"Woooooo!" Sarah screamed again as she drove the van through another intersection. "Oh my @#&%! You were so effing awesome!"
Honor smiled at her friend, gesturing at the other cars around them, all with drivers looking with some alarm at the screaming woman behind the wheel.
Sarah didn't care.
"You kicked so much ass!" Sarah punched the air, hitting the roof of the van and screaming again.
Honor laughed this time and joined Sarah when she screamed again, allowing herself to simply feel joy, telling sensible, disciplined Honor Banet to stop thinking about next steps and just savor the moment.
She had enjoyed watching the rest of the bank staff raid the meeting room after her pitch and clean out every last sample, leaving them to return with an empty van.
The branch manager had laughed and congratulated her on her impromptu market validation.
Moments later, having given up on trying to get Sarah to quiet down, she leaned back in the seat, closing her eyes. With the tension of the pitch gone, exhaustion was rapidly catching up with her.
Not to mention days of little sleep. Because of ... him.
"I can't believe you got Phillipe Dufour to write in for you!" Sarah exclaimed. "And that Somkurusat guy!"
"Somsak Kurusarttra ..."
"Whatever! He's awesome! You're awesome! Phillipe Dufour is fucking awesome!" Sarah screamed again.
"It was him," Honor said quietly.
Sarah glanced at her. "Who?"
"Marq," Honor said. "He got them to write for me."
Sarah frowned. "You think they wrote all that because Marq told them to? Or because it's what they actually think?"
Honor was silent.
"Honor Marina Banet," Sarah snapped. "You really have no idea how good you are, do you?"
Honor smiled. "I love you too."
"No," Sarah insisted. "It's not about me loving you, Hon. It's about the fact that you're fucking awesome! And if Marq Haydn was behind getting Phillipe Dufour and this Somsak guy to write that stuff, which is all true, then he's fucking awesome too!"
Honor was quiet as Sarah drove into their neighborhood. Her apartment building came into view down the street.
Then, "I'm going to Zurich."
Sarah's head snapped toward her. "What?"
Tears were welling in Honor's eyes as she turned to face her friend. "I need to go to Switzerland. I need to find him. I need to tell him I love him. That I just want to be with him. Wherever he is. Wherever he takes me."
Sarah said nothing, concentrating on the road. The traffic lights turned red just before the last intersection, Honor's apartment building on the other side.
Sarah took a deep breath and turned to her. "You'd really give up everything for this guy?"
She nodded helplessly, tears running down her cheeks. "I can't go on like this. I can't stop thinking about him. I need him to know. I need him to forgive me." Honor started crying. "He asked me to stay, Sarah. It was the last thing he said to me. 'Stay with me. Please.'" She sobbed, voice raw and breaking. "And I ran away!"
"It's okay, Hon." Tears fell from Sarah's eyes as she placed her hand on top of Honor's. "I get it. You need to go to him."
Honor looked down at herself, sniffling. "I feel so ... weak. Like some stupid lovesick teenage girl."
Sarah grinned. "Well ... at least we know you're not a teenager."
Honor laughed.
The light turned green, and Sarah drove them past the intersection, presenting Honor's key card to raise the barrier and making the turn down into the apartment block's subterranean garage seconds later.
"Wait ..." Honor said, seeing the sleek blue Lexus in her apartment's parking space.
More than a year earlier, she had realized that her job and everything she needed was within a twenty minute walk. If she needed to get across the city, she just used the subway or bus, and she could easily rent or even borrow a car if she really needed to drive.
So she had readily given up her car to buy the two industrial freezers and the extremely rare out-of-production but perfectly functional sixteen burner gas range currently sitting in her storage locker.
Then she had given her parking tag to someone who regularly came over and spent the night. That had been in addition to giving him a key card up to her apartment and putting him on her allowed list.
"David's here," Honor said, voice coldly, frighteningly, neutral.
Sarah swore. "Did he tell you he was coming back today?"
"No. He knows I don't come down here anymore." Honor tilted her head, considering. "I think he wants to surprise me."
Sarah looked at her. "I have two questions. One: what are you going to do? Two: where the hell do I park?"
Honor smiled minutely, deciding to answer the second question first. She pointed to a parking space a half dozen spaces away. "Park there. Mrs. Pullmer doesn't use her spot. I just need to let her know."
"Okay," Sarah said, taking her foot off the brake, pulling in to the spot Honor indicated. "What about David?"
"I don't know," Honor said.
Sarah set the van to 'Park', lips pursed as she faced Honor. "Did you tell him about the pitch today?"
Honor shook her head. "No."
"So he must think you'll still be at work."
Honor thought. "Yeah."
"If he knows you won't be back for hours, why is he here so early?"
Honor shook her head again. "I don't know."
Sarah gave her a searching look. "Are you going to tell him? About Thailand? Marq? Zurich?"
Honor took a deep breath. "Yes."
Sarah held her hand. "Do you want me to come up with you?"
Honor smiled at her, filled with love and gratitude for her friend, crying inside at the realization that she would be leaving her. "Yes."
