Chapter 10

"Ok, so hardware is everything I can see and software is the programs loaded onto the machine."

"Great! High five Sara! You've got it." Logan raised his hand and motioned for her to do the same. He then clapped his hand against hers.

Sara laughed and shook her head. His enthusiasm and good cheer was infectious! "Well, you only told me the same thing five times!"

Logan pointed to his brain and tapped his forefinger against his head. "Gotta make sure all the equipment is working. Right, so do you think you can handle basic Internet browsing?"

Sara nodded. "Yes. It's not too complicated."

"Yet."

"That sounds ominous, Mr. Calrissian," she said in jest.

Logan wiggled his brows and flexed his fingers. They both laughed.

There was a brisk knock on the door to the boardroom and a woman walked in. "Josef? Are you in here?" When she spotted Logan and Sara hunched over their respective laptop screens, she hesitated. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was looking for Josef."

Sara realised immediately the woman was human. Her beating heart was like a tattoo reverberating around the room. "He isn't here. I'm sorry."

Logan turned around and apparently recognised the woman. "Simone? Hi!"

The other woman smiled, her affection for the computer genius also obvious. She walked into the room. "Logan, hi yourself! I haven't seen you around here for a while."

"Yeah you know what they say, the best vampire techies are hard to come by."

Sara was surprised. Logan mentioned vampirism. That must mean Simone knew about their kind. Sara looked at her critically. A human woman on friendly terms with a vampire. Could she be one of the freshies Josef had mentioned?

She looked normal enough. In fact, she was rather lovely. She had shoulder length brown hair, which hung in silky curls, wide brown eyes and a small mouth. But when she smiled, her entire face lit up. She was a really attractive woman.

Sara had effectively filtered out her conversation with Logan until she heard her name mentioned.

"Sara, this is Simone, a lawyer for Kostan Industries. Simone, my protégé, Sara Whitley."

Sara walked around the table and met her half way. "So nice to meet you."

Simone took her hand and smiled slyly. "Are you two…"

Sara looked at Logan and he choked on his laughter. "It could work… Sara… what do you say? Me and you…"

Sara wrinkled her nose.

"Right. Thought so, besides, my boss doesn't share."

"Your Boss-" Simone was cut off.

"Logan, have you earned your mammoth hourly rate?" Josef walked into the room. "I would like to take the lovely Miss Whitley out to-" His sentence trailed off as he noticed Simone and Sara standing side by side.

Simone didn't seem to note his words. Her face lit up and she launched herself at him. "Josef! I've missed you!"

"Sim-"

It was quite pointless. She snaked her arms around him and fused her lips with his. Josef, not wanting to hurt her, gently pulled at her arms, rotating her body to get a look at Sara, who was still rooted to the same spot.

The look on her face was devastating.

Josef pulled Simone away from him. "Simone!"

Baffled, she drew herself away and looked at him. But he wasn't looking at her. He was looking at the woman across the room. Simone followed his gaze and looked at Sara Whitley.

A tingle ran up her spine at the abject desolation written on her features. Sara seemed frozen in place. Poor Logan didn't even have anything to say that would relieve the tension. He silently slinked out of the room. No one seemed to notice.

"Josef, what's going on?" Simone moved away from Josef, her eyes darting between the couple.

Josef still hadn't broken eye contact with Sara.

"Josef!" Simone demanded.

He flinched and addressed the other woman. "Sara, this is Simone. She and I have been… involved for a while." To Simone he said, "Simone, this is Sara Whitley. She and I are… were…" he didn't quite have the words.

Sara was the first to break eye contact. The pain shredding her insides reminded her of human weakness. Surely this new vampire body shouldn't leave her this vulnerable? But she was. And she just hadn't been ready to see another woman in the arms of the man she loved so wholly.

Finally it made sense. The reason he was so distant. He was involved with someone else. She had pondered every other reason, every other possibility, but not that one. Stupid, stupid! How could she never have thought of that?

