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PAST DUE by Aryea
Chapter One Nigel knocked timidly on Sydney ’s office door, before opening it and spotting his friend and employer clicking away at her computer with a fierce determination. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaned against the door frame and allowed himself the rare luxury of admiring her beauty. She wore a black power-suit with a red, lace and silk camisole beneath a low cut tailored jacket. Her hair, which had been down earlier, she had piled atop her head in a loose bun and held there by a # 2 pencil. Her glasses slid almost to the edge of her nose as she her fingers flew across the keyboard. Her red, high-heeled pumps had been kicked in off in the corner of the room. She was such a remarkable contrast with her schoolmarm face and hair and her sexy modern outfit that Nigel couldn’t help but smile. Finally her head turned enough to peer at him over he glasses. “Do I have ink on my face?” Nigel immediately straightened and blushed at being caught staring at her. He forgot about her bloody sixth sense. “Not that I can see,” he replied with a quick recovery. “I just wanted to ask you about something, but if you’re busy I can come back.” Sydney turned back to the computer. “Hang on just let me…” She finished typing and grabbed her mouse. “Save and file. Yes!” She released a sigh and the mouse, and flopped back in her chair. “Done!” Nigel moved into the office and smirked as he leaned over her desk to see what she was working on. “Our budget report?” “Worse! My new class curriculum.” She sat up again and grinned as she reached into the small candy bowl on her desk and retrieved two caramels. “We’ve been so busy the past while or so I realized that I hadn’t updated it in almost two years.” She tossed him one of the caramels, then unwrapped the other and popped it into her mouth as she leaned back in her chair again. “Just with the relics we’ve found there has been so much updated history in the last eighteen months that I haven’t had the chance to add any of it to my program. I haven’t kept up with the changing research.” Nigel settled into the chair in front of her desk and played with his candy, instead of eating it. “I’m sure the students haven’t suffered for it. You add lib a good portion of your classes and I am sure you’ve adapted them to what we’ve learned.” She grinned. “True, but I still needed to get it down on paper eventually.” She pulled off her glasses. “So, what did you need?” Suddenly put on the spot for the reason he was there, Nigel felt doubts creeping in. “Oh, um…well…it isn’t really that important.” “It must be or you wouldn’t have interrupted me at such a critical moment.” He met her eyes, defensively. “I didn’t know you were working on your new curriculum and you could have told me to …” Sydney sat forward, frowning. “Relax, Nige, I’m just teasing. What’s wrong?” “Nothing’s wrong.” Nigel cringed. “Could we please not discuss my underwear?” “Why not, unless you are wearing panties?” “I most certainly am not!” “Nigel.” Sydney sat forward, no longer smiling. “Something is wrong, now what is it? You’re never this easily offended when you know I’m teasing you.” Nigel sighed and lowered his eyes. Of course she was teasing him, she was always teasing him and he teased her. Somehow, today, he just couldn’t handle it. “I’m sorry, Syd. I’m...I suppose I am a little out of sorts.” “Has something happened? Is it Preston ?” “In a manner of speaking.” Sydney rose and moved around the desk to perch on the front of it. “Is he okay? He hasn’t been hurt has he?” “Not yet,” he muttered staring at the caramel in his hand rather than the deliciously exposed legs that were so temptingly near. Her straight black skirt rode up several inches when she sat and was above her knee when she stood, so it didn’t offer much modesty. He focused on her bare feet for a moment longer than he should have, she had pretty feet, then he forced himself to lift his eyes to hers. Keep them on her face and away from anything inappropriate. “I received an invitation to my school reunion.” Sydney’s heart started to beat normally again and she started to smile. “That’s great, Nigel. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time…” She paused as his lips tightened and his gaze dropped again. “Or…maybe not. You don’t want to go?” “No, I don’t,” he admitted and suddenly rose, unable to stay still. He paced the room once, twice, and then turned back to Sydney who was patiently waiting for him to speak. She was a marvel really, how well she knew him. “The thing of it is,” he said moving back to stand before her. “I have to go.” “Someone’s holding a gun to your head?” “In a manner of speaking.” Nigel watched Sydney ’s mood change in an instant and was surprised at the warmth her protectiveness stirred in him. He was sorely tempted to let her do just that. “Is that a promise?” The idea of having Sydney thrash his brother within an inch of