The time continued to tick by and she was getting seething mad once an hour had passed. She figured she'd be in his office no more than a half hour but if she didn't get in there soon she wouldn't be able to visit her sister. She stepped up to the desk, thinking he'd forgotten about her.
"I wanted to make sure Mr. Titan knew I was still here," she said to the receptionist. She knew she had a bit of bite to her tone but it was rude to make someone wait this long. He must assume he was the only one who had a life. The secretary looked up startled, like she couldn't possibly believe Nicole would dare to question her boss's intentions.
"Mr. Titan's a very busy man. You'll have to wait for him to call you in," the woman rudely replied. Nicole nodded and took her seat again. Another half hour passed, still with no word from Ryan and she could no longer wait. She couldn't afford to be late to her job. It looked like he'd played her for a fool. He was most likely in his office, watching her fidget from some hidden camera and having a nice laugh to himself.
She slowly got up and headed off towards the elevator. She didn't approach the reception desk again, why bother? She took the elevator back downstairs and returned the badge to the security guard. She held her head high as she exited the building. She was going to barely make it to work on time so she wouldn't allow the tears fall, which were trying so hard to escape.
She felt like she had failed her baby sister. She really didn't see any other options of being able to pay the surgery bill. She'd already given up her tiny apartment. She was living on friend's couches and her sister's hospital room chair. She had sold everything of value she owned and it still wasn't enough. Her car decided when it wanted to work, which was only about half the time. She wasn't a person to give up on anything but she didn't see what more she could possibly do.
She rushed in the doors of the second rate, all-night truck stop, where she waitressed and put her purse away. She made it out to the floor with a minute to spare. Her boss looked up with a glare and pointedly glanced at the clock. He then went back to his paper and ignored her. It was going to be a long night, as she hadn't gotten a descent night's sleep in forever. She was used to that and would deal with it like she did everything thrown her way.
Ryan hadn't expected the business call to take so long and was about to pull his hair out, when he finally managed to get off the phone. He'd been planning on making Nicole wait for a while, just to make sure she squirmed in her seat a bit. He wasn't normally so rude though as to make someone wait two hours.
"You can send Ms. Lander in, now," he said into his intercom. There was a pause before his efficient secretary came back.
"It looks as if she left," came the reply. Ryan didn't say anything else. He hung up and called the security desk asking if she'd left the building, only to find out she'd indeed left about a half hour earlier. She wasn't acting like someone who wanted a favor. If any other person had walked out before he was ready to speak with them he would've scrapped the whole thing but this wasn't business, it was personal.
He made some phone calls and found out where she was. When he discovered where she was working, his bad mood deepened even further. He really shouldn't give a damn where she worked, or what she did. She shouldn't matter to him in the least but when he thought about her working overnight at the dive of a truck stop, his stomach clenched. He knew the kind of people who habituated a place like that in the wee hours of the morning and it was certainly no place for a woman.
He gathered up his things and called his driver. It looked like he was dining out that night. He smiled to himself, when he pictured her reaction to him entering the joint. Hell, when his car pulled up, he was sure there would be a bit of a stir. People like him simply didn't go to places like that. At least people like him nowadays. He would've been happy to go anywhere when he was a kid. That would've been a real treat.
It took the driver about forty minutes to navigate traffic and pull up in front of the diner. It was fairly busy and he looked through the windows, spotting her almost immediately. She'd changed in the years since he'd seen her last but not much.
Her young, sleek body had matured and now she had curves, though he couldn't see them well beneath the loose clothing and apron she was wearing. Her hair was still dark and hung low on her back in an unflattering braid, which looked like she had made up in minutes.
As he stepped through the diner doors and quickly browsed before she noticed him, he could see the weariness in the set of her shoulders. When she finally turned to see who'd walked in and caused a silence to fall over her customers, he felt a kick in his gut by the sheer exhaustion of her expression.