Lost and Found Ch. 01

Three hours later, they had sated their appetites on Chinese takeout from their favorite spot, and purchased two deluxe queen-sized beds plus their installation on Tori's credit card, whose bill ran directly to her father's. They had mostly sworn off using it except for major endeavors like this one. It was independence -- with a safety net.

"So are you gonna get a boob job this summer?" Lila asked Tori. They were sprawled across the sofa, watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix. "Your mom keeps pestering you about it."

"Yeah, because she thinks I want to become her clone." Tori rolled her blue eyes to heaven. "A boob job. As if! My tits are plenty perky, thank you."

Lila laughed.

"She seriously thinks you're a gold digger like her, huh."

"Yeah, no matter how often I tell her about our product, all the other ideas I have, how well I'm doing in school..." Tori shook her head. "It's okay. She's happy. She can't see outside her little bubble. She'll never understand our product, either. She'd happily live at the nail salon. She doesn't want to bring it home with her."

"Yeah, run me through the details one more time," Lila said, her eyes on the TV.

"Okay, the main points that you should get across... Salon quality from the comfort of your own home. It's easy, convenient, and most of the cost is upfront. But it's really not that pricey! Beyond that, you have pretty much limitless selection when it comes to color, pattern, embellishment, you name it." Tori kicked Lila's shoulder with her pedicured foot. "Are you hearing me? That's when you can whip out your mock-ups. Make sure they understand the target market. Young women, not teenage girls. Young women in college or just graduated who are heading into the workforce. The working woman who doesn't have time to spend hours at the salon every week! And this is just the start for Victoria Harper's line of products."

"Victoria Harper's," Lila said. "I like that. It sounds dreamy."

"Yeah, well, let's hope Mr. Finnegan thinks so too." Tori fell silent for a second. "You're really okay with doing this, right?"

"Yeah." Lila sat up and kissed her friend on the cheek. Tori was like the sister she'd never had. "Yeah, I'm fine. It'll be good for me. Really."

"And if you bump into you-know-who..." Tori shadow-boxed the air. "Give him a piece of your mind for ruining your dating life now and forever!"

"Not forever, I hope," Lila said softly.

"That's right! Tell him about all the guys you've been banging! In your imagination, at least!"

"Yeah, I don't think that would go over too well." Lila sank her teeth into her bottom lip, before realizing that it was just another gesture Cameron had tainted for her. Her stomach turned over when she remembered how he had reacted. How he had kissed her. How he had debauched her. Thoroughly debauched her.

God, she really needed a cold shower and a long meditation session to get any thoughts of him out of her head.

A week later, Lila felt a lot less sure of herself as Tori prepped her for her big meeting with Jake Finnegan.

"Are you sure this is really necessary?" she asked, nervously eyeing the various pairs of false eyelashes Tori was considering for her. "I still want to look approachable, right?"

"You're representing a beauty product," Tori said swiftly, businesslike. "Fine, the eyelash curler and some mascara will do. But we have to glam up your usual wallflower self. And you're wearing heels. I told you you're wearing heels, right?"

"Oh, God." Lila groaned aloud. "I suck at walking in heels! You didn't warn me."

"Well, a lady can't walk into Schar and Elmhurst on business without heels on. So you're wearing heels." Tori cast her eyes at the chair in the corner, where the ensemble she'd picked out for Lila was sitting. There were the two-inch high nude pumps, along with a navy knit dress, nylons, and a cardigan. At least it wasn't a blazer. "Get dressed. Then I can do your hair and makeup."

Lila dragged her feet. Why, oh, why had the meeting been set for eight? It was seven in the morning now, and half an hour ago Tori had dragged her out of bed for a shower. She'd been plucked and toweled and blow-dried and fed some breakfast in between the plucking and the blow-drying. There had been coffee, without which she might not have been standing. This whole ordeal felt like a final after finals, and she hated that feeling.

"There you go. Now sit." Tori pushed her back down into her chair and began working on her hair with a curler, which Lila eyed out of the corner of her eye anytime it came remotely near her face.

But Tori was a pro, and she accomplished the task quickly and without burning her subject. Lila shook the curls out, their unfamiliar weight bouncing on her shoulders. Her reflection was already beginning to become unrecognizable. Tori started in on her makeup, and she closed her eyes, giving herself over to the beauty gods.

