Umm. “OK?”
“Seriously. Please leave the building. I have things I need to accomplish today.”
“It’s a sacrifice, but one I am prepared to make,” Isay.
“If you cause me any more trouble between now and Monday you are fired.”
“It will be like I do not exist,” I promisehim.
“Good,” he says briskly. “Then I’ll speak to you on Monday.”
—
On my way out, I make one last visit to Carrie’s office, turning the handle after I hear her muffled invitation to enter.
I find her in much the same position I left her this morning, hunched over her computer and typing so violently the letters are in danger of pinging off her keyboard.
I sigh dramatically and flop into the single chair in the corner of the room, yowling when my hip makes contact with the metal armrest on my way down. God, thisday.
“So?” she says.
“It worked.”
“I’m surprised,” she says.
“So am I,” I say, pressing the heel of my palms into my eyes. “It was really touch and go there for a minute. The department head was not havingit.”
“I gathered that, when he phoned me,” Carrie says in response.
“Shit, didhe?”
“Yeah, this morning, after you talked to him, I guess. Asking what the hell was going on, basically.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Let’s just say he probably thinks I’m the stupidest human resources manager in existence. He smelled a rat. He argued the role can’t be signed off without his approval, and I just said there was some sort of mix-up. I thought for sure he was going to send you packing.”
“I think that was his intention, but I won him over.”
Or did I wear him down? I’ve spent the entire day trying to stay one step ahead of Connor, and it’s only now that I realizejust how little sense it made to hire me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful—but suspicious.
“What do you think his deal is?” I ask Carrie, thinking out loud.
“No idea.” Carrie shrugs. “I don’t think I’ve ever met him. What’s he look like?”
“Like a kid who ate a magic bean and got turned into a grownup.” But hotter. I don’t say that part out loud.
Her lips turn up into a devilish grin. “Want to look him up on the system?”
I sit up at that. “Yes,absolutely I want to do that.”
“Let’s see here,” she says, pulling up some internal employee database. “Connor Reid, right?”
“Yes.”
“Ta-da! Here heis.”
“What does it say?”
