“Can I help you with anything, ma’am?”
“Oh, um, I…no.” God, I hope I wasn’t mumbling out loud like a completely insane person, like I suspect I was.
“Are you sure?” He might be big, but he has kind eyes.
“Um, actually, could you call me a cab or maybe an Uber?”
“What if I get Steve to take you wherever it is you want to go?”
Steve? “Um, I'm not sure. I need to go to two places, and I might be a while at the first one.”
“Steve won’t mind to wait on you at all. That’s what he does, ma’am. Waits for Mr. Frost to tell him where to go.”
“Oh! I don’t want to get him in any trouble. Won’t he be missed if he’s off running me around everywhere? I don’t want Mr. Frost to get angry at him for not being ready to take him where he needs to be.”
“I’m fairly certain Mr. Frost won’t mind at all. You’re one of the people on the list.”
“The list?” There’s a list?
“Of the people Steve should drive around and wait on.”
“Oh.” I’m on the list. Probably because L knew I would have to shop for him when the time came. “If it’s no trouble.”
“None whatsoever.”
The man stands with me as we wait for Steve to pull up. It doesn’t take him long, almost as if he were already waiting for someone to need him, lending credence to what the man beside me was telling me. It’s then that I realize I’ve not told him my name. Or gotten his.
“I’m Lumi, by the way, but you seem to already know that.”
“Denver, ma’am.”
“It was very nice to meet you.”
“It was very nice to meet you, ma’am.” It sounds like he adds a ‘finally’ under his breath, but if he did, I couldn’t say for sure. He helps me in the back of the SUV and steps back, already speaking into a communication device on his wrist that I hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps alerting the people at the gate that we are on our way. I put it out of my mind as I rehearse what I am going to tell my boss. When we pull up in front of the building where the Agency is located, I try to tell Steve he doesn’t have to wait on me if he needs to be somewhere else, but he only shakes his head and tells me the same thing Denver told me.
My palms are sweaty as I select my destination in the elevator. The smell of spruce is almost overpowering. I step off the elevator, but don’t get much further before being grabbed by Doris and jogged into my boss’s office.
“So, Ms. Lumi. We didn’t check in last evening after our post ended. Why is that?”
Oh, crap. I can already see Doris looking me up and down and taking note of the sweater I have on.
“I, um, had an accident at the client’s workplace and…”
“An accident? I bet you had an accident?” Doris all but barks the words out between her snarled-up lips as she looks down on me disapprovingly.
What? What does that mean?
“No, I really had an accident.”
“Like the ripped dress the last time you had an accident?”
“What? No. I fell and hit my head.” I lift my bangs so I can show them my bandage.
“So, you were in the hospital last night?”
Oh shit! My boss hasn’t taken his eyes off me since I walked in, and I can already tell he’s not going to like my answer.
“No. Mr. Frost insisted I stay with him as I needed some help last night and didn’t have anyone else.”
