Page 6 of Cava with My Colleague

3

Jade

“Two months and twelve presentations with him! We have to travel together, stay in hotels together, eat meals together. If I end up dead, Carlos is the first suspect.”

I take another gulp of wine. My second glass is going down way faster than it should, but I’m a little giddy and possibly tipsy, sitting in this tiny London café waiting for one of Europe’s most famous rock stars—who also happens to be Sara’s boyfriend—to perform.

Yesterday, before I left the office, I officially said yes to touring Europe with Carlos as my translator.

I might regret it—I already regret it—but how could I say no?

I’ve told my friends the basics over the phone, but now, seeing them in person, I’m really getting to dump all of my feelings into a big messy pile.

When we moved to Europe, I knew we would see less of each other than when we all lived out in the suburbs of Austin. Our regular yoga classes and happy hours would be concentrated into one weekend a month when we traveled to see each other.

And now we have the additions of Luc and Chris. Luc is Tessa’s very charming French boyfriend who lives in Paris. They are long-distance, but both travel between the Algarve and Paris as much as they can.

Sara, meanwhile, has moved to London to live with Chris, and that’s why we’re here on a Friday night in this little coffee shop. It’s still a little surreal that one of my best friends is dating the Chris Rächer, from the German band Verduistering. And right now, no one in this café except the four of us (and presumably, some of the staff) know that Chris will be performing.

Plus, Emma just banged the fuck out of her MBA professor, and I’m so happy for her and not at all jealous that she’s getting some and I’ve got my dry spell.

“Carlos is not going to murder you,” Tessa says mildly.

I don’t really think Carlos would kill me. Maybe.

A business trip like this—months of traveling and working together—means we will be spending so much time together, and Carlos obviously doesn’t like me already.

“He thinks I’m unprofessional,” I say, surprising myself with the admission.

“What?” Emma frowns. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I’ve always been careful at work. I don’t make inappropriate jokes, I don’t—” I stop myself. “Okay, I wanted to recommend a sex-positive book to the office book club, but I didn’t.”

“Jade,” Tessa says, laughing. “That’s very restrained of you.”

“Right? I’m a model of professionalism!” I throw my hands up. “But Carlos looks at me like I’m some kind of liability. Like he’s waiting for me to embarrass him in front of all those industry professionals.”

Alas, these trips are going to be a huge exercise in biting my tongue twenty-four-seven.

“I’ll make sure you have his contact information so you can hunt him down and avenge my death,” I tell them.

Emma, Tessa, and Sara look at each other. “I think out of our group,” Tessa says, “the one most likely to get away with murder is probably you.”

I gasp in mock outrage. “I would never.”

“You’re the one who listens to all the murdery podcasts and watches true crime shows,” Sara points out. “Tell me those haven’t given you a few ideas.”

“I mean, everyone in those shows usually gets caught, and that’s the only reason we know how they did it: they get caught.”

“Did you talk to Rebecca about it?” Emma asks, getting us back on track.

“Well, she brought it up in front of him, so I couldn’t very well say, ‘Please don’t send me on this tour because I might murder my colleague.’ He was right there.”

“You’ve also said he seems to be the most competent person in his department, right? So shouldn’t it be a good thing that he’s going to do the seminars with you?” Sara asks. Once again, she’s being so reasonable.

If only fear was rational.

I know Carlos is good at his job. And the fact that he speaks five languages blew me away. If I hadn’t been so distracted with my own concerns I would have taken the time to admire that. I’m working so hard on my Spanish, and my Mandarin is rusty since it’s been so long since I spent a year living and working in China.