Bittersweet Expectations (Hate at First Flight #0.5)

34. Mary Bishop

"No?"

"No."

He nodded at my words as he picked up the paper nearby and placed it in front of me. "Then explain this."

I stared down at the copy of paper in front of me.

ETHAN CLARKE'S NEW ROMANCE !

My eyes widened as the picture of Ethan Clarke pulling me out of the hotel and towards his car graced the front page of the paper.

Ethan Clarke,  CEO of Clarke Industries was caught yesterday leaving a charity event with a new unidentified woman.

The multimillionaire Oxford graduate left the hotel with his new woman, leaving everyone wondering who she is. He was previously linked to supermodel Laurel Richards, who has made a name for herself modeling for....

I stopped reading, my mind racing, wondering who had taken a picture of us, whether Ethan had also seen this and whether the news was that slow today that they decided to have that on the front page.

"What the..."

"So, still a no?" Gerard asked.

I nodded. "News must be slow. They're printing anything nowadays."

"Sure," Gerard replied but the look on his face didn't hide that he didn't completely believe what I was saying.

After breakfast, I excused myself and headed back to Building X.

I was supposed to be at the hotline later in the afternoon. I managed to spend a couple of hours reading before I headed to work.

Susan greeted me with a smile and a cup of coffee as soon as I entered the office by five in the afternoon.

"So....how was it? How was it?" she asked giddily, referring to the event last night.

I had mentioned that I was going to the ball last night, she had even helped me choose which shoes to wear, however I hadn't mentioned that I had gone partly to see Mr. X.

I knew that she would've told me not to look for him. It was after all against the policy of the hotline.

We were never supposed to know who was calling us. We were never supposed to find out because anonymity was key for the hotline.

Luckily I had had the foresight to not mention it, because I, after all, had failed to find out who he was.

"It was great," I replied as we made our way to our stations. "I enjoyed myself."

Susan laughed at my expression. I must've looked like I was lying through my teeth. "That bad?"

"No, it wasn't bad. It was just..."

Dramatic? Awkward? Confusing?

"It was... different," I replied.

She nodded. "I'm glad one of us at least had fun last night," she replied. "My in laws were over last night and let's just say, choose your husband wisely after meeting his family. Sometimes he ain't worth the headache they are."

I laughed at her. Even though she said things like that, she loved her husband and two year old daughter very much.

After chatting some more, our lines started ringing and we had to start.

An hour later and I was talking to Mrs Davis over the phone, the old lady that had recently lost her husband.

As we talked over the phone, Susan signaled for me before she slipped me a note.