They walked up to the main reception. Honor saw Rick look up as she approached. For the first time, he didn't have a smile for her. Instead, his face transitioned through a range of emotions: surprise, sadness, anger ... satisfaction.
She saw the same disturbed but satisfied look on Tony Moreno's face as Rick stood up from behind his desk and came up to her and Sarah, subtly signaling for them to follow him.
Behind him, Tony picked up a phone.
Rick was standing and looking nervous when they came into the little side office. "Please, take a seat."
Looking confusedly at each other, both women sat on the worn leather couch.
"What's this about, Rick?" Honor asked, curiously.
He sat on a foldout chair opposite them and fidgeted for another moment before he spoke. "First, how did it go today?"
"What?"
"The stuff you took in the van this morning?" he reminded them. "I figured you were going to sell them ...?"
It turned out that Sarah's smile was nearly as heart-stopping as her friend's, made more so by the look of pride and love she sent Honor's way. "She was pitching for a loan at the bank. And she absolutely nailed it!"
Honor blushed.
"Wow!" Rick pumped a fist. "That's amazing! Congratulations!"
"Thank you," Honor said.
"You're going to have folks lining up for miles, Miss Banet." Rick enthused. "The stuff you gave me and Tony this morning ... amazing."
He paused as he saw Sarah's face inexplicably turn sad. Which made him remember why he had called them in somewhere away from the cameras, and he suppressed the urge to ask.
"Anyway, look," he said, gathering himself, "I try not to get involved in other people's business. But," he fixed his gaze on Honor, "we, and I speak for all my team here, we all love you, Miss Banet ... and we don't want to see you get hurt."
Honor's face turned neutral.
Rick swallowed, uncomfortable. "It's your fiancee. He's here. Now."
"I know," Honor said. "We saw his car."
Rick nodded, comprehending. "He must think you're at work at the hotel today."
"Yes," Honor said. "He just got back from his trip. I think he wants to surprise me."
Rick took another deep breath. "Look ... I don't want to lose my job ..."
"It's okay," Honor reassured him. "I won't say anything to anyone ... What is it?"
Rick let it out in a rush. "I think he's up there, right now, in your apartment, with Mrs. Blake."
Honor and Sarah looked at each other and back at him.
"Jillian Blake? Ninth floor?" Honor asked quietly.
"Yes." Rick nodded. "It's been going on for a while. For months. When you all go to work, he comes back and then she does, or the other way round, and then they meet up on the third, and then they go to the ninth or seventh floor."
Rick noticed the silence, the lack of surprise on both women's faces, and his eyes went wide, going to Honor's still conspicuously ringless left hand. "You know, don't you?"
Honor nodded.
"I'm so sorry, Miss Banet." Rick said, after a long silent moment.
Honor smiled at him, stunning him again. "It's okay, Rick. Really. Thank you for telling me. And call me Honor."
________________________
Honor saw the scattered cookbooks and magazines first when she opened her apartment door, then she saw the clothes, the underwear, piled on and around the couch.
She noticed a small tear on Jillian's brightly colored blouse, and two buttons on the carpet, evidence of the lovers' unbridled passion.
Sarah, Rick, and two other men followed her in and quietly shut the door.
Honor doubted that being any louder would have alerted the two lovers, who were both loudly vocalizing their pleasure as they enjoyed each other.
Honor felt her first stirring of rage then, less at the fact that her fiancee was inside another woman than the fact that they were in 'her' room, when she had a guest room, open and closer to the living room, with an equally large bed, that they could have used to celebrate his return.
'Your room?!' Sarah mouthed silently, echoing her thoughts, face contorted in outrage.
Honor only shrugged in response, her face remaining cold and expressionless as she unhurriedly crossed over to the open door to her bedroom, not trying to be quiet but somehow stalking over without making any noise.
The rest followed, also soundlessly.
David and Jillian were far too involved to notice either way.
By some twist of fate, both of them were facing away from the door, Mrs. Thomas Blake lying prone on her belly, loudly moaning her encouragement as a grunting, sweating and straining David Brenner pistoned away on top of her.
Mr. Thomas Blake lifted up his phone, recording his wife gasping and moaning under her lover as he repeatedly plunged himself into her body.
It turned out that he was aware of his wife's multiple infidelities and had a plan primed and ready to execute when Tony discreetly called him. He had made it from his office in less than ten minutes, even with a stop on the way.
"Fuck me!" Jillian shouted, voice loud and shrill. "Fuck me! Fuck me, David Brenner! Don't you dare stop fucking me!"
David's responses were wordless, just repeated outcries of pleasure, volume rising and falling as he rode the slim and toned body writhing under him.
"I'm gonna come!" David suddenly yelled, his thrusts becoming rougher, less controlled.
Jillian moved with him. "Yes! Come inside me! Yes! Fuck! Yes!"
David lasted another few thrusts before he yelled out, a meaningless shout of ecstasy as his married lover shook with delight, also orgasming as he released inside her.
