Meeting Sophie

Nico's POV

There's a slight knock on the door before it gently swings open and my secretary appears. He wears a nervous look that causes me to stop typing and immediately give him all my attention.

"Qaseem? Is everything okay?"

"It's the lady from yesterday, sir." He looks away for a second as if physically collecting the memories from the plant sitting in the corner. "And the day before that and the day before that...She's been coming here for a week now."

"And I specifically told you I don't want to see her." My jaws stiffens at the thought of her.

I don't know who she is. I haven't met her before but she's a friend of Olivia. She's been coming here for the past week, demanding to see me. I've made sure no one can set an appointment for her and I was hoping by now her determination would've been exhausted.

I've waited for Olivia to contact me and explain the cause of her friend's visits, but nothing. We haven't had another meeting with her so I haven't had an excuse to see her and I promised myself I wouldn't email her again. The first time was a mistake.

"Ask her to leave." My attention returns to the laptop screen before me.

"Security says she's been here since the morning, sir. She refuses to leave and has been saying it's an emergency."

"Then ask security to escort her out. Why are they even letting an evidently crazy woman into the building?" I shake my head with disapproval.

I've tried to make sure that no one finds out who she is or what she's doing here. I can't have people questioning why a friend of our advertisers is camping in my office building demanding to see me. I begin to type furiously as I imagine the whispers and rumors.

"She only keeps coming back."

"Doesn't she have a job or anything else to do aside from getting on my nerves?" My fingers tense up and the typing stops once more.

"Perhaps you should allow her to come see you, sir. That way she won't come back ever again."

"Qaseem," I look at him sharply and he takes a small step back, "if I wanted advice on my life decisions, I would see a therapist or hire a life coach."

"I'm sorry, sir." He gently bows his head. "I'll make sure security gets rid of her, then."

He hurries out of the office and I release a heavy sigh as he closes the door behind him. My eyes roam around and land on the phone next to the picture of my family and I.

He is right.

I grab the phone, the irritation I'm feeling growing as I prepare to regret this decision later on.

"Macy, please tell the lady waiting for me she can come upstairs." I hang up before the receptionist can reply.

It's a long time before anybody comes. I'm almost certain security may have already escorted her out and Macy couldn't find her, when a strange woman comes barging through my door.

I am quick to my feet as a panicked Qaseem comes running after her.

"Sir, she said you gave the permission for her to come up." He explains as the woman glares at him.

"Yes, I did." I give him a nod. "It's okay, Qaseem. I'll take it from here."

"What the hell!?' The woman shouts before my secretary can even close the door.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"What?" The woman throws her arms in the air. "Have you read none of my emails?"

"Who are you?" I repeat. "And what emails? I check my work emails every hour."

"I sent them to your personal email." She sounds exasperated.

I don't know why a stranger is attacking me in my office but this is exactly the kind of things to expect where Olivia is concerned.

"How did you even get my personal email? Who are you?' I raise my voice then remember it's a busy weekday.

"I don't have time to explain. You would know what has been taking me away from my work and bringing me here every day if you checked those damn emails or didn't tell your secretary to lie about your schedule." She glares at me.

"I didn't lie about anything." My voice is cold. "Who are you?'

"I'm Sophie, I'm Olivia's best friend. Olivia? You know her? Your first love and everything?"

"Please, keep your voice down." I walk around my desk to her side.

"Wow, you're really serious about keeping this a secret." She rolls her eyes. "Listen, I wouldn't be here unless it was important."

The irritation and anger in her voice dissipates. It becomes softer and calmer as it takes on a sense of concern.

"What's happened with Ms. Watson? Does it have anything to do with Mi Ads?"

Her face falls but she quickly recovers and continues talking.

"I need you to please, please, come with me." The concern is replaced by panic as she glances down at the silver watch on her wrist. "Olivia is at the airport and we can't let her leave."

"What are you talking about?"

"Did you not hear me say that I don't have time to explain? Grab your car keys, we have to go." She's out the door before I can even reply. I sit still, hoping she'll be so caught up in her thoughts she won't even notice I'm not behind her.

"Nicolas!" She pops her head into the office, the earlier exasperation back on her face in the form of a deep frown.

I find myself taking my car keys from my top drawer, asking Qaseem to reschedule my remaining meetings, and leading this woman to the underground parking lot. It's curiosity that pushes me to do all this. I'm curious what Olivia has done this time.

"Which one's your car?" She asks, looking around, her hands on her hips.

I press the key in my hand and my black Mercedes lights up and garners her attention with a beep. She immediately starts running towards it while calling after me to hurry up. I get in and she follows quickly after.

"We're on the road now," I begin as I drive out the parking lot, "I would appreciate an explanation."

"Olivia is at the airport. She's going to catch a flight to see Bertha."

"Bertha?" I wrinkle my forehead in confusion before realization hits. "Bertha?"

"Yes, Bertha. That Bertha."

