“Actually, yes.”
“Man, how hard up are you?” she teased, depositing a heaping portion into a Tupperware, locking in the freshness as her own anxiety spiraled.
“You have no idea,” he said, making it sound like it had been a really long time since he’d gotten some.
“Oh, I bet I do.” If anyone knew about being hard up for some loving, it was her. The algorithm wasn’t wrong with all those vibrator ads.
He raised his eyebrows, and he looked almost about to say something.
At the door, she handed him his leftovers.
“Don’t worry, Gabby. You are doing so good. I’ve got you.”
All of her insecurities must have played across her face, because Markus said, “Do you need a hug?”
She nodded yes, and he wrapped her in the most comforting, warm, manly hug she’d ever had. All of her suspicions dissolved with his arms wrapped around her. She leaned in and shut her eyes. When she looked up, her lips brushed the skin on his neck. They stood like that for a few seconds too long, both probably considering what to do next. Markus looked at her, his eyes heavy-lidded. He leaned down as if to kiss her. After letting his lips just lightly brush hers, he backed away.
“I’m sorry, Gabby. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Shyly, she admitted, “I wanted it.”
A smile like he’d won the lottery lit up his face. He let his hand trail down her arm. As he was squeezing her hand, he slipped a flash drive into her palm. “Copy the files onto this.” A little huskier, he said, “Maybe we can revisit this after the mission is done?”
“Yes, please.”
Finally alone, Gabby collapsed on the couch with Mr. Bubbles.Family Feudwas still playing, muted with the closed captioning on. She didn’t even have the energy to change the channel. Exhausted, Gabby wolfed down emotional chocolate and finished Granny’s wine.
Thursday morning, Greene household
The next morning, on the day of Operation Secret Laptop, an inconvenient fact smacked into Gabby’s consciousness like a surprise asteroid headed for earth. She needed two flash drives.
She was a double agent, not a single agent. She needed one copy of the contents of the laptop for the good guys and another for the bad guys, using the term “good guys” pretty loosely. How had she not thought of this earlier? Sort of almost kissing her handler last night had made her forget everything, which is why you aren’t supposed to do things like that. If she weren’t running late, she could swing into OfficeMax, but when was she not running late? Never.
“Kyle, do you have a flash drive?” she yelled as she looked for her keys and shoved her feet in some shoes. Shame washed over her. The EOD and the Mafia had tapped her to do a mission, and here she was putting it together last minute using her fourteen-year-old daughter for tech support.
“Uh, I don’t know,” Kyle said, with her usual level of helpfulness. When her daughter looked up, she must have sensed Gabby’s panic. “I can look, though.”
Sure enough, there was a flash drive in the front pocket of Kyle’s backpack, jammed in there with a partially eaten Nutri-Grain bar. Kyle peeled the jammy sections off the drive and brushed the remaining crumbs on the floor. “I don’t think there’s anything on it but that report on Oobleck.”
Aah, the Oobleck report. Oobleck: the only substance, besides toothpaste and Silly Putty and, let’s be honest, K-Y, that defied the laws of physics. For every action, there should be an equal and opposite reaction, except for Oobleck and toothpaste. She glanced at Lucas’s hair, still jagged from where all the Oobleck Kyle had made for her report had gotten stuck.
Kyle grumbled. “I can’t believe I got a C on that report.”
Gabby couldn’t either. Between helping Kyle with essay writing and driving to the grocery store at 11:00 p.m. to get ingredients to make Oobleck for a demonstration, that report had been as much work as double agenting. At the science fair, it had been obvious that the other parents had done a much better job on their kids’ assignments than Gabby had, though.
Gabby looked at the flash drive, another item she didn’t use regularly. “You don’t happen to know how to transfer files from one USB to another, do you?”
Kyle shrugged. “Just put them in a laptop at the same time, open them up, and drag and drop.”
Gabby ran over the directions twice in her mind, threw a laptop into her purse, and hit the road. It was go time.
An hour later, she was at her desk waiting for Kramer to make his transfer. During her endless hours of carpet scrubbing, goodfor something at least, she’d overheard a client demand a wire transfer. Kramer had scheduled a call at ten, the transfer to take place during the call. As soon as she saw Kramer on the phone, she needed to set the plan into motion. Everything hinged on her. She needed to be alert and quick to react—basically the opposite of who she was.
Even with the whole world resting on her shoulders, she went all schoolgirl when Markus talked. Was it just her or when he said, “Hey,” was it a little softer and sweeter than yesterday? He couldn’t be the mole. The universe couldn’t be that cruel. She had a kiss to revisit.
“So this morning,” Markus said, “a few of the other agents are going to be looped in on our conversation. Valentina and Fredo. Let us know when you’re in position, guys.”
Valentina came on. “Locked, loaded, and waiting for your signal, Gabby.”
