Chapter 5

"Jeepers! Now that, Liz Parker, is a view. Quickly, hand me your phone. I need to capture this essence.”

Colleen urged rather impatiently and Liz, grumbling beneath her breath, pulled her phone from her back pocket and handed it to her.

She watched as Colleen first took a snapshot of the high ceiling that shielded the sun but left an opening small enough to let in some of that summer sunlight into the lobby which reflected the water rocks mural on the ground floor.

Holy Moly! It was luminously magnificent.

Then, she took a couple of selfies, posing weirdly for each one. This was her being a little optimistic and open-minded. She begged Liz to get in a photo with her, who, begrudgingly, did so.

When she was done, she handed the phone back with only one request, “please do not delete any of those heavenly pictures, they’re called memories. And pictures provide the best ones.” Considering Liz was known to clear her gallery now and then for reasons best known to her, it was imperative to make that request.

“I beg to differ,” Liz countered. “The best memories are imprinted on your brain.”

“But something must stimulate it.”

“Not necessarily.”

Colleen shrugged. “Just saying. Why does it seem like you have been in a bad mood all day?”

“Oh, now you noticed!” Liz all but exclaimed. “For the past half hour, I have been going on and on about how my confrontation with Selena panned out, and I bet my brother’s Harley you didn’t pick a word I said.”

A sly grin formed on her face. Logan's Harley? Really? Of all things. Liz’s brother was a proper Denver rebel.

Scratch that.

He was a proper Denver rebel fan. And he drove his black Harley along all the prohibited places of Denver City. That Harley, the same one Liz had just bet on, Logan could die for it. And Colleen was going to have no hand in that when she busts her bubbles right about now.

“Now that’s where you’re wrong,” she started complacently. “I heard everything you said. From how you came across Selena in the lobby yesterday evening to how she asked how you managed to get your application accepted, and how you told her that Camilla made a last-minute change to her list after a special confrontation. I heard all the how’s, Liz.”

A look of surprise, laced with annoyance, glossed over Liz's face. All along, Colleen had been listening, despite the shenanigans she was displaying in the empty hallway.

“So you see, I picked up everything you said. And,” jamming her hands together in an applause that screamed sarcasm, she continued, “You did a wonderful job getting Selena off our backs. Oh, what would I ever do without you, Mon Ami?”

Scowling, Liz shoved a laughing Colleen to the side, continuing down the hallway.

Knowing her friend, she hurried after her, begging, “do not delete those pictures, please. The lighting was so good. It’s hard to get that around here.”

“Since when have you become an expert in photography?”

“Since forever!" she hung her head in mock humor. “Between the both of us, you’re the worst paparazzo.”

“That’s because we’re both terrible.”

Just then, a young man that looked to be twenty-eight or less approached them. Rather, he was approaching them. As he took those long strides towards them, it was very evident that his destination was going to be in front of those two women who had glued themselves to the wall, avoiding anybody.

In the last three days, they have both had their fair share of men approaching them either to take them to dinner, for drinks, or to have their number. Too bad Tobias McGrith was not just another one of them.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he greeted them when he was only a few feet away, his eyes particularly resting on Colleen as if he was doing a cross-examination on her face and this made her shift uncomfortably.

“Oh, I am sorry,” he quickly apologized, noticing her discomfort. “You’re Colleen Caddell, right?”

Liz exchanged a look of ‘when did you get so popular?’ with Colleen. First, it was the man himself, Andre Lourdes, and now, this. . .

Straightening her shoulders, she passed him a polite smile and responded, “Yes, I am Colleen. Who's asking?"

He chuckled, noticing how defensive she immediately became. “Hol’ up. I’m not here to nobble you. You might want to ease on me a little.” He extended his arms. “My name is Tobias. Tobias McGrith. But you can call me Toby. Frankly speaking, do call me Toby. I have got a history of only hearing my full name called out when I commit a crime.”

Colleen laughed, feeling at ease as she put her hand in his.

“I am a participant of DESC and, by all indications, we are going to be project partners.”

Oh crap!

