That Dangerous Energy by Aya de León

Author:Aya de León [de Leon, Aya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Unlike the previous party, ReidCorp held their holiday bash at their own headquarters. The second floor of the building had a dining room that doubled as a ballroom and a full kitchen. Mostly it produced cafeteria food for employees and fine dining for executives, but a few times a year a catering company came in and provided food for a great party.

During Sebastian’s father’s era, they consistently had fossil-fuel themes. They often used caviar in their hors d’oeuvres, mixing it with olive oil and black food coloring and drizzling it over crab puffs or lobster quiche. They always had a sundae bar, in which an engineer created a working miniature oil well that pumped black hot fudge out of a fake mountain onto the ice cream.

They brought in cooks who knew just the right amount of charcoal to add to sauces to make them black without having a medicinal effect. They hired a specialty pastry chef who made all their desserts with molasses.

Since the climate crisis had escalated, Sebastian had abandoned these traditions. But the sundae bar had originally happened on his tenth birthday. The kids liked it, but the adults had loved it so much that his father had replicated it at the holiday party.

The ballroom was really just a huge box on the second level, with a wall of windows and a lacquered wooden floor.

Morgan walked in, wishing her cocktail dress weren’t quite so short. Not only because it was cold, but also because she felt exposed. She knew it was irrational. No one, least of all Sebastian, could see up her dress. But every time she sat, stood, or took a larger than usual step, a wisp of air floated between her legs; it set her tingling, reminding her of being with Kevin. Had that really happened? She couldn’t believe it.

Such a short time ago this life with Sebastian had felt like a dream, and now it felt like a grim reality. Even thinking about Kevin made her heart ache. But he was reality, too. His warm skin. His strong hands.

Focus. Morgan looked at the buffet. She had heard about the molasses desserts at the party. They didn’t use it as a drizzle anymore, Sebastian had said. But they still cooked with it. As Morgan tasted the sweet desserts, the tiny pecan tarts and the eclairs, she could feel the molasses on her tongue. That’s what color Kevin’s eyes were, molasses.

She chewed the sweets, the cream and pastry dissolving on her tongue, and she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

But she didn’t have time for that right now. To make that dreamy afternoon a reality, she needed to handle business tonight and get out of there.

Morgan stayed at Sebastian’s slide. She drank slowly so she wouldn’t need to go to the restroom. She watched everyone who interacted with him. Every waitress who handed him a drink, every colleague who patted him on the back. Every low-level employee shaking his hand for the first time and gushing. Were

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