his life was a delightful prospect. She stepped forward, alarmed. “Who is it? What did they say?” Nigel realized that he couldn’t go through with it. He allowed her a small smile and placed a calming hand on her shoulder. “I appreciate the thought, but fratricide is frowned upon in my country, even if it is done by proxy.” Sydney started to relax. “ Preston ? You want me to kill Preston ? He’s the one who’s threatened you?” “Yes, it’s Preston, no I don’t want you to kill him…” He moved back, popped the caramel in his mouth that he had been holding and rubbed his hands together gleefully at the thought. “Perhaps a little maiming…” Sydney caught his arm and turned him back to her. “What’s this all about?” she demanded. She knew that he and Preston didn’t get on very well, but she had actually been concerned about his safety for a moment there and she wasn’t in the mood for games anymore. “Look, I know you’ll think I’m being childish and unreasonable, but he’s the one that’s being childish and I really don’t want to go to the stupid reunion. I hated it there at that…that place, but Preston said that he had been invited by one of the board members and...” So, the reunion was at Nigel’s boarding school, no wonder he hadn’t wanted to attend. She sighed at the brother’s rivalry. “What did Preston say?” “It wasn’t what he said so much as how he said it.” Nigel groaned and moved back to the door. It sounded lame, even to him. “Sod it. Forget I came in. I’m not going and he can do what he bloody well likes.” Sydney darted over and caught his arm, pulled him back into the office and ignored Karen’s curious look as she closed the door. She pulled him over the small sofa she had recently invested in, and gently pushed him down, before settling next to him. “Tell me what this is about. Start from the beginning.” “Well, I was born in London , my mother was…” Sydney smacked his arm. “Not that far back!” She knew he was stalling. “Just from when you got the invitation.” Nigel sighed again and pulled out the embossed envelope for her to review. “I graduated from…” He swallowed, hard. “That place when I was only fifteen.” He caught her surprised look. “I was eager to leave, okay?” Sydney nodded as she glanced over the elegant invitation. “I took a year off and then went on to university.” He leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m sure this seems very foolish to you, but I fully intended never to go back there. Not ever. I’ve even convinced myself that should I ever have children they will never attend that place or any place like it.” Sydney offered him a look of sympathy. He really had hated boarding school and while he refused to elaborate on it, she could see that the idea of going back was tormenting him. “You were a boy then, Nigel. It won’t be the same now that you’re a man.” She offered him an encouraging smile. “And you’ve done so much with your life, you should be proud to walk in there with your head up. After all, you’ve faced ancient tombs and hijackers, human sacrifice, black magic and secret assassins. What’s one high school reunion?” “I know. I know you’re right, and yet…I can’t…” He shook his head and sat up. “The think of it is, I have to go now because Preston is going and I know he will be telling these…these people I went to school with horrible, false things about me.” “Of course he would! He as much as said so when he called me.” Nigel rose again, agitated. “Oh he pretended he was concerned that I wouldn’t be there, he even sounded a little disappointed, but then he slipped in the fact of what will he tell everyone when I couldn’t even bring myself to come to own high school reunion. What would the others think?” “What do you care what they think, Nigel? You hated it there.” He turned and held out his hands, imploringly. “It shouldn’t matter, but it does!” He sat down again and faced her. “It matters because they are the ones that did everything they could to make me fail, Sydney . They tried everything…” “Who are they?” “They, them…at the school. The…the teachers and the staff, even many of the students…” “Nigel, I’m sure you’re exaggerating. It probably seemed that way because you were young…” He popped off the sofa again. “You don’t understand.” He turned away and then back at her again. “Haven’t you ever had a moment, a time in your life where you felt like nothing? That others made you to feel that way and no matter what else you did with your life that time of being nothing was still there?” He stared at her and shook his head. He’d forgotten who he was talking to. “No, of course you haven’t.” This was Sydney Fox, the most confident and accomplished woman on the planet. What was he thinking? Nigel turned away. “Just forget it.” Sydney thought of the time she had left Hawaii , shortly after her mother’s death. Her father had a job to build a dam in Pakistan and she’d had to live with him and go to school there. She had been so confident before that, her parents had always