THE VELVET KILLERS II

(13) THE MASKED BALL AND JILL'S PAST

FRIDA

As soon as I arrived at work, the first person I interacted with was Ingrid: indeed, she was waiting for me near my desk, as the others (being Sakina, Jordyn and Kosse, working on a new article) were distracted. I immediately feel my heart accelerating, wishing I wouldn't react this much to just seeing her. 

As soon as she gets near me, she hands me an enveloppe, expecting me to open it. 

"What is going on ?" I ask, confused.

Ingrid smirks. 

"Inside this enveloppe, you've got two tickets for next month's Adele show here in London, and for tonight, I hope I could invite you out to this cute restaurant so that we'd get a chance to talk about last night..."

Quite immediately, my blood turns sore.

I look around, making sure nobody is watching, as I grabs Ingrid's arm and pull her inside my office, closing the door so that nobody would hear us. Ingrid stands in the middle of the room, confused.

My voice is cold and detached when I declare in a whisper:

"Listen, I'm not ready for that..."

"... For seeing Adele?" Ingrid asks, confused.

"No" I immediately say, colder than I wish. When the Norwegian frowns, I add: "I'm not ready to talk about dating at work."

Setting her jaw, Ingrid just nods and says:

"I see."

Rolling her eyes, she just takes the enveloppe back, visibly hurt in her feelings.

As she is about to exit the room, I just get in the way, my own hand on the door.

She shakes her head, as I say:

"Listen, it's just... I'm absolutely terrible at relationships... of any kind, you know... Yesterday was great, but-"

"I swear to God, if you tell me it didn't mean anything when we both know it did, then I'm gonna lose my shit." Ingrid interrupts me, honest.

I sigh.

"No, that's not what I meant... It's just... hard for me to sustain any kind of relationship with someone other than myself."

"In that case, maybe you should stay by yourself, Frida."

After rolling her eyes at me, Ingrid intends to get out of the office.

But I grab her hand in extremis, and when she turns around, I blush but don't look away. Suddenly, I was caught up by reality: our colleagues couldn't know about whatever is going on between us. 

Releasing her hand, I just stare right into her eyes and articulate:

"I am sorry. It's just... there's so much you don't know about me, about... my past..."

"I don't care about your past, Frida!" she exclaims, out of her mind, "I care about you right now, in the present. So maybe, take a few breaths and come back to me whenever you're done being a coward with bullshit excuses, alright ?"

As I am about to try and convince her that my intentions were pure, the office's door opens, and when I see Shelina Zadorsky, accompanied by two of her bodybuilders co-workers, I immediately know it's bad. Either they found out that I actually killed Andrine Hegerberg for some reason, or something even worse - if that's even possible. 

The Canadian goes straight to the point when she says:

"Roflö, we need a word."

"Um, sure" I let out, trying to hide my nervousness.