Sara found her voice and finished his sentence. "We were… friends… a long time ago."

Simone knew there was more to it. "What am I missing here?"

Simultaneously, Josef said, "everything" and Sara said, "nothing."

The room was silent, and yet to Sara's ears, there may as well have been screaming. She turned, her body felt like stone, gathered her tote and started towards the exit.

Josef Kostan had faced down the plague, mobs of vampire slayers, served in wars and killed to save his life more times than he cared to remember. But he was absolutely powerless to stop her. It was as if all his doubts, fears and insecurities melted away, and the light switch was flicked on. In that moment, he knew what he wanted. And she was walking away.

"Sara, wait!"

"I'll see you at home Josef. Simone, a… pleasure." Sara smiled half-heartedly and brushed past the couple.

There was a roaring in her ears and a panic in her gut. If she didn't get out, she would break down in front of them, and she had more pride than that. She had her dignity, it was all that she had left, and she would wear it proudly.

"Dammit!" She heard Josef curse but didn't turn back. She needed solitude. She needed time to think.

Josef watched her step into the elevator and flipped open his mobile. "Smith! Miss Whitley is on her way down. Take her anywhere she wants to go, but make sure she gets back home safely or so help me, I won't be responsible for my actions."

"Yes, Sir."

"Keep me informed." He shut his mobile and cursed again.

"So, I'm hoping I get an explanation, at the very least, as to why I don't see you for weeks and when I do, you are making doe eyes at a woman I have never met or heard of before today. Or is that too much to ask?"

Josef sighed wearily. He turned and looked at Simone. She really was lovely. And in all honestly, he did care about her. She had been a ray of sunlight in the perpetual darkness of his world. And he was truly sorry about the way things had turned out. She deserved better. She did, and so did Sara.

Josef walked over to a glass cabinet, poured himself a stiff glass of whiskey, and drowned it in one go. He started slowly. "I met Sara Whitley in New York in 1955. I fell in love with her, but I was a vampire and she was a human, and I didn't get involved with humans, it was a rule, even back then. But there was no forgetting her. She was… unforgettable." He grimaced inwardly when he saw the hurt on Simone's face. "She had discovered what I was, and it didn't matter to her. She wanted to be with me. And she made the decision to allow me to turn her."

"What?" Simone garbled incredulously.

"I turned her. We wanted to be together forever and I agreed to turn her into a vampire."

Simone's knees buckled and she sought a seat at the boardroom table.

"But it didn't work. She didn't die. But she wasn't alive either. She existed in a coma for the past fifty five years. Just more than two weeks ago, she woke up. We still don't know why it's happened now. She doesn't remember the past fifty five years. She remembers 1955 like it was yesterday."

Simone didn't know what to say. "Where has she been all this time?"

"I've always cared for her. She's been at my New York apartment ever since it happened."

"All this time," she whispered, almost to herself. "All this time, and you never told me?"

Josef had no defence.

"So when I called you a couple weeks ago, you were on your way to see her?" It all made sense. His attitude, his avoidance.

He looked so sorry. "Yes."

She closed her eyes and tears burned the back of her eyelids. "Do you love her?"

"Simone-" he begged.

"Please. I just need the truth."

"Yes."

She nodded painfully. "I had stupid, stupid fantasies you know? About you maybe caring about me half as much as I cared about you. Silly of me wasn't it? Oh, I was warned," she said angrily, "don't fall for them! It's a one-way ticket to pain city! But I thought things were different for us. I had fooled myself into believing you cared. How crazy is that?" she laughed with bitterness and hurt.

"I did care, Simone."

"Don't!" she stood up. "Please – just don't. I couldn't handle that." She gathered her purse and walked out of the room. She reached the door and turned back. "Under the circumstances, I don't think I can work for you right now. Please accept my resignation."

Josef's fists balled. He picked up the mink vase on the cabinet in front of him and flung it across the room. The shattering of the priceless artefact brought him no relief.