change it from where I am, but if I was MD, then I could’ve made sure Rendel’s Michigan office was a level playing field.”
Her hand to his back. This subject was raw. That Wren had effectively been undercut again wasn’t lost on him. “I’m glad you feel that way,” she said.
“Glad? Keep stirring.” Maybe they were going to kill each other in the kitchen.
“People make change happen when they’re uncomfortable. That’s why change often comes from outside a system because those inside like things the way they are. Happy people like the status quo. Outsiders are disrupters in a way insiders most often don’t care to be. If you hate what happened to Wren and other women at Rendel as much as I see in your reaction, I’m pretty much dancing with joy because when you get the chance you will make change happen.”
His hands were covered in oil. But he still managed to hug her.
“Get that slime on me and I’ll stop stirring.”
Tempting to slime her. Nicer to kiss the back of her neck and have her turn to him, wrap him in a hug and tuck her face into his chest.
“About Josh,” she said.
“He became a good friend. We’re both work-obsessed.” He turned her back to the stove. “Stir. He blames his tiger grandma, who won’t be satisfied until he takes over Rendel and renames it Lam. She also wants great-grandchildren. Josh wants real estate; they’ll compromise at some point. When I bought this place, it was with Josh’s help. He did the scouting and the decorating. He already owns a home in LA and a condo in Hawaii.”
“Josh chose all your furniture?”
Tom nodded. “He dragged me around showrooms and through websites and worked out what I liked and then forced me to open my wallet. My idea was to make do with what I had, like I’d always done, until I could afford better. His was to live the life I wanted and quit waiting for it to happen.”
“You went with the dream.” And had felt a fool for overextending himself, until he got used to living in a home he enjoyed and saw its value appreciate.
“Bit off more than I could chew. Which is why I needed you, roomie.”
“Gross, I’m really just your chew toy.”
He glanced at her, making a game of the stirring, moving the spoon first one way and then the other in a pattern of her own devising, and a surge of feeling hit his gut. Complex emotions he had limited experience sorting through. All of his successes had come from plain old-fashioned hard work, application, diligence and the luck of having been born a white male. He was decisive but he wasn’t a risk-taker. He had a comfort zone and he was happy in it, didn’t like disruption or change not of his own making.
The home he loved happened because a good friend had convinced him it was the right thing to do and pushed him into thinking bigger. He’d acted out of character getting involved with Flick. He could call it casual, convenient, temporary, a commercial break before regular programming recommenced, but no one had pushed him into it and now he didn’t know what to do about it because she was the outsider, the disrupter, and much as he craved her style of commotion now, it wasn’t what he’d have chosen without a push.
Josh arrived early. He had shorter hair and new glasses and the same taste in expensive microbrew beer. He was the only man Tom could hug without feeling awkward and needing two or three backslaps to complete the process. Josh had trained him out of it.
As soon as they broke apart, Josh inspected the place. “I was worried you might start regressing without me.”
“Fuck you and the designer denim you’re wearing.”
“That’s fake designer denim to you. Came via Shanghai. Shoppers’ paradise. No Wren yet, and where’s Miss Felicity Dalgetty?”
“In your old room changing.”
“Ah, she got the en suite. Are you cooking duck?”
Tom moved behind the counter to check the oven. It was an experiment, outside the aisle of comfort foods in his regular repertoire, and he was fretting over it. “Problem?”
“What are you going to do when she’s gone?”
Not a duck problem, a roommate issue, and the answer was sulk, hike more than the usual amount, try not to fall off mountains. “I need to get organized about that.” Find a new roommate. Commit to Rendel or take a new job.
“Remember my cousin Eunice? Works at the Courier.” Not even a vague recollection. “She might be looking for a new place.”
“Eunice is a woman?”
“No, she’s a droid. Absolutely lacking in personality, so she should suit you. A shortie, so she won’t take up much space, and you can have her speech chip removed each evening.”
Tom closed the oven door and gave Josh, who’d settled on a stool at the counter, a what-the-fuck look.
“What?” Josh said with raised hands. “Oh wait, Flick has ruined you for living with another woman. Can’t handle the perfume and the hair and the femaleness.”