I find Will downstairs in the breakfast room. Alina is out at the pool, doing laps, while Zara is on the phone at the same time as she’s scarfing down a triple egg omelet. Quiet and reserved, I fill my plate with scrambled eggs, a hefty serving of bacon rashers, and plenty of fresh fruit to start the day. A big breakfast is needed at this point.
“Good morning,” Will says, looking well rested. His words from yesterday have lingered in the back of my head. I think I’m starting to become aware of their truth. “Join us. Well, join me, since Zara is obviously not really here.”
“I don’t care about that, Lily. You need to have every conversation with your future ex-wife through Syed. It’s why he’s a divorce lawyer, and a remarkable one at that.” Zara continues with her phone conversation but does give me a friendly nod of acknowledgment between words. “No, you can’t give her any private communication that she might later use against you. We’re talking about protecting your assets, here.”
“Lilian Darcy,” Will says, noticing the curious look on my face as I sit next to him. Good grief, his cologne is subtle yet intoxicating. “I think I mentioned already that she’s going through a divorce.”
I nod. “Yeah. She seems like a great lady, at least from what I’ve read,” I say. “I’ve only met her a couple of times, though, so my opinion of her is pretty superficial.”
“She’ll be fine. Lilian is a rock. Everybody else is just water flowing by,” Will says, then gives me a soft smile. “How are you feeling? Any lingering effects from yesterday’s combined spirits?”
I press two fingers into my temple. “So that’s what this was…”
“Well, yeah. A shot of tequila, that fruity cocktail, then the whiskey. It was bound to come back to bite you, Olivia.”
“You didn’t warn me, either,” I mutter, starting to work on my breakfast so I can at least regulate my blood sugar. I’m pretty sure I’m dehydrated, too, so gulping down a couple of glasses of ice-cold water feels like an appropriate response. Yet no aspect of my mild discomfort is as acute as the pressure exercised by Will’s close proximity. “I never would’ve gone for the whiskey if you had.”
“You kind of needed it, though,” he chuckles. “Besides, you’ll be all right. I see you know how to nurse a hangover, so you’re already halfway there.”
Zara gets up and mouths “Sorry!” as she takes her conversation outside. There’s no sign of Alina anymore, and the rest of the guests are already getting ready to leave. Soon enough, Will and I will be alone again.
More than once, I’ve sensed the universe is trying to give us some privacy. Perhaps it’s time for me to learn to take advantage of these moments.
“I think I’m eating on instinct now,” I say after I work through half of my loaded plate, already feeling sharper. “You’re right that I needed that whiskey. I’m not good with public embarrassment.”
“You’ll be fine. Consider it character-building,” Will replies.
It’s my turn to laugh, and it seems to bring a light to his eyes. “I guess you can call it that, sure.” I take a long sip of my coffee and decide to try and get to know him better. I’ve read plenty about him in magazines and blog posts, but since I’m clearly crushing hard on the guy and also happen to work for him, I might as well ask the right questions for once. “I was wondering…”
“Hm?”
“Why did you set your sights on Asclepius?”
“It’s a huge opportunity for my company. It has the potential to be enormously lucrative.”
“Oh. That’s it? It’s just about the money?”
He shakes his head. “No. I really do want to see the kind of change it stands to make. Truth be told, it’s a matter of personal interest for me.”
“How so?” I ask, surprised by my own audacity. Will Bucklow isn’t the sharing type.
“When I was ten, my best friend died because he didn’t get the help he needed,” Will says, his voice barely above a whisper. “It was summer, the heat was suffocating, and we snuck out of the orphanage to go swimming at a lake out of town… We just messing around, being stupid kids. Then all of a sudden Matt was struggling to breathe. Heart failure. We had no idea he had a condition, and by the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late…” He’s quiet for a long moment, rallying. “So, when you came along with Asclepius, I immediately understood its potential to save lives.”
My heart breaks a little for him. I can almost imagine a very young Will trying to navigate his grief without any guidance, without parents to nurture him. “That must have been a lot to deal with without a family around you,” I say. “I got lucky with my big and rowdy and super supportive family. It’s amazing that you got to be where you are today.”
He shrugs. “I got to where I am because I knew there would be no second chances for me. If I failed, that would be it. I’d get ground up in the system with the others from the group home. I found refuge in computers, and tech in general. I loved pulling them apart and figuring out what made them tick. Figuring out how I could make them better. I kept my focus on that, and I studied as hard as I could to get myself a scholarship. Not once did I falter. Which is why I also chose to keep you over Max and Nathan.”
I give him a confused frown. “Whoa, that’s quite the one-eighty you did there. What are you talking about?”
“You are full of self-doubt and too eager to please people who don’t give a rat’s ass about you, Olivia. You and I… we come from different worlds, sure, but we’re more alike than you know. I want you in my company because you are driven and persistent. Because you don’t get comfortable and because you don’t require anything but room enough to work. Nathan and Max were ready to sabotage the company because they couldn’t get things done their way.”
He inches a little closer, and my budding appetite shrinks back down as I try to catch my breath. His lips part slowly as he peers deep into my eyes. “You and I, Olivia… we’re world-builders, not world-pleasers. Once you understand that, you’ll understand a bunch of other things, too.”
“What other things?” I manage.
He slowly raises a hand and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. His touch is electric. My skin prickles all over as I inhale sharply, struggling to keep myself together. At the same time, Zara returns from her call with a huge smile on her face.
“You’ll see,” Will mutters as she resumes her seat.