“Well, it sounds like this coffee thing is going to be no problem. I think we’ve got this,” he said twenty minutes later. Sloane was probably dying on the other side of the door.
“Thank God. I was hoping I wasn’t going to have to fake a broken ankle, or park my car in a no parking zone so it gets towed on purpose.”
He paused for a minute.
“You know, that’s actually not a bad idea. Thanks for that.”
“Anytime.” We finalized the details of our coffee date for the following Wednesday. I just had one meeting in the afternoon and then I could leave early and meet him.
I hung up and set my phone down. “Well, what do you do know about that?” I said and shook my head. There was a frantic knocking at my bedroom door.
“Well?” Sloane had been camped out on the other side and now was bursting for details. Because my life was her life.
“We’re going for coffee,” I said, pushing the door open. “That’s it. He actually was kind of funny and it wasn’t too awkward, so it might not totally suck.” Sloane raised and lowered her eyebrows and I pushed past her.
“Don’t get any ideas, Miss Sloane.” Too late.
“Rory’s got her very own love triangle. God, I’m jealous.” I got a coffee cup from the cupboard, filled it with water and put it in the microwave to make some Kava tea. I needed a little something to help me sleep.
“Oh come on! Let me live vicariously,” she whined. “All I have is work and nothing else to occupy my mind. Take one for the team.”
Take what? What team was she talking about?
“Have you been sniffing too much fabric glue again?” This one time in college she’d had a project due and not enough time to sew it and had to glue a lot of the seams together and she’d gotten totally looped out on glue. I wished I had a video of it.
“It’s either this, or suffer through marathons of reality television, and not the kind you like.” Ugh, spare me.
The microwave dinged and I took my tea to my room without another word.
Seven
“Have you narrowed down your candidates for assistant yet?” Dad said when he stopped by my desk the next morning. He usually tried to see me at least once during the day and sometimes we had lunch together.
I’d been so busy trying to put out fires and rearrange a meeting that had already been postponed twice that I hadn’t had a chance to even think about it.
“I will this afternoon.”
“I heard you had a very enthusiastic fellow that came highly recommended.” I looked up from my exploding inbox and blinked at him a few times.
“A young man by the name of Lucas Blaine?” How had he found out about this guy? Probably Mrs. Andrews.
“Oh?” I pretended I wasn’t super interested.
“I must say he doesn’t seem like the kind of boy to be interested in this type of position, but maybe he’s been looking to make his mark here and start moving up. He seems like a valuable asset. Something tells me that he’s going places. Anyway, I don’t want to tell you what to do, but I think he’d do really well here. Mrs. Andrews was also very impressed with him.” My phone rang, but I ignored it.
“Well, I haven’t made my decision yet, and I don’t think he would . . . fit well.” Really? That was all I could come up with? It wasn’t like I could tell Dad that I had amazing one-night-stand sex and I didn’t think I could ever look him in the face as my employee.
“Well, just something to consider. Not that I’m telling you what to do. Go with your gut. Coffee this afternoon?”
I quickly scanned my schedule.
“No can do. I’m booked today. Tomorrow?”
“It’s a date.” He looked around before he gave me a kiss on the top of my head.
“Dad, stop,” I said, smiling as he chuckled and walked back to his office.
~*~*~