy. He might not see her email for hours. She would just have to wait and see how he took it.

             
Her reply to Julian wasn’t as easy to type. It required some thinking - a lot of thinking. She reached for her stale coffee twice. The third time, it was inches from her lips when Nathan swung his chair around to tap her on the shoulder.

‘Is everything ok
ay?’

Eva would have much preferred if he le
ad with a simple hello. She swallowed hard and tried not to pull a face. ‘Yes, thanks. And you?

She cringed as the words passed her lips. Why was she asking him if he was ok
ay? Actually, why was he asking her? Was it that obvious that an email from Julian had her completely frazzled?

‘I’m good - thanks. I’m a bit worried about this suit business
.’

‘Suit?’ Eva was only half listening. Another email had just appeared on her screen.

‘For the Ball. It’s black tie, isn’t it?

Eva nodded.

‘I’ve only ever been to one black tie event before. It was my sister’s wedding when I was fourteen, and I had a yellow cucumber band; please tell me I don’t need to fish that out. My waist has changed a little since then.’

             
Eva laughed. She loved that he said silly things. Things so silly that even she wouldn’t say them. He talked before he thought. It was easily done, Eva knew, and in their office, he would learn the hard way. She liked him. He had a cute, albeit slightly goofy smile and the rim of his glasses were too thick. But he had kind eyes and he looked at Eva like a lost puppy. And with the right makeover, he could be a pretty good looking guy. How could she not take pity on him? As a fellow put-your-foot-in-your-mouth type, she felt it was her duty to warn him about Mia before he had the misfortune of discovering for himself.

             
‘I think you mean cummerbund,’ she whispered, hoping she wouldn’t embarrass him.

‘No. I mean cucumber band
,’ he corrected in a loud contradiction to her whisper. ‘My older cousin thought it would be hilarious to stuff half the buffet down my pants. I still can’t eat salad to this day.’

Eva laughed more. Nathan may have been your stereotypical nerd but he knew it and it embraced it. Eva envied his courage.

‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why I felt the need to share that. I’m just not used to talking to girls as pretty as you. Or any girls, really. Or I mean, actually, I don’t know what I mean.’

             
Eva watched as Nathan fidgeted nervously with a sheet of headed paper. It looked important. She reached across and took the paper and placed it gently on the desk to his left, her hands resting on his for just a moment longer than they needed to.

‘There,’ she said, hoping he’d relax no
w.

‘I hope your cousin grew up fat and ugly,’ Eva said, trying to pretend she wasn’t taking a sneaky peek at the writing on the page.

‘Unfortunately not. He’s an Orthopaedic Surgeon in London now. Married to a model too, he is. She’s a bitch though, so at least that’s something,’ Nathan said.

Eva smiled. ‘Aren’t most beautiful women
, bitches?’

‘You’re not.’

              Eva blushed. Nathan said the sweetest things. If another guy had said it, she’d suspect it was just a line. A well timed one- admittedly, but they probably used it all the time. But there was something different about Nathan. Eva looked at his eyes. They were naive and smiling. She actually believed he genuinely meant the compliment. He didn’t seem the type to say something he really didn’t mean. If he was flirting, it probably wasn’t his intention and it made it easier for Eva to relax.

             
‘He met her online a few years back,’ Nathan continued. ‘Some dating site. All a bit fucked up, if you ask me. How do you know if these people you’re talking to aren’t perverts or murders? Know what I mean?’

             
Eva nodded. She did know. If you’d asked her last week, she would have agreed one hundred per cent. Today; not so much. Sure, she didn’t actually know Julian. Not in the physical sense anyway, but she liked him more than any real man she knew in the flesh. He made her feel good about herself. He gave her a confidence she never thought she would have. She wouldn’t be sitting here talking to Nathan if it wasn’t for Julian. Not that she could explain. She knew it made her sound weird. Hell, it made her feel weird. Before she would have ignored Nathan’s advances until he thought she was boring and stopped talking to her. It was what she always did.

             
‘So, it looks posh, doesn’t it?’ Nathan said, picking up the page from earlier and pointing to the text.

‘Hmm?’

‘The ball. It looks like a pretty fancy event. To tell the truth, I’m kinda nervous about it.’

Eva had tuned out. She was day dreaming about Julian - again. It was becoming a bad habit. Lovely as Nathan was
, she really wished he had work to do. She was desperate to get back to her emails.

‘Don’t worry about it. It sounds fun
,’ Eva lied convincingly. It didn’t sound fun. It sounded daunting and totally terrifying, and Eva knew she would stick out like a sore thumb.

             
She looked across to the water cooler. Mia stood with her hand on her hip, sipping softly form her cup. Five male staff members stood around her like flies drawn to light. Eva hated her. Not because she was beautiful, tall, and blonde with boobs so big, Eva was surprised she didn’t topple over. She hated her because she was the biggest bitch in the office. No scrap that, she was the biggest bitch in Dublin - no, the world. Mia was the biggest bitch in the world. And yet, every creature with a dick between his legs became a babbling idiot around her. It was like she was some sort of drug to men. They couldn’t resist.

             
Eva rolled her eyes and her stare once again settled on the page in Nathan’s hands. She gave the paper her full attention for a second and the familiar wording hit her like a slap in the face. She was startled by the big, bold, gold font asking for a response by the end of the week.
A response! What the fuck?
She snatched the page roughly from Nathan’s grip.