“Why is Noah Daalman driving with us?” she asked. There was a strange quality to her voice. Calm, but also like her vocal chords were being strangled.
“He works in the West building.”
“Since when?”
“He just started today.”
“For what company?”
Dan, Sadie, and I exchanged glances. That was a lot of questions.
“It’s a travel agency,” I offered, not sure why I didn’t give her the name. She was being really strange about seeing Noah. For the first time, she was acting like a person and not a really polite and professional robot. Maybe she was upset that Noah up and left the company. He had been a pretty important asset.
Elena’s eyebrows stayed in a permanent furrow the rest of the walk, and when we got close enough for Noah to see us, I watched for his reaction to her.
Surprise and then resignation. Interesting. But then his eyes turned to me and sparkled with mischief. He looked so happy to see me that it was all I could do not to smile in return. Dang him.
Could it be that he just missed me as a friend and I was the one being weird? I rewound our interactions today in that light and decided maybe I needed to be slightly less prickly. Not that I was abandoning my defenses. Not in the slightest. But maybe I could get used to Noah being back with less of a chip on my shoulder. I didn’t need to freak out every time he did something flirty, analyzing it for hidden meaning. It was all giving me a headache anyway.
Chapter 9 – Noah
Elena Castaneda walked up and glared at me like I was a housefly at Thanksgiving dinner and she was on her third unsuccessful swat. And I got it. She didn’t want me to rat her out to Jenny. She was probably picturing lawsuits, mitigation, trainings, and formal apologies. Maybe even job termination. The way we’d gotten rid of Jenny’s boss hadn’t exactly been… orthodox.
I admit, watching her sweat over the sight of me wasn’t the worst thing ever. Maybe it would help her work on her empathy a little bit.
But I wasn’t here to try to threaten Elena’s job, or to destroy Connecting Heart’s reputation. I was here for Jenny. The girl who was currently staring at me, her gaze volleying back and forth between me and Elena as she tried to solve a puzzle with too many pieces missing. Part of my plan was to slowly start handing her pieces, but it was hard to know where to begin. Telling her she was my unfinished business hadn’t exactly gone over well today.
Sadie popped the trunk so we could all put our bags in. Except for Dan, who liked to keep his afternoon snacks close. He and Sadie got in first, and then turned to watch how the rest of us would fare. I got in behind Sadie, leaving Elena and Jenny standing there awkwardly. They were clearly trying to outwait each other for the last outside seat.
“Go ahead,” Elena said, putting on one of her brilliantly fake smiles.
Jenny opened her mouth to argue, but ended up not saying anything and climbed in next to me instead. I held my seatbelt buckle out of the way so she could put hers on without having to dig into my side. Sadie’s Jetta was comfortable, but not spacious. We’d be a cozy trio all the way home.
“Do you know Elena, Noah?” Dan asked.
“A little,” Elena said quickly, answering for me. “But just for HR-related matters.” Like that wasn’t suspicious at all.
Jenny turned to study me again, and I did my best to look as confused as she was. The last thing I needed was Jenny making up her own conclusions before I could tell her. She might assume Elena and I had secretly dated, and that was the farthest thing from the truth.
Sadie backed up and pulled out of the lot like we were leaving the scene of a crime, causing Elena to white-knuckle her door handle and squeeze her eyes shut.
A ghost of a smirk crossed Sadie’s face. Dan might invite random people to ride with us, but few were brave enough to stay.
“Radical Raspberry Twinkie, anyone?” Dan ripped open a two-pack and took a bite. “Oh, yeah. Still good.” The man ate like a fourteen-year-old boy. Hot Cheetos, sour gummies, Funyuns—he loved them all.
“What do you mean, ‘still good?’” Sadie asked.
“They’re Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed. Limited edition. You guys have to try these. I bought them off eBay and they came in yesterday.”
Elena’s eyes popped open and she clutched her chest. “You can’t eat old food from the nineties you bought off eBay, Dan. Please. I’ll pay you to put it down right now.”
Dan laughed. “I’m gonna be fine. Noah? Jenny? You two want to split this second one?”
Jenny turned to look at me, and I knew in that instant I’d eat radioactive squid if she were game for it. “Two years ago,” she mouthed.
I leaned forward and saw the expiration date in the bottom corner of the box for myself. So these were from the latest movie remake, the one nobody watched. Still gross, but not likely to kill us.
“Ya’ll better not barf in my car,” Sadie warned, but there was more humor in her voice than threat. I think, like me, she was excited to see the old Jenny, the one who was game for just about anything as long as she was with people she trusted. I wanted to be one of those people again.
