“You’re not?”
“See how easy that was?” she pointed at me. “You totally just replied with a question.”
“Look Flowers, if this is some kind of a game to you…” I left the threat hanging.
She held up her hands in surrender. “E.G., I promise you, it’s not. I’m not mad at all about this Friday so I’m not sure what you’re picking up. It’s been a few weeks, so maybe you forgot, but I was a ten on the desperation scale. If you want me here until midnight on Friday, I’m not going to say a word about it.”
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. “Oh. That’s good. Thank you for understanding. You’ve just started this job. We seem to be working together well. I think it’s important you keep your focus here. A young woman goes out on a date, she starts to lose that focus. All of a sudden, you’re forgetful and spending time thinking about…I don’t know…makeup and shit-”
“Whoa,” she said, interrupting me. “You might want to check yourself on the makeup talk. Sounded like you were headed into pretty sexist territory there. You really don’t want to date yourself. Sexism is sooutthese days. Or maybeinagain depending on your POV? But for this conversation, let’s say it’soutagain.”
I glared at her.
But she chuckled. Then her expression grew serious. “I’m not going to lose focus. I’m not going tonotgive this job one hundred percent. A date with a guy isn’t going to change that.”
The reassurance was oddly settling. “Excellent. That’s good. That’s a sound mind. There will be other guys. And other dates. In the future.”
Her face changed again and I could see she was confused again.
“Well, sure. But there will also bethisguy andthisdate. We just pushed it to Saturday because I told him I couldn’t predict my schedule on Friday. Now, you have your lunch and meetingschedule for this afternoon. One is in person, she actually flew in from Los Angeles, and the rest are remote. I have a list of errands I need to run for you. Anything else you need before I go?”
“No,” I said. “There’s nothing else. Thank you for being so flexible.”
Another bright fucking smile from her. And absolutely no blinking.
What would she say if I told her to stop that?
Smiling.
I was starting to hate her smiles. The way her eyes narrowed at the edges and I could see too many of her teeth. Either the state home where she’d grown up offered dental care or her negligent parents had gifted her with the genetic benefits of strong straight teeth.
Yes, I definitely hated her smile.
I hated.
When was the last time I’d felt that strongly about…anything?
EIGHT
ANNA
He was different from other men. He was more.
Monday
“And here you go,”I said, walking into E.G.’s office promptly at nine.
It would not be hyperbolic to say this was the best part of my day. It would probably actually be fair to say that I loved this part of the day.
Over the past few months of working together, we’d established we both liked separate time in the morning to settle in. He was always in before me and would open the office, which I was fine with. It gave me time to suck down my second cup of coffee of the morning and properly prepare for our first confrontation.
I couldn’t say that E.G. was much of a talker during this time. Or at any time during the day, really. But he was intense. Neversomeone I wanted to deal with when I was not mentally fully on my game.
I could tell if he was having a good day or a bad day, just by a single crease above the bridge of his nose. I knew if I should hold back a few updates or plow forward with the deluge of people who wanted to reach out and just getfive minutes of his time.
If I gave it to everyone who wanted five minutes of E.G.’s time, the day would need to be sixty hours long.
During this first part of the morning, though, it was just the two of us. Our routine with no interruption.
