"Rainer?" Berger hailed me from behind a cubicle. "I thought that was you."
He wove around the cubicles and cut off my view of Tasha.
I shook his hand. He continued to block my view of Tasha's office. "So, no more jet-setting through Europe?"
"I got bored," Berger said with a shrug.
I crossed my arms over my chest. "I doubt that. Didn't you see Ellison in Paris? I heard you were both there at the same time. She didn't have one hundred and one parties for you to attend?"
Berger adjusted his tie and studied the pattern in it. "I did see Ellison, but she was busy," he said.
"I suppose her parties aren't really your kind of thing and vice versa." I tried to inch past Berger, but he was determined to chat.
"I attended as many as I could stand," Berger said. "But I don't think she noticed."
I blinked a few times in surprise. "And you couldn't catch the notice of any other woman in France?"
Berger looked relieved when a man in a plain suit interrupted us. "Mr. Berger, here is your packet from HR. Please let me know if you have any questions. And congratulations again, sir."
The man hurried away back to work and Berger gave me a funny half-smile, half-cringe. "You probably have a few questions, huh?"
I watched the man race through the cubicles. "First off, I want to know why he called you 'sir.' He must not know who you are."
Berger smacked me with his heavy packet of paperwork. "I'm getting all respectable now, and I blame you," he said.
"That can't be right. My reputation's still in the toilet."
"That's part of it," Berger said. "I was sick of having a reputation of all talk and no substance. And I wasn't lying about the getting bored part. I missed work. That's why I blame you and Tasha. She helped you make the transition into real, meaningful work and I was kinda hoping she would do the same for me."
I felt a bright flare of jealous and took a step straight towards Berger. "So, why exactly are you here?"
Berger held up both hands. "Whoa. Just for a job. Actually, I came in only expecting a recommendation, but Tasha decided to take a chance on me. Professionally only."
I eyed him closely and finally uncrossed my arms. "It's just strange you showing up at the awards dinner and now here. And now you're going to work for Tasha?"
"It's not like that. Totally the opposite, in fact. I'm trying to make myself more respectable so I can catch someone else's attention. Not Tasha's. Not like that," Berger explained.
"Tasha was the only one you talked to at the awards dinner.” I was having trouble letting go of my irritation.
Berger scrubbed the back of his neck and tried to explain himself again. "I can see how you might think I'm after Tasha. I mean, I was in a way. I crashed the awards dinner because I didn't know when else I would see her. And I wanted to gauge how she felt about me before I asked for help getting a job."
"And she was receptive?" My voice came out a growl.
"Actually, she was distracted." Berger elbowed me in the ribs. "And it wasn't easy tracking Tasha down. She is a seriously busy woman."
"How did you find out she'd be there?" I asked.
"Well, first I had to find your old, razor-sharp assistant. Topher is one cagey guy," Berger said.
The tension in my shoulders eased as the subject changed. "Are you trying to tell me that Topher let slip his boss' private schedule? I would have thought you'd have better luck swimming from here to Alcatraz."
Berger snorted. "Yeah, it wasn't easy. I think he finally took pity on me. How did you manage to finagle the information out of him?"
"I was invited to that awards dinner." I stood up straight and slipped my hands into my pockets.
"Right, because you make a habit of going to things like that," Berger said. "Just like you have a habit of dropping by old colleague’s new workplaces."
"Don't you have some paperwork to fill out?" I asked Berger.