They both seemed to deflate, bodies relaxing, harsh breaths and sighs of satiation sounding out as their lips hungrily sought and met each other.
They both gasped, scrambling up frantically, Jillian shrieking in shock when Thomas Blake began to applaud.
"Tom!" she screamed in horror, "Oh my @#&%!"
"Honor!" David cried. "It's not ...! Fuck! No! Please! Wait!"
The other man, standing beside Rick, stepped forward. "Jillian Blake?"
Mouth open, trying to cover herself, still hyperventilating from her exertions, confused, Jillian's head spun toward the man. "Huh? Wh ... what? Who are ...?"
The process server dropped the large envelope onto her naked lap. "You've been served."
Rick stepped forward then. "Mr. Brenner. You're no longer on the allowed list of this building, and you have ten minutes to get dressed, hand over any key cards and parking tags and vacate the premises or you will charged with trespassing, and I will be obligated to forcefully remove you."
"Honor!" David shouted. "No! Wait! Please...!"
Honor, wordless through it all, walked back to the living room, not really hearing him, eyes falling on her bright red suitcase. Still unpacked, still full of sinfully sexy lingerie, swimsuits, and casual travel wear, still standing in the corner where she had left it by the door on her return. Her handbag with her passport was still on top of it.
She had worn a front buttoned floral pattern midi-dress for the pitch; fitted, comfortable and breezy, hoping to convey the casual, easy theme she wanted for her patisserie.
Perfect for travel.
Sarah had followed her. "Are you okay, Hon?"
"Can you take me to the airport?" Honor asked. "Right now?"
Sarah nodded, tears welling in her eyes. "Yes, Honor. I can." She wrapped her friend in a fierce hug. "I'm going to miss you. So much."
By the time David came out of the room, leaving a weeping Jillian behind, desperately calling Honor's name, grabbing his clothes, Honor had left the apartment with Sarah, bag on her shoulder, red suitcase in tow.
________________________
Honor stood in the apartment building's lobby, beside her red suitcase, distantly wondering when next she would see it again.
Sarah had gone down to the basement to drive the van up while Honor stayed up in the lobby to use the internet connection, so she could book and buy a ticket to Zurich on her phone.
She thought as she worked on her flight booking. What to do about her apartment. How she would have to sort her monthly payments out, whether she would have to sell it entirely.
How she could no longer put off telling her family about the end of her relationship with David Brenner.
How she would go to Switzerland and find one Marquin Eduardo Haydn in Zurich and not take no for an answer. How she would run him down and make him hers.
The equipment in her storage space was another thing. She may have to sell everything. Or, maybe she could transport some of it to Switzerland? There was nothing, except Marquin Haydn needing his odalisque every hour of the working day, to keep her from starting something in Zurich.
She felt apprehensive, scared at the prospect of leaving everything behind ... but for the first time since she ran from Suite 1615 in Bangkok, the leaden weight in her chest had lost some of its cruel mass.
Tony Moreno came back from the restroom and sat at the reception desk, noting her suitcase beside her. "Traveling again, Miss Banet?"
"Call me Honor, Tony," she said, smiling brightly at him, just as she was about to pay for her ticket. "And yes, I am."
He stared at her smile, and suddenly said, "Sorry about your fiancee being a cheating bastard." He looked abashed, his voice low. "Sorry we didn't tell you way back. We thought ..."
"It's okay, Tony," Honor said, meaning it. If they had told her any earlier, she wouldn't have flown to surprise David in Thailand ... and met the man who had so completely captured her heart. "It really is okay ..."
"Hello, Miss Banet."
Honor froze at the voice behind her, the faint Germanic accent, the cadence and tone that she had despaired of ever hearing again.
Everything else faded, her heart abruptly beating faster as she stood stock-still.
"Is it really you?" she whispered, after a long moment, without turning around, voice breaking.
"Yes, Miss Banet." The voice sounded closer. "And I've missed you. So much."
Slowly, almost fearfully, she turned around.
Marquin Haydn was wearing a suit with no tie, looking somewhat rumpled, his gray eyes tired and sunken behind his glasses. The slight quirk of his lips was there though as he regarded her, taking her in hungrily as she stood in shaking disbelief in front of him.
Then she moved, running and leaping into his arms. She showered kisses all over his face, tears cascading down her cheeks as she sobbed.
"I'm sorry!" she repeated over and over again, in between kisses. "I'm so sorry!" She clutched and grasped at him, as if trying to confirm that he was real, and really there, really holding her.
At last, she sought his lips, and finally, she calmed as he held and kissed her back, knowing that he was really there in the flesh, that she was really in his arms, that he was real and not some hallucination.
By the time she broke the kiss, the weight in her chest had vanished, a coil of heat igniting in her abdomen and spreading lower, between her legs, her nipples already coming to attention as she gazed up wonderingly into his eyes.
She loved kissing him.
"I love you, Mr. Haydn," she said, laying herself bare. "I love you so much."
"Well ..." said Sarah, interrupting as he made to respond. "I hope you haven't yet bought that ticket to Zurich!"