Page 20 of Love Spell

Timo didn’t have time for self-help andPsychology Todayand shit like that, but he was finding time to wonder what insanity felt like; to wonder if he already knew.

He got into work on Wednesday morning after three hours of sleep and three espressos, still reliving a dream of Noah.One of the type that meant changing shorts; not one of the seeking, twisting, unsettling ones.

He’d no sooner dropped into his chair and checked his morning news feed than he entirely forgot both Noah and his own troubles for the first time in weeks.

* * *

Noah didn’t have in earplugs this morning, but they wouldn’t have helped much anyway.This level of noise, whooping like a football stadium in the fourth quarter, was new even for a morning of profitable trades.

He tried to ignore it at first, reached for the earplugs.But, no, it had to be something work-related, though he couldn’t see anything unusual on his own screens.He better find out what was happening.

They were still howling by the time Noah started for Timo’s office, as they occasionally did when they needed to blow off steam, although it was usually after a few drinks.Timo’s team called themselves the Wolf Pack thanks to his last name.

Most of the other guys were already in that office, or just arriving.

“What’s going on?”Spencer, paper tray with to-go cups in hand, came running.

“AAM are fucked!”Chandler shouted back above general yelling, congratulating, fist-bumping, and back-slapping happening in the office.

“Fucked?”Spencer, the office PA, held back with his tray lest it be knocked from his hands in all the uproar.

AAM was a rival firm, a thorn in Timo’s side, though Noah knew little about them, except for their founder’s alleged aliens obsession.

“Chandler, Maksim, Noah, Spencer, get in here!”Timo was splashing something — brandy?— into shot glasses on his desk, the men crowding round, snatching up glasses and toasting one another, laughing.

While Spencer protectively clutched his tray, the rest pushed into the packed office.

“A toast!”Timo thrust his glass in the air and so did everyone else, Noah finding one pushed into his hand.“To AAM maintaining course and speed!”

“Hear, hear!”The men bellowed as if several rooms away, laughed, and drank.

“I don’t get it!”Noah had to yell at Arthur to be heard.

“They’re going to prison,” Arthur called back.“It’s all over the news.The whole lot of them!”

“What?What’d they do?”

“Fraud, market manipulation, insider trading, and that’s for starters.It was just on the news feed,” Maksim explained.

“Who thinks this calls for a celebratory holiday?”Timo called over their heads, waving a fresh bottle in the air to get their attention.Where did he keep the stuff?

There was a general cheer of agreement.

“This weekend!On me!Where to?”

A barrage of shouts answered him, mixing together and speaking over one another so only half were decipherable.

“Beach!”

“Highlands!”

“Monte Carlo!”

“Mykonos!”

“Barbados!”

“Everyone shut up!”Timo vaulted onto his desk with one hand, the ceiling being high enough for him to stand up there without difficulty.He grinned, still holding the neck of a bottle.“Distance limit of …”