The Mentor by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli Read Free Book Online Page B

tea while she watched her boss sleep on her couch.
    He was a good-looking man. Apart from a little paunch and his tendency to neglect himself, he didn’t seem at all like a fifty-year-old. She’d always had a thing for older men, but in reality she knew that he was too old for her. He could have been her father.
    She took another sip, staring at him.

CHAPTER 4
    He woke up with a terrible headache, accompanied by a firm willingness to kill himself in order to make it stop. The pleasant smell of coffee reached his nostrils, bringing him halfway back to reality. He felt disoriented. He couldn’t figure out where he was; nothing around him seemed familiar. He could hear water running, but he couldn’t tell if it was rain or faucet water.
    A brief flash of people walking around Leicester Square leapt across his mind.
    Where the hell was he?
    He tried to pull himself upright, but the effort made him so dizzy that he gave up immediately.
    “Good morning, boss.”
    Struggling, Eric recognized Adele’s voice. Suddenly he realized he was still wearing the same clothes he’d had on last night, and that he was stretched out on a couch, half-covered with a blanket.
    He tried to raise himself up again, this time more slowly.
    The sound of running water stopped, and when Eric finally managed to sit upright, he could see that it came from a small corner kitchen at the end of the room. Standing in front of the sink, an enormous smile spread across her face, was Adele. She was wearing a white shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Sunlight flooded in through the window beside her and lit her up like a theater spotlight.
    It was already daytime!
    “Wh-what time is it?” stammered Eric. “Where am I?” he asked, even though he thought he already knew the answer. What he was really wondering was why he was there, how he had gotten there, and, most important of all, what had happened last night. He couldn’t remember a thing. At least he’d woken up on a couch. That made him feel better.
    “Don’t worry, boss,” said Adele, walking over to him and setting a mug of steaming coffee down on the table in front of the couch. “It’s Sunday. You’ve got all the time you need to recover from your night on the town.”
    He wanted to say something witty in return, but he didn’t know what to say and probably didn’t have the strength to say it anyway.
    In the meantime, Adele had disappeared again. He was so out of sorts that he didn’t even see where she’d gone.
    Eric reached out and took the mug. The smell of coffee was exhilarating, but there was no guarantee it would be enough to set him right again.
    Adele reappeared at one of the two doors just as he was taking his first timid sips. She held up a packet of pills in one hand, then set it down on the little table in front of him without saying a word. Then she went back to the corner kitchen and filled a glass with water and brought that back as well. “Migraine, I assume,” she said. Her tone of voice lay halfway between chastising and entertained.
    He didn’t need to answer. No doubt one good look at his face made it clear he had a hammering headache.
    He swallowed a pill without even checking to see what it was. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to read the fine print. He drank the entire glass of water, realizing his mouth was dry and racked by thirst. “Thanks,” he muttered.
    Adele was standing in front of the mirror, fixing her hair. “I’m sorry I brought you here. I tried to ask you where you live, but you weren’t answering.” She opened her purse and rummaged around in it.
    “Goodness gracious,” said Eric, rubbing his face with one hand. He was extremely embarrassed. “I hope I didn’t do anything . . . anything that was . . .” Then he stopped, unsure how to proceed.
    “Inopportune?” said Adele, laughing.
    “Yeah. Something like that.”
    “Don’t worry, boss. You were a perfect gentleman.” She appeared to really be enjoying herself. She grabbed a