“Someone egged your car?” the man behind the desk says, and although his expression displays shock, he could not more clearly be laughing as his eyes jump to me. “How horrible.”
I swallow everything I want to say, because none of it will be helpful, and if this man really is the interim boss, he could probably tank my career. Might be planning on it already, in fact.
“It was a mess,” Mindy pipes up in her perfect feminine voice. She leans forward, glances around Bart and at me, and then nudges Bart. “Get to the point,” she whispers.
“Right,” Bart says, adjusting his cheap tie and straightening his shoulders. “Anyway, Mindy and I wanted to talk to you about the assignment that was sent out last night.”
At this, I turn to Bart and frown. “What assignment?”
“Oh, dear,” the man behind the desk says, and I swear, at any moment he’s going to burst into laughter. I can see it in the dimples that keep appearing; I can see it in his eyes when I glare at him, even though I should be keeping my feelings to myself. “Were you busy last night, Ms. Marigold?” he goes on. “Unable to get to your computer?”
He knows perfectly well we were locked in a holding cell together?—
I gasp out loud as my thoughts come to a halt.
He was in the holding cell with me. Why washethere?
Okay, this is good. It would be good to have something to hold over his head. It would make me feel less naked, less exposed—less embarrassed that I was caught getting petty revenge on a man I should never have cared about in the first place. Talk about unprofessional, not to mention a bad first impression.
“I did have a few things to attend to,” I say politely through gritted teeth. “What about you, sir? Busy night?”
This finally does it. The man laughs, raising an eyebrow at me in clear challenge. He leans back in his seat,kicks his feet up on the desk,and starts working on the Rubik’s cube again, although he never looks at it. “I’m a busy man,” he says with a tip of his head. “People to meet, places to go—you know how it is.” A few strands of perfect hair fall over his forehead, but he leaves them, his attention still focused on me.
And even when Bart speaks again, the man behind the desk doesn’t look away from me. His gaze is a slow perusal, his lips twitching, his eyes amused.
“Well, you asked Mindy and I to?—”
“Mindy and me.”
Bart blinks at the man’s interruption. “What?”
“Mindy andme,” the man behind the desk repeats, looking bored now as he turns his gaze to Bart. “Not Mindy andI.”
“I—of course. Sorry,” Bart says, clearly floundering. “You asked—Mindy andme—to work with Aurora on the Lucky event, going over there, setting up sponsors and developing a marketing plan?—”
“He did?” I say, briefly distracted. I whip my head to look at Bart. “The three of us?”
No. Nope. I will wiggle out of that one if it’s the last thing I do.
Can I be professional? Sure.
Do I want to? Not really.
Bart frowns at my outburst and then turns back to the man behind the desk. “Anyway, since you’re new—and we’re so excited to work with you, by the way”—I roll my eyes at the fawning—“you might not be aware of a—a situation—we’re currently experiencing.” He shifts uncomfortably. “We had hoped to speak with you about this privately, actually.”
The man behind the desk says nothing; he just watches Bart, waiting, so Bart goes on.
“Mindy and I might not be—that is, we aren’t—we’re concerned Aurora may be uncomfortable working with the two of us.”
Wait—is he about to do what I think he’s about to do? Bring the boss into this mess he created?
Surely not.
“You’re right,” the man behind the desk says as his eyes skate over the three of us. “I don’t know about any situation like the one you’re referencing. But I’d love to hear more.”
I turn to Bart before he can open his big dumb mouth again. “Are you really doing this?” I say to him.
“Don’t pretend,” he says, and I can tell by the way his eyes jump between me and the man behind the desk that he’s trying to make himself look good while also getting what he wants, even though he’s in the wrong. He puts a fake but bright smile on his face. “Surely you’d be uncomfortable, Aurora. We’re just worried we might upset you.”
