Burning Touch

Chapter 37

"You don't need me to tell you this...or maybe you do," Kelsie said. "But you need to keep off your foot for a few months. You twisted it really bad."

Izzy felt the tightening in her chest grow as Kelsie kept talking. She was dreading this news after she had heard the snap during rehearsals but the physiotherapist in her knew what was coming.

"How long is a few months?" Izzy looked at her mum who was at her bedside.

Kelsie opened her mouth to answer but Izzy beat her to it.

"I'm going to be fine, mum." Izzy looked at the slightly older version of her whose age would come as surprise to a lot of people.

Ilana looked at her daughter with a look Izzy knew all too well. She let out a sigh.

"Well, you know the drill. I'll see you in six weeks to take the cast off." Kelsie smiled before she left the room.

"Thanks for coming mum." Izzy said on the way out of the hospital as she was wheeled out by a hospital staff.

"Oh sweetie, I'm glad I get to see with your hectic schedule but I wish it was under different circumstances."

Izzy smiled up at her mum as she reached out and held her hand.

"Thank you." Ilana said after the staff helped get Izzy in the passenger's seat.

"Where to?" Ilana asked as she got behind the wheels of her car.

Izzy thought for a second and with a sigh and she said "Home." She hadn't been home since she got the job at the hospital and things started getting crazy.

Ilana smiled at her daughter and drove off.

Back in Seattle, Andre sat at the end of the table as he spun the pen between his fingers. His thoughts on someone he shouldn't be thinking about but can't help thinking about.

"Mr. Leon?"

Andre snapped out of the haze he was in and looked up at twelve pairs of eyes that were fixated on him. One standing at the other end of the table making his pitch.
"Yes, Kevin," Andre said. "You said our client wasn't so pleased with the model."

Kevin stood there agape.
"Yes sir, that was over half an hour ago."

Andre nodded.
"Of course, I heard everything afterward. But just in case, have the report sent to my office. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make a phone call."

Just as Andre walked out of the board-room he couldn't help but overhear the murmurs.

"What's with him?"

"He's sure been distracted a look lately."

"Definitely not a typical Lucifer behavior."

"If I had to say, I think he's nursing a broken heart."

"A broken heart. Andre Leon doesn't have a heart."

"Tell that to the man that looks like someone who's lost everything."

Andre couldn't argue with that last person because that was exactly how he felt and he needed to get past it. He had tried everything he could think of but nothing was helping. To get his head back into work, he needed to figure out a way to get Isabelle out. Andre took out his phone as he made his way into the seclusion of his office and dialed the number at the top of his contact right next to Fred's. He stood facing the view behind his desk.

The line connected after the third ring.

"Andre, is it important? I'm at work."

Andre sighed into the silence of his office. Josie who sat behind her desk with her office filled with her co-workers sat up in her chair. Andre and Fred were never ones to be expressive with how they were actually feeling, which was why she made it her job to figure them out and she finally got the hang of it in their third year in college. Little telltale signs were there, on their faces or in their voices. Over the years, she had mastered the art which was why she knew something was really bothering Andre with that single sigh and she had a good guess what it was. Or rather, who it was.