I jerked back to face him with a furrowed brow. “How did you know my sister worked here?
He smiled down at me. “You forget, little fawn, I saw you together at the fundraiser. And I do work closely with John and Melanie.”
Little fawn? What the hell was that supposed to mean? And why is he giving me a nickname? I could’ve asked him about it, but I chose to ignore it instead.
“Oh, you do? So, are you a lawyer, too?”
“Not exactly.” He chuckled and moved to the side, gesturing with his arm for me to start walking. “I’ll take you to Mel’s office,” he offered and I followed beside him, not saying another word.
As soon as we reached the end of the hallway, I could see her standing behind her desk, pacing while holding the phone up to her ear.
Donicko reached out and opened the door for me. I stepped in, walking past him while saying a quiet thank you.
It wasn’t that I was trying to be rude, but after hearing the conversation the previous night, I got a bad vibe from him. Maybe I was judging him without knowing him, but I didn’t care. I think everyone had that extra sense of caution in their brain; some just used it more than others. Mine was flashing at me, and I tended to listen to it.
Mel looked up as we walked in, her gaze resting on Donicko before she looked in my direction. I turned to see he was smiling at her. He looked at me and winked before walking out of the room and back down the hallway.
I stared at her with a questioning expression, and she diverted her gaze to continue her conversation. It didn’t hide the blush displayed on her neck, though.
Mel and I were different in a lot of ways, but I knew for a fact that when she blushed, it started from the neck up. Her cheeks rarely flushed pink. It was always her neck which broke out like she had hives.
“Yes, thank you, Shawn. I need it by EOD, okay? Great. I’ll talk to you then.”
She hung up and looked at me with a huff.
“God, I’m so glad you’re here. I’m starving.”
“What the heck is ‘EOD’?”
“It’s just short for ‘end of day’.”
“And you couldn’t just say ‘end of day’?” I questioned.
“Oh, Emma, just wait. You’ll be learning so many different acronyms when you start working they’ll make you lose your mind.”
She grabbed the bag, pulled out two paper wrapped gyros and took a seat.
“So, how did Donicko end up walking you to my office?”
“I bumped into him in the hallway. It’s the second time this week I’ve run into him. Literally.”
She stared at me with a raised brow as she grabbed both sandwiches and stood.
“Let’s sit over at my table. I don’t want anything getting on any of my paperwork.” Following suit, I stood from my chair. “Where did you run in to Donicko before?”
“NYU. He’d said he was there talking to Mason. I was running late and hauling ass down the hallway. When I made the turn around the corner, I plowed right into him.”
“Nice.” She laughed.
“How do you know Donicko?” I asked as I unwrapped my sandwich and took a bite. I sighed with contentment as the lamb, tzatziki, and pita bread all melted together in my mouth.
She shrugged. “He comes in to see John occasionally.”
“Oh, he said he worked with you, too.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “He doesn’t work with me.”
“Good,” I blurted. “I’ve got bad vibes from him.”
“What?” she scoffed. “There’s nothing wrong with Donicko.”
“How do you know? You said you don’t work with him.”
“I said I don’t work with him. Doesn’t mean I’ve never talked to him.”
She took a bite of her gyro and set it down before wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“I saw the way he was smiling at you,” I stated out of curiosity. I was digging to see what she’d say.
“He wasn’t smiling at me, he was just smiling.”
“Oh, no, he wasn’t.” I laughed. “He was smiling at you and you were blushing. What’s up with that?”
“I was not blushing.”
“Do you have a thing for him?” I guessed, knowing my sister. She always went for the unobtainable guys.
“What? No.”
“Good,” I stated calmly, taking a bite of my sandwich. “I heard something last night that I found disturbing.”
There was no way I’d ever discuss the things Mason and I talked about, but since this conversation was something I overheard, I wasn’t exactly going against my word.
“What’s that?”
I placed my half-eaten sandwich down and grabbed a bottle of water I’d had in my bag. Taking a drink, I passed it on to Mel.
“You know I was with Mason last night.”
“Yeah.”
“After dinner, we walked into his office to have a drink and the doorbell rang. You’ll never believe who was at the door.” Mel stopped chewing and waited in suspense. “Before I say anything, you have to promise you won’t say a word.
She made the x sign with her finger on her chest and waited.
“John’s fiancé Rachel was at the door,” I said quietly, just in case there were people walking by, since I had my back to the glassed wall.