“Jane dropped by the apartment to go cycling.”
“Have you been seeing much of Jane?” His voice rises.
“Hardly at all. Calm down. Jane’s a maniac. I’ll fill you in on all that later. I was semi-avoiding her, but she decided to drop by.”
“Okkaaay ... That’s good.”
“It’s good that she’s a maniac?”
“It’s good you’re not back together.”
I roll my eyes to the ceiling. “You don’t need to worry about that. That is not happening.”
“Glad to hear it,” he growls. “She’s manipulative as hell, James. I wouldn’t believe a fucking word she told you.”
“Just listen. I asked Cath to look into it, and Sadie’s not on the CUNY database. Cath is still digging into it, but I’ve got a bad feeling about it. I called you because I have no idea how to handle it.”
He tuts in my ear. “I don’t believe it. Sadie’s straight as an arrow. Didn’t we check her resume before we offered her the job?”
“Cath thought she’d done it, but she hadn’t. She’s mortified, but the business was chaos at that time, so I don’t really blame her.”
“Tell me about it.”
“According to Cath, there can be legitimate reasons why people aren’ton the database at their school, but …” I hesitate. I want to do what’s best for Sadie so badly. If this is true, I need to clear the air for her. “I don’t like what my gut’s telling me, Des.”
“I know what you mean.”
I blink at the wall in shock. He does? “She has gaps in her knowledge; things that I would have expected her to know,” Des says.
It would also explain Sadie’s sensitivities about her software abilities, too. “Yeah. I thought maybe she’d just struggled with some of that stuff at school,” I say.
“Yes, me too.” He hums on the other end of the phone, and a cupboard door opens and closes.
“What are you doing?”
The noise of a grinder cuts off his response. When it ends, he says, “Just making a coffee, it’s 5:30 a.m. here, and I think I need one for this conversation.”
I lift my head, and I’m right by Coffee Project on the corner of Water and John.Perfect.I head through their glass doors into the cool interior.
“Perhaps she never thought she’d be offered the job,” Des adds in my ear as I order a macchiato.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, her programming skills are excellent. It’s her first software role, right? Maybe she was struggling to find anyone to take her seriously, and she thought she’d add a degree and see if it got her anywhere? You know what this industry is like. How did she get to be such a great programmer, anyway?”
“She’s mentioned learning stuff online. I thought that was in addition to college, but perhaps it wasn’t. There are endless free courses and tutorials if you’re dedicated.”
“That’s pretty impressive.”
I laugh. “If she taught herself, then I’m even more impressed if I’m being honest.”
“Yeah, me, too. The math alone, James …”
I groan. “Tell me about it.”
He hums again. “Perhaps she thought that it was such a long shot that itwouldn’t matter if she lied because no one would offer her a fancy job in a tech company in the Financial District.”
I understand her well enough now to know that’s probably exactly how Sadie thought about it.