"And ta-da!" A brush feathered blush across her cheekbones. She blinked, staring at the young woman in the mirror in front of her.

"Jesus," she said, turning to her friend. "You made me look kinda... slutty."

"Slutty?" The makeup brush almost flew out of Tori's hands. "You mean sexy. Jake's gonna love you. He won't even recognize the girl he thought he knew. It's going to do you good, though, the connection. Connections are always a good thing in business."

"Ew." Lila wrinkled her nose. "I don't want him to think that I'm sexy. Besides, he wouldn't..."

She stopped. She had never told Tori, or anyone else, the details of the night she and Cameron had ended their dalliance. Jake had been there. She'd seen him a handful of times since, at various work parties and events hosted by her stepfather. He, slick and silver-tongued, had found it easy to talk his way around any awkwardness that existed between them, but she had remained painfully quiet, unable to escape his link, in her mind, to Cameron.

She was going to have to get over it today. She grimaced at her reflection. Inside, she grudgingly admired Tori's handiwork. Even she had to admit that she looked like one hot number, barely recognizable as herself by her own estimation. And it was better that way. If, by any chance, she bumped into Cameron, she might be able to brush by without being identified.

"Close your eyes." Tori spritzed hairspray in her hair and perfume about her decolletage. "And you're all set. Deep breaths, baby. I'm going to call an Uber for you. Then I have to get over to campus. Ooh, this is so exciting!"

She squealed. Lila eyed her reflection once more before turning away.

"Actually, I have one more thing to pump you up." Tori captured her elbow, helping her out the door of the spare bedroom they'd been using as a walk-in wardrobe. "I forgot to tell you. But I did a little reconnaissance -- don't ask how. Your ex-Prince Charming is flying to New York City this morning for business. So there's no way that you'll bump into him at the Boston headquarters of Schar and Elmhurst. That should lighten the load a little, shouldn't it?"

It did. Lila felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, cliche as it sounded. She pulled her friend into a tight hug.

"Thanks, Tori," she said. She slung the letter bag containing all of her notes and mock-up sketches over her shoulder. "What about that Uber, then?"

"Yes. And remember, the first thing you need to do is apologize to Mr. Finnegan for me. Tell him that I was just dying to meet him, but that no-can-do when it comes to immovable objects such as final exams. And remember to keep it simple stupid when you're explaining everything. And if you get stuck, just think -- What would Tori do?"

Ah, KISS. And what would Tori do? That Lila counted as pretty much useless when it came to her. She and her friend were polar opposites. Whatever Tori did, Lila did the opposite. Tori blew kisses at her from the sidewalk when the Uber came to pick her up. It whisked her away into rush hour traffic into the city, arriving at last to briefly double-park out front of the imposing blue-and-gray glass building that housed Schar and Elmhurst. Ten minutes to eight, Lila mounted the steps, along a number of other smartly-dressed men and women. No one took much note of her. She took that as a promising sign that she blended right in.

In the lobby, she paused briefly to check the information Tori had given her once more. Mr. Jacob Finnegan, eight o'clock appointment, seventeenth floor western corner office, check in with reception first. She got into the elevator with a suited gentleman who gave her a much longer than necessary look before asking her what floor she needed.

"Seventeenth," she said. A faint waver in her voice gave away her nervousness.

"New here?" He grinned at her. "I'm sure we would have become acquainted sooner or later. I like keeping tabs on the pretty young things who work around this place."

"Actually, I'm here on business," she said, leveling her chin at him.

"Well, okay," he said.

He got off on the eleventh floor, and she rode the rest of the way up in silence, her hands trembling around the strap of her letter bag. The doors slid open on the seventeenth floor, and she stepped out. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but then she noticed the receptionist's desk labeled 'Appointments.'

"Excuse me," she said to the young woman sitting behind the desk. "I have an eight o'clock appointment with Mr. Jacob Finnegan."

A sweet, large-eyed face looked up at her; this was one of the aforementioned pretty young things, and she was wearing a pinstriped suit, her hair pulled back into a neat French twist. The gaze was troubled. Lila thought it perhaps had something to do with the fact that she had shown up for an eight o'clock appointment only a few minutes before eight.