made her feel loved and special, but in that place a female was nothing and they were treated accordingly. She couldn’t express herself. She wasn’t allowed to associate with any of the boys, and being a tomboy that had been very difficult. The girls were forced to do the cleaning and the cooking and the grunt work. They were not to speak or look a male in the eyes. They had to be covered from head to toe and Sydney had to dress as they dressed and respect their laws. She couldn’t even defend herself, because she would get her father in trouble and he would lose the contract. It had been so restrictive, so demeaning, and she had never forgotten that feeling. She had promised herself that when she was grown, no one would ever make her feel ashamed to be a woman. No one would ever see her as weak or unworthy. “Nigel.” The command in her voice was enough to keep him from reaching for the door. “I think you should go. I think…I think you should show them that you’re not nothing.” He turned back to her and could see the understanding in her eyes. “Really, Syd?” She rose and stood next to him, their bodies close enough to touch but not quite. “Yes.” He lowered his eyes, for a moment and then looked at her again. “Okay. I….Okay.” “Was that what you needed to ask me? For time off to go?” “What?” “You said you needed to ask me something. Was that it?” “Oh! No, no that…well that was part of it, yes, but…um…the…the other part…” “Spit it out, Nigel.” “I was going to ask if….if you’d be interested in going with me.” He dropped his eyes again. He couldn’t believe he had managed to get it out. “The…the school has reserved a room at the London Airs for those who will be attending, but it’s only the one room, and this wouldn’t be like…like a date or anything…” He realized how offending that sounded. “I….I just mean, well I know you’re very busy, we’re very busy and we can’t be away, both of us, probably not at the same time. Although we are away when we are on a hunt, but perhaps that isn’t the same…” Sydney put her hand over his mouth to stem the flow of words. “Breathe.” He stared at her and realized that was harder to do with her hand over his mouth, but tried anyway. He took another deep breath as she let her hand drop. “Better?” she asked and when he nodded, she continued. “Of course I’ll go with you, but why don’t you ask Karen or one of the many female students that follow you around like you’re a Christmas puppy? That way you could at least have some fun while you’re there.” “Oh no, I…I couldn’t. Well, I mean…Karen…She’s wonderful but I couldn’t possibly ask her to something like this because…well because it would seem like I was asking her on a mini break.” “What’s so bad about that?” “Oh, Syd. To ask a girl on a mini break, I mean a holiday away somewhere for a weekend, that’s quite serious where I come from and…I do think she’s a lovely girl, but I don’t want to…um…well…” “Hurt her if she expects a little more than some dancing and high school stories?” “Yes, exactly.” Sydney smirked. “Nigel, she adores you. I’m sure she would be up for more activities if you showed the slightest interest…And so would any other girl you take.” Nigel barely resisted asking if Sydney would be one of them. “Yes, that’s the problem. I…I’m not a one night stand sort of fellow, Syd, and while I care about Karen, I think it would be wrong to pursue a relationship with her while she works here.” Sydney nodded. He was a gentleman after all. It wasn’t his fault women flocked to him like he was a double chocolate cheesecake. “I understand.” “Besides, with…with you there I think I could get through things much better. I…I mean you’re my friend and you understand me so well.” He shrugged, shyly. “It would help having you there.” “No problem. So when is this reunion?” “Um…this weekend. We have to check in to the hotel by Friday morning or lose the reservation.” Sydney stared at him, shocked. “Nigel! That’s tomorrow. A little short notice, isn’t it?” “I know and I am horribly sorry. I got the invitation last month and forgot about it until Preston’s call and then…well then we were in Italy and then in East Asia and I truly haven’t had the time to ask you properly.” He shook his head. “If you want to say no I will understand.” Sydney wouldn’t have said no if he had told her the party was that evening, it was too important to him and she was touched that he was admitting to needing her. “You’ll owe me big time for this,” she said as she walked around to her desk to get her purse and satchel and to slip her shoes back on. “I’ll just have time to get home to pack. Have Karen book us two tickets…” “I already have the tickets. Our flight’s at nine this evening.” She regarded him with suspicious amusement. “Awfully sure of yourself, weren’t you?” “No, I was sure of you. You’ve never let me down, Syd.” Sydney couldn’t say much to that. She grinned, switched off her computer and followed him out.
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