The Sinner

“I’ll record it for you,” Abby said, suddenly all sweetness. “You won’t miss a thing.”

Oh God…

It was bad enough I’d be speaking in front of the group. Having Abby’s camera pinned on me was going to be a hundred times worse. But I tilted my chin, refusing to show her any reaction. My demons had gone silent.

“Perfect!” Kimberly clapped. “Next up on the agenda—”

“Your bachelorette party,” piped up Hannah from fundraising. “As in, there isn’t one.”

Kimberly laughed as the group booed. “I know, I know. But neither Nylah nor I am into that kind of thing.”

“What about Buzz Night?” Guy said. “We could bump it up this week. You invite Nylah and we’ll make it a pre-wedding celebration.”

Buzz Nights were the last Friday of every month. The entire company went out to a bar or club or restaurant and hung out together, so we weren’t just “coworkers.” Aside from one awkward excursion right after I was hired, I never went.

“I don’t hate the idea,” Kimberly said, tapping her chin. “But aside from tomorrow night, I’m booked up with wedding plans, and Nylah’s parents are flying in…”

“Tomorrow night it is,” Guy said. “And we promise we’ll all stumble in Wednesday morning on time, no matter how much fun we drank…I mean, had.”

Kimberly laughed. “How could I say no to that? Thank you, all. You’re a special bunch. Like family.” She looked uncharacteristically emotional. Then she cleared her throat. “Now, down to actual business and it’s not good. There’s been another disaster.”

She detailed how a cargo ship caught fire and rained down millions of plastic pellets along the pristine beaches of Sri Lanka. “Like plastic snow,” the local officials called it. A disaster of epic proportions.

“I can be ready to go with a team by next week,” Guy said.

Aside from being our VP, Guy led squads of volunteers for cleanup efforts all over the world, doing the hardest work. T

hese trips were the fodder for my fantasies, and I waited for that tight, anxious feeling in my stomach that this was the time he’d ask me to join him. It wasn’t there.

“Thank you, Guy,” Kimberly said. “Honeymooning feels frivolous in light of this news, but if I postponed my plans for every disaster, I’d never go anywhere. Okay, next up…”

The meeting proceeded for the next forty-five minutes, and when it was over, Dale from reception was waiting outside the conference room.

“Hey, Luce, you have a visitor.”

“I do?”

Never in two years had I had a visitor and the entire room knew it. Everyone looked across the open floor to reception, and there was Casziel. He wore a black T-shirt, black jeans, black boots, and a stylish black hoodie. An aura radiated off of him, an intangible magnetism that permeates a space, the same way a famous person strides into a restaurant and sends a jolt of energy into the room. Conversations hush. Eyes widen. Hearts skip a beat.

Or at least mine did. Several beats, in fact.

Most of the department heads filed back to their desks, but Abby and Jana stuck to my side like glue.

Abby gaped. “Who. Is. That?”

Cas caught us staring and was apparently too impatient to wait. He strode up, his glare trained on Guy who was standing behind me, wrapping some things up with Kimberly. The rest of the room blurred out at the edges until there was just Cas. Like a mirage or dream come to life. He’d been in and out of my imagination for the last three days, but now he was here. In front of my entire company. They could see him. It was all real.

“Hi,” I said softly.

“Hi,” he replied, tearing his demonic stink-eye off Guy. His gaze went to me and held on, no trace of his earlier coldness. “My apologies for intruding—”

“You’re not intruding at all!” Abby said, sidling up beside him. “Well, well, well, Luce. Who is your friend?”

“This is Cas, um…”

“Abisare,” Casziel said.

“Right. Cas Abisare.”