"I'm sorry." The young woman's voice was tremulous. "Mr. Finnegan won't be able to meet with you this morning. Or with anyone else, for that matter. He had to fly on urgent business. I can see if I can arrange for a substitute, if you would like."

"Oh, no!" Lila sucked in her breath, imagining having to break the news to Tori that the whole affair had been rescheduled. Then it would remain hanging over their heads when they were supposed to be celebrating.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I was about to call." The woman tapped on her keyboard. "Victoria Delaney, isn't it?"

"Lila Henson, actually," Lila said hurriedly. "Victoria couldn't make it; she had a final rescheduled to the same time. I'm her... associate."

The woman's dark eyes turned up toward her again.

"Then I suggest rescheduling, given that both parties are absent," she said softly.

"No, I can't reschedule... that's not what Tori would do," Lila muttered. She met the woman's gaze. "A substitute, please."

"If that's what you'd like. Let me show you to a conference room, and I'll see who I can find." The receptionist got up. Lila followed her, struggling to keep up with her rapid heeled stride. They went down a glass-lined hall and stopped near the end, and the young woman unlocked one of the doors with the ID card attached to a lanyard around her neck and pushed it open, revealing a small conference room. She gestured Lila into one of the chairs at the table.

"Make yourself comfortable. Would you like coffee? Or tea?"

"Coffee, please," Lila said automatically, against her better judgment. She already had a bad case of the jitters. "Thank you. How long should I expect to wait?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know." The young woman gave her a nervous smile. "They don't like mix-ups around here. But I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," Lila said.

The door clicked shut, and she leaned back in her chair, massaging her temples. The weight that had lifted off her shoulders earlier that morning had settled back down around her. If Tori's intelligence was to be trusted, then Cameron Winthrop would certainly not walk through the door. But Tori hadn't anticipated Jake Finnegan's unexpected absence, and Lila remained on edge. She had the strangest feeling in her stomach.

Another young woman brought in her coffee, this one a blonde in a smart navy suit. Lila watched her leave and sipped on her coffee, then found herself struck by a sudden thought -- suppose her own stepfather walked through the door to interview her. She almost jumped out of her seat to run and inform the receptionist about the possible conflict of interest, before realizing that it wasn't worth it. The original meeting would need to be rescheduled in one form or another. What she was doing now was trying, and proving to Tori that she had tried, and possibly securing a good word going forward.

She sat in the small room and nursed her coffee for an indeterminate amount of time before remembering that she ought to unpack her things. But when she went to unzip the letter bag, she found that the zipper was stuck, and she gritted her teeth and pulled at it until at last it gave way all at once. A folder went flying, papers shooting out across the floor.

"Shit," she said aloud, hopping up to collect them.

It was then, just as she'd bent over to retrieve the folder and was about to start gathering up its contents, that there was a knock at the door. She opened her mouth to ask for a moment, but the intrusion had already begun. She slapped the folder, half-full, down on the table, before swinging around to face the man in the doorway, her face burning.

What she saw first were his eyes, two years removed yet familiar, gray-blue and stormy and fixed on her.

"Cameron," she said, her tongue hanging dumb in her mouth.

"You're not Victoria Delaney," he said. "I shook Victoria Delaney's hand at her high school graduation."

"You shook mine, too," Lila said in a tiny voice. She was becoming angry inside. He was doing a good job feigning shock, but of course. He'd always been quite the actor. She bent back over to gather the rest of the papers from the floor. All formality had gone out the window. Her skirt was riding up in the back, but she didn't care. He'd already seen enough of her.

She straightened. He was still standing in the doorway, unmoving.

"You orchestrated this, didn't you," she said angrily. "Well, I suppose you're very pleased with yourself. I'll just gather my things and go. Tori will have to reschedule her meeting with Jake. There's no point now."

"Lila." His voice stopped her as she began stuffing papers back into the letter bag. He stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. "Don't be silly. I didn't orchestrate anything. Do you think this is how I would have wanted to see you again, after all this time? Anyway, my day's upside-down. I was supposed to be halfway to New York by now, but Jake's gone instead. He left me this meeting, but I didn't get the memo until five minutes ago, hence my uncharacteristic lateness. Now I intend to hear out whatever it is Victoria has prepared for me. Though I daresay I was expecting to meet with her, not with you."