It was now realization dawned on her. The main activity of this entrepreneurship camp was to come up with a business idea, formulate a proposal, and pitch it to a room full of wealthy men who were willing to splash their cash on something productive. For this reason, they were put in groups of two, to work together, exchange their ideas, and incorporate them into one ‘banger’ to earn a win and massive investment. That said, The Ingenious award.

She flashed her perfect thirty-two at him. If only she had been listening to the brief, this would have come as no news to her. Technically, it wasn’t news. But if Tobias hadn’t shown up today, three weeks would probably pass by without her knowing she’d have to work with a partner.

Thank the heavens she was paired with someone serious enough to come to find her.

“Tobias—Toby, I was actually just speaking to my friend, Liz, about this Ingenious award thing. . ."

Liz shot her a stare. You were?

“Did I introduce her yet? I doubt that. Well, this is Liz Parker, my best friend.” She turned to match Liz’s stare before whispering through gritted teeth. “Please play along.”

Without further ado, Liz turned to face Tobias again, determined to put up an Oscar-winning performance.

“Toby, is it? It’s nice to see that Colleen was paired with a man. Not to talk of one such as yourself,” her eyes lazily ran over him. “You know, she was just yapping about how she wanted her partner to have dark eyes that held so much mystery, jet black hair, chiseled jaw lines, and all of that. You must understand what I am saying.”

Colleen’s mouth dropped to the floor. Her insides were screaming words her mouth couldn’t utter. She said to play along and not be completely embarrassed in front of somebody she was going to spend the next three weeks working with.

“Anyway, I have got to run along. Hopefully, my partner is everything Colleen described. What a love story that could be!”

Wink, wink.

Liz exited the circle feeling nothing but fulfillment.

Then slowly, Colleen turned her face to meet Tobias’ amused grin.

I am so going to kill that girl!

About the same time Liz left, the man himself came up to them. His mighty wonderfulness, Andre Lourdes.

Completely ignoring the presence of Tobias, he said to her, “Do we call this fate, Ms. Caddell? My thoughts were just circling you and. . . Voila! Here you are!"

Muttering a quick goodbye to her, Tobias left them to it.

“Who is he?” Andre asked when he thought he was out of sight.

“That is not for you to know, Mr. Lourdes,” she snapped.

Andre drew back in mock surprise. “Now that’s not a tone you use on someone who did you a favor yesterday.”

“That’s not reason enough for you to just jump in on my conversation. That was pretty important, you know?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. . . I didn't mean to interrupt your 'pretty important' conversation."

That was far from an apology. It wasn’t even remotely close to it. But Colleen wasn’t expecting a man such as Andre to just purr the word ‘sorry’ out of his mouth.

“What do you want?” She asked, straight-faced.

“Rude much, huh? But like I said earlier, you were circling my thoughts. Wanna know why?” He tapped his feet clad in a million-dollar brogue on the tiled floor, smirking at Colleen. “I expected you to come to say thank you after dinner but you just. . .vanished. Barely two minutes after you were done eating. And you know what else I thought, 'she was going to come to find me this morning,' but here you are smiling sheepishly at another man.”

My goodness! Colleen scoffed in disbelief, resisting the urge to laugh. Such entitlement. Big, big one.

But Andre wasn’t quite done. “Well, I forgive you,” he continued. “Never bother apologizing, I don’t fancy women telling me sorry. What you can do, though, is repay the favor. Mr. Ohio is probably thinking about how he’ll hire a certain Colorado native after she is done with her DESC program. And that is all thanks to me. So, Ms. Caddell, I’ll tell you when I want to collect that favor.”

Now, he was done.

With a smirk on his devilishly-handsome face, he strutted out of her presence.

Somewhere down that hallway, Tobias lingered, watching the pair converse. All the while, he tried to listen in on their conversation but he couldn’t hear a thing because he was a bit too far away. His little secret watch was enough to reveal something though: Andre Lourdes was interested in that redhead.

As if on cue, his phone rang, and placing it on his ear, he spoke into the receiver, “Yes,” he said brusquely. “I have my eyes on him.”