Free The Secrets of Their Souls by Brooke Sivendra

front of him but not within touching distance. Zahra didn’t dare take another step forward; she didn’t trust herself, or him, not to end up back in his lap.
    “You look beautiful.” He looked like he wanted to say something else but he didn’t. Instead, he stood up and walked with her to the door.
    “Have a good day, Jayce.” Zahra gave him a goodbye kiss on his cheek, rubbing the lipstick smudge off of his skin before she turned and walked out of the office.
    There were five people now sitting on the couches by Olivia’s desk; no doubt they were there for his next meeting. Overall, though, the group looked a little nervous. The man seated closest to Olivia’s perfectly organized desk was absentmindedly scratching his fingernail on the leather binder that rested in his lap, the woman sitting alongside him was redoing her hair, and the woman beside her was picking the lint off her black sweater. Thus far, Zahra had seen very little of the ‘director’ Jayce Tohmatsu and she had no intention of ever getting reprimanded by him. Zahra was damn good at her job, so she would never give him a reason to do so, yet she could imagine that the experience would be quite unpleasant.
    Eager to get to work, Zahra headed straight for Holly’s office where she was sitting at her desk sipping on a chai latte with Pusha T blaring from her computer. She swore listening to hip-hop made her work harder and faster. Personally, Zahra thought it to be distracting. The only time she listened to music was on the treadmill.
    “What’s cooking, Holly?” Zahra surveyed the documents categorized on the desk and spotted a new set of fabric swatches. Reaching for them, she flicked through the squares. She knew what she was searching for.
    “They came in yesterday for Luma. What do you think?”
    Luma Street was another development that was well underway. In contrast to Church Street, this project was less flashy but still strikingly beautiful. Her team had yet to finalize the concepts and Zahra knew what she wanted, but the difficulty was in translating the images in her mind into actual concepts. She was searching for a particular hue but, although she knew exactly how to describe the shade, she couldn’t tell Holly because it was the color of Jayce’s eyes.
    “Close, but not quite right…” Zahra said, searching for the alternative words that she needed. “Is this the complete set of their selections? If so I need the team to source additional suppliers.”
    Holly dropped her pen onto the table. “It’s very hard to tell them what to source when you can’t describe the color.”
    “I know. I’ll find a reference and give it to them—leave it with me.”
    “Also, Eddie called yesterday. He has finished the furniture samples you requested. Do you want to go see them this afternoon?” Holly asked, smiling and nodding her head up and down excitedly.
    Zahra laughed. She loved it when her team got as excited about their work as she did. “Let’s do it!”
    The women sat together in Holly’s office for another forty-five minutes discussing everything from blueprints to wallpaper. Seven high-rise developments on the go at once were pushing the limits of her team, but they would make it work—they had to. And Zahra would ensure every building was finished in her trademark perfection even if it killed her in the process. Her future forecast predicated early starts and late nights with the chance of a chaotic storm.
    “All right, I’m going downstairs to get a coffee and then I’m going to find that color reference,” Zahra said, more to herself than to Holly, mentally organizing her mind. “Oh, by the way, do you know Olivia Tolley? Tohmatsu’s assistant? I thought I saw her out last Friday night with a very hot guy. Has she got a boyfriend?”
    “I don’t know her all that well but I don’t think she’s got a boyfriend. Maybe she was just hooking up? He’s hot, though? Damn! Lucky girl.”
    It was all a lie. Zahra even