"Luke, are you home?" she hollered from the front door.
The house answered in silence. Her voice echoed across the room, -- no Luke. He must go to uni quite early. She took off her shoes and put them in the shoe cabinet next to the main door. She wore her home slippers and went directly to her bedroom to handle the matter at hand.
She stayed on her computer for the whole morning and came out of her bedroom to make herself an avocado toast for lunch. The alarm wasn't a mistake. Someone did thorough background information about her.
They are good to find out all the information that was hidden about her in just two days! She needed to find out who had the guts to investigate her and what are their motives.
She hoped to god that it was just nothing. She would really hate it if her father would suggest a personal bodyguard for her.
She spread the avocado on her toast while she waited for her sunny egg to get the egg white toasted and crispy to the level of crispiness she preferred. She opened her fridge and took out the sriracha.
Then she took her avocado toast and went back to her bedroom. She still has a report to finish about the data she collected from last night. Noah is a useful assistant, she could probably finish her report within the day.
When she returned to her room her computer was blinking for an incoming call.
"Miss Zimmerman, does the name Austin Noah Alfred Tiefenbacher from ANAT and Pharma Co rings a bell to you?"
Jess lost her appetite after the call. She stared at the laptop screen watching her image reflection with thousands of questions running in her head. 'Why in the world Noah wants to know about her?'
The person who reported about the investigation of her background asked her if she wanted to check Tienfenbacher, but she said no. If they could find the information about her personal life that was hidden in public easily they would know if she would do a background investigation with them too.
Besides, she doesn't want Noah to know that she knew he had her investigated. Sometimes the best way to know your enemy is to act stupid. Her fingers flew in her keyboard in anger. She has a report to deal with. She could deal with Tienfenbacher later.
She didn't ask for a deep investigation about Noah, and the involvement of the ANAT and Pharma Co, but it doesn't mean that she won't do anything about it. She happened to know somebody who could do a bit of peeking about Noah's profile without arousing suspicion.
She sighed thinking how sleeping with Noah seems like a cog in the machine of coincidence turning against her. It was supposed to just a one-night stand, how in the world is making it too complicated for her now.
'Who the hell is Noah Tiefenbacher and what does he want from her?'
She knitted her eyebrows when she kept on making mistakes with the report she was writing. It also adds up to her annoyance the throbbing pain in her left palm. The painkiller she took wasn't helpful at all.
She closed her laptop and went out of her bedroom. Making errors in her writing will not contribute to her productivity. The work would just get doubled up. When the going gets tough, one thing works, she smirked as she stepped out of her bedroom.
She almost cut her index finger when the cheese knife slid off as she was cutting some cheese for a charcuterie board she is assembling.
"Wine, charcuterie platter,... what do we have today, Little Jessie?" he surveyed the mess Jess is making on the kitchen counter.
"I'm loving myself. That's what we have today," she said, putting the final touches for her charcuterie board. "Grab the bottle of wine and get yourself a wine glass, and let's watch the sunset."
He didn't say anything and just did what he was told. His eyebrows creased the moment he arrived home and saw Jess preparing a charcuterie board. He has a feeling something happened again.
"Was it the virginity thief again?" he asked her, sitting himself down on the garden chair in her balcony, which has the best sunset view of the city. This view would break his bank account.
"Hmmn," she mumbled pouring their glasses of wine. "I'm so tired of him. I want to do something about him and be over it."
"And how are you going to do that?" he swirled his wine glass, inhaling the aromatic smell of the wine.
This is something normal people don't do. Not everyone could afford to have a charcuterie board, an expensive bottle of wine, with a million-dollar sunset view in one of the most expensive cities in the state of California.
But not for Jess. These things are normal for her. She does this bourgeois thing whenever she is stuck with something.
"I don't know actually. I don't feel like doing the first move." she sighed.
"Just sleep with him again! Help him jog his memories of that night and be over it."
"How do you think that would solve my problem?" she said rolling her eyes on him.
"Well, you hate it when there are unanswered questions hanging on your head. If you sleep with him again, you will know if he really forgot you or he was just playing you around." he shrugged his shoulder, not really serious with what he said.
"What's the percentage of that happening?" she asked in a serious tone.
"Jessica, I was just kidding!" he exaggeratedly widened his eyes, raised his glass of wine towards the bright ray of the sun, and snapped a photo for his IG, 'Living the life,' he captioned the photo.
"He asked me to have dinner with him. Should I go?"
Luke slowly turned his head to face the conflicted Jess next to him, and asked, "Jess, do you like Noah?"