Intrigue

Chapter 110

Malcolm's POV

The next morning I went up in the lift at around 8:15am. It had been a fruitful evening with Sophie, as we made more plans on how to work on the cases. She was rather amused by the way Paul had treated me, telling me that I deserved it.

I carried my laptop with me to the Michigan-Finley office, since I was meant to be working from home. But I had the option to dress casually on such occasions, so I was wearing a light grey polo neck sweater and classic blue jeans, paired with a midi black coat and white Converse shoes. And a black beanie.

I was surprised to smell coffee as soon as the lift doors opened. With the way I had acted, I hadn't expected Sean to show up. But the smell of freshly brewed coffee meant that he was around. My heartbeat tripled.

He emerged from the kitchen as soon as he heard the lift doors open. Liam appeared behind him, with a mug in his hand. Sean glanced at his watch before he looked at me.

"You're late," he said.

My eyes flitted towards the clock on the wall. 8:20am. I looked back at Sean in surprise. "I didn't think you were coming," I admitted. I made my way to my new desk, which I'd made Sarah trade with me.

Sean shrugged. "You said 8am yesterday. So I was here at 7am." He disappeared in the kitchen again. I caught Liam's gaze. I looked away uncomfortably.

Sean appeared again, this time with a mug in his hand. I watched as he made his way to his own desk. He was wearing a wool v neck green Gucci sweater on top of a white shirt, and Dsquared2 camel twill pants, together with white Versace leather and mesh sneakers. His hair was loose and his eyes were framed by those rounded prescription glasses I'd gotten accustomed to seeing him wearing. He looked like a schoolboy. I liked the sort of nerdy look on him.

I frowned at the way my mind still took me places when it came to Sean. Especially when he let his long hair loose...

He picked up a folder and walked up to me. He waited for me to sit down before pulling up a chair and sitting down next to me.

"You got my message?" I felt the words leave my mouth before I could control them. I was feeling more and more out of it by the second. Especially now that he'd sat down next to me.

"Mhm." He started opening the file casually, not looking at me.

"You could have answered," I muttered.

Sean peered at me through his glasses now. "Didn't have anything to say," he told me.

I looked away, feeling uncomfortable at his gaze. "Why were you here at 7am?" I asked.

Sean didn't reply. He just took out a sheaf of papers from the file he was holding and set them in front of me. I looked at them. They were the evidence photos I'd made him look at the previous evening. They were covered in notes written in his loopy, intricate handwriting. I sifted through them. All of the pages had writing on them. I glanced back at Sean guiltily. I'd made him analyse thirty pages of images in less than twelve hours...

"You want coffee, Malcolm?" Liam intervened. I could tell that he was there so that Sean and I wouldn't be on our own again.

"I'll just grab one from the machine," I answered.

"That's no good, I bought one of those brewer things," Sean answered casually. My eyes met his beautiful grey ones. I felt my heart skip a beat. I looked up towards Liam.

"In that case, yes please," I mumbled. He offered a brief smile and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving me on my own with Sean. I exhaled and removed my beanie. As I did so, I glanced up at Sean. I found him watching me quietly. I tore my eyes away and picked up the sheets. "Got anywhere yet?" I asked him now.