"Right," I say. "And they live in different sections of the city. We could show them commuting in two different ways as well."
We continue to bounce ideas off each other. While I can manage to come up with the big ideas, she’s brilliant at the small details. She stands up to join me after a couple of minutes, picking up the other pen. As she moves beside me, adding drawings next to what I write, she’s a worse temptation than any other woman I’ve met.
Looking down at her as she focuses on her thoughts, I watch her hips slightly swaying with her movements, and feel her body warmth calling me closer to her. She still has that vanilla scent from Paris that I’ve searched through various stores to find, but there are some added spices to it that make me love it even more. She’s not a teenager anymore, but something with a bit more piquancy.
God, if I could have her body on top of me, underneath me, intertwined with me in any way, I’d ride that high for months. Distance does make the heart grow fonder and it makes the desire escalate to addiction-level heights.
As she continues drawing, lost in her work, she steps on my foot. She jerks back, dropping her pen as she loses her balance in her attempt to move quickly. I grab onto her arms to steady her while she grabs onto me.
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” she says, using my arm to pull herself back onto her feet. “Are you okay? I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“I’m certain my toes will survive,” I say. My hands are still on her arms and her hands are around my wrists. When I look at her, she seems as lost in me as she was in her work. Her lips are slightly parted. If I kiss her now, I won’t be able to stop. I should explain everything that happened after the police arrested us, but why would I continue to burn down what I’ve already ruined? I could just kiss her, tug her closer, and forget everything else.
She leans forward. Her eyes are closing.
The door swings open. We both turn to see Elise, my secretary.
“Mr. Acorsi,” she starts to say, but she stops as she sees the two of us. Zandra carefully extracts herself from me, trying to casually pick up her dropped pen. “Uh, Mr. Acorsi, I just wanted to remind you that you’re supposed to call Rick Thomas in ten minutes.”
“Thank you, Elise,” I say. She nods once, quickly leaving the office. Zandra runs her fingers through her hair, staring at the whiteboard. The moment isn’t gone, but it’s dormant again.
It’s for the best. At least, it is for her.
******
After my call with Rick Thomas, I call Keegan, the other co-owner. They’re both ready to commit arson but switch between wanting to burn Tunest down or 2Resonance. They’re in it for the money—it’s not an accusation, it’s a simple fact that they helped fund 2Resonance because I convinced them it would be lucrative. They could just as easily be convinced to let it drown.
I end up tied up on the phone and video calls until it’s nearly 1 pm. As I’m about to leave the office, Julietta knocks on my office door.
I open it. “Hey,” I say. “Is there another log-in bug?”
She gives me a strange look before realizing that I’m talking about the bug that causes some users to be redirected to the log-in screen, no matter how many times they log in. “No. I wanted to talk to you about something else. Could I step in? It’s a private thing.”
I gesture for her to walk in. She strides over to the chair Zandra had been previously occupying. I sit down in my chair, facing her.
“So…” she says. “Let me be straight-forward with you. I like Zandra. She’s cool, she minds her own business, she doesn’t cook fish in the microwave—all great qualities in a co-worker. I don’t want her to get fired.”
“I’m not going to let her get fired,” I say. “That was a misunderstanding. It’s been handled.”
“Yeah, I’m not talking about whatever nonsense you’re talking about,” she says. “I’m talking about the rumors.”
I lean back into my chair. “What rumor is that?”
She takes a deep breath. “According to Sam, who heard it from Alex, who overheard it from a conversation between Pete and Lionel, you and Zandra were getting quite close this morning. I’m going to jump to the sensible conclusion and say that Elise caught you and Zandra doing something. So, I’m here to protect my girl and tell you, as politely as possible, to not fuck around with her. When this kind of thing happens, the woman gets screwed over and the man walks away without a scratch.”
I jerk forward quickly. “Nothing is happening between Zandra and me.”
“So, Elise is delusional?”
“Elise is fired,” I retort. “Or she’s going to be within the next two minutes.”
“I wouldn’t advise that,” Julietta says. “Right now, people aren’t certain where the rumor started. If they find out it’s from Elise, they’re going to be more certain than ever that it’s true. And you’ll have a hard time keeping a bitter, fired employee’s mouth shut.”
She’s right. Julietta has always been annoyingly logical. I was the one who interviewed her for the job. When I asked her why she wanted to work at 2Resonance, she told me, “to pay for rent.” When I noted that her response wasn’t the most reassuring answer, she told me that she wasn’t trying to reassure me.
And her goal of not reassuring me has never changed and, to be fair, it has been refreshing in an environment where there’s a lot of ass-kissing.
“I’ll deal with it,” I say. “But nothing is happening between Zandra and me except work. We’re dealing with the Tunest attack ads together.”
