The Sound.

"Khem, come in, have a seat," Corey invited Daniel to sit at the bar, and she went to the kitchen to get the dessert that the girl had prepared specially for his arrival.

The man followed her instructions, sat down in a chair and watched her every movement with a smile on his face, "Why are there no people? Did you close the cafe specially for me?" he asked Corey, although the answer to this question was obvious.

"Yes, we are not working today. Well, actually, the work was only until noon, and after that I let all the employees go home," the girl replied, standing with her back to the man. She took the cake from the baking sheet and put it on a beautiful dish and enthusiastically added the finishing touches to decorating her dessert. When she was cooking, she was focused and serious, as if the future of her country depended on her work.

Daniel had long noticed this trait of hers and waited in anticipation when she would finish all things and pamper him with her next culinary masterpiece. He tried the dishes from leading chefs of many famous restaurants in different countries, but Corey's pastries and desserts were in the first place in his rating.

He knew many of her recipes by heart and even tried to bake his favorite cookies, which only after several attempts turned from some coals into something decent. And his mother, Dina, was incredibly happy when her son treated her to his pastries, which in the end turned out to be quite good, but for Daniel, these cookies were still far from those that Corey had treated him on their first meeting. Well, when he treated himself, to be precise. Oh, how long ago it was!

The man's memories made him smile even more. Who would have thought then that his game would trap the host himself, and his fake engagement with young Miss Williams will become one of his main goals in the future.

"Why are you smiling?" Corey asked, noting that although the man's gaze was directed at her, his mind was in some other reality.

"Well, nothing, I just remembered something funny," Daniel smirked, "And what is so breathtaking you have prepared for me today? A special dish from the chef! Mmm, I'm all in anticipation," the man whispered playfully and licked his lips, his actions raised the temperature around to a dozen degrees, at least as Corey thought.

"This is our new dish, I want you to taste it. It's important for me to know your opinion, to include it in the menu or not," the girl decided to add a little seriousness to their conversation, because her head was full of completely different thoughts, and not the most proper ones. Well, who in their right mind would think about business when such a man is sitting nearby?

Corey scolded herself internally for another wave of wild fantasies, but she couldn't do anything about it. Either it was her imagination, or it was due to the fact that she had not had intimacy with a man for a long time, or whether it was all really, but Daniel looked especially sexy in her eyes today. And she understood that no matter what she said and no matter how she behaved, her thoughts were like an open book for this man.

"I am sure you were the best student in your course in psychology," the girl voiced her thoughts, watching the man sensually and eagerly taste her dessert, pouring even more oil into the fire of her already seething imagination with each gesture.

"Mmm, how did you guess?" Daniel narrowed his eyes slightly, tilted his head to the side and licked his upper lip. Corey, as if spellbound, watched his every gesture.

"Khem, and... and how is the taste?" The girl looked away, her pulse clearly exceeded a hundred beats per second.

"Absolutely Hea-ven-like," Daniel whispered in a deep, low voice, sensing each syllable, and every hair on the girl's body was ecstatic, like thousands of small antennas sending their transmitters to receive his mesmerizing signal.

"You! Are you doing this on purpose?! Just don't tell me that you used your insidious tricks on me now, huh, Daniel Anderson?" The girl was indignant, although subconsciously she understood that he had nothing to do with it.

"Hey, who do you take me for, honey? Whoever uses his cunning tricks is you, my dear Corey," Daniel put his head on his hand and squinted his eyes, "First you lured me into your chains with the most delicious cookies I have ever tried, now you are seducing me with the same amazing cake? Hmm, I'm starting to fear for my virginity," the man put his hands to his cheeks and pouted his lips, imitating confusion and resentment.

His play was so natural and contagious that Corey really felt like an insidious temptress, seducing an innocent little boy. She took a napkin from the table and threw it at the man, "Oh, you sly fox! Enough to embarrass me already, otherwise, I won't live until the evening!"

