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Walking in front of hi the plank on some doomed pirate’s ship She are of the intensity of his scrutiny on her back, her legsher bottohout her body

Slowly she noticed the sound of last-radually faded as people stopped to stare

David and Cynthia, the two colleagues who’d been recruited the same ti with blatant curiosity She didn’t need to turn around after she passed the behind her back

Same as she didn’t need to turn around to notice the moment Ari veered off towards his own office Because her skin stopped tingling and her pulse began to slow

By the time she shut herself away in the tiny office behind the concierge’s station, she was shaking Going to her coffee stand, she flicked the kettle on and practised her breathing as it boiled She poured water onto the tea bag, then ied as the scent of camomile made her stomach roil violently

Abandoning tea in favour of water, Perla waited for the sickness to subside and threw herself into her work

She spent the rest of the day finalising catering require RSVPs The turkey sandwich she ordered for lunch stayed put and she breathed a sigh of relief The last thing she needed was to get sick within the firsta new job in which she already felt compromised

But by six o’clock her feet ached, her head throbbed with a dull ache and the debilitating weakness that had dogged her all day eighting her li and located the painkillers she always kept to hand Sing two, she took the lift to her suite, collapsed onto the bed, kicked off her shoes and pulled the covers over her head

The buzzing of her phone woke her an hour later

Dazed, she pushed the hair off her face and snagged the handset ‘Hello?’

‘Perla’

Exciteh her body

God, the way he said her nae for it Because she was sure she suffered a tiny nervous breakdown every tirated out her name like that

‘U in the darkened room

‘Did I wake you?’ There was a frown in his voice

‘No, I was justno’

‘I’ve been thinking about your predicament’