As she punches in the address to the airport into the GPS, she begins to explain everything to me. She's Olivia's best friend. Bertha has a son, Matthew, and he paid Olivia a visit. They want her to help them in some scheme they're working on and she's agreed because if she doesn't, they'll come to me.

"I don't even understand why she cares about you so much." Sophie rolls her eyes. "She needs to stop feeling like she owes you."

Owes me. Of course. That's a more plausible excuse for why she's doing all of this. The idea of her still caring about me is almost humorous. Why would she? I've certainly stopped caring about her years ago.

"Gosh! How long until we get there?" Sophie looks between her phone and the navigator on the car.

"What exactly am I going to do there?"

"What?" She stares in disbelief. "You're supposed to stop her."

"Why didn't you do that?"

"I've tried! She wouldn't listen."

"If she didn't listen to you, her best friend, why would she listen to me?"

"Of course," she looks out the window, "you're practically a stranger. I need you to get there and convince her you can deal with Bertha and that she needs to stay out of all of this."

"What?" I take a sharp right turn.

"Listen," she turns to look at me once more, "if anybody's getting thrown under the bus here, I'm not going to let it be Olivia. My friend's been through a lot so why should she suffer more trying to protect you?"

I sense her displeasure for my very presence, which baffles me because she doesn't even know me. I suspect Olivia has not had very nice things to say about me, which, is also a surprise. If anyone should be speaking ill of the other, I have that right.

"Just do whatever you can to make sure she doesn't get on that flight. Tell her you have another solution or something but make sure she doesn't make this mistake. What happens if things go wrong while she's over there? What if they get caught and she's arrested." She starts panicking again.

***

During our 20 minutes drive to the airport, Sophie has managed to stay in contact with Olivia. We know that her flight only departs in an hour so upon our arrival, we're aware we have ample time to leave with her.

"Okay, remember what I said. Do whatever you have to do to make her stay."

"I don't understand what my big role is here. You're right here, you can do all the talking."

Her eyes widen for the umpteenth time since we got in that car together. It is as if everything I say comes as a shock to her. She quickly unbuckles her seat belt and I follow suit as we simultaneously exit the car.

"Listen," she places her hands on the roof of the car, "I am not going in there with you?"

"What?" It's my turn to deem her as the crazy one.

"As far as Olivia is concerned, I am at work. I can't let her know that not only did I tell you everything but I brought you here. She'll skin me alive." She widens her eyes as she says the last part and I imagine a glimmer of fear passing through her green irises.

"You can't do that to me."

"Oh, I can." She takes out her phone from her handbag. "She's still having lunch at Evergreen so you better hurry and go find her. Remember, you never saw me. In fact you have no idea who I am. You have never even heard of the name Sophie in your entire life."

She says all this without looking at me, her eyes remain glued to her phone as I stare at her in disbelief.

"I could just get back into my car and drive to my office like this never happened."

"You wouldn't dare." It sounds much like a threat rather than her disbelief in my supposed cruelty.

"I owe Olivia nothing. Also, if this is what she wants to do, who am I to interfere?"

"Olivia doesn't want to do this." She spits out the words with a tone that suggests she would've slapped my face had this car separating us not been here. "She has a company she never wants to put in jeopardy and a child she loves and wants nothing but to protect. The very idea of going to Iowa sickens and frightens her but she thinks it's better her than you."

A child? Olivia has a child? Is she with the child's father?

"Listen, I'm sorry since it seems like I'm making her problems yours but I really don't care about you. I'll try whatever I can to help my friend and prevent her from making a huge mistake. That, and I don't fancy the idea of breaking down and ratting her out if I ever get called in for a police intterogation."

"Fine." I sigh. "So are you just going to stay here and wait for her to come out and see you?"

"Oh no!" She violently shakes her head. "I've already called a cab to take me back to T&M, I left my car there."

"Well, good bye, then." I slam my car door close.

"Nicolas," she says my name as if we are acquainted, "I'm really grateful for what you're doing."

She says goodbye a minute later and I find myself running into the airport. I suddenly have a sense of urgency as I head to the third floor, where I expect to find Olivia obliviously enjoying her lunch.

A waitress greets me politely at the door and begins talking but I miss everything else she says as my eyes scan the room. They immediately find Olivia, at a table near the big windows. She closes the small brown book in her hands, places it back on the table and stands up. I watch as she grabs her bag and find myself cutting the waitress' speech short with a 'thank you' and making my way towards Olivia.

She slips the straps of her brown traveling bag over her right shoulder and her handbag over her left. She doesn't seem to notice as I approach, her focus on the phone occupying her hands. When she finally slips it into the pocket of her beige cardigan, I've reached her. She comes to a standstill as she looks up and finds me standing before her.

"Mr. Garrido! It's a surprise seeing you here." Her face softly wrinkles with confusion.

"Ms. Watson, we need to talk."