Page 3 of Speed

"Will do. Oh, and can I also borrow a couple of your business cards?"

"What's up, Kayla?" Marlee stopped typing and looked over her shoulder at me.

"You know my Axel Beckers assignment?"

"The one you begged Dean for?"

"I didn't beg for it," I protested.

"You kind of did," Marlee said. "Anyway, yes?"

"Well, I can't let Axel know who I am or I'm pretty sure he won't meet with me."

Now she swiveled her chair to face me directly. "And why is that?"

I avoided her stare and fiddled with the name plate on her cubicle. "It's a long story."

"Hmmm…" Marlee appraised me with a long stare. "And it sounds like a good story," she said. "I’m basically at a stopping point. Let's go get drinks."

She quickly logged off and we headed downstairs and around the corner to our favorite happy hour bar. We found a table in a quieter section and my coworker wasted no time resuming our conversation.

"So what is this long story you have that involves Axel Beckers?"

A waiter came over and we ordered our usual.

"I'd like to keep this between us," I said, lowering my voice.

"Of course." I could see the anticipation building on Marlee's face.

"I used to be sort of related to Axel. He was my stepbrother."

"Wow. Really?"

"My mom was married to his dad for, oh, about a year when I was a teenager."

"Did you live with him? Wait—" Marlee interrupted me before I could begin to answer. "Why do you think he won't meet with you? What happened?"

"Our parents' marriage was terrible. Axel's dad cheated on my mom. My mom went kind of crazy about it. It was a really ugly divorce. I'm sure he doesn't want to see me ever again, and my god, my mom would go crazy again if she knew I was meeting with Alexander Beckers' son."

"But you're meeting with him face-to-face tomorrow, right? How is he not going to recognize you?"

"Oh, I look a LOT different now than I did when he knew me. Let's just say I was a late bloomer."

Marlee laughed, and the server approached with our drinks.

"So if there's bad blood, why do you even want to do the interview?" she asked.

Here I paused, and I couldn't come up with a good answer. "Curiosity, I guess," I finally said. "I didn't really think it through in the meeting."

"But you think you can pull it off? Not being recognized, I mean?" Marlee asked.

"I think so." I took a sip of my margarita. "He barely ever looked at me anyway."

"I'm sure he'll be looking at you now." Marlee's eyes flicked down to my chest. I had been a late bloomer, but when I bloomed, I'd grown big. I usually tried to downplay my chest, but most guys still seemed to focus in on it almost immediately. "Wear something low-cut," she continued. "He's a player, isn't he? A real dog?"

I let out a long sigh and took another drink. "That's what I hear."

And then I started wondering; would Axel be attracted to me? When I thought about him, I still felt like an awkward little girl inside, even though for the past several years, I'd had no problem getting attention or dates. I went on a lot of dates, actually; unfortunately, none of them were ever very satisfying.