"Oh, so you're saying, we have even more embarrassing things planned for the evening?" The man winked, but with this joke, he wanted to confirm once again that she had not changed her mind when she said that she wanted to stay with Daniel for the night.

Corey opened her mouth to play a joke on him, but could not utter a sound, making her turn red like a tomato. As they say, silence is a sign of consent, and her silence testified that he was right.

"I... I'll go, check if everything is closed in the cafe, and then we can go for a walk somewhere, before ... khem, before we go to your place," the girl uttered the end of the phrase in a whisper and, like a bullet, rushed from the hall to the staff-only door.

Daniel watched her slender figure, once again enjoying the way she looked especially charming today, "Such a cutie," he whispered back and cut off another piece of her new pie, which actually turned out to be incredibly delicious.

The man wanted only one thing, that tonight this woman would melt in his arms just like this dessert, melting in his mouth, just from the touch of his hot lips.

Corey checked that all the back exits from the cafe were closed, turned off the extra light, took her purse and phone and wanted to return to the hall, as an idea she had almost forgotten came to her again. The girl stopped, took out her old phone from the bag, the phone, which was usually just lying around at home, as she used it when she was studying at the Academy. But since the other person had her real phone in his hands, this old thing turned out to be very helpful.

She turned on the display and dialed her number, the man has been ignoring her for two days, although he said that they would meet tomorrow, neither the place nor the time of the meeting was agreed. Beeps sounded in the receiver, Corey started and dropped the phone. At that moment when the call sounds began, in the room where was nobody but her, she heard the vibrating sound of the phone.

The vibration was so clearly audible that it was as if the sound came from around the corner. If it was a melody, the girl would definitely have had a heart attack from fright.

Corey looked at the display of her phone, where the call was still going on, and listened to the vibration of another phone that was in the room.

'Maybe one of the employees forgot his cell phone at work?' The girl thought, reassuring herself that it was just a coincidence, but her hands were trembling treacherously with anxiety. On the one hand, she wanted to go into the next room and check what the source of the sound was, on the other hand, she was afraid that she might find something there that would plunge her into even greater shock.

As soon as the call on the phone stopped, the sound of vibration stopped as well. Corey picked up the phone from the floor and pressed the call button again. The vibration from the next room resumed at that very second, only this time it sounded even louder as if the sound source was a couple of meters closer to her now.

The girl interrupted the call, and the vibration interrupted too. Corey swallowed a lump in her throat, 'No, that can't be.' She was afraid to believe that the source of the sound could be her own phone because it was in the hands of an unknown person.

The girl took a step forward and froze, after which she turned around and looked at the door behind her. Daniel was waiting for her outside the door, and she could just call him and ask him to check together what the reason for this coincidence might be. But her personal curiosity often overshadowed the girl's mind, disabling the sense of self-preservation. This was one of the traits that Ashley inherited from her mother - to step into the unknown and then think about it.

Corey pressed the call button again and walked slowly toward the next room. The sound of vibration grew louder and louder, as if the source of the sound, too, was moving toward her.

"What took you so long? Is everything all right?" The girl screamed in surprise and dropped the phone to the floor again. The vibration was instantly interrupted.

"Oh, I am sorry, I didn't want to scare you," Daniel walked quickly to Corey and picked up her phone from the floor, guilt reflected on his face.

"No, it's me who has to be sorry I got lost in my thoughts and lingered more than necessary," the girl reassured him, took the phone from the man's hands and put it in her bag, and then went into the next room. But to her surprise, and perhaps even relief, there was nothing in the room except the table and several chairs.

It was a work area, and the staff sometimes drank tea during breaks, so there was not much furniture in the room. And if someone had forgotten his phone here, it would immediately be visible.

"Are you all right? You look a little pale," Daniel asked, he did not expect that he would frighten the girl so much.

"Ah, yes, all is well, let's go," Corey reassured him, grabbed the man by the hand and led him away. The whole situation was too strange for the girl, but she decided to keep silent for now. She did not want to spoil the evening with her strange observations, which could be just the fruit of her imagination.