She had to do something about that. Flick took the flyer that she’d crumpled into her jacket pocket and shoved it at Tom. It was a discount coupon for a strip club that a guy had pressed into her hand on the street. Maybe Tom would get the hint and take his disagreeable self off to brood elsewhere.
While Tom was distracted with the paper, she focused on Jack. “I can’t thank you enough for making that call for me.” She’d needed a high-profile person who could talk her up without endangering her current position by talking out of turn over the months of interviews.
Having Jack Haley vouch for her proved she was well connected, a serious player, an asset to the team. Dream job nailed. She couldn’t be happier if she’d been born taller.
“You can never invite me to a networking function again,” Jack said.
She’d convinced him to come tonight on the basis that it would be good for his new business to show his face around. “Stay half an hour and you never need to come again. Everyone who ever thought the champion of the people was a dead duck will know how wrong they were.” That was half the reason why there were so many reporters, lobbyists and communicators here tonight. The rumor she’d started that Jack might show was a heck of a draw card.
Jack didn’t quite laugh, which meant he was probably onto her. She’d brought Jack to hacks and flacks, and she’d also brought the who’s who of the industry to him.
“I’m trying to give up smoking. If I crack tonight, it’s your fault, Flick.” He gestured to the woman by his side. “This is Derelie Honeywell. Derelie, Felicity Dalgetty.”
Flick put her hand out to shake Derelie’s. “Nice to meet you, Derelie. You give good meme. Jack helped me get a new job, my absolute ‘would’ve given a leg and definitely a kidney for’ job, and I get to keep both.”
Derelie smiled, but it was more at Jack. Flick turned to still-looming, disapproving Tom O’Connell. “You both know Tom? I might’ve taken out Tom’s ribs in my haste to get to you.”
And that was being generous to the Great Wall of Tom, who’d nearly knocked her into outer Mongolia.
“Tom,” said Haley, “been a while.”
“Nice to meet you, Tom,” said Derelie, thrusting her hand at him. “Who do you write for?”
“He’s a flack, a hot shot with Rendel PR. He’s part of the furniture there,” Flick said.
Oh, did the temperature plummet? Yes, it dropped about ten degrees. Brrr.
“Did you really just answer for me?” said Tom. The big suit had a way of making affronted sound like a good spanking. Well, bring it, dude, and next time look down from the mountain and watch where you’re going.
She looked at Tom full-on for the first time. Pissed off with a headwind. Shoving the coupon at him probably didn’t help. “You looked stunned. I wasn’t sure you had words in you.”
“You do know it’s incredibly annoying to answer for someone.”
“I do. Men do it to me all the time. But apologies for the elbow in those very solid abs.”
“Ah.” Derelie took back the hand Tom hadn’t reached for, making him scramble to do so. She gestured past them. “I’m going to excuse myself and go talk to my old boss, Shona.”
Derelie took a step away and Jack caught her hand. A solitary moment stretched into eternity as they gazed at each other. There might as well not have been a single person angling for a favor, sweating on an ill-advised sexual dalliance or thick-headedly aggrandizing themselves in the room, before Jack let go and Derelie moved away.
Flick sighed. They weren’t a stupid romance meme, they were the real deal. How incredibly rare and wonderful.
“You got the job,” Jack said, voice lowered. His eyes were still on Derelie somewhere over Flick’s shoulder.
She met his tone. She wasn’t ready for this to be common knowledge yet, but she trusted neither Jack nor Tom, who was still hanging in there, would cause her any trouble. “I’m moving to Washington. There’s just resigning and a pesky three-month notice period to work through, and then I’m off.”
Jack’s eyes bounced back to hers. “Well done. Nothing I did got you that job. I only told them you didn’t have two heads and you’d never sold state secrets and I thought you were trustworthy. Finding accommodation in Washington might be interesting.”
“Finding it here is proving equally as challenging. You don’t happen to know anyone who needs a temporary housemate, do you?” There couldn’t be too many people left in the room who didn’t know she was looking for a room. She’d made it tonight’s priority to find one. It was the one bug in her life. Well, that, the fact her family thought of her as a bank, and not ever having anyone look at her like Jack had looked at Derelie.
She switched her gaze from Jack to Tom, who exuded frostbite. Why was he still here when there were happy endings at Club Xquisite? “My lease is up. I can’t renew short-term. I’m shipping my stuff ahead into storage. I just need a bed and a bathroom for three months.”
“You could come bunk with me, but Derelie and I only have the one bedroom, and Martha and Ernest haven’t sorted out the cat-dog roommate divide yet,” Jack said.
Jack Haley had pets. She’d known him professionally for years, but that personal detail was so amazing she nearly missed Tom saying a bald “No.”
But hold up. Tom O’Connell shared with Josh Lam, and Josh Lam had shipped out to Beijing. Hacks-and-flacks mixers had their benefits. Everyone knew about Josh’s promotion, about Tom being next in line to take over Rendel’s Chicago office.
“But didn’t Josh go to Beijing?”