"She has a final," Lila said hotly. But her hands had fallen still. She tossed her curls, suddenly self-conscious. "Fine, I'll give you the run-down."

"Please," he said.

She watched him drop into the seat at the head of the table and cross one ankle over the opposite knee. Privately she allowed herself to think that he looked good, just as good now as he had two years before. In fact, he looked much the same. She wondered, for a brief moment, what she looked like to him. He'd seemingly recognized her immediately, even though she'd thought the young woman in the mirror earlier hardly resembled the girl she'd been once upon a time when he'd swept her off her feet.

That was right. She was a young woman now, a girl no longer. Leveling her chin at him, she slid a few of her mock-up sketches into the center of the table.

His eyes remained on her, his expression mild.

"I see you've taken a dive into the world of product design," he said.

She flushed. Beneath the table, her hands knotted in her lap.

"It's a beauty concept," she said bluntly. "An at-home manicure concept. Tori will tell Jake all the technical details when they meet, but I can give you the big picture, since you're so inclined to know. It's geared toward young women... college-age or recent college graduates, or young mothers, anyone who doesn't have time to go to the salon."

"Or who are afraid of the salon?" Cameron asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"I am not afraid of the salon," she snapped, even though she undeniably was.

"Who said I was talking about you?" he asked.

They fell silent. The tension between them was a palpable thing. She felt it grow and change, a bubble shifting before her eyes. And then, all of a sudden, it popped, with his utterance of a few words.

"How are you, Lila?" he asked quietly.

She looked at him and found his gaze guileless, untouched by any of the emotion she had sensed in him the last time they had met, at the Christmas party. But, again, of course. It had been a long time. She herself found that the thought of sitting in the same room as him, of talking with him, had been much more horrifying than the sitting and the talking itself. There was a tightness in her throat, yes, but this was not unbearable, not by any stretch of the imagination.

And he was still very nice to look at. Way too easy on the eyes. It was clouding her better judgment. She gave a slight shudder.

"I'm well," she said stiffly.

"What are you now, at the end of your sophomore year?"

"Yes, and I've caught up the classes I missed from that first semester."

"That's good, a real achievement," he said, but his tone was vague. "Still painting?"

"Of course," she snapped, before softening her tone. "I'm sorry. Yes. I am. Are you still..." She eyed his wristwatch. "Consulting?"

"Naturally. I haven't found any better way to spend my time," he said.

She couldn't tell whether he was making a joke or not. He was dead-pan, as he often appeared in her memories. But now, sitting across from her in what suddenly felt like a very small room, he smiled, folding his hands in front of him on the table.

"You look good," he said to her. "Really good."

She blushed.

"I thought this ensemble was a little over the top, to be honest," she said, plucking at the neckline of the cardigan. "Tori's choice."

"I can tell it's Tori's choice, but you still look good. Makeup and all," he said.

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

"You, um, look good too," she managed.

He raked a hand through his hair, flashing her a lopsided grin. His teeth caught the light, momentarily dazzling her.

"So I've been told," he said, and rapped his knuckles against the table. "Well, I'm intrigued by Victoria's concept. Not personally so, but it sounds like a winner among the audience you noted. You can tell her so. I'll put in a good word for her to Jake. Given how highly he respects my opinion, I'm sure you'll be seeing some headway soon enough."

"Cameron, don't do it for me," Lila said softly.

"It's not. The idea is compelling." He stared at her, and she felt his eyes eat away at her little by little until she became nothing, nothing at all. "How are your mother and Robert? I don't see him much anymore, ever since he switched divisions."

"They're well," Lila said vaguely. She paused, drawing a breath. "Actually, I don't see much of them anymore myself. I've been living on campus, of course, and Tori and I managed to get an apartment for the summer."

Cameron's eyebrows shot up.

"Really," he said, seeming to take this in. "Congratulations. That's a big step. I hope you're happy about it."

"Yes." Lila flushed. She looked down at the table, then jerked her eyes back up to meet his. "You were right, you know. About needing to leave that house. About nothing there being good for me."