Casual Affair

Zane stumbled, as if he had tripped over something on the sidewalk, and muttered, “Yeah. With my position.”

He had an odd look on his face that Bea couldn’t pin down. What was that about? What was back in London that made him act all weird? Her chest clenched at the reality of him moving back. She’d most likely never see him again. For some disturbingly mysterious reason, that bothered her.

In fact, she hated the idea of him leaving and never coming back.

She forced herself not to dwell on those thoughts.

They were walking past an antiques shop when Zane stopped and pointed at the window. “Oh, hey, look. It’s an old Western Electric telephone. Looks like a B3 model. Wow, it’s in great condition.”

She watched his reaction with an amused grin. “I wouldn’t have pegged you as an antiques buff.”

He continued to stare through the window like a kid at a candy store. “My mum was a collector, of sorts. I just appreciate a solid piece of technology when I see it, vintage or otherwise.”

“Geek,” she teased.

The look he shot her said he wasn’t going to deny it. “Guilty,” he said. “I’ve actually had an idea for the store opening that I’d really love to do. It’s been on my mind for a while.”

“What’s that?”

He hesitated. “It’s not really plausible…”

She placed a hand on her hip, now determined to hear his idea. “Out with it.”

His eyes lit up and he turned to face her. “Okay. You know our new Evolution line?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Supposed to be your most advanced products to date.”

“Right,” he replied, his words coming out fast. “Well, I just thought it would be great to have some of Envision’s very first products on display next to the Evolution line. To show the progression of ETI’s product base, you know?”

“As in, the Evolution of Envision,” she offered, nodding slowly.

He rubbed his hands together, clearly psyched about the idea. “Exactly. I mean, when the company was founded, they were churning out the first analog computers and personal pagers. Then there was the flip phone and the personal organizers and so forth. I thought it would be a cool way to show how far we’ve come over the years.”

It was actually a brilliant idea, and her wheels started to turn.

“Of course, it’s not something we could do in every store,” he said. “But something like that in our launch store would be tantamount to displaying ETI’s success. Opening up brick-and-mortar stores has been the company’s goal ever since it was founded. This would pay homage to that vision.”

Once again, his enthusiasm was contagious. “I’m game. Let’s do it,” she said. “Where can we find old Envision products?”

His shoulders slumped as all the air suddenly left his body. “That’s the problem. We don’t have any. There was a fire years ago at our warehouse that destroyed most of our inventory, and we lost almost all of the old prototypes. I honestly don’t know where we would find any now. You see why I haven’t bothered mentioning the idea before. It’s damn near impossible.”

Maybe. For anyone who wasn’t an expert in tracking down rare vintage pieces.

Fortunately, she had quite a bit of experience in such things. The upper crust of DC society liked to have unique, one-of-a-kind pieces in their homes, and it was her job to find them. Her years’ worth of contacts in the antiques and collectibles world would definitely come in handy for this task.

She began to form a plan, and murmured, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Zane didn’t respond, seeming to have given up on the idea, which only motivated her further.

They eventually turned back toward their cars, and by the time they reached hers, she had finally finished her cone. She groaned and took a deep breath. “I think I’m going to have to run ten miles tomorrow to work that off.”

She glanced up to find him watching her with intense eyes. They were focused on her mouth.

He reached up and rubbed her bottom lip with his thumb, wiping something away.

“You had a bit of ice cream there,” he said in a rasp.